So the Story Goes

It was a dark stormy night, perfect Halloween weather, though Halloween was days away. All kids would have trouble going to sleep tonight because they'd be frightened of the shadows being cast upon their windows only to be found out later that it was a tree branch swaying in the wind. The rain was not yet falling, but the huge gusts of wind indicated that it was not far off. The full moon was peeking out of the shapeless clouds.

It was around midnight and I was walking home from a friend's house, thankful that I was to be home in a few short minutes. Suddenly, I heard hurried footsteps behind me. I checked back to see who was in such a rush, but no one was there.

It was a leaf, I thought, fluttering across the sidewalk due to this horrible wind But when I turned around and continued my route home, the footsteps sounded again.

I busied myself with thoughts of why someone wouldn’t want to be seen by me, but was in hurry.

Hmm... maybe it was that girl I beat up in fifth grade, Martha Clide... No, she moved to North Carolina in eighth grade. Maybe it was Rhonda. She always loved to scare the crap out of me...

As I considered the endless possibilities, I failed to notice that the footsteps had quickened. It was my heartbeat that brought me back to my reality.

I dared not to look back. If possible, my pulse accelerated.

Keep calm Madison. They'll pass you up, and nothing will happen. As soon as this thought appeared in my head, a hand was forced over my mouth and the other hand was pulling down on my brunette hair.

I collapsed on the ground on my knees, scraping them slightly.

The person whispered in my ear.

"This little girl was alone in the world, till she found a way to get a fix for free..."

His grasp loosened and I broke free, realizing who it was.

"RYLAND BLACKITON!!! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU! YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!!!!" I screamed down at him, my face scrunched up and eyes wide.

He stood up and replied, "Haven't you heard? It's my job, but not normally by scaring people. Girls usually swoon and sigh, then have a heart attack. You're just special I guess." He grinned widely.

Though I knew what he was saying was true metaphorically, I refused to comply.

"This may sound a bit odd," he added, "but do you think I could try the heart attack thing again?"

He pushed an escaped strand of hair out of my face and pushed it behind my ear. When he achieved this, he kept his hand just below my ear, wrapping his fingers around the back of my jaw line.

I could feel the rain start to drizzle, and I could see a flash of lightning light up the sky directly behind him.

Ryland looked into my eyes, then back at my lips, back at my eyes, then my lips again. Thunder rolled in the darkness. He leaned in, and...

BEEP BEEP BEEP

I woke up to the sound of my alarm. Dammit! I thought to myself.

Ryland was my best guy friend; talked about everything from who should lose some weight, and who should really gain some, who's hot and who's not. Of course I never mentioned that he was my eye candy, and the fairest of the land in Snow White terms.

But my small obsession was unknown by him, and as long as I was concerned, it would stay that way. Unless of course he decided that he felt the same way, which was unlikely.

A few days after my dream, Halloween, my best friend Holly was throwing a party. Everything imaginable had gone wrong. Everyone, except me, Holly, and few others, were all but drunk off their asses.

The party was over and the house was still a good two hours away from being clean. The girls decided to circle up and make use of themselves, besides those who had already supplied themselves with a high school life-time of embarrassment by dancing on tables or losing their virginity to some jerk.

We started cleaning up after everyone left; picking up cups, unstitching people sewn together at the lips.

One of the few sane people left was Ryland Blackinton, my long-time crush, as you can tell from my dream. At the moment he was helping out some poor girl get some clean clothes. Some inconsiderate idiot had decided he couldn’t wait to get to the toilet to dispose of his half digested dinner and wrong choice of alcoholic beverage that had been upsetting his stomach that night.

Ryland was as dressed as himself, a gorgeous prince charming of his own sort.

I, on the other hand, was dressed as a homeless person. How original, right? It was just another clue that Ryland and I were perfect opposites. Just not meant to be.

Holly was dressed as a vampire, though the only blood she was going to suck was her own from her lip that she had been biting to keep herself from exploding with anxiety.

Seeing Holly in her current state of nervousness, I rushed to help her pick up the cups strewn across the house. I grabbed a large black garbage bag from the kitchen counter and started picking up the cups around her while whispering positive comments to her.

"My parents... are going... to kill... me", she said gasping for air. Of course her parents wouldn't have allowed her to throw a party, hence the reason it took place. I reminded her that everything would be okay and that her parents weren't following the usual script in coming home the next morning. They would be home sometime next week and everything would be clean as a whistle by then.

This calmed her down some; well at least her breathing wasn't as raspy as it had been. She picked up her garbage bag again and was soon off to cleaning once more.

When the cups, plates and random spaces where vomit had been were cleaned up, Holly and I and a few other girls all grabbed a garbage bag and proceeded out back. By the time I was up, only two bags were left, so I decided to grab them both.

I soon found out that two bags was a bad idea. It was only a matter of time until I-. I was suddenly stumbling around to regain my balance, but to no avail. Yea, like I was saying, until I ran into something... A warm familiar hand appeared in front of my face as I tried to get up, mumbling my apologies.

"No problem, happens all the time", said the angelic voice.

I hadn't realized who had helped me up. All I could conjure up was a giggle and a small smile. I stared at him stupidly until the grin turned to a confused expression.

"Uh, want me to grab a bag from you?"

"Umm sure, yea." I fumbled around for the bags while my eyes never left contact with his.

I asked him if he had enjoyed his night and he had for the most part. He'd danced with all the girls, making them swoon and sigh, I'm sure. He'd avoided being peer pressured into doing something he knew he'd regret.

When we reached out back, everyone had already made it inside. We dropped off our garbage bags in the dumpster and started making our way back.

On the way back I started listing the things I hadn't really noticed about Ryland. I realized that he used a lot of hand gestures when he talked because I noticed the absence in them while he was holding the bag. He also annunciated his words perfectly. His eyes would widen as he exaggerated things and how big they seemed to be.

He started telling me how Andrew Bower stumbled over some couple making out on the ground, then ended up making out with the girl after the guy ran off. This apparently had made his night.

I asked how Gabe and the guys were, and I guess they ditched him halfway through the night for their next one night stands.

"You know what?" he asked.

"What?" I replied.

"There was one thing I hadn't done tonight." He said. I starred at him expectantly.

He reached out and grabbed my waist, pulling me closer to him.

"I just observed that I had yet to dance with you. Why hadn't you pointed that out when I said I'd danced with every girl here?"

"I don’t know. Slipped my mind I guess..." I trailed off. In reality, that was the exact comment that roamed through my head when he had said that.

He started swaying back and forth, grabbing my hand and holding it up about neck height.

He pulled me even closer to him and whispered in my ear.

"I came here to make you dance tonight. I don't care about my guilty pleasures for you..." he sang.

When our little scene was over, everyone walked into the room saying their goodbyes.

Ryland and I were the last ones to leave. He walked me out to my car, and I noticed that the weather had a familiar feeling.

The wind was blowing hard, the lightning was like a strobe light, and the thunder rolled. A full moon hid, slightly giving away its position by the light streaming out from the clouds.

I looked back to Ryland who had an unfamiliar look in his eye.

"What's wrong?" I asked. I waved my hand in front of his face. "Helllloooo. Ryland. Ya in there?"

He blinked rapidly and shook his head, snapping out of his trance.

"Sorry,", he said, " This just reminds me of a dream I had the other night. The weather is almost identical to it. Kinda freaked me out for a sec."

"Really? A dream? How'd it go?" I was curious now. There was no way he had the same dream as me. Or did he?

"I was walking home, saw you, followed you a bit, and scared the living crap out of you while doing it. "he paused laughing a bit, "then we..."

"Then we what?" This couldn't be happening...

"Well we were about to do this..." He leaned in and his lips touched mine. Instant fire began, blazing through out bodies. It was like we were both shocked by the lightning brightening the sky. The thunder rolled as did our lips in unison.

He separated us.

"But then I woke up... Could you uh, pinch me? You know, just to make sure that was real?"

I reached over and pinched his arm. I was having a hard time believing it too.

"OUCH!" he exclaimed. "Not that hard! Kiss it make it better!" he demanded as he pointed to his shoulder where I had pinched him.

As I leaned in, he moved his head to the spot and our lips attached once more. It began to pour.

Now that is what I call a dream come true.