I didn’t know what it was that was keeping me awake for so long. Lying here for hours trying to figure out that question had worn on me, and now I was just frustrated. I was physically tired, having gone for a long run, and doing some dry land training at home, but for some reason that wasn’t enough to put me to sleep. I tried counting sheep, getting to 1,546 before getting too bored to continue. I decided to just get up and read a book downstairs, as lying here and wising I was asleep was a waste of time. I got out of bed and pulled on some pyjama pants and quietly crept out of my room, trying to keep quiet as I crept past my parents room, which was hard for a guy my size. At 6’5 and 220 pounds I wasn’t a small guy, and sometimes keeping quiet while moving around was a struggle for me. But tonight I managed to make it to the kitchen without alerting the parental figures, and closed the kitchen door, which would allow more freedom in my movements. I stretched and tried to figure out something to do as reading suddenly didn’t really appeal to me anymore. I decided to go on my laptop and play some computer games. After about 30 minutes I got bored and quickly checked my emails, seeing a couple from friends and a few from facebook before going back up to bed. One of the emails was from a close friend who happened to be one of the most attractive females I have ever seen. At around 5’10 and 136 pounds, Brooke was incredibly slim. Not only that, she worked out regularly, so she was toned and fit. I had been her close friend since we had moved in close to each other around 6 years ago, and we attended the same high school together and walked to and from high school together every day. The email was about back and forth chit chat and after firing off a quick reply I went back to sleep.
My alarm started to blare at me in what seemed like an ungodly hour in the morning. Rolled over and sort of sleepily whacked it till it shut off, and then went back to sleep. This lasted about 5 minutes until my mother came in and woke me up. I shuffled through my morning routine of breakfast and shower and doing whatever till the time came to walk next door to meet Brooke. This was the best part of my day, as she was always wide awake in the morning and managed to wake me up before school. I walked out of my yard and along the side walk till I was at her front gate. It was cold this morning, and being winter and snowy, there was a lot of snow on the ground. I rang the door bell and waited for a bit before ringing it again. No one answered and as I was about to ring it again, a snowball hit me in the side of the head.
“What the-“
I heard laughing and smiled as Brooke smiled and waved.
“Hey dude” she said “how’s it going?”
Trying to pull off the pissed routine I replied “Bad now”
“You can’t pull that on me Paul. I know you too well”
“Damn it” I laughed.
We started to walk to school and on the way there Brooke did most of the talking as usual. I didn’t mind because I enjoyed listening to her, and today was no different. We got to school and headed our separate ways to our lockers. Mine was near my first class so I just threw my coat and stuff into it and sauntered over to the door way. I almost made it before my best friend Steve jumped on my back and started to choke me. I gasped for air for a bit and almost fell over before he let go.
“I’m like a ninja!” He loudly exclaimed. “you good bro?”
I raised a hand for a high five and he smacked it. “That was a good one. Didn’t hear you coming at all”
“I know right. So listen, my parents are letting Rachel and I have the cabin for the weekend. I was wondering if you wanted to come too.”
“Sure man. That sounds sick”
“Yeah man. You can bring someone too if you want, or I can ask Rachel to bring up a friend for you.”
“I’ll get back to you on that. This is gonna be sick. How did you get your parents to agree to this?”
“I told them it was only going to be you, me and Ronnie, but Ronnie’s away so I’m gonna take you and Rachel instead.”
“Thanks man”
“No problem”
We headed into class and grabbed seats beside each other, pretty much talking the whole time. The rest of the day went by fast, talking to friends, and having the few excellent classes with Brooke, and by the time the day was over, I was feeling wide awake. I met Brooke in front of the school and we started to walk home. We started to talk and about halfway home I had to ask her.
“Hey Brooke?”
“Yeah?”
“I was wondering. Steve and Rachel are going to Steve cabin for the weekend and I’ve been invited along and I was wondering if you wanted to come with us for the weekend?”
She slowed down a bit and looked at me.
“Really?”
“Yeah”
“Of course I’ll go with you! I’ve been waiting for you to ask me out for so long!”
This took me back a bit as Brooke had never indicated any interest in me ever.
“Really?”
“Yes! Since we moved in next door”
“Wow. But you’ve never shown any interest or anything”
“Well” she moved closer to me and kind of pressed up against me, “How’s this for interest?”
With that she kissed me, softly, and held it for about five seconds before moving away. I was kind of standing there, frozen, and looking at her. She winked and said “This weekend’s going to be fun!”