short story about last day in school
Answers
Explanation:
Luke watched from the other end of the classroom. His stomach tied up in the familiar mass of knots as she flicked her shining, darkly-dyed and immaculately layered hair. It settled around her shoulders and brushed her face in a way that made his palm itch to touch her. He thought of how his hand would smell after stroking the softly powdered swell of her cheekbone.
It was the last day of school and in five years of wanting her, worshipping her from a distance, Luke had never made a move. His crush on Gemma was the joke his friends, even his family, used to beat him with. She was like a star to him, impossibly distant and untouchable, forever out of his reach.
It was now less than two hours until they left school forever and went to different colleges. He sat on the wooden bench against one wall and she sat on an identical bench on the other side of the senior students’ seating area and there may as well have been a river of lava between them. Luke watched her furtively and his stomach churned with need, anxiety and hopelessness.
As he contemplated the misery of his life, Luke saw Gemma stand up with her friends, all of them laughing and clearly excited to be so close to freedom.
Luke had no doubt that Gemma and her friends would be out celebrating that night and he felt strangely left behind and excluded, although he’d never been part of their circle to begin with.
Then, when he saw them walk in his direction, he felt a cold sweat break out on the back of his neck, despite the warmth of the day. It was like one of his more fevered dreams, the ones he woke up from, tangled in sweat and sticky sheets. She even looked at him, smiling slightly as she crossed that impossible distance between them, a distance that he couldn’t take a single step across.
And then suddenly, there she was, right in front of him. Her friends faded into the background but Gemma stood out in sharp, stunning focus, her expression confident and friendly. Luke didn’t say a word and he swallowed again and again, trying to drown the butterflies.
“Hi. Are you lads going out tonight?” she asked, and Luke couldn’t think, couldn’t form an answer. Tom, always self-assured, was the one who took the lead in the conversation.
“No, man. We’re all saving for Turkey.” Not me, Luke thought, but was too frantic to say it. “Yeah that’s a Shame.” Gemma and her friends wished them a nice summer, and said they’d see them around.
Luke watched and words tumbled through his mind, caught in a snarl before they could reach his mouth, and the girl who’d preoccupied his thoughts since he was twelve years old walked away towards a life that didn’t include him.