Best Australian Yarn: Elena by Luca Di Tullio

Elena. Brownest eyes. Darkest and alluring. Draws you in like so many others. Into her room, into her bed, into her mind and into her life.

She was younger than me, not by a lot, but watching her talk to people on the phone in the small retail office we worked in, I couldn’t help but always want to look. I didn’t want to be interested, but I was. So, I waited. Her birthday passed, and neglecting the advice of my best friend, my feelings didn’t pass as her birthday had. I had waited and had established a mutual friendship. I felt terrible, as her partner and her were not doing well and were trying to sort things out with each other. The basis of our friendship was the mutual complaint of her treatment, and the type of man she was with. So, she ended it.

After her drunken spree on the night of her birthday, it was finished, and we had begun. I didn’t merely just observe and look at her from afar anymore, as our starting friendship had sprung into constant, daily conversation. She woke me up in the mornings, and I was exhausted, waiting for her reply all night, into the early morning. She was shy and secretive, but it seemed only to me. She spoke her mind and was opinionated and didn’t like to take no for an answer. She spoke all the words I wanted to hear from her delicate and reserved lips.