Thursday, 5 July 2012

Locking Eyes


He leans into the tops of the tap handles, resting his chin on his hands, and stares at the girl across the dark wood bar as he waits for her pint to fill. It overflows and he doesn't even notice. Her head stays down as she picks at a suede frill that hangs from her strap. Occasionally she tugs hard and he can glimpse into the bag; each time is a tantalising moment of nothing. What does he even want to see? He guesses there is a book in there. And a pair of sunglasses. And a tampon. And an untouched apple. And a small compact. And a lighter?

She doesn't want to look up at him, she's too nervous. Is he just staring at her? Why is he taking so long? She doesn't know what to do and she digs her nails tighter into the suede strand, yanking the bag back and forth. Harder and harder, it twists slightly around her and rucks up her cardigan around her shoulder. Finally, she over does it and the contents spill out; some on the floor, some on the bar.

The boy doesn't even help, he's mesmerised by her suddenly spluttered contents, it's caught him totally off guard. She scrambles her book from the floor, along with a hairbrush, a phone, her wallet and a hair-clip. She stands back up. On the bar is a lighter, a banana and some Vaseline. The pint behind the bar has over filled the drip tray and dribbles heavily onto the boy's crotch.

Their eyes meet.

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