Pillow Talk

1.

I could tell from over here that his nightmares were getting worse and worse. He was fidgeting with the light switch that was by his door. Constantly pacing around his room with only a pair of checkered red boxers on despite the fact that there was a light dusting of snow coming in and blanketing the paved streets. It had been about three months since the Nickelby's moved in. Three months since our little sleepy neighborhood had a new addition, three months since we saw the big brown boxes with words written on them like "Kitchen Utensils", "Jackson's Fishing Supplies", and "Jared's Room" all in a lazy scrawl possibly done at the last possible moment.

It had been years since there was more than one teenager in our little neighborhood on the edge of town. So when I saw a boy beating a basketball down the sidewalk with two earbuds squished into his ears playing the latest songs, I was a little confused and thought about calling the police.

"Do you happen to know who the boy dribbling a basketball was?" I stuffed a piece of lettuce in my mouth and waited for my mother to answer my question. My mother is known for being two things in our neighborhood, an avid gossiper, and a widow. Technically my father wasn't dead. But when we first moved in, everyone was asking where Mr. Mitchell was. My mother, always quick on her feet, burst into tears and said that he had died in a car accident a few months ago. She said that he was on his way back home for Valentines Day when his car got rear-ended and smashed into a tree, killing him instantly. But what really happened was my father left for a much younger woman. The woman happened to be my babysitter. Whenever you hugged her, you would get tanning spray all over your clothes, her boobs would hit your face so hard you thought you had to go to the hospital. But since I haven't heard from him in a couple of months, he was as good as dead in my eyes.

"Don't stuff your mouth, Elizabeth, it's unladylike. And his name is Jared, plays basketball and is planning on playing for the school's team. And he moved here because his father got a work transfer downtown at an insurance company." My mother put a piece of lettuce in her mouth and waved her fork at me, "I don't think it's a good idea to talk to him. I mean, he's a little strange. I never see him without those blasted earbuds in his ears. Don't talk to him."

I took my mother's advice to heart and never spoke one word to him, even at school when our sneakers were squeaking on opposite sides. I just kept my head down and walked on by. But as I was putting on my snow coat over my nightgown and my pink rain boots over my fuzzy socks, I honestly had no idea how it was going to end or how it was going to start. I carefully walked throughout my house trying to get to the front door, making sure not to walk on any of the floorboards that creak. I knew my mother was fast asleep in her king sized bed with an avocado facial on her face. But even at her age, her ears were the best I had ever seen.

I turned the doorknob and walked out of my house into the nippy December air. I looked up at the window to Jared's house and could see him looking down at me. I didn't know whether to run back inside or to rent a rocket ship and blast off this planet. But since rocket ships cost billions of dollars, and I only had the amount my father sent in the mail every week, I decided to walk the little space to the Nickleby's house. I climbed the three stairs that felt like three hundred and lightly rapped on the wooden door painted red with a loosely formed fist. Not even five seconds passed (I counted) when a shirtless and pantless Jared showed up at the door, his chest moving up and down.

"You're Elizabeth, right?"

This was the first time I had ever seen Jared up close. He's eyes were so brown they would be mistaken as black, and he could slit someone's throat with his collarbones. "And you're the boy who keeps flipping his light switch on and off." I held out my hand and he followed suit.

"I'm really sorry about that, I'm just having some trouble sleeping. I can stop, really sorry about that." Jared put down his hand and was about to close the door when I slammed my palm into it. "Sorry about that, but I think I could help you, you know? I used to have nightmares when I was younger and I found that it helped when someone was there." Jared stepped back into his house and I stepped into his house. "I'm not saying that I'm going to have sex with you, I'm not the type for that. But I heard Brittany Chen would. All I'm saying is, I'll stay with you until you fall asleep, and then I'll leave like nothing happened."