"clock" versaemerge

hi

setting: park bench
noah's pov
i was sitting on the park bench. nicole was over playing with jojo and i was sitting back. it was one of those days when you just want to sit and zone out. nothing it like sitting on a park bench either watching nicole. thinking how tyler was going to be as big as jojo someday and when that day comes i might bee the one chasing him while nicole gets a break from being a single mom.

i just watched them. running around the playground. jojo in her overalls and her green shirt underneath. her newly braided hair coming loose. she stops pointing over to the swings and nicole smiles running over and helping jojo onto one. she pushed her. explaining how to pump her legs on a swing. nicole gets on one too. pumping as they smile and laugh.

when we were little and we used to come to these same swings- nicole would explain to me that when we were swinging perfectly in time we were married. i remembered saying that was silly. i was never going to get married. and she aksed what if i wanted to have babies. i said i would be a single parent like my mother was. and she said that wouldn't happen. it did. not to me, to her instead it happened. i watched them. jojo laughing and pumping her legs. nicole was too.

i didn't do anything. i just watched them. the way nicole's hair would fly around and how jojo's braids came more undone. it was nice to watch. there was a little boy sitting on a whirly-gig or something watching them. he was quiet and just watching them. poor kid.

the park was so quiet. i looked around me. a woman was walking her dog. an old couple were hugging like they were holding each other up instead of using walkers. a young couple were walking pushing a carriage smiling and talking. then there was nicole and jojo. and then there was this girl.

there were two park benches next to each other. i was on one way to the side. she was sitting way on the other side of the bench beside mine. i just looked at her. she was looking at me looking down and writing something busily. half of her face were taken up by these big plastic sunglasses. they were aviators that mirrored and image of myself back at me. she had short black hair. she had bangs that flipped to the side covering her forehead and the rest of her hair didn't even make it to her shoulders just yet. she had such a skinny face. her jaw and cheekbones were defined. she was so thin. her collar bone stuck out like they were making her skin stretch. she had on dark red lipstick. which i didn't know girls still wore. but she had on a dress. she was lying on the park bench angled so i couldn't look up it- not that i would have, that would be creepy of me. the dress was bright yellow too. almsot neon but it was a softer shade. and she had a grey sweater on over that. her feet were bare and dirty. i just looked her. she looked up again an looked down again.

"what?" i said finally.

she stopped. "what?" she looked at me.

"you were staring at me." i said.

"no," she said. "i was looking at you." i just stared at her. i really had no idea what to say. i just let myself stare at her.

"oh." i said.

"i'm just drawing," she said. "don't worry."

i again didn't know what to say. "oh, um," i said. "okay." i looked forward again. jojo was good at pumping now. she was getting so high. but all i could think about was this girl. "what are you drawing exactly?" i had a good idea but i asked to make sure.

"you," she said simply. likeit wasn't weird at all. so i figured it was okay. i just kept looking forward. i just let her draw. it probably wasn't even weird for her. i was so aware of her suddenly. i watched her out of the corner of my eye. she kept busy. her eyes catching the sun when she looked up. "what's your name?" she asked.

"noah," i said.

"really?" she said. "i've never met a noah before. i didn't think there were any illinois boys named noah."

i shrugged. "my dad's a religion professor at a private boys school and he named me something that was meaningful to him." i said.

"what does noah mean to you?" she asked suddenly. nobody ever asked that to me before.

i paused. thinking about it. "i guess it means i'm meant to be some kind of pillar or something. like i'm supposed to help people." i said.

she looked up at me. "that's a cool name then." she said. "mine's just amanda. i don't know what it means to me. but when i was little to litte kids it just meant i was a man, duh."

i laughed a little looking at her. she was smiling. her lipstick making her lips a soft cresent. she was pretty. "that's a cool name." i said.

"thank you," she said. she looked at her picture again. i could just see the corners of it behind her knees. "i'm done, do you want to see it?"

"the drawing? sure." i said. she got up coming over to me. she sat down next to me handing it to me. i took it and looked at it. my eyes widened. "it looks like a picture." it did. it had everything. just in grey and white. "you're really good."

"thank you," she said smiling. i handed it back to her. she closed her sketch pad and she held it on her lap looking across in the direction of the playground. nicole and jojo were still swinging. jojo was going almost past a-hundred-eighty degrees. it looked liek she was.

"are you from around here?" i asked looking at her.

she looked at me. "yeah," she said. "i just moved here to live with my parents. i used to live with my aunt but i ended up moving back here with my parents anyway. what about you?"

"i've lived here forever." i said. it felt like forever.

she nodded understanding. "thats why i lived with my aunt." she said. "small towns always feel smaller when you've been there too long."

i nodded. "i know," i said.

we just looked at each other. she smiled a little. and looked back to the playground i did too. then she got up. "sorry," she said. "but i have to go."

i nodded. "it was nice meeting you."

"thank you for letting me draw you." she said. "you were a pretty good subjectfor a first-timer. usually people leave and i have to guess the rest of the picture." she held her hand out for me to shake. it was all paint splattered and it had pencil on it too on the finger. i shook it.

"you're welcome." i said. that one touch made my skin crawl.

she walked away over to the park bench. i looked forward at jojo and nicole who were walking over now. "noah," she said. i looked at amanda. "do you have a phone?"

i paused. "yeah," i said.

"me too," she said. she had a backpack now, and walked over taking out a pen. she took my hand. "so if you need a self-portrait or something or maybe if i find out what my name means, we could call each other." she wrote her number down. and then handed me the pen.

"okay," i said smiling a little. i looked for a clean spot on her hand.

"you can write it on my arm." she said. she turned it up for me. she had a tattoo that said 'no lies just love' across her wrist with a black line through it. i wrote my name then my number. she took her arm and pen back.

"cool," she said looking at it. "thanks again noah."

"you're welcome." i said. she walked away again throwing her backpack over her shoulder. i watched her she walked away down the stone walk way. she was still barefoot.

the first thing i thought after looking at her name written across my hand: what the hell just happened?

should i fanfic this story after the rewrites?

jaseyray