Follow Me Out by Hannah Retallick, flat champagne

 

They do it in the movies, don’t they? The every-girl leaves the party, steps out into a garden or onto a Romeo-and-Juliet balcony, sighs, looks thoughtful, and then when she turns around…

                 There you are, he says. I thought you’d left. Are you okay?

                 Tall, dark, handsome, yes? Of course. He wants her, inexplicably, his you’re-not-like-the-other-girls girl.

                 I step out onto the Romeo-and-Juliet balcony. A dark leafy tree tickles the edge, whispering what I already know but don’t want to hear. I look back towards the pulsing lights and laughter. Follow me out, I plead, silently.

                 Michael is still talking to that girl Rosie, the one who knows what to do, the one who loses him to me in the movie, but I doubt he knows my name. I wait, just in case, until the cold night disappointment tingles through my body.

About the author 

Hannah Retallick is a twenty-eight-year-old from Anglesey, North Wales. She was home educated and then studied with the Open University, passing her Creative Writing MA with a Distinction. She has been shortlisted/highly commended in many international competitions and won Second Place with Cranked Anvil Press in January 2022. https://www.hannahretallick.co.uk/about