Like every other man-made fiasco in this world, it started with a stupid question.

“So! Whaddya’ say? Wanna help me ‘destroy’ everything?”

“...But I just decked you in the face.”

Or perhaps it started even before then.

Regardless of the timing, it didn’t change the fact that an important conversation was taking place on this bench. A conversation that only two people were there to forget, but will impact them and everyone who is and will be connected to them nonetheless. The late afternoon sun began its descent to the horizon, vanishing over the worn brick wall that towered over the scene. Casting a frail shade, it covered the two main actors.

A dark-haired girl who was trembling with adrenaline, a silent storm hiding behind her bespectacled face.

And a blonde boy on the bench, who was cradling his quickly blackening eye.

Despite the eclipse, however, the shading did no job in hiding the thin smile he bared for the girl in front of him.

“Yep, you definitely did! God… thanks for that, by the way,” The boy clumsily grumbled with his honeyed tongue. “But I get it. I pushed a button and I’ve been told that my face is very punchable. It happens.”

The girl he was placating cautiously stood in front of him, crossing her arms in a mixture of defense and comfort. Her onyx eyes showed no obvious reaction-whether it was on purpose or not, the boy couldn’t tell. Still, the girl said nothing in interruption, so he continued.

“But that’s not the point, is it? The point is that you’re pissed. And you should be! What happened to your sister sucked.”

The girl’s face cringed at the mention of her sister, her direct stare wavering for just a moment. The flash memory of sitting in that sterile hospital room pricked her mind like razors, with nothing but rage and emptiness leaking out of the wounds. “You don’t know everything,” she snipped.

“You’re right! I don’t!” The boy bounced back immediately. “What I do know is that nobody tried to help her! Everyone just stuck to the status quo and acted like everything was hunky-dory! And that… that is something to be mad at. To want to change.”

As he stood from his seat, slightly wobbling with dizzied pain, the boy took a single step towards the girl. Despite being barely under the average height, his stature still made her raise her head at him, forcing the girl to take in his features. Under the sunlight, his marked eye was becoming more pronounced, even when obscured by the strands of his dirty blonde hair. The boy attempted his most charming smile, but it only came off as awkward and downright smarmy.

“So like I said, just apply to my school and let’s destroy everything! They don’t want to take us seriously? Then we’ll make them take us seriously. Usurp the whole order! You know, like that Star Wars thing you’re obsessed with.”

To finish the crafted offer, the boy stuck his hand forward, waiting for agreement. Instead, it was only met with a skeptical glare.

“The side of the Sith did that… and they were the bad guys,” The girl couldn’t help but correct. “They also… you know… executed kids.”

“Blah, blah, blah. Don’t be nitpicky. We can hash out the details later.”

The girl’s eyes shifted between the boy’s eyes and hand, her suspicion being nowhere near quelled. Only one thought flew around her mind.

He thinks he’s so slick, doesn’t he?

It wasn’t like the signs weren’t there. The sweet talk. The expectant stare. She had seen it all before.

From the foster adults who used her for a paycheck. From the case agents full of empty promises to put off troublesome heartbreak.

Ever since she was young, the girl understood a universal truth: Everyone longs for happiness, and they will use other people to attain it.

So why would she expect him to be any different? She would do the same thing too, wouldn’t she?

A part of her wanted to reject the boy's arrogant expectation, if only to gain a smidge of spiteful satisfaction…

But then she wouldn’t have anyone else.

Truth be told, she wasn’t very popular. Her new family’s nice, but she couldn’t say they knew her. The only person she talked to on a near-daily basis was him. Which in her mind, by default, made him the closest thing to a best friend. The closest sense of happiness she had attained in so long.

She didn’t want to let that go. She couldn’t.

She hated being put into this position of either defiance or capitulation. A win or lose situation.

Or is it?

The girl stared into the boy’s confident grimace one more time before going in for the handshake, only to stop right before making contact.

The boy’s head tilted in confusion. “Uh, is something wrong? I know I can be intimidating but-”

He didn’t have the chance to finish his sentence when the girl made her move. With malicious celerity, she brought her hand up to her mouth, licked her palm, and brought it back down to clasp his hand in thunderous impact. Finally registering her deed, the boy’s face gradually contorted to disgusted terror.

For just a moment, no other sound was heard but the wind and the restrained squelching of the saliva-covered handshake. Then another sound emerged.

“Ew, Ew, EW, EW!” The boy shrieked as he ripped his hand away from her grip, his bravado completely removed from his face. “WHAT THE HELL?!”

The girl beamed at him for what seemed like the first time today. “Just sealing the deal, buddy,” she snidely replied. “I just made it a special handshake, so no takebacks!”

Finishing the declaration, the girl picked up her messenger bag and turned to the main sidewalk. “I’ll fill out the application next week! Probably going to have to beg my parents, though!”

“The deadline is Friday!” The boy snapped back.

“Then sometime this week! I don’t know! See you later!”

The boy saw the girl off as he still clutched the wrist of his defiled hand, watching her stroll down the pavement and disappear behind her school walls. After she turned the corner, he let out a caustic chuckle, wiping his hand on his school slacks.

“Disgusting, little…” he muttered to himself, picking up his own backpack to leave.

With the departure of both future catalysts, the marked encounter came to an end, leaving no other signs that they even existed in this space but the shallow footprints that will soon be covered by the earth. The only proof that this conversation ever happened in the first place can and will only be seen in past and future events. But until then, the bench was once again…

Simply a bench.