ice

"what's wrong?"
"nothing." [everything]

---

"doesn't it suck that we have to be social animals" 
she stopped swaying. abruptly, she angled her head away and stared at him with a deep scrutiny. 
"stop." she demanded."what are you doing?" 
"what?" 
"this. this whole thing. being charming. being candid and honest. what are you trying to pull?"
blankly, he blinked away the accusation. "i'm not trying to pull anything. I'm just, talking. dancing."
"well stop," she said, wrenching herself away from him. "it's weird and i don't like it and i'd like you to stop it."

---

"are you familiar with the term slow food?"
"you mean like escargot?"

---

"do you know what the worst feeling in the world is?" heartbreak crept into her voice. "it's wanting to eat right after a meal. it's wanting to run with nowhere to go. it's searching for something without knowing what. it's wanting to cry and having no tears."

---

"i love you"
"that's inappropriate"

---

"what's it about?"
nervous laughter. "what do you mean?"
"your poem. what's it about?"
"'what's it about'? I don't know. I mean -- it's hard to explain."
"What's so hard to explain? You wrote it right, doesn't it have a meaning?"
"Yeah, it does.    It definitely has a meaning. I'm just, not too sure how to phrase it properly."
"how hard can it be? i mean, if you know what it means --"
"i do. but it's like, different. i know what it's about the same way i know what a piece of music or a feeling is about. vaguely. and in glimpses. it's hard to put into words."
"okay, well, if you don't wanna recite it to me, why don't you try describing it."
"describing it?"
"yeah, just go through each line and paraphrase what it says."
"   it's gonna sound really dumb."
"that's okay. i don't mind."
"i just don't see the point."
"please. humour me."

 "it's  about this girl -- and she lives in the woods. but it's not like, a nice, friendly kind of place -- it's a really, harsh, unaccommodating place but she's lived there all her life, on her own, and she's really delicate and gentle, like a flower, but because she lives in such a terrible place, you know, she has to bear all these burdens and become tough and, grow up -- and so, this lovely girl just becomes, hard and exhausted and just -- tired of living, but she keeps on going. she just keeps on living, and getting more and more worn out -- and the worst part is that she doesn't know how much better it could be or that she doesn't have to live there, because for as long as she can remember, she's been living in the wild, on her own. and that's all she knows. and that's all she'll ever know."

 "sounds like a great poem."