A Dream by Noon.

Chapter 8

About last night.

Everything was still so quiet, and so back to normal. The rush of the party had died down. The smell of smoke dissipated. I stared out the window at the cans across the lawn, lights that were hanging from trees, and tipped over decorations. We would all gather and clean up later, but for now, everybody was recovering. My parents and most of their friends from hangovers, and everyone from being up so late. I still felt a buzz from last night and wondered if it were possibly still the alcohol or if it was something else.

It felt as if two days ago nothing made sense, and today... well, it's not that everything makes sense, I guess it's just that I don't care whether it does or not, because the world's problems weren't mine right now. I decided if I could just stay in that field next to him, things might just be okay. I knew that wasn't realistic, wasn't the way things worked but the high I felt was misleading me to feel otherwise.

I pulled on some sweatpants and changed out of my sweatshirt and into a clean tee that didn't smell like smoke and hopped back into bed and stared up at nothing in particular.

It was past noon before anyone started making their way outside. I sat on the back steps to the deck, sipping hot tea, staring at the trees as they swayed back and forth, looking at the quiet houses on each side, waiting. Slowly, people began to trickle out. I heard the coffee pot inside, signaling my parents were gearing up to get to work on cleanup. The ticking of bike gears signaled Andy was approaching seconds before he pulled up, and then sat next to me on the deck steps.

"Heyyy" he said, nodding with a smile that signaled we had some sort of private joke between the two of us.

I looked back at him with my eyes narrowed and my head tilted, letting him know that we did not.

"Hi Sam." I said, taking a sip of my tea.

"What time did you get back last night?" he asked.

I paused, not sure if I should answer him or not. "I didn't. I may or may not have fallen asleep in the field. I got back this morning." I told him, keeping my voice low to avoid my parents hearing me.

He looked at me, now even more interested, as Jason now approached and sat next to Andy.

"Did you hear Dani didn't get home until this morning?" he asked Jason.

"Um. Yep! I woke up to Dana shaking me awake asking where she was, followed by Mrs. Mourey having a hard attack before this one wandered back in through the woods." Jason said, shaking his head as he opened a bottle of blue Gatorade in his hands.

Andy almost giggled at that. "So...." he hesitated. "Sleep okay?" he asked, still giggling as if he were 3.

"Yes, actually I did." I answered.

"What about you guys? I miss anything?" I asked them both.

Jared finished a big sip of Gatorade and then passed the bottle to Sam while he bent down and tied his sneakers.

"Actually, yes. Your hot friends stopped by." Sam said.

"No they didn't. Did they??" I asked, suddenly feeling my heart race for a moment. I looked at both their faces to see if they were joking. Jared nodded as Sam continued. "They sure did. Not long after you left actually."

"What did you tell them?" I asked.

Jason answered for him. "We told them we didn't know where you were, but Kevin's big-mouthed friend said, 'I do – she just walked down to the field with some boy.'

"I'll be hearing about that tomorrow."

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Must be nice to be a boy." I said, rolling my eyes at him.