Letters to Euturpe, 5-5-16 -The One That Got Away

Carlie held her breath, willing Braden to stop. To cut those mean and hateful words out of his mouth that seemed to spew uncontrolled in her direction. They were supposed to be the exception, the couple that weathered all storms, the perfect match. At least that is what Facebook told her every time she used one of those online match maker quizzes. She believed them, not necessarily due to their scientific nature, but because they agreed with what she felt in her heart.

Braden was the handsomest boy in school. He treated her like she thought a girl was supposed ot be treated, with respect and dignity, not like an attachment or possession. She squeezed her eyes shut wanting all this to be just a troubling dream, like the ones she faced on many nights in her fractured home. The endless shouting from one end of her home to the other as her parent’s marriage slowly and steadily crumbled infected her usually happy heart such that peaceful, sleep filled nights were now a strange phenomenon.

She could sense his words had stopped, so she cracked her eyelids a bit. But there was no one there. She looked in all directions, but Braden seemed to have been enveloped into the ether. Was their fight real or had she imagined it? She had to know, so she ran toward the cafeteria at the high school, frantically looking for him. She ignored a set of three friends that greeted her as she ran past, a wild look in her eyes. She had to find Braden, had to know if he had said those words.

Her answer came like a linebacker flattening a quarterback. When she entered the main hall to the upstairs foyer she found Braden in a lip lock with Caden Smart, a new transfer student from California. This surfer girl, with her long tan legs and sun-bleached hair had taken her Braden away.

 

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Letters to Euturpe is a weekly blog invitational hosted by tuckedintoacorner. In this weekly event, you’ll be prompted to write poetry or a piece of flash fiction inspired by a song lyric (or in some cases the full song).