Before I go to sleep

Chapter 2

I pulled out my novel, The Great Gatsby, and flipped it open to where I place, the photo. I carefully trace the outline of my younger brother's smile, eyes, and cheek.

I miss you, Oz. I think over and over in my head. I had the unmistakable feeling of being watched. I looked up across the courtyard and saw the boy from lunch staring at me.

He's tall with dark black hair, worn in a messy style and has eyes that are a deep crystal blue. My view of him earlier did not do justice to his good looks. His beautiful face and broad shoulders are familiar to me. His eyes lock into mine, his cheek slides up into a knowing grin. Those blue eyes are the color of the ocean on a sunny day. He turns his gaze away from me and I quickly grab my camera. Bringing the camera to my eye level I snap a quick photo of him.

I hear the honk of a car and turned my head to see it's my dad. Garu, my pet dog, took up most of the backseat, but his head was out of the window, panting heavily. I saw lots of people avoiding the car in case he jumped out. He whined softly in anticipation when he noticed me and practically squeezed half of his body out the window to get close to me. I shoved him back in, with difficulty, before joining him in the back.

When we got home, dad and mom informed me they were going out for dinner and that I was welcome to come, but I decline. I ran up the stairs with garu on my heels. Setting my bag and camera down I quickly got to work on my physics homework. I hooked up the speakers to my MP3 player, turned up the volume and played my song. As I finished the last set of problems for calculus there was a knock on the door.

"Honey, were already leaving. Dinner is in the fridge if you get hungry." My mom says poking her head into my room.

"Okay," I say looking up from the set of calculus problems.

A few minutes later I hear the front door close and the engine of their car roaring away. I opened my laptop and hooked my camera up to it. I took a deep breath as I clicked on the photo. His face immediately popped up. My eyes trace over every single contour of his face, memorizing it. The sound of garu barking stops me from ogling the photo any further.

"What is it, boy?" I say patting his head.

The sound of the home phone ringing echoed throughout the empty house. Running downstairs I pick up the phone, breathless.

"Hello," I say twirling the cord around my finger. "Um.... I'm not sure. Alright Sammy you can come over. No my parents aren't home. Okay, see you in a bit."

I place the phone back on the receiver and hurry to get some popcorn ready. Garu barked again, and then scratched at the patio doors. Laughing, I handed garu a doggie biscuit and opened the door for him. The newspaper my dad was reading from this morning is on the table and I go for it. Rolling it up I flung it a few feet to the right. He scurried after it. He ran back and growled playfully. He took off again; I guess he wanted me to follow him. He sprinted out into the yard and I ran after him. I could barely make out the gate enclosing us inside, keeping us away from the world.

"Come on, boy. Time to go inside." I said trying to call garu attention from whatever he was looking at.

"Garu, come back here. What are you looking at?" I moved closer to where he was. It wasn't more than a minute when I heard the snap of a twig. My footsteps slowed down but still I yelled for garu to come closer, I even resorted to clapping my hands.

Crack. My eyes darted to trees surrounding the gate. "Hello?" I asked uncertainly. I sounded ridiculous calling out to the trees, at nothing. I took more tentative steps toward the trees but I couldn't see a thing.