Competition Fifteen Highly Commended: Silly Girl by JP Relph
Silly Girl. Kicking at puddles with leaky trainers. Pockets full of bugs, rose petals and scrumped apples. Head full of possibilities: singer, astronaut, inventor. Running downstairs behind a tower of books, another pair of mangled glasses.
Smart girl.
Irresponsible girl. Falling out of trees and high heels. Elastoplast’s and plaster casts. Bikes ridden hard and put away twisted. Horses galloped and cars flung round corners. A heart handed over like candy, shattered into sweet shards.
Invincible girl.
Lascivious girl. Kissing boys with smoke-veiled eyes. Sweaty dancing and bus stop fumbles. Searching for something indelible in the crush and grind. Loved for ten minutes. Reproachments dispensed silently with childhood flannelette sheets.
Lonely girl.
Lazy girl. Sleeping late and crashing early. Scrolling into other’s curated lives: the perfect contour, the perfect love. Share-size crisps and unwashed hair, tear-softened on the pillow. The laptop apologetic, has nothing of worth to say, blinks, blinks.
Longing girl.
Yesterday’s girl. Bursting from skinny jeans and the cherry bobbles in your hair. Concealer on the tattoo of the lying boy’s name. Sensible shoes and a stationery cupboard. Squeezed-in coffee dates and couch surfing weekends. A dress let out at its borrowed-lace seams. A baby with cheeks glowing like apple skin. Contact lenses and one chapter a night. Bills and batch-made Bolognese. Five-minute makeup and a practical pixie. Date nights spent snoring in special knickers. Supermarket roses and maternity dungarees. Pockets bulge with snacks and Sudocrem. Head clamours with appointments, Disney songs and panic. A toddler with Peppa Pig plasters on her forehead and a jam-sticky hug like a vice. Spattered in bugs, mud and snot. Fearless. A laugh like bicycle bells and a smile like the sunrise. Running and splashing and falling out of trees. Silly girl.
JP Relph is a working-class Cumbrian writer mostly hindered by four cats and aided by copious tea. She volunteers in a charity shop where they let her dress mannequins and source haunted objects. A forensic science degree and passion for microbes, insects and botany often influence her words.
JP Relph’s debut Flash and Short Fiction Collection – Know That We Held – published by Alien Buddha Press is available to purchase in the FFF Bookshop – click here!
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
FLASH FICTION / MAILING LIST / SUBMIT / CURRENT COMPETITION / PREVIOUS COMPETITIONS / CRITIQUE SERVICE / BOOKSHOP / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM / BSKY.SOCIAL / DONATE / LINKS/COMPS/INFO / THE FREE FUTURE FOUNDATION
*
*
*
Tags: