Just One Favour

7

"Brennan! Brennan! Wake up"
"Go away Katie", I groan and roll over.
"Breakfast is ready, you have to get ready for school", she says.

I can't believe it's the next day already. I wish I could sleep for years and never wake up.

I groan and get out of bed and put on some casual clothes. I don't feel like dressing up for school after what happened last night.

I go into the kitchen and notice that Annie isn't there. She must still be asleep.

"Brennan, can you go downstairs and get Annie up?", mum asks me.
"Ugh why me!?", I argue back.
"Because I asked you!", she yells.

I groan as I get out of my seat and head downstairs.

I knock on her bedroom door.

"Annie"

No reply.

I knock once more.

"Annie"

No reply again. She must be asleep. I knock once more before heading into her room.

She's not in her bed, so I look in the closet. She's not there. I turn my head to the left and the door is wide open.

She's made a run for it.

I run past all her used tissues on the ground and out the door. There are footsteps in the muddy ground running towards the dock. Our row boat is missing.

I run to the dock and look down the lake to see if I can see her anywhere. No sign of her anywhere.

Great.

Then I notice a little row boat, just up the lake. That's her.

I take off my sweatshirt and jump into the water. It's freezing but swimming is the only way I'm going to get to her. Thankfully I used to be a competitive swimmer.

I start swimming, taking breaks regularly. She's getting further and further away. But if I swim my hardest I can make it.

I decide that I'm not going to stop for rests, I'm just going to keep swimming. Like I'm swimming in a really long competition. I swim and swim and I'm getting closer and closer to the boat.

I grab the end of the boat and pull myself up.

"Annie", I say.
She screams", Brennan!", as she just about jumps out of the boat.
"Oh my gosh you look so cold, here have my jacket", she wraps her jacket around me. Then turns her back so she is looking away fro me.

"What are you doing here", she asks, sniffling a bit.
"I went to get you for breakfast and you weren't in your room, and I couldn't let you be out here on your own", I say.
"Wow, Brennan actually has a heart?", she replies.
"I know what I tried to do last night was really bad and I'm really really so-" she interrupts me.
"And he is apologetic to!", she says sarcastically.
"Please just turn this boat around and get us back to the dock", I say.
She turns to look at me and she nods.

She turns it around and starts rowing back to shore.

"Here let me row for you", I say while trying to take the ores out of her hand.
"No no it's fine, your wet and you actually risked getting wet to come and get me, it's the least I can do", she says.

I smile.

"And you can smile too!", she says chuckling.
"Not many people get to see it, consider yourself lucky", I say.

She smiles.

I pull out a smoke and start to smoke it.

"Can you ever go a day without smoking?", she chuckles.
"Nope", I laugh along with her.