Stay With Them Tonight

Our school was so small there was only one lunch period, in which there was a mad scramble for everybody to get food from the different food places around the school or the representatives inside the school. I went to the Subway stand and bought a kids sub, loving the milk and Cheetos that came with it.

As I sat down at the table, I noticed that everyone else looked as tired as I felt; we had all gone to the Luces’ last night. When we finally left most of the neighbors’ houses were dark.

More and more often, we all hung out, and for longer and longer periods of time.

I hadn’t even noticed the time as it went by last night, and in the end Kelly convinced her mom to let Katie and I spend the night (it was already sometime after ten when she asked), while Greg slept over with Ryan and Jason. Tyler went back to his apartment somewhere around midnight, and Katie, Kelly and I went to bed just after.

Judging from the fact that Greg was already snoring softly at the end of the table and the other two guys didn’t look much better, I doubted they had gotten any sleep at all. I vaguely thought about how Katie and Greg had arrived in the same car last night, but was too tired to ask about it.

I glanced at them and reached into my bag, pulling out two Monsters and handing them to Ryan and Greg. I pushed Greg until he almost fell out of his chair before he finally woke up, and put the Monster against his face. The three of us girls had stopped and gotten eight of them this morning (four regular green and four of the new zeros), chugging down one each before we were even out of the parking lot.

When I didn’t give Jason one, he narrowed his eyes at me evilly, but this time I really had a reason to be mean. I shook my bag, showing there were no more in there and smirked at him. He dropped his head on the table dejectedly and Katie rolled her eyes and took a green one out of her bag to give to him. Katie, Kelly and I split the two remaining ones, finishing one off between us and passing around the second to the guys.

I hated Mondays.

The only good thing about this Monday was that Jason was too tired to pester me, even after downing the sugary energy drink, in PE. The worst thing about this particular Monday was that we were playing basketball. Don’t get me wrong, I love basketball. Is it good for a teen surviving on only a few hours of sleep? Not really.

Jason seemed to be one of the best guys playing, even half asleep. Not quite the best, because there was Tom. Tom was a tall guy who also captained the basketball team, and kicked everyone’s butts. Everyone incessantly teased him and complained to him, but he always took it well and even helped some people out. He had just transferred into our class from an earlier one, and all I really knew about him was that he was a charismatic guy.

I have to admit he was pretty darn hot. I met eyes with him once in the beginning of the period, and in the next hour and a half it seemed to happen more often.

We had a five-minute break in the middle of the class for water, and Jason plopped down on the stands inside against the wall next to Katie and I. We were at the very top, and he set his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. I was used to this by now- not the head-on-the-wall thing, but the fact that Jason and I stuck together in classes. It wasn’t that we liked each other, far from it, but since we had all three electives together and we hung out in the same group, it just happened.

“Hey, Jason, do you mind giving me some tips on basketball?” Some girl came up and asked. I tried to dig her name out of my memory, but failed. Jason ignored her, and after a minute I spoke.

“He was an idiot and stayed up all night,” I said by way of explanation. The girl gave me an angry look, and I gave her a “what?” look. I didn’t even know her name! I rolled my eyes as she left.

Jason groaned, moving his head to get more comfortable.

“I’m ready for a nap,” I told him and Katie, who was on my other side. I would have leaned against Katie, but after playing Basketball for forty-five minutes, I definitely didn’t want to.

“Get back down here,” Coach (who also coached some sports team here) yelled, blowing his whistle.

I groaned.

*****

“Let’s go somewhere and sleep,” I suggested to everyone.

A chorus of yeses greeted me as Katie, Jason and I slowly walked up to the group.

“My house,” was all I said, and it was met with agreement again. I looked over my shoulder and noticed Rachel staring at us. When she saw me looking at her, she quickly jerked her head around and kept walking with a Barbie. I nudged Greg, and we watched her go and exchanged looks.

*****

Everyone still had their suits stuffed in their backpacks, except for Ryan and Jason who ran to their houses quickly, and we swam again, realizing we would have to find a new group-hobby to do soon, when it got too cold to think of the pool, much less swim in it. After a while we laid by the pool on the grass, under some shade given by the huge tree between ours and the Luces’ houses.

I closed my eyes, and fell asleep instantly.

*****

“Again, Allie?” I heard someone whisper. I kept my eyes closed, trying to prolong my nap. I could still see light through my eyelids, but it was significantly dimmer than the bright afternoon sun I had fallen asleep to earlier. It was warm, and I was so tired, being someone who usually got ten hours of sleep in the typical lazy teenager fashion.

I had fallen asleep using my towel as a blanket, and I could still feel it around me, smelling of chlorine. I smiled lazily. It felt like I had gotten a billion hours of sleep, and now I was refreshed and happy.

Too lazy to let the happy feeling go away, I just stretched, hitting something, and turned. The ground didn’t stay level with me, and I jerked awake when it somehow got lower as I turned. I sat up, looking around. Kelly and Katie were playing cards at the table a few yards from me, and the guys were all still sprawled on the grass, sleeping. Greg was on my left, Ryan was over by the pool deck, and Jason was right next to me.

Jason shifted, reaching for me. I scrambled away from him, letting out a startled yelp. He opened his eyes a crack and closed them again, falling asleep again instantly.

“You’ve been pretty close to him for a while now,” Kelly laughed as I got up.

“You were cuddling when I woke up an hour ago,” Katie added. I glared and joined them at the table.

“Anything you want to tell your best friends?” Kelly asked. I saw Katie smile at the mention of being best friends, but it wasn’t something we hadn’t already known, even if it wasn’t said aloud. These people were now my best friends, even possibly Jason.

I shuddered at the thought and went over on the grass again, forcefully yanking a corner of my towel out from under Jason. He just rolled over onto his back again and didn’t twitch.

“Al?” Kelly asked me.

“Mhm?” I asked. “I play winner,” I told them. They were playing speed, and it looked like Katie had just learned (she was playing at the speed Danny would). When Kelly and I played Cali speed, it could go on forever, each of us constantly slapping down matches as quick as they could be placed.

“Allie, do you like him?” Kelly asked. I stared at her, horrified. Katie looked surprised, too.

“How could you think that!? He’s- he’s- he’sJason!” I whisper-shouted.

She held her hands up in surrender. We were far enough away that I knew if we were quiet the guys couldn’t hear us.

“So what about Ryan?” I asked. She blushed. By now, Katie knew everything that had happened with him.

“What about him?” she asked nonchalantly.

“You put that card on the wrong pile.” I told her, raising my stubborn eyebrow. She blushed harder and fixed the mistake.

She sighed, abandoning the game for a second.

“Fine. He asked me out, I said we could as friends at first, we’re going to dinner Friday.” She said in a rush. “Happy?”

I just nodded, a smile plastered to my face. She glared at me and went back to her game.

*****

Two hours later, the guys finally woke up enough (with the help of some buckets of water) to go home. It was almost six, and I hugged everyone as they left (except for Jason, who couldn’t figure out why I was being especially cold to him).

And as they all dispersed, I stared at Katie in the passenger seat of Greg’s car.