The Big Three | Teen Ink

The Big Three MAG

July 29, 2009
By protagonist BRONZE, San Antonio, Texas
protagonist BRONZE, San Antonio, Texas
2 articles 0 photos 3 comments

“What event triggered the Cuban missile crisis?”

My study buddy looked from his paper to me with those eyes – the eyes of Dorian Gray. “I guess Princeton Review doesn't see the irony of putting ‘trigger' and ‘missile crisis' in the same question,” he added.

I answered with a coquettish laugh and, of course, the correct answer: the Bay of Pigs invasion. I knew the answers to all these questions. It's not like I suggested the idea of a study session because I had difficulty remembering the events of the Kennedy administration.

“Who was the Soviet premier during the Cuban missile crisis?” His voice had a curious, musical ring to it like some character in a black and white movie you could never quite place.

“Khrushchev.” You would want to hear more of that voice … like the first ten seconds of a JFK speech, before the whole nasal rasp becomes too much.

“Spell Khrushchev.” Ha! My little Cape Cod golden boy was challenging me.

“The AP exam doesn't take off for spelling.” I looked him straight in the eyes – eyes that happened to be mere inches from mine. Thank you, Aphrodite, for making small tables at coffee houses everywhere.

“I want to see if you know it.”

I stared into the tangoing twirls of blue and silver in his eyes. They should have been strands of cotton candy, but something told me they were the current of an eddy waiting to pull me in. Once you're gone, you're gone.

“K.” But the whites of his eyes were crossed with little red veins.

“H.” Did he have trouble sleeping last night?

“R.” Or was he with her last night?

“U.” No, they broke up. He's single now, but blond boy's out of my league.

“S.” It's a challenge. Does that mean I should go for it?

“C.” I wouldn't know how.

“H.” Won't he just disappear from my life when the semester ends?

“E.” Not if I play this right.

“V.” What the hell, you only live once.

He stared at me for a moment, and I couldn't breathe but didn't care to; who needs oxygen when you have so much adrenalin in your veins there's barely room for blood?

“So close,” he said in a low voice. His voice is even better than his eyes. For a moment I wondered if he would lean in and kiss me. “But you forgot an H.”

Figures I would do something to ruin it. No kiss for me. I guess spelling the names of Soviet premiers isn't something guys consider a turn-on.

“This one's easy,” he said.

Something easy? It must not be kissing me.

“Name the Big Three.”

The Big Three … somehow my mind was clear on this one. It wasn't that the answer was clear, but my mind was clear like the kind of stream some obnoxiously perfect lyrical unicorn would drink from. For a mini-eternity I didn't think about the mounds of work I still had to do, the fact I was manipulating him to spend time with me, or those damn eyes. I thought of nothing … peace. The only three words that came to my head were “I love you.”

“Don't you know the Big Three?”

There were those eyes again. Stalin must have had captivating eyes, but in a different way. In these eyes there was concern … but only concern that I didn't know the answer. In them I saw his dreams, his amazement, his past loves, his cats … but was there anything for me?

“The Big Three are Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill.” With each name I couldn't help but feel my words betrayed them all. But it was the correct answer, and logically the only answer. Still, I couldn't look in his eyes.

“Are you sure?” My God, he was teasing me! Of all the questions he decided to make me second guess myself on, he had to pick this one.

Bastard. Blond handsome bastard. He was also playing me.

“Well, what other Big Three is there?” I asked in my most seductive voice. Those years of theater had to pay off sometime. I twirled a bit of curly hair around my finger. He loved my curly hair, so unlike his.

His eyes were staring into mine and I stared right back. Was I FDR and he Stalin, or the other way around? There was a flicker of something in those cotton-candy eyes and I knew he wasn't Stalin.

“I love you.” The words that slipped from his lips were barely audible.

“I love me too.” I bet no one had ever said that to a Kennedy before. But I hadn't won yet. “In fact, I love me almost as much as I love you.”


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This article has 149 comments.


on May. 7 2018 at 10:15 am
Dani_Higareda PLATINUM, Hanahan, South Carolina
20 articles 0 photos 109 comments

Favorite Quote:
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
- Winnie the Pooh

I really like the diction that you use. The way that you wrote this is so clever and I really enjoyed reading this!

on Jul. 26 2016 at 8:47 pm
anonymous06 PLATINUM, Northbridge, Massachusetts
35 articles 5 photos 31 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

And I love me almost as much as this story. :) Great job, definitely deserved to be published.

Kyrae SILVER said...
on Jun. 10 2014 at 9:56 pm
Kyrae SILVER, Idyllwild, California
7 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 1 Corinthians

I really love how you emphasized the physical part of their flirting too. I feel like a lot of people rely solely on dialouge, but this was was a perfect mixture. Beautifully written :)

on Mar. 6 2013 at 4:52 pm
Wordartist SILVER, Grand Rapids, Michigan
7 articles 0 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole thinking its stupid." -Albert Einstein

I love your story. sweet and innocent.

on Jan. 6 2013 at 8:15 pm
In_Love_with_Writing GOLD, Easton, Pennsylvania
12 articles 0 photos 389 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phillipians 4:13

That was amazing. I adore the ending sooo much!!! Please read, rate, and comment on some of my stories. Thanks!

sonJaNae said...
on Sep. 28 2012 at 9:36 pm
sonJaNae, Fort Wainwright, Alaska
0 articles 0 photos 68 comments

Favorite Quote:
"No one can change a person, but someone can be a person's reason to change" -Spongebob Squarepants

This is really good, I like it :)

on Aug. 15 2012 at 10:08 am
writer3499 GOLD, New Bedford, Massachusetts
11 articles 0 photos 196 comments

Favorite Quote:
"it's impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all-in which case you fail by default."
-J.K.Rowling

I love this!! Great way to end such an amaing story!!! Would you mind checking out some of my work!

Klammyt GOLD said...
on Jun. 3 2012 at 8:45 pm
Klammyt GOLD, San Diego, California
17 articles 1 photo 47 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Remember you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
-Christopher Robin to Pooh

AWESOME! I loved it. It was so cute and sweet and amazing. 

Question: When you say the Kennedys, do you mean that the blond kid is a Kennedy? 


bluhs said...
on May. 19 2012 at 8:20 pm
bluhs, E, Alabama
0 articles 0 photos 111 comments
A very pretty story. It was one of those that actually make you smile.

on May. 2 2012 at 2:19 am
i_am_so_very_large_and_towering SILVER, Mililani, Hawaii
5 articles 1 photo 114 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?"

i love this!!!

on Apr. 3 2012 at 9:20 pm
Zuccini75 BRONZE, Chantilly, Virginia
1 article 0 photos 48 comments

Favorite Quote:
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people wonder, than telling them yourself."
-Myself

HAHA... I laughed after the 'I love me too' part - seems like the kind of thing I would have said! My friend agreed...

 Well written story, keep up the work!  


on Jan. 30 2012 at 7:28 pm
MakenzieB. SILVER, Apison, Tennessee
5 articles 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Be the change you wish to see in the world"~ghandi (and) "No one can make you inferior without your consent"~Eleanor Roosevelt

Amazing! I've read this like, 5 times already and I never get tired of it! That was sooo sweet of him to say "I love you" like that, and I totally didn't see that coming! Absolutely worthy of 5 stars!

on Jan. 30 2012 at 6:45 pm
_ella_herondale BRONZE, San Diego, California
4 articles 2 photos 222 comments

Favorite Quote:
"...If the Thames that ran beside them...recalled a night where the moon shone as brightly as a shilling on the same boy and girl... and thought to themselves, 'at last, the wheel comes full circle,' they kept their silence."

OMG. This is the kind of writing you want to read again, even if you know you've got stuff to do and places to go. Like, Woah. This is almost to amazing to exist.

on Jan. 8 2012 at 2:47 pm
LOVELOVELOVELOVE IT! please keep writing!!!!

on Dec. 29 2011 at 3:22 pm
camohunter19 GOLD, Sedro-Woolley, Washington
14 articles 13 photos 128 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it." "Violence is never the answer! It is a question, and the answer is yes."

The last lines were almost like Han Solo's "I know" after Leia (did I spell her name right?) said "I love you" before he turned to carbonite.

on Dec. 24 2011 at 12:58 am
PenPaperAddiction, Las Vegas, Nevada
0 articles 0 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We're all a little weird and when you meet someone who's weirdness is compatible with yours, you fall into a mutually satisfying weirdness and call them your best friend." -boymeetsworld

Superb! The way the romance was barely a flicker infused with such witty, fresh banter that correlated to historical references was a unique concept. Bravo!

on Dec. 17 2011 at 2:33 pm
Caroline Skjoedt BRONZE, Johns Creek, Georgia
3 articles 0 photos 7 comments
Wow...this is absoutely beautiful

on Dec. 9 2011 at 11:13 am
Vacilator BRONZE, Merritt Island, Florida
4 articles 2 photos 96 comments

Favorite Quote:
No cup of tea is large enough, or book long enough, to suit me.
-C.S. Lewis

Ha!  I like that. =)

on Dec. 9 2011 at 6:47 am
The_Earl_of_Zerces PLATINUM, Waukesha, Wisconsin
36 articles 0 photos 106 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
-Sigmund Freud

Yes, I'm using the word "quark" improperly, but that's purely intentional, actually. Think of it as my own little "quark". :)

on Dec. 8 2011 at 10:06 pm
Vacilator BRONZE, Merritt Island, Florida
4 articles 2 photos 96 comments

Favorite Quote:
No cup of tea is large enough, or book long enough, to suit me.
-C.S. Lewis

It almost seems, though, that the word you're looking for is "quirk".