Flourish

Ryan isn’t busy, not really at all he is just busying himself to stop from thinking of Bambi, he cannot help but remember the disaster that was yesterday, he saw in that moment just how fragile Bambi is and he is scared he will be too rough with her and she will run away. He tries to read through the test in front of him as he sits in bed a red pen perched between his lips in concentration, the letters on the page jumble and he finds himself reaching for a familiar and already marked test. Bambi has such pretty neat writing, every line is deliberate and confident it is so unlike her, he reads her answers and smiles at the innocence she has portrayed in her interpretation of the poem written above.

Bambi sits on her bed her legs crossed Ryan book sits in front of her, she has nearly finished it but she does not yet want the story to end, she is scared once this end she and Ryan may end. Bambi is nervous to see or speak to Ryan after yesterday, she feels insecure in her position as a student and possible date, she is not sure which part of her is more important to Ryan and after yesterday she is scared he is starting to see her immaturity coming through.

Miles apart Ryan and Bambi sit and think of the same thing, they both furrow in worry before smiling at the tingling memory of an almost kiss, Bambi wants to kiss Ryan so badly but she is nervous, she has never felt that need before and it scares her, she does not want to encompassed by need like her Uncle. Ryan wants to kiss Bambi, oh how he wants to kiss those soft pretty lips, he cannot help but wonder who has kissed the very lips he is dreaming about, he wants to talk to Bambi and ask her all these important questions but he is nervous, she didn’t want to kiss him yesterday so where does that leave him? A friend, a teacher or a possible love interest? Bambi is confusing and Ryan is confused but he wants more than anything to unravel the confusion that clouds his relationship with this small girl.

Bambi stares at her phone willing herself to pick it up and call her teacher, to make up some silly excuse just to hear his wonderful voice but she cannot, she is timid and scared so she stares at her phone willing it to ring, it doesn’t and disappointment clouds her soul. Ryan stares at his phone and tries to concentrate on the tests he promised to have marked by tomorrow, the tests seem so unimportant when his phone is sitting there mocking him with its silence, he reaches over and grabs it just to make sure he hasn’t missed a call, he hasn’t and he feels stupid for checking. Ryan plays with the volume to make sure it is working.

Ryan and Bambi remain waiting for the other to make this first move both too nervous to make it themselves, they sit like that in front of a silly old book and a stack of unmarked tests willing the courage to make the call, neither finds the courage so they remain apart and it makes them both sad.