Three O'clock Angst | Teen Ink

Three O'clock Angst

July 29, 2011
By wordjunkie BRONZE, Houston, Texas
wordjunkie BRONZE, Houston, Texas
1 article 0 photos 105 comments

Favorite Quote:
Those who say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.


It's three seventeen in the morning and I just looked through all 318 pictures of you on Facebook. I feel like a stalker but I can't help it, I haven't seen you in two months and I miss the intensity of your eyes. When I see the pictures of you where you smile too wide or pose like you think you're cool, I hit next like the mouse is on fire. I hate you a little then, even though I'm worse than you about being fake. But when you are silly in that perfect real way that I can tell you did not care was on camera, I pause. I see you and I miss you like nothing else I've ever felt before.
The enigmatic maelstrom of emotion you conjure, it's not a storm I can wait out, it's blown my house down and there is nowhere left to hide.
There's one picture of you where you stare just behind the camera, the only serious picture in the entire album. You look almost sad, like everything I know you're hiding is boiling beneath the edges of your eyes. Your eyes are intense no matter what you are doing, but here they are extraordinary. It's painful because it's honest, but beautiful because it's real.
Had that picture been of me I would have deleted it immediately, untagged myself and annoyed whoever posted it until they erased it permanently. For you it is well hidden, the 238th picture, but I am intensely happy it was there to find. I stare at it too long, wishing you could see me back through the screen, and then un-wishing it because I am in sweats and a giant t-shirt, makeup-less, and gruesomely tired. You wouldn't care anyway, you've seen me at my worst and you told me yourself you no longer think of me as a girl.
You meant it to mean we were close, but it stung. When your girlfriend found your phone and saw our texts until two we both explained to her that there was no way, I knew way too much about your weirdness, your insecurities, your problems, for you to ever like me. In your words, "I just knew too much." It would have been easy had I been ugly, but honestly, I'm not at all, so the more suspicious she got, the more I had to swallow my pride for you, let you explain why we talked so much.
Finally, I let you show her the texts we'd sent, every insecurity I'd had laid bare in front of one of the kind of girls that had broken me so badly in the fist place. And I did it for you. To save the relationship I hated with all of my heart. To keep you with the girl that was the cause of half of your insecurity. I don't know at all if it was the right thing to do. But it worked, and though now I have to endure her pity, I no longer have to endure your pain at not having her.
She thinks she is saintly for caring about me, my problems which you gently coaxed or more often caps-lock bugged out of me, but she does not need to know that I have them, and I do not trust her to keep my secrets like I trusted you.
I barely trusted even you, and then it was only because we talked out of desperation, a need to know that there was someone out there like us, someone that smiled constantly but cried when they were alone in hallways, which we gave each other. I had the same amount of your secrets as you had of mine, and I have none of hers, none at all. And you did not pity, you understood and tried to help.
You said the reason you trusted me was that one night when I called you, tried to hide that I was in tears, and told you to put your phone in a closet so I could talk to an open line and feel like someone was listening, when my voice broke and I sobbed for just a moment, you said you heard something of yourself. You kept talking to me even though we didn't know each other that well, perfect for my initial intentions of just asking a stranger a weird request and not caring what they thought about me, because even after I cried, when you told me the first part of all your pain, I cared, and more, I tried to help.
That was why you trusted me, and that is why I love you, for caring. But you're still with your barbie, popular and funny and nice, but to me like a caramel apple- I find that apples are just fine the way they are, without a sugar coat. And so I cannot have you, and talking to you annoys me and hurts me because there are plenty of guys out there that want me, but I always compare them to you and they always fall short.
I cannot have the one person I love more than anything, and all others are ruined by him. And so I sit here, desperately staring at your picture, and wishing you would realize that I am here and I love you...

The author's comments:
I started typing this at 4:40. After editing and proof reading and final cuts it's 5:47. Other than needing to seriously re-think my sleeping habits, I'm pretty happy that's done. I write for myself and to get things off my chest, so all I ask is please don't judge.

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This article has 12 comments.


on Mar. 18 2012 at 7:19 pm
futurenovelista SILVER, Staatsburg, New York
8 articles 0 photos 64 comments

Favorite Quote:
"But I being poor have only my dreams...I place my dreams at your feet. Tread softly for you tread on my dreams." -Yeats

This is really great...reminds me of the things i had experienced. I truly enjoyed it... Keep writing!

on Mar. 16 2012 at 1:15 pm
FluteFreak SILVER, Auburn, Indiana
8 articles 0 photos 43 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Insanity just adds a little spice to life!" -Me

This is awesome. Your character's emotions came to life. Amazing job!

on Mar. 14 2012 at 7:38 pm
ninjamuffin SILVER, Billings, Montana
5 articles 0 photos 17 comments

Favorite Quote:
"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway."
Mother Teresa

Awesome job! So sweet and sad. I find it really difficult to write a love story without it beong super corny, but you did beautifully.

on Mar. 13 2012 at 11:23 am
Tatiel PLATINUM, Washington, Vermont
23 articles 21 photos 57 comments

Favorite Quote:
Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
~Mark Twain

I don't really have much to say...other than that this is so horribly beautiful. *hugs*

on Mar. 11 2012 at 12:24 am
applesauceHater SILVER, Nikolaevsk, Alaska
8 articles 0 photos 124 comments
its a beautiful piece/ the emotions and thoughts are just amazingly real. This was sooo well written and you're an amazing writer! 5/5

red-punk GOLD said...
on Mar. 10 2012 at 6:16 pm
red-punk GOLD, Trigg County, Kentucky
12 articles 0 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
sometimes its better to hate :D

this is just amazing i love it so much. 5/5 :D its going to my favorites whatever you do, don't stop writing

on Mar. 9 2012 at 9:44 pm
LoonyLoopyLupin GOLD, Raynham, Massachusetts
13 articles 0 photos 52 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I am proud of who I am. I believe in what I do." -Pavel Chekov (Star Trek The Original Series, episode: "The Way To Eden")

I... am... speechless. I don't know what to say except that this piece is breathtaking. It's so honest and completely relatable. 5 stars. :)

on Mar. 5 2012 at 7:09 pm
LadyJaneGrey PLATINUM, Louisville, Kentucky
30 articles 0 photos 46 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I know it defies the law of gravity, but I never studied law." - Bugs Bunny

You have a way with the second person. Keep it up! 

mbrown106 GOLD said...
on Nov. 30 2011 at 7:32 pm
mbrown106 GOLD, Warner Robins, Georgia
10 articles 2 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

Unfortunately, I relate all too well with this. Reading this was like reading one of my own journal entries! Good job!

on Aug. 8 2011 at 10:05 pm
Love.Hate.Passion., Spring Valley, Illinois
0 articles 0 photos 356 comments

Favorite Quote:
~Hope. Faith. Love~
~Be proud of who you are.You are all unique in a different way.~
~I WILL NOT fade into oblivion , and become less than
a distant memory.~

It's like your my soul sister. This piece is so relatable. Its full of raw and strong emotion that emanates from each word on the page. I am so absolutely astounded at how wonderfully you write. Seriously. Keep it up!

on Aug. 8 2011 at 7:13 pm
wordjunkie BRONZE, Houston, Texas
1 article 0 photos 105 comments

Favorite Quote:
Those who say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

thankyou. And I know, it kinda sucks :P

on Aug. 4 2011 at 12:01 pm
billgamesh11 BRONZE, Grafton, Massachusetts
3 articles 0 photos 278 comments

Favorite Quote:
"It's always darkest before the dawn." ~Florence and the Machine

Omg, this reminds me so much of what I do because my boyfriend is away for the summer, but he did a play a year ago and it's on YouTube and I think I should get credit for about 60% of the views! I miss him so much and seeing him makes me feel a little better! But at least I have him as my boyfriend, you are in love with an unattainable boy:(:(:( Keep writing because I think you can create some really great work!:):):);)