A quarter past twelve

It was a cold night, Clara walked swiftly, there was nobody on the street and the bus stop seemed too lonely to stand alone. She looked at her watch, it was a quarter past 12, she called twice and quickly hung up, she wasn't sure she should call. She called a third time and this time he picked, before she could drop.

"Hello"?

She could hear his voice, it was there, faint beneath all the other sounds, music, laughter, clicking of glasses. She dropped the phone. She stood alone at the bus stop and imagined he had picked and said

"Hi love! so lovely you called, I was just thinking about you!"

But he had not said that, he had been too busy to think about her...she looked across the road, a shop was opened, she walked across the road as fast as she could, for some reason she felt a need for urgency, perhaps it was the cold air. She bought a pack of cigarettes and lit one, her lungs sucked in the poison hungrily as her thoughts floated away again. She remembered his face as vividly as if he was standing before her, his gentle eyes, his chin...that had left her own chin bruised that night as he kissed her...she could see him now...the way he walked... She looked at the phone again, she wanted to ask him if he remembered when he had bruised her chin. The bus came and went and she was still standing there, thinking of him. She did not see it when it happened, she did not know, she had been lost in her own world, but she could hear them talking...

"Its bad, really bad"
"Poor girl and she is so pretty too!"

"Stabbed like that, probably for her phone"
"I wonder what this world is coming to"

She tried to tell them that she could hear them, she could hear them very clearly, they looked like angels, all dressed in white.

"Did she have anything on her? we should call somebody"
"I found a picture, in her wallet, but nothing else, I wonder who it is"

She wanted to tell them that it was him, the man that made her happy, the one that brought a smile back to her face but she could not, their voices were drowning out and she felt like she was floating, she closed her eyes...time to sleep.

"Poor child"
"This world is a terrible place"


The boy ran all the way home. He had not meant to stab her but he had. He just wanted her phone, he had asked her twice to give it to him, why didn't she? why didn't she? when he got close to her, she had turned around so fast, it was only then that he had realized that she had not heard him. Her fast movement shocked him...the knife was in front of him...he had not meant to stab her.

"Danny, are you home?"
"Yes mum"
"Don't let your father hear you were out again, when you are 18 you can do what you want,until then, you know the rules in this house"
"Yes mum"

He put the phone under the pillow at first, he could not bear to look at it. A strange sound was coming from the phone...he slowly looked at it, there was a message....

"Sorry dear, I am out with a couple of friends drinking, it is very noisy, I'll call you later. Miss you"