pajama pants & regret

i wore brightly patterned pajama pants today

because it was blue-and-gray-go-wolves spirit week at school and

they fit the whole cartoonish hearts theme. you

wore black sweatpants and your favorite blink-182 shirt,

untucked. i put on glittery pink eyeshadow and carefully

drew a heart with gel eyeliner, even though it would

inevitably get smudged. you

applied mascara with your lightest touch and smiled

when i pushed my heart sunglasses farther down my nose.

you handed me a bottle of purple nail polish in the hall,

no explanation,

just your nervous fidgeting and slight glimmer of the eye

when i let out a squeal

                                              but my best friend tapped me on

the shoulder, showed me the chocolate bar her boyfriend gave her,

we laughed and teased each other about our

respective brightly patterned pajama pants

and i never thanked you.

OverTheRainbow

VT

12 years old

More by OverTheRainbow

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    submission for next year's prompts:

    Use the NY Times Connections as a writing prompt! Take all 16 or one line of the words generated in there (before it's been solved) and use them in a poem or short story.

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    from well-meaning mouths & shatter on concrete radiating summer sun

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