The Same as a Duck

 

When I was younger, maybe about 19, or so, I knew a girl. A young woman that was a year or two older than I was. She wasn’t breathtakingly gorgeous, ans she wasn't ugly. She was normal. She was easy to talk with, and she was my friend.

      One night we were together in her apartment. We were alone, and on her couch. We had planned on going out to see a movie, but we were side-tracked by our conversation– something that happened often- and missed the movie altogether. Instead, we stayed in and talked. Swapping stories, telling secrets- even though they could hardly be considered secrets- listening to music. She didn’t own a TV, so her stereo was the only source of outside entertainment in the small studio. That night it was a loop of the Muppet Movie Soundtrack, two mix CDs, and the Best of the Clash.

      It was a humid night in June and she had no air conditioning. The apartment was stifling. The air was heavy and damp, and never let up. I couldn’t breathe very well, and sweated all night long. Not enough so that I was soaking, but enough that I was uncomfortable.

      A number of times I thought what it would be like to be more than friends, but the desire had never been as strong as it was that night. I think that her clothes had something to do with it: tight white shorts that hovered just above her long, smooth legs, blue shirt with a low slung neck that left just enough to the imagination. They presented the curves of her body in a way I had never noticed before.

      It was late, somewhere around 2 AM, and “Time of the Season” had just started to play on the speakers. We sat fairly close to one another on the couch. The intimate distance only shared with close friends, and those that qualify as more. We had just had a conversation about palm reading, and I was inspecting my hands.

Without any inflection, she said:

“I’m tired. I’m going to rest on you.”

She put her head on my lap, smiled, and closed her eyes.

And I thought:

      “Right now, I can change everything about this relationship, or I can change absolutely nothing.”

Reviews

[Pickle-pie]

Nice work. Simple yet intriguing. Love how the end leaves the reader thinking.

[JENY]

Nice narration…
Nice…..very nice….
But why did you stop here?
What happened afterward….?

[Deirdre]

I really like this one. I think there's always a moment in every friendship where one of the people considers the possibility of more, and I think you captured that here really well.