ghost

Write a story that includes the line: "You look like you've seen a ghost"

He walked quickly out of the main lobby to the bakery. He needed a quick smoke with a cream cheese bagel and a black coffee to go. Then, he saw her.

At school, she was the girl with the loose ponytail. In his mind, he saw the dark brown hair fanning out against the mid-morning sun. It was like her hair was on fire, aflame as she jumped in her short shorts to grab the netball in gym class, giggling as she landed in her laced-up sneakers.

“Catch,” she yelled. He sees her throw the ball languidly and giggle some more as she jogged backwards towards the end of the court, her ponytail swinging behind her.

He could never stop watching her. As discreetly as he could, he watched her in the hallways, watched her bend down to drink from the water fountain, the back of her skirt lifting slightly as her undone hair swept down to grazing her loose sweater. At night, he thought about the pale arch of the back of her neck, her loose sweater, one sleeve pushed up, the other engulfing her wrist, just her fingertips peeking through. No one would have known though. He was every other guy. No one could have known.

Now, he was watching her too. There was the unmistakable pretty face except pudgy and surrounded by a size L black turtle neck, loose trousers and the sleeping baby. Defeated by time. Defeated by the demands of life. Defeated by reality.

At his desk back under the fluorescent light, he stared blankly into space, a spot of cream cheese smudged at the corner of his mouth.

The fantasy was dead.

His colleague opposite looked up from his work, paused and remarked: “What’s wrong man? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Words: 299.