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Tommy, 13

Tommy grasped his hair in exasperation as he flipped his notes furiously.
The clock was ticking fast.
“I’m never going to make it in time,” he thought. “Only 4 hours till the exam.”
He took out a stack of notes, crisp sheets of paper filed neatly in a binder. The name “Suzy” was penciled smartly at the top, happy pink drawings of flowers as decoration. The little hearts that accompanied the flowers caught his attention. He raised an eyebrow.
And then he wondered with disgust how the girl has her head in the clouds.
“Chapter 4, chapter 4,” mumbled Tommy. He frantically turned the pages. He froze in horror as he found the right one.
“…the fuck?”
He examined the scribbling, shaking his head slowly, like some imbecile.
And then Tommy fished out an eraser quickly...


~by Vinny~


He scrubbed the pencil lines off of the page. Erased her name.
Tried to erase the picture of her in his mind.
He tried focusing on the fast ticking of the clock; reminding him he had work to do. Tried remembering that he was in a library and he should be reading. Like everyone else. He tried thinking about Suzy. How she would be there in 20 minutes, and how he needed to know something. But everytime he looked down, he saw the imprint of her name left behind on the page.
Read Chapter 5, he thought. And he flipped the pages, until he found it.
But it did not work. He just could not stop thinking of her. And he did nothing else.
Until Suzy's voice came from behind him.
"Oh, good! You are on Chapter 5!"
He turned around, in his chair, and smile at her.
And she smiled back at him and reached out to tug on his arm. "Come on. We got to get out of here."
And Tommy could not agree more.
They sat under a tree, at the park across the road.
And Suzy had a little radio. And she turned it on. "Listen, Tommy. The Berlin Wall is coming down."
"Who cares?" he replied.
"Did you even read Chapter 4?" Her eyes opened wide.
He spent the next 20 minutes doing just that.
And then he had three hours left until the exam...



Comments

Karri Bowman said…
tommy loves minnie, doesn't he? troubled kids, those two. i want to catch up on the year (was it that long?) that i missed with tommy...and his crazy mom and his little sister...i love tommy...i just want to save him...which, of course, is one of the major flaws in my love life...but enough about me...
thethinker said…
"Penciled smartly at the top". I like that. I can just imagine what type of girl Suzy would be, just from the description of her binder.
Queenie said…
Those were also my favorite words written by Vinny.

Q
My Truth Hurts said…
ohhhh, ur sucking me right in!!! Can't stop thinking about someone. I think I know what that feels like! :)
Anonymous said…
maybe its just from PMS, but this is making me want to cry.
Waow Queenie, this sure is a huge compliment from you. I've been out of touch lately; i'm back now. The continuation of the story is for you. :)

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