The boy is topless
The sunlight, weak, a ghost of its best self
Plays against his pale skin
A spotlight for his braggadocio
Which is so seemingly complete, that you find yourself
Almost
Admiring it.

He is concocting fact from recent fiction,
Over rehearsed, but endearing in its way
Aimed at the three girls sitting on the stairs
His not so rapt audience.

I think it’s the girl sitting just a bit apart
That he is talking to
But she never glances his way
So caught up in the pages of a slender, tender blue book
She holds tightly onto, like she is learning some new secret
That will change her life forever.

The other two
(In this group they are often known as this)
Share a vape, giggle and create a grey
Rose flavoured cloud filled eco system.
They don’t really care about what he is saying
But adore the way he says it.

Around this off-centre centrepiece
In a chaotic orbit another boy performs tricks
Upon his battered skateboard
You can feel his concentration constantly shifting
Between the next feat of derring-do, and whether
The girls are paying attention
(Spoiler alert; One of them IS)

There is another girl on another skateboard
Her orbit brings her ever closer to the girl reading
A skip up the small step and then around,
Her hand glancing at the shoulder of the one lost in words

(If we were allowed to glance into the near future
I am fairly sure we would see these two reading via phone-light
Sharing a bulky old duvet,
In a room with a tiny mirror ball reflecting pastel shades of comfort)

The sky grows grumpy and tantrum dark
The boy puts on his shirt
And the wind wins the final argument against their youthful exuberance.

They move on to whatever new adventure beckons
And as the rain storms down
There is just the building now, looking eternal, yet lonely, rejected
As if, before they left,
They had filled their pockets with the essence of Saturday Afternoon Sunlight

Moving on
Bringing joy and jokes and charming interaction
And flirts and fumbles, fantasy and fever
Indoors
Cosy in the absolute, unbreakable knowledge
That they are destined to be, teenagers, forever.