Stay With Them Tonight

It was Friday, the second weekend of September, and I was sitting in the Luces’ living room. Mr. and Mrs. Luce were just about to leave for their wedding anniversary trip.

Lucky them, they were going to a vacation house on a private island off the coast, which my parent’s friends had lent to them for the weekend. I remember going there when I was eight, and it was this huge bungalow-type house on the beach, hammocks (multiple) swinging from the trees and a stream running through the tiny island. There were a million bedrooms (or at least my eight-year-old memory thought so) and glass walls on every side of the building. The people who owned it were extravagant and loved the idea of a personal island more than the actual island- they hardly ever went there. The island was small, really just a few trees, the house, and beach on all sides. There were neighboring islands, close enough that if you threw a rock hard enough it might reach their shores.

I had stepped on something in the sand that pinched me on the first day we were there, and spent the whole week we stayed constantly watching my steps. Cass had loved the water, while I had loved the sandcastles.

“Be good, honey.” Mrs. Luce said to Jason, giving him a tight squeeze before moving on to Danny.

“Now, don’t you make trouble for Allie, young man.” She said, kissing both of his chubby cheeks. He made a “yuck” face, wiping them off, and we all laughed at him. He had just started to dislike girls, and now kept a distance of one foot or more from me at all times, except when he forgot I had “cooties.”

Finally, Mrs. Luce got to Ryan and gave him the same hug she gave Jason as her husband went along behind and said goodbye. Mrs. Luce came up and gave me a hug, too, giving me money to take Danny places and in case I had to order in food or something. She also slipped me a piece of paper with her cell (which might or might not work on the island) and the number for the closest emergency room.

I saw her husband chuckle before he urged her out the door. We waved, like good little kids, from the front window as they drove off.

“Finally,” Jason muttered.

I checked the time on my phone and gasped. “Ryan! Go up and get changed! Hurry! You’re supposed to pick Kelly up in ten minutes!” I said, literally pushing him up the stairs while he laughed.

“I’m not a girl who takes hours to get ready!” he said playfully. I hit his shoulder blade, hardly pausing in pushing him towards his room.

“Sh. Less talking, more changing. Nice clothes. Axe or something.” I pushed him into his room, locked the door (from the inside) and pulled it closed. Despite what he had acted like, I heard him hurriedly moving things around in his closet and smiled. I clapped my hands together and practically danced downstairs.

“Tell him I went to the store!” I told Jason, grabbing a light jacket from the pile of my stuff on the living room floor and went outside.

I ran down the street, and was looking for a hiding place when I saw a tree in Kelly’s neighbor’s yard with low branches. I climbed it quickly and heard someone coming. I looked over my shoulder to see Danny and Jason strolling down the street. I was hidden about halfway up the leafy tree, legs dangling and my back to the trunk on a thick branch.

“What are you doing?” Jason called up to me. Danny started climbing up to me, and I rolled my eyes at Jason.

“Sh! You don’t have time to go back, just get up here!” I motioned with my hands and he started climbing, too. Danny met me and climbed just a bit higher, settling down on a branch just above me.

“Move over.” Jason said. I huffed and moved forward, too intent on the Kelly’s house to care. He sat facing the street behind me.

“Not that far!” He said suddenly, pulling me back a bit. I had started going towards the thinner part of the branch without even noticing.

“Okay, okay.” I said, scooting backward until I was just a few inches in front of Jason, throwing both legs over to sit sideways. Jason and I sat side-by-side, Danny above us and fireflies just starting to glow around us.

“He’s getting in his car!” I whispered excitedly. I saw Jason raise an eyebrow but ignored him, grinning as Ryan drove towards us. The tree was leafy enough where unless you were right under us you couldn’t really see us, but not dense enough that it blocked our view.

Ryan pulled up in front of Kelly’s house and walked up to the door, knocking.

“He forgot there was a doorbell,” I laughed quietly.

“Or, he just felt like knocking,” Jason countered.

“No, he forgot it was there.” I said positively, bumping my shoulder against his to prove my point.

“He prefers knocking,” Jason said, bumping me back.

“He forgot.” I laughed, until Danny stopped me with a “Sh!” and my attention quickly returned to the scene before us. Kelly came out, dressed in a blue shirt and black skirt (that I had helped pick out), her hair down and curly. Ryan had picked out a nice shirt and jeans, looking formal and not at the same time.

I wished I had picked a better spot to hide so I could hear more, but all I knew for sure is that Kelly’s mom came out to talk to Ryan for a minute (they had already met) before she went back inside and closed the door. Ryan stuck his hands in his pockets and grinned, making some joke by the looks of it.

“They’re so cute,” I cooed. Jason looked at me like my brain had just fallen on the ground. I could tell Kelly was nervous, but as they climbed in the car she sat back and relaxed, Ryan making her laugh.

We watched them drive off, but I knew Jason still didn’t really get it. I felt the need to explain myself.

“Some people just go together.” They turned the corner, and were gone. “Like chemistry.” Jason studied me in the dim fading light, and I realized that sounded cheesy. He didn’t say anything though, and I didn’t want to admit that I was a hopeless romantic, at least in some cases. In most other things, I was slightly cynical, but Jason didn’t need to know any of that, so I wouldn’t be the one to tell him.

I turned and felt my way down the tree, and I could hear the other two doing the same. As soon as I got down, I heard a door open. I turned to see a pregnant woman standing in the doorway, car keys in hand, as first Danny jumped down, and then Jason.

“Uh, hi.” I waved awkwardly. She just stared at us. “Sorry,” I told her, grabbing a hand of Jason and Danny each and speed-walking out of her yard. I looked back, and she was smiling broadly, and I couldn’t figure out why. I mean, we had just climbed out of her tree. I turned back and led the guys back to the house, still holding their hands.

*****

“Those eyes are so beautiful. How could I not-”

“What are you watching?” a voice interrupted Austin’s dialogue. I jumped a foot, hitting about five buttons on the controller before I finally found the pause button, and turned to see Jason standing upstairs, leaning on the railing.

“Uh, Cinderella Story,” I muttered. I had thought he was going to stay in his room, and Danny was already in bed. Earlier I had stowed away some of my favorite movies before coming over here, and made use of the DVD player. He came and sat down on the couch, on the other end. I had my feet up, and they just barely grazed his thigh.

“A chick flick?”

“Uhuh.”

“Why did you bring a chick flick to a house full of guys?”

“Because this movie has Chad Michael Murray in it.” It popped out of my mouth before I could think of it, and, as expected, he chuckled.

“I never figured you to be guy-crazy,” he commented as I started the movie again.

“I’m not.” I grinned. “Only a little.”

“Hey, that guy looks like Tyler,” Jason commented. I blushed, remembering that my Chad obsession had originally from my crush on Tyler.

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Yeah, he does.”

“Is it always going to be like this?” I asked.

“Is what always going to be like what?”

“Are we always going to fight over everything? Like kids?”

“Look at him, Allie. You can’t say that guy doesn’t look like Tyler.” He held his hand out to the TV, like “see?”

“I can say it, because he doesn’t look like him.” I replied stubbornly. He turned to look at me.

“Why do you do that!?”

“Do what?”

“Stare at me like that!” I threw my hands up.

“You make it sound like I’m a pedophile!”

“You are a pedophile!” I said, frustrated. For no reason at all, I started laughing. Once I started, Jason actually cracked a smile.

“What are you laughing at?” he asked, still smiling. It threw me off- it wasn’t his usual facial expression. I could count on one or two hands how many times I had seen him smile, and it had only been directed at me once.

“This is my favorite movie, and I’m sitting here talking about pedophiles,” I explained, shaking my head. Honestly, I couldn’t explain why it was so funny, but I couldn’t stop.

And then I realized this was the first time I had ever laughed with Jason. I had laughed in front of him, but not because of something he did, or some conversation we were having, and I had known him over a month now.

And it was unnerving, because suddenly it felt totally normal to laugh in front of him.

*****