Heartbreak at Recess

I swear, if you do that, that's it, I'm walking away. It's over. We're done. You hear me? I said that's it, no more. Ever. We're through. Shaina waited. A long pause, at least five minutes, maybe more. To Shaina it felt like an eternity, the end of time. Lloyd stood motionless, his feet slightly toed in, kicking at an overturned bottle cap sticking out of the wet turf. He jammed his fists into his pockets, feeling the balled up bits of lint and dryer-worn Kleenex permanently embedded in the seams. Sweat was forming behind his ears- it was a weird thing that happened when he got anxious or upset. His palms stayed dry, no beading on his forehead or upper lip- just behind his ears. Lloyd could feel the trickling starting to run down the sides of his neck, staining his collar a darker shade of orange as his t shirt got wet. Dating was hard. For twelve year old boys and thirteen year old high strung, demanding, overly emotional girls, it was outrageous. All Lloyd wanted to do was go to Gary's house after school on Friday to play some XBox live and Shaina went ballistic. Apparently they had some sort of date to go to the mall and food court together. Shaina was so angry with Lloyd that his collar was now a deep pumpkin colour spreading round his entire neck. Who knew ears could sweat that much. Lloyd never wanted to go steady. He wasn't really interested in girls yet let alone Shaina in particular. One day Shaina came up to him at recess and told him that she thought he was cute and that he should be her boyfriend. They'd never even kissed. Lloyd didn't know where to begin. They held hands twice and texted, facebooked and hung out in groups but never alone or at the food court. He had a strong suspicion that Shaina wasn't into Xbox. Now he knew for sure. This is why he wanted to blow things up and jump out of airplanes online. Way easier than dealing with girls. Plus, it didn't make his ears  sweat. Ever.

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