(I just finished a very long history project that I should've started two weeks ago but only got around to today ... I'm physically dead)

He said I was pretty today.

I hasn't hit me until now that he said it. I heard it, I said something pleasant in return, but it didn't register. Until just now.

He said I was pretty.

I don't think I've ever been called pretty by anyone outside of my family and below the age of 30. Not even coming from a girl, like "your hair is nice" or "your eyes are pretty".

Sure, I've gotten one or two "nice makeup", when I put a new eyeshadow on or something.

But never a pretty. And never from a boy. And never from the boy.

Is it so hard to say something like that to a person? A "you look nice today" or a "grEAt outfit". Anything. It only has to appear to be sincere, really. If people could say things like that to each other in the same way everyone says "fine" when someone asks how they are, then wouldn't the world be just a little better?

He said I was pretty today.

I didn't feel particularily pretty. I felt drained because I had only slept a few hours, down because school was back in, and frustrated because of the homework piling up before my eyes.

He called me pretty today.

And it only took that ... to make me feel better, to make me smile, to make me go back to all that thinking and dreaming and wondering and doubting that was my life last year. But different. Because I guess now I'm not so involved in it. I know to step back. It's a part of my life that I wish would develop more, but I've promised myself not to obsess over it like I did last year. Because last year was a dark, dark place.

He said I was pretty today.

His ex-girlfriend, who sits behind me in class, the same one who eyed us at the bus stop before christmas break ... she asked me if there was anything "between" us. I said no ... I laughed ... She gave me a very suspicious look, smiled and nodded. I don't know why ... well, I know exactly why. Because if ever anything happens "between" us she is going to step right in and tell me he's bad for me, to step off, whatever. I guess that's just her.

He said I was pretty today.