Sunspots and Raindrops

“So, how do you like our little slice of paradise?” Brendon asks as we walked.

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Las Vegas is hardly a paradise,” I comment before answering genuinely, “I’m getting used to it here one day at a time.”

Brendon understood and when he knew that I was done speaking, he looked at me. “Tell me about Chicago,” I looked at him. “I’ve never been anywhere east of Nevada. I’ve only ever gone west.”

I laughed again and marveled at how easy it was to do so when I was around Brendon. “Well, it’s basically the pole opposite of everything that Las Vegas embodies.” Brendon was quiet, waiting me to continue. “It’s a lot colder there especially around this time of year. It’s found by a massive body of water and not in the raw desert, and we trade strip clubs and casinos for museums and speak-easy’s.”

That got Brendon to laugh and I was immediately entranced by the sound. “Speak-easy’s? Most people in Vegas would only hear the ‘easy’ part of that noun.”

“If I’m ever a stripper, that’ll be my stage name and I’ll let my clients take shots off of me.” That got us both laughing.

“I’d be your best customer.” He winked at me, running his tongue over his teeth and his big lips in what he tried to play off as seductive. Blushing, I turned my attention to my feet, staying quiet because of my lack of general response. “Tell me more.” Brendon urged, changing the subject effortlessly.

We got to our block and when I got to my house, I noticed that all of the lights were out and the car was not in the driveway. I had a good feeling that the car would not be in the garage either due to the fact that the newspaper was still on the front porch.

I stopped on my front porch and dug my keys out of my backpack, glancing over the lawn to Brendon’s house. He was opening his front door just as I was unlocking mine. Smiling, he gave a small wave before disappearing inside.

Once I was inside, I went straight upstairs and tossed my belongings on the floor by my bed. Because my mom had left so early, it had been cool outside and she hadn’t thought to turn on the air conditioning. That explained why it was so extraordinarily muggy in my bedroom. I opened my window and then vegan undressing, looking forward to being out of my school outfit and into some more comfortable lounging clothes.

I had just slipping on a pair of old gray plaid pajama pants and a Cubs t-shirt when I heard a ‘pssst’.

I twirled and looked around, eyes scanning and mind reeling. I thought I was alone, but after a few moments of silence, I heard the noise against.

“Pssst…” it was coming from outside my window. I walked to it and pulled the curtains away. There, across from me, was Brendon, smiling cheekily. “I like it when you keep your window open.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “This isn’t Skin-a-Max, Brendon.” To which he winked and puckered his lips at me. “I’m closing my window now.”

“No, wait,” he exclaimed, waving a hand at me to try and get me to stop. I gave a faux huff and leaned out my window again, looking at him expectantly. “I was wondering if you’d like to come over and hang out.”

That was not what I expected. “Seriously?”

“I know we’ve only known each other for…” he looked behind him quickly. “…approximately eight hours now, but I’m bored and it seems you are too since you’re just waltzing around your room.” I hesitated, wondering if going to a boy’s house would be the right thing to do, give my situation. I also wondered what my mom would say when she got home.

“Uh…I don’t know, Brendon,” I try to weasel my way out of the invitation without having to lie or hurt his feelings.

“My mom is home, before you ask.” He blurts. “And she wants to meet the ‘new cute neighbor girl’.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Your mom thinks I’m cute?” Brendon gave a one-shoulder shrug that meant ‘she’s my mom and it’s what she does’. “Will she mind if I wear my pajamas?”

><><><

I was next door within ten minutes, knocking on Brendon’s front door and then waiting. I couldn’t help the small sputters of excitement that were spiraling around in my stomach.

This was the first time I was hanging out with someone in Las Vegas outside of school. And it felt sort of good to be getting back into the swing of being a teenager.

Footsteps hurried inside and then the front door was gone and Brendon was before me, smiling. He stepped aside and let me inside, shutting the door behind me.

“Mom!” he hollered so suddenly that I jumped slightly. His mom responded somewhere deep in the house. “We’ve got company.” He raised the pitch of his voice and it made him sound like Mrs. Doubtfire. I had to try and keep a straight face when his mom walked into the room.

“Hello there,” his mom says, walking right up to me and taking my hand. “I’m Grace. You must be Sonny?”

“Yes,” I shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.” I tried to be as polite as I could be. The last thing I wanted (or needed, for that matter) was for the parents of one of my only two friends not to like me.

She smiled and the corners of her eye wrinkled and after she dropped my hand, she said, “You’re right, Brendon,” She was looking at him with a wily grin. “She is cute.”

My cheeks were set on fire and I looked down at the carpet to keep from laughing in her face. Brendon was murmuring something to his mom and she just brushed it off before walking toward the kitchen in the other room. “You’re welcome here anytime, Sonny. Don’t mind how grumpy Brendon is constantly.”

Brendon groaned and rolled his eyes, taking my hand and leading me down a hall and up some stairs. I followed involuntarily, my feet working of their own accord, while I looked around at the house.

Then, when I looked out the nearest window, I recognized the bedroom across the way. It was mine. We were in Brendon’s bedroom.

“Sorry about the mess,” he says as he frantically threw clothes into his hamper and then straightened the blankets on his bed. “I didn’t really have time to tidy up before you got here.”

“Yeah, it was a short trip,” I say as I looked around his room. It was just as I would’ve imagined it. There were textbooks and notebooks littered on his desk which was on the opposite wall of his window. By his laptop there sat a white marker board that had ‘PRACTICE’ written on it in big red dry-erase marker. There were also stacks of CDs sitting on the other side of his laptop. There must’ve been at least thirty there.

I looked at Brendon and found he was looking right back at me, his facial expression unreadable but as soon as my eyes met his, he smiled at me.

“What do you want to do?” he asks.

“You’re the one that invited me over,” I say dismissively. “I thought you’d have something in mind.”

He scratched the back of his neck, ruffling his hair. “I didn’t exactly plan that far ahead,” I laughed at him. “But we have a pool table downstairs.”

My heart tugged when I was reminded of my dad. He’d loved playing pool too until I had my fingers hooked around the edge of the table and gotten them smashed when my dad broke the triangle.

I hadn’t realized that I had stopped moving altogether until Brendon had stepped closer to me and waved a hand in front of my eyes. “Are you alright, Sonny?”

I blinked rapidly. “Yeah, I’m just not much of a fan of pool.” There was boldfaced irony in those words. I lived in Vegas now, for God’s sake!

“I’ve got a Nintendo.” Brendon proposed, pointing to the small grey box half-heartedly, afraid that I’d shoot this down too.

But instead, I grabbed a controller and tossed the other one to him. “You’re on.”

><><><

Playing Nintendo didn’t last long after getting stuck on a level of Super Mario just half an hour after starting to play. After several tries and failures to beat the level, Brendon tossed the controller away and threw the power switch on the console. I could only laugh as he pouted on his bedroom floor, frustrated and a little embarrassed, by the looks of it.

I could really only smile at him as he ran his hands through his hair and tried to hide his pink face.

He was so mortified, in fact, that when his mom yelled from downstairs that she was, “Going to the grocery store!” and that she would, “Be back later!”, all he did was wave a hand toward his bedroom door and holler a half-hearted ‘okay’ so that she knew he’d heard her.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Brendon.” I laugh. “I know a bunch of ten-year-olds who have trouble with that level.”

That just made his face redden that much more and made me laugh that much harder.

Then, to my shock, something connected with the side of my head. Something white and soft and fluffy. I stared at Brendon with an open smile, stunned that he had just hit me with a pillow. He held the pillow to his chest like a life preserver.

“Stop laughing at me or suffer the consequences.” He raised the pillow threateningly, smirking as he had gained an upper hand.

I laughed again. “You are so not serio--…” I was cut off by the pillow hitting me in the face. I gawked at Brendon again as he laughed.

“I’m so serious!” he says before swinging the pillow toward me again. This time, however, I caught it and glared at him.

“You are a dead man.” I state. Brendon’s brown eyes shimmered and he smiled with his tongue between his teeth as I grabbed the other pillow off of his bed and swung at his head. But, expecting this, he ducked and got another good hit in before taking off out of his room and down the hall.

But I was hot on his heels with my pillow raised, ready to attack. He faced me and had his pillow risen, also poised to swing. I took a step forward and jolted, causing Brendon to jump, his arms shivering in restraint. Then, Brendon’s eyes focused on something behind me and widened with concern.

Confused, I turned to look at whatever he was looking at. But, of course, nothing was there and Brendon hit me from behind with his pillow.

By the time I had turned around again, he was halfway down the stairs. “No cheating!” I yelled as I took off after him.

“It’s smart strategy!” He hollered back and he rounded the end of the stairs and vanished into the other room.

I followed him but when I entered the living room, Brendon was no where to be seen. He wasn’t on or behind the couch or any of the furniture or the curtains. It seemed he had gone and pulled a Houdini and just vanished into thin air.

I let my arm relax and the pillow dropped to my side. However, as I tried to think about where Brendon could’ve potentially gone, silence filled the house and it was easy to hear the floorboards creak behind me.

I whirled around and raised my pillow to strike but before I could, Brendon raised his arms as well. But instead of bringing them down with his pillow along with them, he grasped my wrists and backed me up until I bumped the opposite wall of the living room.

I laughed and called him names and writhed in his clutches. “This isn’t fair!” I say through a phony whine.

Brendon gave both of my wrists a spastic but gentle twist, causing my fingers to release the pillow and let it fall to the floor. “I’m afraid life’s not fair, sweetie.”

When I realized that we were both “unarmed”, I stopped moving and just looked up at Brendon as what he had just said slowly sunk into my cerebellum. That had been all I thought for weeks after my dad died.

Hurt flickered alive in my chest and I felt tears beginning to well in my eyes. I looked away from Brendon’s face and at his chest which was at eyelevel for me instead. I blinked rapidly and the tears slowly disappeared and I found the more breathed, the better I felt.

It was Brendon’s cologne. It was like a safety blanket…

I looked back up at him, meeting his eyes again. The laughter was still there, but only barely. I could tell that he noticed a change in my mood since he last spoke and I could also tell he was toeing that fine line between being his normal light self and being a concerned friend.

I didn’t want him to have to make that decision, so I smiled at him. “I know that better than most, Bren.”

“Bren?” He repeated the nickname in question form and I looked at him oddly. “Normally I don’t like that nickname, but hearing it come from you…” His eyes trailed from mine down my face to my mouth. “I like it when you say it.”

I smiled wider than I had in quite some time.

Brendon let go of my wrists and let my hands drop to my sides, but he didn’t move away from me and that’s how I noticed just how close we were to each other. There must’ve been two inches between us, at most.

“Can I have a nickname for you, too?” he asks.

I laughed slightly. “My name is Sonny.” I say flatly. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with a nickname for me.”

Brendon pretended to be deep in thought. “Tornado.” He smirks.

“Hilarious.” I rolled my eyes.

He nodded, understanding, and raised his eyes to just above my forehead as he thought of something new. “Sunshine.” I made a face. “Sunkiss.” I quirked an eyebrow. “Sundance.”

Realizing that these nicknames probably weren’t going to get any wittier, I smiled and nodded. “I like that one.”

“Good because that one’s my favorite anyway.” Brendon was beaming.

We just kind of looked at each other for a while before Brendon raised his hand and touched my hair, twirling a strand of it around his finger. Then he dropped my hair and raised his hand to my cheek, running it down my jaw. I could only look at him.

“Sundance,” Brendon whispered and I looked at him. He looked like he wanted to say something, but that he just didn’t know how to word it correctly. He kept opening and closing his mouth, but nothing ever came out.

Then, I saw a glare on the wall behind Brendon’s head and I knew it was from my mom’s car pulling into our driveway.

“Oh my God, I have to go.” I jumped and stepped forward, bumping directly into him and causing him to clear his throat and step back. “I have to go.”

“I’m sorry if I, uh, made you uncomfortable, Sonny.” Brendon excused himself quickly.

“What?” I looked at him. He was looking extremely sorry. “Oh, no. Bren,” He smiled at the nickname again. “My mom is home and I didn’t tell her where I was going.”

Brendon turned and looked out the window and saw my mom pulling into the garage. “Oh, okay then.” I made for the door and as I pulled my shoes back on, Brendon leaned on the doorway and watched me. “Can I call you later?”

“We’ve been hanging out all day, Bren.” That nickname makes him smile every time.

“I know, but what else am I going to do tonight?” I straightened and looked at him now with both of my shoes on. “Homework? Psh, no.” He scoffed.

“Sure, you can call me tonight.” I say as I opened the door. Brendon smiled brightly and I gave a wave a mumbled a goodbye before walking out the door and darting across Brendon’s yard to my door.

But just before I was inside, Brendon hollered from his porch, “Wait! I don’t have your number.”

I grinned and gave a shrug. “Guess you’ll have to do homework after all!” I reply and I heard him groan just before I shut the front door and walked into the kitchen.