Back to Her

"Hit me with a squirt gun."
"I think that'd hurt a bit."
"You know what I mean."

His eyebrow was cocked as he leaned forward over the table. He glanced out the window for a second and then back at her. He didn't think he was attractive, but he acted like it. Back at her.

"Yeah, I'm not quite sure what you mean."
"Look Brian, I just... I don't know. I want to feel real, like I'm someone worth the effort. I'm trying to get over this stupid break-up, I guess." A pause. "I swear, I'm done with boys."
Violet's voice wavered over the words. Some of the syllables came out louder than she intended. Brian always winced slightly at these moments. His sublime coolness always disappeared when coming face to face to these kinds of situations, more specifically, Violet.
"You say that every time, and God knows I hope you don't listen to yourself. I mean, otherwise this tender slice of meat will continue to develop frostbite in the freezer of raw emotion."
He gestured to himself.
"You see what I did there?"
Even he did not see what he did until after he said it. "Raw emotion? Slice of meat? This is gold here."
Violent managed to push out a half-laugh. She smiled and her red cheeks became taut. Brian started to reach for her hand on the table but stopped himself. He was never sure of his place. Well, their place. They both looked down at themselves and then at each other.
"Look, I'm really sick of picking myself up all the time. I'm tired of pushing myself into places that I'm going to have to pull myself out of later."
"With all that pushing and pulling, it's no wonder you're tired."
Brian was never good at advice, often throwing together clichés in a weird way that almost made them seem meaningful. That is, until he thought about them afterwards. Brian glanced out the window again.
Violet's eyes were reflecting too much again, and her nose remained a rose color that matched her cheeks. He held eye contact with her for a while, something he rarely did. He wasn't sure why this was. Brian didn't know if he was afraid of something, afraid of her looking past his jokes and awkward smile or afraid of her finally taking a good look at him only to realize what kind of person he was. He was afraid that she wouldn't like him. Of course, these were all stupid fears. In reality, he loved looking into her eyes like any romantic comedy would suggest. Sometimes, he would see his reflection in her pupils and he felt like some sort of magic had taken him over. Back at her. Perhaps this would have been handled better over the phone or through a letter. He was always good at those. There was a split second longer for him to think over his words before spitting the bad ones out, as if that would've stopped him. These awkward pauses in person he felt just revealed more of himself that he didn't mean to. He didn't need a defensive maneuver, seeing as he didn't need to be on the defensive with this girl, this person, this human being. She just wanted to be real.
Brian glanced out the window again. He pretended to be looking at the trees bordering the park outside, neatly organized according to a plan that would later prove to be impertinent, something he could relate to. He wasn't looking at the people walking by or the cars that glided along, holding other persons. His eyes always tried to focus on his reflection. He never thought himself a narcissist, but he would always stare at himself, trying to figure out what he was doing, holding a mental conversation with his mirror about what was going on. It was a confirmation of his own existence, whatever that may be.
He looked back at Violet, who was also looking out the window, when all of that came to mind.
"Stay here."
He left the cafe and was gone for a few minutes as Violent raised her own eyebrow and nodded.

A few minutes had past as Violet sat there alone.
*THWACK*
She jumped a little. Water had hit the window, distorting the trees, the cars, the persons.

It slowly fell down to reveal Brian hiding behind a neon yellow squirt gun, cocked eyebrow and all. His eyes followed the water for a second. Then back to her.

It was at this point that the author of this blog post realized how silly this whole story was and unintentionally made this awkward! And yet, he posted it! Only one life, I guess.

So I wrote this short story.
And I posted it.
And then I realized that yeah, I didn't like how it came together.

But it's too late to delete it.
This post has been seen.
So this is here now.

Ta-da. :P