Never Be the Same

Flash fiction inspired by Never be the Same by Gabrielle Aplin

Nov 09, 2023

One of my favourite things to do is write stories from song lyrics that have been going round in circles in my brain. I’ve written whole feature films and TV shows based on lyrics, I love it.

This morning I had Never Be the Same by Gabrielle Aplin in my head and so this week’s post is a short piece inspired by the line, “Its all fun and games ‘til you realise that you’ve changed”, which is a line that is sang repeatedly.

It makes me think about all of those scenarios in life where you get into something without thinking about the long term benefits (or consequences) of those decisions. This time around,I’ve gone at it from the POV of romance.

Here’s the song for reference:

Thursday 9th November 2023

“It’s all fun and games ‘til you realise that you’ve changed.”

I remember the first time we met. We had fun. We were shy with one another, sheepish.

We didn’t know the other and we were motivated purely by the excitement we had from one another’s physical appearance.

It was fun and games.

Something we held lightly. A connection that we would speak about to our friends but not to each other. A feeling free zone.

The joint utterance of the words, “ I’ve met someone.” leave our lips and filling the air, landing on our loved ones.

Fun and games, now with serious stakes.

The shyness slowly turning into hours on end of staying up late

Talking.

Laughing.

Learning.

Loving.

Discovering who the other person truly is.

We’ve grown up from the people we were when we first laid eyes on each other. Changing under each other’s noses, realising much later than everyone else.

Were we foolish to think that we could see this as child’s play and continue to live our separate lives as normal without anything changing?

It’s all fun and games until you realise that you’ve changed. So what comes next?

The inevitable conversation that needs to happen, the one neither of us expected. A necessity to either move forward with one another or leave each other behind.

High stakes.

Rejection.

Acceptance.

My heart used to race with the pitter patter of excitement at being with you… Now there’s a splattering of panic in unreachable places that I am one word away from rejection.

A No.

We could speak openly when it was just the promise of a good time.

We were vocal about nothing coming of this in the long term, but we were using our short term mindset.

The fun and games are now replaced with longstanding tenderness.

We’ve changed.

We’ll never be the same.

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I always love hearing from you. Let me know how your week’s going or what fun things you’re up to!

Nessa C Writes

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