Tonight was just like any other before it. I would wait for my parents to fall asleep and go lie down outside to watch the stars. Nothing major ever happened in our neighborhood, and if a single bug came into the yard my three dogs would bark the alarm. I could just sit out there thinking about nothing and everything. I even sang sometimes to drown out the silence.
Tonight I was humming a soft lullaby and lost track of time. I must have fallen asleep.
I woke up to the sound of Buddy, my hyper Maltese, jumping to his feet. I simply looked at him, thinking he was just going to bark at the wind like he tended to do. But he didn’t bark in excitement like he usually did when he saw something. No, he growled. I had never heard him sound so angry. It surprised me so much that I sat up quickly and stared in the direction he was tensed towards. He was not taking his eyes off of the tree closest to us. I have pretty good eyesight in the dark, so I was sure I would see whatever he was looking at.
What was… no, just the tree moving in the wind- nothing else.
I looked back at Buddy. His growling stopped abruptly and his protective stance turned to one of fear. He whimpered and ran to hide in the garage where the other two dogs were asleep. I couldn’t make any sense of it and was too tired to try.
I decided I was too lazy to go inside so I stayed out and started humming the same song as earlier as I lied back down.
When I got to the chorus I switched to a higher octave. Before I got to the second note, my voice stuck in my throat.
There was another voice that had stayed on the lower note, a guy’s voice.
Someone else was humming along with me… from close by.
I bolted up and stared at where I heard the sound come from- the same tree that Buddy had glared at. I was sure that that was where I had heard it. I was starting to realize how stupid it was of me to fall asleep outside.
My breathing quickened and my heart rate sped up. But my heart stopped all together when I heard an unfamiliar boy’s voice suddenly behind me.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep?”
I froze. I know I should have ran inside or screamed or something. But I couldn’t move, I couldn’t even breathe. I could sense him standing behind me, I could almost feel him.
I heard him chuckle behind me. It was a dark sound, but more mysteriously friendly than I had expected. I found I could breathe again. I tried to say something, but speech still wasn’t an option.
Without making a sound he slowly walked around until he was in front of me. I thought he would stop, but then he went back around again, like he was circling me. Since I was too afraid to move my head, all I could see was his shadow as he came to a stop in front of me again. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to look at his face. I stood tense and watched his black shoes.
He cleared his throat and refused to do anything until I looked at him. I took a deep breath and braced myself to confront the intruder. When I built up the courage to raise my eyes, I couldn’t help but gasp.
This boy was breath-taking. He was in dark jeans, a tight-fitting black shirt and an unzipped black jacket. He had dark brown hair that looked black in the shadows and it looked perfectly messy. His face was smooth and a smirk was planted on his mouth. And then there were his eyes… They were like green emeralds whose one purpose was to hypnotize any one who was unfortunate enough to get lost in them.
“It’s not polite to stare,” he said.
I had not noticed before, but his voice was like silk. He spoke in a deep British accent. I knew I had to say something back, but I focusing enough to form coherent thoughts was hard enough. I said the first thing I could think of.
“It’s not polite to sneak around in someone’s yard either,” I threw back. Wow, was that me talking? It sounded way more confident and accusing than it did in my head.
My response didn’t seem to surprise him though, he just smiled. And what a smile it was…
“Where are my manners?” He grabbed my hand without looking away from my eyes and brought it up to his mouth as if he were going to kiss it. But his touch sparked me out of the daze I was in and I pulled it away before he could. That did seem to surprise him though, and he took a step back and looked at me with a curious look on his face. He seemed to be thinking what to do next. He smirked again and took a step closer to me. Without thinking I took a step back and nearly fell into the pool. But before I could fall off the ledge he grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the water. He must have pulled harder than he meant to, because the next thing I knew I fell on him instead and knocked him to the ground. He grunted as he landed on his back.
“Oh! I’m sorry!” I climbed off of him embarrassed and held out my hand to help him up. He got up on his elbows and just looked at my hand, then at me. Why was he smiling like that?
Oh… I quickly brought my hand back to my side and blushed. Had I really just apologized to the guy who snuck into my yard while I was asleep? Did I really just try to help him?
He stayed lying like that as if this were his property and just watched for my reaction. “Don’t I get a thank you?” he joked.
“You will get a nice long ride in the back of a cop car if you don’t leave now,” I warned. He just laughed. “You think I’m kidding?” So that he would see that I was serious, I got my cell out of my pocket and opened it. An amused expression flashed across his face the he lied down with his arms behind his head. It seemed like he was daring me. I would show him.
I started to dial ‘9 -1 -…’ Before I could dial the last number, he jumped up so fast that I dropped my phone in shock. I closed my eyes and waited for something to happen… nothing. I expected to hear the phone hit the ground and for him to start yelling, but there was only silence. I opened my eyes and automatically started to look for where my phone fell (teenagers and their cells phones) but was confused when I saw it in his hand. Wow, he caught it… nice reflexes. I looked at him, hoping that I might get it back, but I was not ready when I noticed he was standing less than a foot from me now.
He smirked at my shocked expression. He quickly leaned forward and whispered “Boo.” I gasped and took a step back… into the pool.
I came to the surface gasping. That water was cold. I glared at him accusingly and waited for an explanation.
“You should have said thank you,” he said, and then bust out laughing. I wasn’t very surprised to see him laughing at me, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so warm. He laughed loudly as if he didn’t care who heard him or who it woke up, yet he seemed pretty confident that no one would. Wanting to get out of the freezing water, I climbed up the steps and stood there soaked head to toe. He laughed even harder.
The wind didn’t help; I started to shiver. “W-w-what… t-the… h-ell?!” I said, trying to stop my teeth from chattering. When he saw that, he suddenly stopped laughing. His expression… Was that concern I saw in his eyes? Why would he care? He’s basically the one that got me into this situation.
He started to walk towards me while he took off his jacket. I subconsciously started to step away from him.
“No, don’t. You will fall in again,” he said with no hint of humor in his voice. He stopped moving towards me and tossed his jacket in my direction. I purposely didn’t reach for it and let it fall.
“Now you’re just being stubborn.”
“And you’re being a creepy jerk.”
He smiled at that. “I saved your phone,” he said as he held it up for me to see.
“Oh, I almost forgot about that. I would have fallen in with it. Thank…” I stopped short. His smile grew.
“Aw, come on. You were so close.” He teased.
“What do you want?!” I spat at him.
Now it was his turn to step back. “I…” He straightened up into a composed stance and crossed his arms. He opened his mouth to speak again but right when he did, the hallway light turned on. He looked at the light, at me, then back again.
I don’t know what came over me. “Give me my phone and leave.”
Seemingly unconcerned about my parents awakening, he tossed me my phone and smiled. He casually put his hands in his pockets and walked past me towards the tree I thought he had hidden behind earlier. He managed one last stunning smile before he disappeared behind it. Just when he was out of sight, the sliding door opened.
“Ami? What are you doing out … Why are you all wet?!” my mother so elegantly put it. Great, now he knew my name.
“I…” for some reason I hesitated. I know I should have told her everything. She would comfort me and tell me everything was going to be ok. But she would also never let me out after dark again. Watching the stars while everyone was asleep was the only time I got all to myself. I loved sneaking out, if only to the back yard. And if I never went outside I would never see that boy again.
That was when I realized, I actually wanted to see him again. But that was crazy! He just trespassed on my private property, and was probably still behind that tree. My breath quickened.
“Honey??” she said worriedly.
“I’m… umm… I was sleepwalking again, and I must have fallen into the pool,” I lied. Whenever my parents caught me outside I innocently convinced them that I sleepwalked and somehow they bought it.
“Oh, not again. Come on, let’s get you inside and dried off.” She put her arm around me and started to lead me in.
“Here, I will get your jacket,” she said as she picked up the black lump on the ground. I didn’t want to even look at it for fear of me giving something away, but my mom put it around my shoulders before she walked me to the door. I followed her, acting as sleepy as possible, but before she closed the door I glanced back at the tree in time to see a flash of green and his smirk disappear behind it.
“Here are some dry clothes,” my mom said as she handed me some.
“Thanks.”
“That’s the second time this month you have been sleepwalking out there,” She stated as I was changing in my room. “Maybe we should put a lock on that door at night.”
“No!” I nearly shouted. Then realized how loud I was and hoped I hadn’t just woken up my dad. I walked out of my room and met her in the hallway. My mother gave me an incredulous look. “I mean… I won’t do it again. I just need to stop eating so much sugar before bed. It’s not necessary to spend money on an expensive lock.” I hoped she bought it.
“Alright honey, I bet it is just all that junk food you eat,” she said with a yawn. I knew she was only giving up so easily because she hadn’t had her coffee yet.
Phew. I faked a yawn. “Alright, well I’m going to go to bed now. See you in the morning,” I started to walk back to my room.
“No time, you have to get ready for school.”
“… What?” I looked out the window. The darkness was evaporating and everything was starting to turn a bluish color. It was already morning. I groaned and skulked to my room to get ready for the long day I knew it was going to be.
Getting ready took even longer than usual because I couldn’t stop thinking about that boy. Why was he there? If he was trying to rob us, I couldn’t see why he didn’t just sneak past me while I was asleep or tied me up or something if that was what he was his plan. I shivered and quickly glanced behind me when I thought of the fact that he was there while I was sleeping on the ground. I had been looking behind me all morning, thinking that he would suddenly appear there. But I knew I was just being paranoid. What were the odds of that happening?
All sorts of unanswered questions were going through my head when my mom pulled into the high school parking lot. “See you at four, sweetie.”
I said goodbye and walked sleepily to my first class- English. As soon as I stepped through the door my best friend Miki bombarded me. She was such a morning person.
“Hey, Ami! You look tired. Oh my god, guess what! Never mind, you will never guess. You won’t believe it. I don’t even believe it!”
I perked up a little so she wouldn’t think I was uninterested in her ‘always unbelievable’ news. “What is it?”
She squealed and jumped up and down. Well, somebody had a bit too much Starbucks this morning. She opened her mouth to spill her news when the bell rang and we were forced to our seats- we sat next to each other. She sighed overdramatically and started speed-writing a note for me on the side of her paper while the teacher started class.
She shoved the paper at me and I just barely made out the words ‘NEW GUY’ when the door opened.
…
I didn’t look up, thinking that it was just some kid late for class again. But then my friend poked me hard in the side and I squeaked really loud. I looked up to glare at her but she was looking the other way, towards the door. I glanced behind her and my mouth literally fell open.
“Oh that’s right,” Ms. Putnam said. “We have a new student joining us. Class this is…”
“Darren,” a smooth voice answered with a courteous smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Putnam.” He slightly bowed his head. He was about 5’6’’, 3 inches taller than me, and had his hands in his pockets and his black backpack thrown over one shoulder. He was wearing a dark blue shirt that fit him very well and casual jeans. He looked completely relaxed yet dressed up at the same time.
“Welcome to Koda High. I am sure you will love it here. Please take a seat over behind Miss Lexus.” No… she did not just say my name.
Without hesitating, he looked straight at me and smiled politely. Great. He walked over and sat down behind me. The teacher started her lesson on puritan literature and I unsuccessfully tried to relax my tense position.
Without warning he quietly leaned up to where his mouth was next to my ear and whispered, “Boo.”
…
What are you supposed to say to a guy you caught creeping around your yard at night? ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ Yeah right.
I figured I would just wing it. I would come up with something. But I couldn’t move. My brain was going into overload and I was frozen with my hands death gripping the sides of my desk. I don’t even remember breathing since he walked through the door. I decided air was a necessity and tried to focus on each breath.
I heard him lean back and grab something from his bag. It must have been paper and a pen because I soon heard him scribbling. I was surprised to notice that I could hear everything going on behind me. I looked up at the teacher giving her lecture. Her mouth was moving, but I couldn’t pay attention to anything she was saying. It was like every cell in my body was completely focused on the boy behind me. That boy… his name rang through my mind. Darren…
…
The scribbling behind me stopped. When I felt something touch by back, I squeaked louder than I had before and I jumped so high in my chair, my knees hit the bottom of the desk with a thud. Ouch. That was going to bruise.
“Something wrong Miss Lexus?” Great, the entire class was staring at me now. I could feel my face start to flush.
I kept thinking ‘What do I say? What do I say?’ But my brain had officially shut down and my mouth refused to move. I resigned with just putting my head down on the table.
“Miss Lexus?” Ms. Putnam persisted with more annoyance in her tone than concern.
Miki saved me from further questioning. “She must not be feeling well. Maybe she should go see the nurse.”
“Is this true Miss Lexus?” For the record, I hated being called by my last name.
Miki nudged my arm when I didn’t answer. I just wanted to get out of that room as soon as possible, so I went along with it and groaned in response.
“Fine, if you must. Just try not to be gone too long. And take someone along with you to be safe.” She wanted me out of there too; I was being too much of a distraction.
“I will take her.”
…