Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
ChinHooi Ng Mar 3
Red for economics,  
green for English,  
white for ICT
your files stacked in my hands,  
pages filled with notes in your careful script
I never needed to ask; you just lent them
as if sharing knowledge meant sharing a part of you. 

A classroom of seventeen,  
but I only counted one.
I traced your desk with my fingertips,  
opened your pencil case just to see  
what colors you carried,  
what secrets lived between the erasers and sharpies.  

We worked in groups,  
side by side but never quite close enough.  
I stole glances when I thought you wouldn’t notice,  
but maybe you always did.  
Maybe that’s why you smiled so easily,  
why you never pulled away.  

Years have stretched between us,  
but high school still lingers like a cozy
dream  
I wake from too slowly.  
Your files, your laughter, your presence in the last row
they live in me
as if time forgot to take them when it took you.
ChinHooi Ng Mar 3
She was August, I was February
months apart, but tied by the same number
Eleven, like a thread linking distant days,  
like Pepero sticks she loved,  
thin, sweet, and gone too fast.  

She was the girl who handed me slippers in the rain,  
who lent me her red, green, and white files,  
who sat in the third row while I sat in the first,  
but somehow, we always found our way to the same place.  

She was fries on one eventful canteen day,  
laughing about weight neither of us really cared about.  
She called herself Snorlax,  
but to me, she was Eevee  
full of possibilities, always shifting, always bright.  

She sent me memes, told me to wake up,  
to sleep early
to try again tomorrow
She saw Natsume in me
though I never watched Gakuen Alice to know why
Maybe she saw the quiet fire I never named.  

She was there,  
and then she wasn’t.  
Distance, time, then silence
life pulled us apart like a ribbon unraveling.  
But somewhere
in the space between eleven and eleven
she still lingers.
ChinHooi Ng Mar 3
I remember the rain, heavy on our umbrellas,  
the scent of wet earth as we walked,  
silent, yet knowing.  
You handed me the slippers first,  
a small kindness that opened a password door in my heart.  

In our classroom filled with murmurs and pages turning,  
you sat in the last row,  
your glasses catching the fluorescent light and time,  
your hairband keeping time with your movements
You were a tomboy, you said,  
but to me, you were softer than the world allowed.

A quiet building, an empty hallway,  
fries shared between words that meant everything and nothing
The pull of something unspoken  
led us up the stairs, past the classrooms where fans hummed  
to a moment that rewrote us.  

Afterward, we laughed in daylight,  
separate yet tangled,  
our conversations shifting between equations and longing.  
You had friends; I had you in the quiet.  
And then time carried us away,  
first to different cities, then to different lives.  

You reappeared in pixels and midnight messages,  
a voice from the past steadying me in my new world
But distance is a slow tide,  
pulling even the strongest memories apart
I spoke too much, stupidly shared too much, or maybe just enough,  
and you drifted again,  
this time with no promise of return.  

Now, I hold you in flashes
the rain, the fries, the hush of a stairwell,  
the echo of a name I can no longer address.
Ritvik Mar 1
10 years ago, at a summer camp.
I remember it clear, when they took my hand.
The warmth of those red hands, in little young me.
When collided with theirs, made my heart skip a beat.

No denial that history repeated many times since,
Sometimes built my heart, but also breaking into smithereens.

A decade of time, has gone now behind.
Yet history repeated again, again another time.
Summer camp replaced to school.
September, got replaced from June.

The sunlight on their face, when they smiled at me,
We walking together, together and free.
Wished that time would never had an end.
But everyone has to surrend, sure as me, sure as them.
Archer Feb 14
Ice cream
sounded like a splendid idea, and
God, was it.
So, I caved,
so what?
I should be allowed to accept the things
my friend offers me.
Maybe my heart hurt from rejection,
but it was nothing shoveling
cold dairy into my gullet with
that same friend
can’t fix.

So, I ****** up,
I spoke up.
My shoulders tensed and my grip around my spoon would surely leave an imprint for a minute.
While it most certainly is a big deal-
a huge deal-
it’ll get better,
I swallowed.
Not mint chip,
but saliva that I hadn’t even realized accumulated.
It will get better. Right?
I looked to my friend for advice.
Sure, it tended to be
less than helpful,
but it was advice nonetheless.

Well, I,
He leaned against his forearms on the
countertop,
holding his own spoon in one hand and
bowl in the other.
Yeah.

That sounds confident,
I remarked, but I creased my eyebrows.
It would get better.
Right?

Yes. Yeah. It will get better.
He gave me a smile and leaned back up;
the stool legs whined as he shifted against the counter.

It was consolation,
kind of,
but it still was consolation.
I’d completely biffed on confessing my
undying love and had basically hit rock bottom.
And you know what they say:
“the next step above rock bottom is eating
ice cream
with your bros.”
I stared at the green clump of
ice cream
in my bowl.
Some chips were sludging out of it due to it melting.

I do envy you,
I tossed my words to him,
though my face was
still
aimed down and at the bowl.

Why’s that?

I chuckled and shook my head before
picking up a scoop of
ice cream.
You don’t have to deal with rejection as
pathetic as mine,
with that I bit the
ice cream
off my spoon, though avoided scraping my teeth against the metal.

I couldn’t help but notice how he avoided my observation the same way.

Yeah,
he chuckled after some time,
I don’t.

I raised an eyebrow.
Something felt off in my stomach, and it wasn’t the countless bowls of mint chocolate chip
ice cream
I had consumed.
What?
I plastered on a smile.
Got some secret love life I don’t know about?
A little crush on a girl?

He scoffed and punched my shoulder.
It didn’t hurt.
Nahh,
he rolled his eyes and ate a bite of his
ice cream.
He swallowed before continuing.
That’s not for me,
his voice lowered.
He must’ve noticed me staring because he shoved my bowl closer to me and looked away quicker than the speeds I drove at.
Focus on your
ice cream.
You’ve practically eaten the whole tub of
mint chip anyways.

I narrowed my eyes at the back of his head.
Uhuh.

Odd.
Archer Feb 14
So
I couldn’t bring myself to do it
So what?
Love comes around and goes around
High school was never meant to last forever
Four years in hell
Is better than an eternity of being dead
Plus
That wasn’t always my outlook
So what?
People grow and I should be no different
Single on valentines again
For the fourteenth year
Is better than an eternity of being dead
Archer Feb 14
Boy was he oblivious.
Sure, I was dense,
but at least I could admit it.
I could also admit that
I was a little hurt
each time he
seemingly
chose to ignore my pokes and prods.
I get to listen to him go on and on about this one girl-
who I don’t even care that much about-
and he gets to go on and on about her.

Obviously, I’ve got to be there for him.
Everyone should be there for the ones they love. But ****,
does it hurt when the ones you love
jab
at the heart that throbs for them.

I refused to let the ride home be silent.

Did you want some ice cream or something to make you feel better?

A groan of a reply.

I didn’t bother to give him a glance.
I squeezed the steering wheel and kept my eyes glued to the road,
though I’d rather they be glued to him.

You should come over,
I spoke, though it was almost
drowned out by the whiny screech of my brakes.
I took the opportunity to look at him.
He did not meet my eyes.
Instead, his arms were over his chest and he stared at the window at some old car wash
on the right side of my Toyota.
I think you could benefit from a break 
thinking

about that girl.

I don’t know, man,
a sentence at last.
I have homework probably.

The car ****** forward as the light turned green, breaking my companion’s eye contact with
the gas station extension.
My eyes lingered on him for a moment before
I scratched the back of my neck.

C’mon, it’s Friday,
I urged.
You deserve a chance to take your mind off
that girl.

He threw his arms out.
She’s not just some girl!
She’s an absolute beauty who
barely knows I exist! Like I said,
angel fish,
he gestured to the air to the right of him,
Sea urchin,
the same hand now met his chest on the “sea”.

I,
I shook my head.
I think you give that
b#tch
too much credit, you know?
She called you slurs…
I brought the car to a cruising speed when I noticed we were alone on the road.
And, ‘cause, y’know. I think sea urchins are pretty f#cking awesome.
I snuck a glance at him.
He was staring at his lap;
his brows were knitted and his eyes looked as if they would fall out of the sockets.
…I think I’m a sea urchin as well.

He snorted and sat up straight to look at me. “Really?
He smiled,
dimples showing.
Good.
You can’t be a sea urchin too;
you’re too perfect to be one.
His head of brown hair shook and
one of his matching brows raised.

Perfect?
I grinned.
This guy?
I brought a hand off the steering wheel and ****** a thumb towards my chest.
I was a careful enough driver to
still be focused on the road.
At first glance you might think I’m some sort of reckless delinquent
who only cares about
getting girls and
getting drunk.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Well, maybe not perfect,
he smiled towards me, rolling his eyes.
I let my gaze meet his before snapping back to the street.
But definitely perfect enough..

So,
I mumbled and scratched the back of my neck,
Ice cream?
polina Jan 15
I want to experience it -
The youthful thrill of trembling hands,
Smiles softened by the dying sunlight
Words, cotton-candy sweet, adoring
Uncomplicated, understanding, bright.

I want to feel it -
Love, a feeling sickly-sweet and soft,
Or puppy love, as mom will call it
I want those phone calls into midnight, laughs
Inside jokes, adoring, “let’s go bowling” -
I want the hangouts that stretch
into technicolor dreams
Hugs, languid, smiles drunken
Love, oh how I want to drown
in your beam.
hsn Jan 14
mind is pacing
hands are full
calendar ticking
away towards
bound due dates
sweat in sleep that
no tablefan can fix
thoughts of
exams and fears
reoccuring torment
of embarrasing moments
that i want to keep away

why must this be the life
god has carved for me?
wrote this in msip
Next page