Do You Remember? | Teen Ink

Do You Remember? MAG

By Anonymous

June was you by the pool. The day we first met, remember? I thought you were just one of those brawny lifeguard guys – you know the type: pretend to be all sweet, save the little kid from drowning, then go out and get totally hammered at night. I paid no ­attention to you, thought you were one of the heartbreakers, the ones I couldn’t care less about. But you had that smile with the dimples, and you came over just to offer me a watermelon Jolly Rancher. My favorite flavor. How did you know? That’s when I knew you were different.

July. August. After work we’d spread ourselves out on the field and drown in the sun, laugh at all those stupid jokes that aren’t even funny anymore. Why did we laugh so much back then?

Your studio, an explosion of color with your paintings enclosing you like a corral. Sometimes they made me jealous, when you saw them more than you saw me, but I loved them all the same. I loved that one of the beautiful girl with the long black hair, the one who looked so sad, but you wouldn’t say who she was. You’d never say. I’ll never know. So many secrets locked up in that little box of yours. You were fun, but you were serious.

“I want to be painted like that,” I said, because the painting was so beautiful. And you said, “Okay. Let’s do it.”

I still have that painting of me, by the way. You can only see half my face in it. “Why is that?” I asked. You shrugged. Another secret.

September. October. I love October. And you loved it too. When the leaves dance on the sidewalk and twirl through the air, when the world bleeds orange and red, and the air is like your stepmom’s apple crisp. We breathed it in together. We stood on the hill and closed our eyes, stretched our arms and spun around like five-year-olds, forgetting there was a world below. We listened to the wind whisper our names.

October was when we took the train downtown. It was fun that day, I don’t remember why. We skipped school (that was when school didn’t matter) and we rode downtown with your easels and paper and chalk and pencils, and we were going to draw fall. We drew the houses and trees, little kids flying a kite in the park, a mother duck and her ducklings wading through a river, a man asleep on a park bench, a maple leaf crisper than your stepmom’s apple crisp.

And you said, “Fall is a bit sad.”

And I asked why, and you said, “I dunno. It means summer’s over. It’s like ­losing something you can’t have back, like love.”

And I said, “But summer always comes back, doesn’t it?” And you said maybe.

We raked up a pile of leaves with a stick. We made this really big pile, laughing and running around it, losing half the leaves ’cause we’d stuff them in each other’s hair and shirts. We held hands, almost afraid to jump, like little kids taking their first dive into the deep end. One, two, three, go! And we sank into the big orange bed together.

I remember your easel that I carved my initials into. I remember the dimples on your cheeks, the eyes that were always on me. Your worn-out copy of The Great Gatsby that you read to me sometimes, and your plaid red scarf. I have that scarf, by the way. I wish it still smelled like you.

It’s October again, and the leaves are still dancing and the geese are still singing their good-bye song, and the bullfrog doesn’t sing because the pond’s almost frozen over. I wore your scarf yesterday as I rode the train downtown. I crossed the street to the park where we made the bed of leaves, and I tried to remember exactly where it was. And fall feels a little sad this year, like losing love.

I’m waiting to see if the summer comes back.



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This article has 284 comments.


on Jun. 4 2009 at 10:08 pm
I love how when I clicked on this link I thought I was going to read a story. But I didn't read a story. I read the memories. The story it's self was in between the lines.



Excellent. Simply beautiful.

E.Lee GOLD said...
on Jun. 4 2009 at 6:19 pm
E.Lee GOLD, Akron, Ohio
15 articles 0 photos 168 comments
incredible!!!! love ur style:)

Samantha said...
on Jun. 4 2009 at 2:35 am
Wow. AmAZINGly well written

on Jun. 3 2009 at 10:00 pm
tigeress3 PLATINUM, Dayton, Ohio
35 articles 0 photos 78 comments
Wow. Just wow. Truly a wonderful piece!

Matthew BRONZE said...
on May. 30 2009 at 7:38 pm
Matthew BRONZE, Dublin, Ohio
2 articles 0 photos 7 comments
Well written, beautiful and just amazing. I like how you are able to get the reader to capture the scenery in this piece. I felt as if I were there almost. This is gold right here. Keep it up. :)

on May. 30 2009 at 6:28 am
emmaclaire SILVER, Mission Hills, Kansas
6 articles 0 photos 6 comments
Guess I'm late on reading the story, but that's awesome. And I totally agree with KansasPythoness! (hey i'm from ks too!)

on May. 26 2009 at 8:51 pm
Hurrsheezkiss BRONZE, Atoka, Tennessee
3 articles 0 photos 1 comment
this was beautiful and even though it makes me think about the past its still very very awesome. i like the was u said summer was like fallin in love and october(fall) was like loosing love. its very deep

on May. 17 2009 at 3:26 am
LittlestBird GOLD, North Bay, Other
19 articles 0 photos 15 comments
This was actually one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. It reminded me of so much; you've really captured the magic of falling in love.

on May. 16 2009 at 11:23 pm
I love this. (: It's so well written and it's just wonderful.

Madelyn BRONZE said...
on May. 15 2009 at 7:05 pm
Madelyn BRONZE, Longmont, Colorado
4 articles 0 photos 15 comments
Beautiful writing! That was the mots touching story I've read yet :D

Sarah C said...
on May. 3 2009 at 4:15 am
wow. I absolutely adore love stories, and this was fantastic. Reading ur work makes me want to start writing... this was so sweet!!

megan39 BRONZE said...
on Apr. 29 2009 at 3:39 pm
megan39 BRONZE, Bohemia, New York
4 articles 0 photos 19 comments
this was beautiful. the imadry, the decription, all of it was just lovley. your a great writer, keep going.

on Apr. 26 2009 at 4:26 am
yael krifcher BRONZE, Potomac, Maryland
3 articles 0 photos 32 comments
that was so beautiful, i love how it ended so hopefully, as opposed to those love stories that just plain depress me. perfect in every way!

brunette3913 said...
on Apr. 20 2009 at 11:48 pm
brunette3913, Apex, North Carolina
0 articles 0 photos 8 comments
this was beautifully written, one of the few stories on here that i actually read through to the end! i loved your sense of imagery and details. consider sending in some of your writing to a publisher?



oh and i was curious: what happened to the boy?

AnneW SILVER said...
on Apr. 19 2009 at 6:34 am
AnneW SILVER, Santa Clara, California
8 articles 1 photo 20 comments
Wow!!! That was truly amazing. I loved it. The way you write is so different from my style and so lovely.

((I really want to know what happened to the boy though. My theory is that he died. It seemed like he knew that he was going to die because he made it sound like that would be his last summer. Very interesting.))

on Apr. 19 2009 at 1:45 am
music4bunny BRONZE, Nederland, Texas
4 articles 0 photos 2 comments
I like how you showed the passage of time without telling everything that happened in all those months. Like just the important stuff. It really kept my intrest....truely enjoyed your style of writing. I liked the mixture of discriptiveness and dialoge. I know me personally I usually describe too much (I like adjectives) but yours had a nice amount of both. :D wonderful!!!

ktbelle1226 said...
on Apr. 16 2009 at 9:58 pm
omg it was AMAZING! juat one question what happened to the boy?

12345 BRONZE said...
on Apr. 13 2009 at 2:44 pm
12345 BRONZE, Strafford, New Hampshire
2 articles 0 photos 27 comments
It makes me want to write a good horror. I think I will...

hola14 BRONZE said...
on Apr. 12 2009 at 5:57 pm
hola14 BRONZE, New York, New York
1 article 0 photos 11 comments
Beautiful. I love the wording. This is the second story on here that I actually read all the way to the end. Great job!

SarahNearol said...
on Apr. 11 2009 at 11:10 pm
Wow... I could just feel the time passing, the love waning... I loved it. It has such great feeling and mystery. You need to keep writing and improving... but I don't really know if you need to improve. Your writing is perfect just the way it is.