There's No Snow in Southern California

Who knew it could be so hard to walk across a lawn to your neighbor's house? It took me over ten minutes just to get to the Jonas home. And they live, what? A hundred feet from my own house? Well, its a lot harder than you think when tears are streaming down your face and blinding you. And when its pitch dark out and you can't see shit.

As I turned the corner, their front steps came into view. In a haze, I realized that I had never even been to their house, or even seen it, since we moved to California a few months ago. I walked that last few feet up the walkway and climbed the steps to their front door.

Should I knock or use the doorbell? Knock...doorbell...knock...doorbell... I settled on using both.

After about five minutes I could hear someone running down what I could only assume was stairs. A cold wind started to blow, making my hair go crazy. But you know what, thats the least of my worries right now.

As I was shivering, Nick opened the door. He had on a white wife-beater and plaid pajama pants. If I hadn't been in such a state I would've noticed the muscles attached to his arms.

"Kaden! What's wrong?" He immediately asked, pulling me inside out of the cold. I just shook my head, sobbing a little harder. "Uh..."

Nick was obviously uncomfortable, we weren't that close. And definitely not so close that he wouldn't mind if I cried all over him. There was some shuffling upstairs...I hope I wasn't waking anyone.

"Here, uh, why don't you just sit down for a second?" Nick said, leading me to the couch. As I sat, he grabbed me a box of tissues, and there were definite footsteps coming down the stairs.

As I blew my nose, someone shouted my name. I looked up and saw Joe running towards me. He too had on pajama pants, these ones covered in superhero logos rather than being plaid. But instead of a wife-beater, he was shirtless. He kind of has some nice abs...

"Kaden! What's wrong?" Joe exclaimed, sitting next to me on the couch and pulling me into a hug. All I could do was shake my head, my sobbing growing worse. How could I even begin to explain to him what happened?

"Okay, okay, don't worry about it. You can tell me later when you've calmed down. Shh, shh." He said quietly, brushing my hair with his fingers. I nodded, trying to take deep breaths.

Joe and I sat there for a long time, an hour at least, until I passed out.