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Whomsoever feels like it, please continue.

Please note that some bits of the text aren't quite clear in their meaning. I can assure you there is a general idea and/or a meaning behind those, but I leave them open to interpretation for the next author. You may rip those lines out of context, that is.

Please try and preserve the atmosphere, but feel free to alter the overall frame of the story. Be creative.

Thank you.

Forever.

Where did he go?

The beach party had run to a sudden end. At least, so I think. I remember I fell asleep and when the first strips of daylight seeped through my eyelids, everyone else was gone.
My first attempts to recollect the night before took a while, but bestowed me with some memories of my overall mood and behaviour. I know I wasn't the most social person at the party, but that's probably because I didn't really... well, I just didn't really fit in. No wonder they left me behind.
My neck was stiff from the bolder on which I had layed my head, but there were signs of a headache, so it probably wasn't the booze. Or yes, the booze, which was mixed with boredom, covered with loneliness, topped with a slice of what-the-Hell-am-I-doing-here and a hint of why-did-I-come-here-in-the-first-place. But my coming here wasn't entirely fruitless.

She was there.

Yes, 'she'. She remains nameless for now. Perhaps forever.

I arrived at the gathering shortly after she did. My gaze was fixed at her. Adam, who took me to the party in the first place, said something. I couldn't hear a word. I mean, the shouting and the loud music made a conversation impossible enough, but I didn't put any effort in deciphering what he was trying to tell me. I just nodded.
Apparently, these nods were exactly what he expected from me, since he trailed off with an accepting smile on his face, little though it was. Ten days would pass before he and I would actually meet again, and just barely. We both practically failed to notice one another.

I kept on looking at the girl and it paid off. But why? I mean, I just got out of a relationship. I was still in a confused state because of that break. I wasn't ready for a new one, so it wasn't that. Sex? No. I hate one-night stands. They don't work for me.

No, it was because of all these forty-somewhat people, she was the only interesting one.

I could tell that others disagreed. She was making conversation with such spirit, but she didn't get the respect she deserved. They looked at her as if she was an alien or something. Then again, perhaps she was; closely as I watched her, I had no idea what she was talking about.

Then it happened; our eyes spotted one another and were locked for a few seconds. From that moment on we must both have been aware, stupid as it might sound, that there was a link between us. Of some sort. Perhaps a very weak one, but still. In spite of that fact, we decided to beat around the bush a little and to not just lunge toward the other. We both knew our time would come.

I isolated myself from the party people. Two or three of them had attempted to small talk with me, but had given up as soon as they started it. Good judges of character, I guess. They could see almost instantly I didn't have anything in common with them, they just thought they had to be polite. That's stupid. If you have nothing to say, don't say it.
I had retreated to an improvised bench, consisting of a tumbled concrete boulder and my coat used as a pillow.

- Hi, she said, as she had sat down next to me, unnoticed.
- Hello, I said shyly. An uncertain smile exited my lips. She fumbled with my coat a little bit, probably afraid to ruin it. But I stretched it out a little bit so she could sit on it. Least thing I could do, right? Then there was a silence, though not an uncomfortable one. Far from it. She held out her left arm.
- Have you ever seen an arm with this colour, she asked. A question of a puzzling nature. Even harder to answer with the lack of light around. I smiled.
- Can't say that I have, I said, though I must say I can't make out the colour quite well. I took out my little flashlight.
- No!
- What?
- Don't use that!
- Why? Why not, I asked, puzzled as Hell. She stood up in front of me and bent her head towards my ear.
- That would spoil all the fun, she whispered. And then... she just walked off. Smiling. Not indicating I should follow her, in stead just subtly waving.

Funny. It brought back a childhood memory. I was playing in the sand, with marbles, I must've been around five years old I guess. Marbles never fascinated me as much as they did other kids when I was little, but I think I was trying to unlock their secret or something like that. What more are marbles than little glass balls with pretty colours in them? Up to this day, I'm still not sure.
A girl, slightly older than I was, entered the sandbox, her eyes fixed on my marbles. No pun intended.
- Are those real, she asked. What kind of a question was that? I mean, I had never seen a fake marble before.
- Yes, I said.
- Oh, appeared to be the answer. And she just walked off. Just like that. What is it with women? Take my ex-girlfriend for example; just when everything appeared to be OK, she left me. Everything was going so well and she decides we 'weren't meant for eachother'. Where does all that come from? Does their midlife crisis appear decades earlier or something?

And twenty years later, here I was again. Puzzled by the sudden disappearance of a woman once more. My watch informed me that it was 08:30 in the morning.

As I stood up and picked up my coat, a note dropped from it. No, she didn't...?

My watch informed me that it was 8:31

Really? That's funny !

But who shall continue the story?

Come on people, use your imagination!