Sunsets to Sunrises

[KENNEDY'S POV]
Soon everyone was dozed off except for myself, Maddie and Daisy who was driving. I heard Maddie yawn before she unbuckled her seat belt and climbed into the back area of the van where you could lie down. I turned my head a little and saw her take off her T-shirt and replace it with one of John’s and tug off her jeans before pulling an old blanket over herself and close her eyes. She looked to beautiful and peaceful there, her eyes tearing a little and her legs curled up over her petit chest. I closed my eyes, as well, to get some sleep, letting thoughts of how I could be with that girl in the back haunt me.

Hours later I woke from a bump on the road. I looked up into the dark to see that Daisy was now dozing in the passenger seat and John had taken his place. I rolled my neck around a bit, trying to relieve a painful cramp that was starting.

“Kenny, go lie down before you’re cramp get worse - or else you’ll play crappier than usual tomorrow,” John told me.

I stuck my tongue out at him, John smiling in return, before hoping quietly over the seats of my parent’s Suburban and into the back. Maddie was curled up into a little ball, her arms wrapped around herself, the blanket that she’d initially used bundled at the bottom of her feet. I tried my best to unfold it in the bumpy van. Eventually we hit a hole in the road and my hands slammed down on the floor, waking Maddie.

“What the hell are you doing, Kenny?” Maddie somehow quietly shrieked.

“Sorry, sorry,” I stuttered. A year later and my tongue still tied itself in knots around her. “My neck was cramping and I woke up, from a bump you know because this is an older van, well not that old, and John told me to come back here so that the bumps from the van, well the road...”

“Whoa, whoa, Kenny,” Maddie put her hand up in the air for me to stop talking. I took in a nervous swallow before looking up at her. “You’re babbling,” she said, “just untangle my blanket and go to sleep.”

Maddie lay back down and rolled onto her stomach. Whilst I unbundled her blanket I could feel her eyes all over me, causing butterflies to erupt in my abdomen. I, finally, was done with her blanket. When I handed it to her she snatched it quickly out of my hands before wrapping herself tightly in it. “You stay over there,” pointing to the opposite side of the van which she was on, “and don’t come near me.” Maddie then closed her eyes and fell into a restless sleep.

I let out a sigh before lying down and finding another old blanket to use, all my preconceived notions about Maddie liking me flying out the window. I closed my eyes, as well, and fell into a light sleep, sans cramped neck. But my light sleep was once again interrupted, this time by Maddie. She was now in the middle of the van, her blanket tossed aside, accidentally, and tiny trickles of tears running down her soft rosy cheeks.

“Maddie, Maddie,” somehow not stuttering, “are you alright?” I reached out in hopes of comforting her, but she only pulled her shaky body away from me. “Maddie?”

“Kennedy,” she said, taking a big swallow, “just..just..I don’t know. Stay on your side of the van.”

I looked at Maddie, utterly stunned.