A short story for The Unicorn Challenge which is graciously hosted by Jenne Gray and C.E.Ayr.
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Let me read it to you.
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Beatrice was her name. Bee to her friends, Queen Bee to me! We were eleven when we met. It was on our first day at ‘big’ school.
For six years, we sat several desks apart. She was forever the life and soul of the class, I, the quiet one. Often, during lessons, my mind would drift from the teacher to her. There was something special about Bee, something alluring, but we never became real friends, just schoolmates.
We sometimes met at birthday parties. Most of the lads would dance with her, but never me. I didn’t ask for one for fear she’d say no.
I promised myself that before leaving school, I’d ask her out. I never did. On the last day, we shook hands, not the farewell I’d wished for! She went away to college, and I got a job in a shop. She remained in my mind. My biggest regret was never having the courage to tell her how I felt.
One day, I met a friend of hers. We chatted. Somehow, I obtained Bee’s phone number from her.
I stood beside the telephone box for ages. Eventually, I plucked up the courage to venture inside. I dropped coins into the slot and dialled her number. My finger hovered nervously over the A button as I waited for her to answer. But she didn’t, so I pressed button B and watched my coins fall one by one down the shute.
I finally realised it was never meant to be.
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© Ayr/Gray
Some stories end without an ending
So true, Sadje!
👌🏽
Ah, sad, sad. I had a similar story and later discovered he had a crush on me, too..We had just one date, years later, before we both married other people..
At least you weren’t left weft wondering, what if!
This guy sure gives up easy. I guess he ends up with a woman who sets her sights on him.
I guess you are right, he’ll never make the first move!
Plenty of alpha females out there that love to dominate. lol
This is strange. You put: “Let me read it to you.”
And I always click and listen to you read and laugh all the way through. BUT this time I thought, “I’m going to read it by myself and listen later.” And reading I felt a strangeness and a sadness. And then I listened and didn’t laugh but definitely felt the sadness!
Your voice and characterizations are always so amazing. 🙂
Coming from you with your delightful audios, I take this as an enormous compliment and thank you most sincerely.
Awww
That’s what I thought!
Very well read!!!
Thanks so much for listening!
Very true Keith, sometimes things are not meant to be. To paraphrase the Dalai Lama, “not getting what one wants, sometimes, is a wonderful stroke of luck!”
I’ve not heard that before! What a wise man he was.
Wisdom indeed.
damn!*
* a compliment on an engaging story that is almost invasively resonant to at least one Reader
I couldn’t have wished for a nicer one. Thankyou, kind sir.
Thanks for the nostalgia of Button A and Button B and the crushing weight that teenage boys have to bear in their shyness.
Thanks, Doug, shyness was part of growing up, especially where girls were concerned!
I remember those phone boxes. Such a sad tale Keith.
Seems like yesterday! Thanks, Di.
You’re welcome
But at least you tried one more time.
Sadly it was in vain!
Jings, Keef, this was a tear-jerker!
Excellent and touching view of teenage angst.
I don’t think I’d want to be a teenager again!
A missed opportunity. He could’ve tried calling again though
He could have but I somehow doubt he did.
Sad story :/
Indeed. Thanks for dropping by.
And I thought teenage girls had it hard!
This brought back the excruciating shyness of being a teenager and I quite squirmed!
Not at the story, of course, but at what it brought back to me – the proof of a really good story.
And yes, the coins falling back down the chute – nostalgia.
Thanks for your generous words, Jenne. We had to put on a brave face now and again, shyness wasn’t just the stuff of girls, I can assure you!
No call again!