The Pros & Cons of Breathing

"Argus Melpomene is a very handsome, smart man." Christina sighed; she always did like them older.

"Not to mention rich beyond belief!" Jessica giggled, while throwing some popcorn at Christina.

Jessica and Christina were sleeping over at Sarah's house. They had already scrambled into their PJ's, unrolled their sleeping bags, and turned the TV on to the News Channel where they were busy interviewing Argus Melpomene for the thirty seventh time.

"Thank god he was born in this nation. He has truly saved us." Sarah murmured.

It had been about a three months since his amazing miracle formula. He had promised to announce another discovery soon. A discovery of what, no one could be sure.

Jessica suddenly had a gleam in her eye, "Christina ... Truth or dare?"

Christina sighed, "Truth, I don't trust you!"
Jessica pouted a little but then cheered up when a thought hit her, "Well Christina ... What is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done to get a guy?"

Sarah stifled a giggle, by shoving her face into a pillow.

Christina flushed a pretty pink and stuttered, "There was this guy at my old school who loved basketball. He was in my P.E. class and one day we all had to play basketball. Somehow my old friends convinced me to go and actually play and try to do a slam dunk for him. And well, I gotta admit I was doing well against the boys and suddenly I got the ball right next to the basket. So I jumped and managed to do the slam dunk."

"Oh that's nothing!" Sarah laughed.

"Yeah well, when that guy had been convinced to just come up and give me a hug by his friends and I happen to jump up to do a slam dunk, it doesn't end well. He ended up grabbing my shorts as I went up and pulled them down!" Christina squealed.

Sarah and Jessica burst out laughing.
And that's how it went for a little.
Innocent, funny confessions and an occasional hilarious prank.
Until Sarah decided she'd do a dare.

Jessica eyed Christina, Christina eyed Jessica.
"I dare you to find this mystery 'Aedan' and ask for his number after holding a conversation with him that is full of flirting." Christina smirked.

"B-but, oh my god, how will you know if I did it or not?" Sarah said fast, thinking she found a loophole.
"We'll be near distra-talking to his friends." Jessica grinned.

Sarah groaned, just imagining how it would go down gave her the jitters but, she was quickly smacked on the hand by both Christina and Jessica who were busy gawking at the TV.

"Look, look, he's on!"
"Oh my gawd, he is soo fine!"
"Is that a cashmere sweater?!"
"His eyes are gorgeous!"
"Shut up! I can't even hear the TV!" Sarah managed to quiet them down to hear that Argus Melpomene was announcing his latest miracle.

"Fellow Americans, I know that I have personally been tired of how illegal immigrants have been taking employment opportunities and financial aid opportunities. Not only has that been happening, but the amount of aliens in our country has added a severe security risk. Any terrorists or criminals could and probably are residing in the US and we wouldn't know it. My proposal is to give every single registered American an identification card that can be put on the back of the Driver's License once received. The ID would have a special security code that can be read by a computer laser to see if this person is a registered American. And it would be quite obvious if you are not registered for you would not have an ID."

He was then swamped by reporters all asking questions at the same time.

"Wow, I wonder when we'll be getting them." Sarah mused out loud. "Anyway, Jessica ... Truth or dare?"

And so it went on until they were all giggled out.
All three girls collapsed onto their sleeping bags and fell asleep almost immediately.

==================================

The next morning they awoke to the smell of blueberry muffins coming out of the oven.
They scrambled up the stairs and practically wrestled muffins from each other, all the while thanks Sarah's mom for the wonderful food.

Finally, after stuffing their faces, they all got ready for school.
[It had been a Sunday to Monday sleepover.]

Christina drove them there and they all went in and hung out with friends until the five minute bell rang.

Sarah had to push her way through the hallway; equally being shoved and shoving others out of the way, with her books in her arms.

Suddenly, they scattered.
All of her books, folders, papers flew out in the hallway.

Sarah groaned while quickly trying to gather up her things as fast as possible before class starts. She's never been tardy in her life, even though Christina and Jessica keep trying to get her to skip once in a while, and she wasn't about to start now.

She felt like she was reaching for seventeen things at once, when her hand brushed something that was not of paper material.
She flinched her hand back and eyes the hand she had touched.
Following it up with her eyes, she was soon looking into the blue eyes of Aedan.

"Didn't mean to scare ya, love." Aedan said, with his British accent.
Sarah only managed to smile briefly before beginning to pick it all up once again, but only faster.

She finally got it all together and scrambled up to her feet.
Aedan stood up also and said, "See ya, love." The he walked past her, and turned down a hallway.

Sarah continued to stand there, but whirled around and practically hollered, "Thanks!"

She flushed when she only saw the Janitor standing and staring at her as if she needed to be in a straight jacket.

Sarah then managed to get into her classroom just as the bell rang.
As the day wore on, Sarah was constantly reminded about Aedan from both Christina and Jessica. Sarah couldn't even concentrate on any of her classwork.

Finally, the announcements were cut short by the last bell ringing. Sarah was jolted awake from her daydreams of, none other than, Aedan. She quickly grabbed her books and followed the rest of her class into the teenager filled hallways.

She had already been to locker, drudged out her backpack, filled it up, and was walking out of the school when she saw both Christina and Jessica talking to three boys, one was very familiar.

She was just going to walk up to them when a hand grabbed her arm and spun her around.
“Hey there beautiful.” Murmured Crisis Chris, today a romantic Italian.
“Uhm hi.” Sarah managed to sound out.
“Y’know, I can please a woman.” He murmured again, twitching an eyebrow up as if insinuating something.
“Then can you please leave me alone?” Sarah responded while trying to loosen his grip.
“I’d like to call you sometime. What’s your number?” He tried again, saying it with an Italian accent.
“Uh, it’s in the phone book.” Sarah said while looking for her friends to help her.
“Bu-but I don’t know your last name.” Crisis Chris sputtered, clearly not expecting anything but your cellphone number.
“It’s in the phone book, too. I have to go Chris. Bye.” Sarah pulled her arm out of his grasp, and pushed past him.

Jessica called you over to where her, Christina and two of Aedan’s friends were standing. And Sarah came up grumbling, “Gah, why is he so persistent?”
“Maybe because he truly likes you.” One of Aedan’s friends said.
“Yeah, but could he be less freaky about it?” Sarah responded.
“I don’t think that’s possible for him.” Christina giggled and Sarah rolled her eyes.
“What’s not possible for who?” Aedan walked up.

“Oh, uhm, well … Chris came around again.” Sarsh flushed and looked down at her feet.
“Well, what did he say this time?” Aedan sighed, not noticing her flush.
“He asked for my number after saying he could please a woman.” Sarah mumbled.
For a second, the three boys stood there staring at you. And then the laughter began. It took quite awhile for it to die down during which Sarah was beet red.

“Sorry, love. But him? Pleasing a woman? I should think not.” Aedan said while wrapping an arm around her shoulders and giving her shoulders a squeeze.
“And anyway he shouldn’t ask for your number like that.” He went on to say.
Seeing it as her chance, Sarah asked, “Oh? And how would you go about asking for my number?”
Aedan looked at her for a second and then said, “Well first, I’d ask around the time she had to go; it would make it easier. Then right before she does go ask, ‘Hey, Sarah, I don’t want to hold you up so, if you give me your number we can text or chat later.’ And then, hopefully, if all goes well, Miss Sarah here would give me her number.”

That then prompted the other two boys to say how they would go about it. Which then led to cheesy pick up lines. They had talked for about an hour when Christina checked the time and said, “Hey, y’know, I got to get to work. Get in the car, we’re leaving.”

As everyone was turning away, Sarah felt her arm grabbed again and she spun coming face to face with Aedan.

“Hey, Sarah, I don’t want to hold you up so, if you give me your number we can text or chat later.” Aedan grinned, and handed her a pen and stretched his hand out.
Sarah smiled and clumsily said something stupid and quickly wrote her number on his palm.

She was jerked back to reality by Christina hollering, “C’mon Sarah! You can moon over him later; let’s go!” Sarah rolled her eyes said another goodbye and turned and wrenched the door open and got in the car.