The Great Between

Wake Up, You've Got a Date

My phone rings when it's still dark and I fumble to answer before the sound wakes Max. If someone is calling this early, it must be important.

'Hello?' I whisper, my eyes still closed with sleep.

'Are you working today?' Leo asks.

Something jolts in my chest and I sit up, trying to wake myself up enough to speak coherently to him.

'Leo? What time is it? Did something happen?'

'Nothing happened,' he says.

'Then it should be illegal for you to wake someone up this early on a long weekend,' I say. My hands won't stop shaking. 'Did you wake me up just to ask if I'm working today?'

'No, I woke you up to ask if you want to meet up today.'

I wouldn't be surprised if he could hear my heartbeat through the phone. I put a hand to my chest and try to play it off calmly.

'Oh, Leo, I have some bad news for you.'

He takes a sharp breath and I bite my lip to stop from laughing at him.

'You see, there's this pandemic on and we can't just meet up whenever we want,' I joke. 'You might want to turn on the news.'

He laughs with relief and the sound loosens the tightness in my chest.

'I thought it was going to be something serious, Stella,' he says. 'And I've found a way around the whole pandemic thing.'

'Did you actually or are you just snubbing the rules?'

Leo never finds loopholes, he finds arguments. That's why his parents wanted him to stop playing basketball; he got in too many fights with the umpires.

'This will work,' he says. 'Have a little faith, Stella. You know that park near your house with the swings and nothing else?'

'I do not.'

'Well, you need to find it and meet me there at midday.'

He sounds a little frantic and I can't shake the hope that Leo has something planned. The idea blooms in the back of my mind and grows until it's the only thing I can focus on. Don't get your hopes up, Stella, I tell myself. It's probably not like that. But most of me doesn't listen. I'm already abuzz from the hope that this could be the day he tells me that he likes me.

'Is it actually near my house?' I ask, trying to push down that secret hope. 'Or is this like the gallery that was right next to Fed Square and turned out to be in Collingwood?'

'I severely underestimated how far away that was,' he admits. 'And I'm sorry we got on the wrong tram. But this park is like three streets from your house. I'll send you the location.'

'Okay,' I say. 'I'll meet you there. And Leo?'

'Yeah?'

'If you ever wake me up this early for something non-urgent again, I will get Charlie to go through your school records and delete all your exam scores so you have to redo everything from Year 9 onwards.'

'No you won't,' he says and I can hear him grinning. I picture his grey eyes shining as he smiles at me and in the moment that follows, that secret hopes wells up as I wait for him to say something more.

But all he says is, 'See you then.'

And then he hangs up.

I roll over to put my phone on my bedside table and Max's eyes gleam up at me through the weak morning light.