Out of Sight

Chapter 6

“So Cam came up with the brilliant idea to wash the bees out of the hive with a high pressure hose. Needless to say, it was not his finest moment. And then he suggests we shut the sliding glass door in case any of the bees survive and try to get into the house- second mistake of many. So we get the hose and spray the shit out of the bee hive and for a second it seems like it worked because we couldn’t hear the bees humming anymore. But then like a hundred bees came shooting out of the hive and Cam was spraying the hose everywhere so we’re getting soaked and stung simultaneously. And when I finally realize we should go inside to escape the bees, the door is locked. One emergency room visit and two weeks of grounding later, Cam and I were informed that we were never allowed to be left home alone again.”

I was laughing uncontrollably at this point. Not that this was anything new: an involuntary giggle took up permanent residence on my lips whenever I spoke to Jeremy. I had called him a few hours ago and we’d been talking ever since, asking questions and sharing random stories.

“How many times did you get stung?” I asked him once my laughter died down.

“Seventeen,” he answered; his tone somewhere in between proud and traumatized.

I shook my head in disbelief even though he couldn’t see me. Even as I called him; I had checked my appearance in the mirror. Waiting for him to pick up, I had fidgeted with my hair until it was just right even though he obviously couldn’t see me through the phone.

 I had never called a boy before, I realized earlier. I texted and Facebook messaged, but I rarely ever spoke to anyone on the phone, let alone an attractive guy. I could have just texted Jeremy, but something prompted me to actually call him.

“What time is it?” I asked him, realizing for the first time how long we had actually been on the phone for.

“Like eleven thirty,” he answered with a small laugh.

I usually went to bed at ten thirty and fell asleep by midnight, once Jamie came sneaking in. Even though it was summer, I had to keep my endurance for cross country season which meant lots of early morning runs around the loop.

As much as I didn’t want to, I knew I should wrap up the call. My parents would come barging in any minute now, questioning my late night phone conversations. Because this was definitely way more scandalous than Jamie being Lord knows where right now. Not that they had any idea she wasn’t sound asleep in her room with a cold.

I hadn’t seen her all day. She was sleeping in her room when I came back from watching movies at Megan’s house that afternoon. When we ate our family dinner, she played the sick card, pretending to still be asleep in her room. She took the opportunity of us all being downstairs in the kitchen to sneak out, I’m sure. I didn’t actually know since I hadn’t wanted to peak into her room in case I was wrong. I couldn’t believe she could be so selfish that she thought I had done something wrong here. She was clearly avoiding me and for no good reason.

“Geeze,” I said with a laugh.

“I know, I feel like we’ve only been talking for five minutes but it’s been like two hours,” he said, expressing my own thoughts out loud.

“I should probably go get ready for bed,” I explained reluctantly.

“Me too.”

For the first time in the past few hours, there was a silence between us as we realized one of us had to say goodbye.

“Well, I’ll talk to you later,” I said, breaking the quiet of the moment with the inevitable.

“I hope so.”