Forgotten

This short story is a writing prompt I did in class where I was challenged to write from the perspective of "we." It was a little bit of a challenge but this is what I came up with!

We are forgotten. Thrown away like crumpled pieces of paper and left to rot. When we first met him, we were charmed. Tall, dark, and everything we ever wanted in a man. He flashed a winning smile, shook our hands, and we were gone. Our hearts stolen in the dark of night where even we couldn’t watch it happen.

Elise was the only one of use to leave mostly unscathed. She was the first and learned everything so that we would not suffer, yet we would not listen. On a dare, she asked him out after dark while he stood leaning against his red pickup truck. We watched from afar as he smiled at her and shook his head, then nodded and smiled again. We watched in awe as she walked back grinning smugly, his phone number written in her hand. Later that week we watched as she picked out her cutest pair of pants and most flattering shirt and was picked up in the red pickup truck.

We all flocked to her house the next morning, yelling over each other to have our questions answered first, to get the details we wanted. She only smiled and let us in the door, and we watched as she blushed and told us the events of the night before. They had gone to the diner two towns over, so they could have privacy, she said. A thirty-minute drive there for polite conversation, and a thirty-minute drive back full of laughter and his hand on her leg. We watched as she blushed darker as she described his goodbye kiss on her cheek and the awkward hug that followed. We squealed in delight and awe that this had all been started by a dare.

But then we watched as our friend disappeared from our lunches and shopping outings to spend more time with him. She explained that she would catch us later and that he was only here for a few months so she had to enjoy him while she could. So, we stepped back and let our girl go, believing she would remember us one day.

And one day she did remember us. Elise showed up on one of our doorstep’s crying and shaking. He is no good, she said. We pressed for details while hugging her shoulders and patting her arm, but she would not say. A couple weeks later and she seemed okay, so we dared ourselves to go ask him out when he decided to stay in town. He accepted of course, and we watched as more and more of us ruined our lives and our friendships. We didn’t learn our lessons until he left each one of us in the dust as he moved on to other places. We consoled each other, and reconciled, but could only watch the world pass by instead of participating in it.