Being Shot

P h o t o #37 - Low Light

P h o t o #37 - Low Light

"I swear, he laughed so hard that all the juice in his entire juice box squirted out of his nose." Kayla told excitedly, reminiscing about the times she and her little brother were smaller. She grasped one of my living room pillows in her arms, resting her chin on the plump fabric.

Cooper picked at the fuzz on his sweatpants, obviously abashed, "Ya, well you laughed so hard you peed your pants."

Kayla stopped and looked to him, "Oh, that's right! I did, didn't I?"

I chuckled with everyone at her simple response, wondering just how my grandmother allowed for all of these people to sleep under her roof for the night without top notch supervision on her part. Honestly, never did I think there would be a day she would be so lenient with me.

After Kayla's animated suggestion, I was almost too quick to shut it down, stating that we couldn't trouble my grandmother that way. Though I did have to admit that I didn't know how well I could handle having such different people in my humble home.

She was visibly upset by this, but understood where I was coming from.

"Why don't we just ask her?" Elliot had said right afterwards, silently confusing me with his lack of usual protest. I hadn't thought that he felt too fondly towards the few times we've all slept under the same roof, so this was quite the surprise.

I thought about it for a minute, saw no reason that I could use to turn them down, then reluctantly agreed. Kayla was more than happy with my obliging.

With a quick poke in the side to my grandmother's small sleeping frame, she was up and ready for my question, which she had no problem giving her blessing to. She was always a morning person, so getting up was her forte.

"I trust that you girls won't be sleeping too close to the boys tonight, it's improper and I don't need any babies on my hands." She had said before turning her bedside table lamp off and rolling over to let her back face me, leaving me blushing at her words in the dark.

Immediately buzzing with excitement, I quietly rushed out of her room and shut the door, ran down the hall to my room, and swiftly began getting myself into my pajamas. What was a sleepover without comfy pajamas, right?

Throwing on a thin dark blue t-shirt, black pajama pants, and pink polka dot fuzzy socks, I undid my hair and let it all fall in messy curls down my back. Worrying about its frizziness was currently at the bottom of my list.

Practically skipping down the carpeted steps, I thought aimlessly. 'What if none of them have clothes to sleep in?' I wondered to myself as I reached the last step, 'Kayla could probably borrow my clothes, though I don't know if they'd fit around her, uh, chest area...and the guys...' My slight fretting trailed off once I reached the living room.

An array of sports duffle bags lay on the ground, me seeming to walk in right as the guys had just finished dressing in their own comfortable attire, that is, everyone except Elliot.

With his shirt still ever so high over his head, his entire abdomen was exposed in the low light of the tall lamp in the corner of the living room. Toned muscles clenching as he worked the fabric of the basic grey t-shirt around his tan arms, then pulling it down over his chest.

My eyes ogled for only a second, the other three boys staring back at me  equally shocked, before I spun on my heal and turned my back to them.

"Where...Where's Kayla?" I asked awkwardly, not sure how I was to break the ice after that event.

Silence hit the back on my head like whiplash, almost knocking me over. It wasn't that I was a prude or anything, though I wasn't not going to admit that I was on the shyer side. I had had my fair share of unsettling health classes just like everyone else, so I knew what the male anatomy looked like, but this was my first time actually witnessing a man I knew shirtless besides my father.