Staying Up [Judeva // Lost & Found Music Studios]

Chapter 2: Getting High

The boy and his dark skin and even darker eyes were all that consumed Eva's thoughts for the next week. She wondered all sorts of things about him, filling in the gaps with her imagination. She wanted to know every detail about him and there was only one way to do that. 

She got the idea a week later when she found herself struggling to sleep again. This time not from the heat, but from her constant thoughts. She wanted to sleep so she could dream of the boy, but once she had the idea, she couldn't shake the curiosity off.

Eva wanted to sneak out again. She wanted to go back into the midnight city and bump into the two nice girls who would compliment her pyjamas. She wanted to see the boy with dark skin and even darker eyes, to stare at him in the complete awe and wonder she felt every time she saw him.

The more she thought about it, the less it became a want and more a need. 

You can do this, she told herself, double checking that her door was closed. Just to be safe, she shoved her pillow under her quilt so it resembled her body if her parents were to check up on her. She was really doing this.

Sliding her window open slowly and carefully, Eva stepped out onto her roof. She stared down at the front lawn, gulping at how far it was. How painful it would be to fall off. 

Maybe I shouldn't, she thought. She took a step back, her ankles against the window frame. That's when the reality hit her; she was already outside. She had already made the first step. She could do this.

Eva climbed down the drainage pipe and ran across her front lawn. She ran a block away before she was certain she wouldn't get caught. Her heart was racing, either from the running or the rebellion. 

She made her way into town and dammit! she thought, I forgot to put a bra on again. Her arms wrapped themselves around her body, hands gripping her shoulders. She must have been a sight to see, but at least she wasn't a new sight to see.

She looked around at the bright city around her. Lights shone in the sky from clubs distances away. She wondered if that's where the boy and his friends went. They seemed too young to be eighteen, but Eva knew all about fake IDs from the time she sneakily watched Superbad when her mother thought she was revising.

"What to do . . . What to do," Eva thought aloud, wandering down the street. She spotted two homeless people sitting a distance away and sighed. She wished she had brought money with her so she could buy them food. 

Continuing to walk around with no clue what she was doing, the only plan to find the man of her dreams and then leave again, Eva spotted a park bench that was free from both vomit and pigeon poo. She figured it must have been her lucky day, so she took a seat near the homeless two, her back to them.

She was a little scared that one of them may have creeped up on her, but she told herself she was just being judgemental. Not all homeless people are dangerous.

It wasn't until five minutes later that Eva realised just how naive she was being. A group of young men passed her and one of them stopped just in front of the bench.

"Are you okay?" he asked. His eyes flickered between the man and woman on either side of her.

Eva gave a small smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He looked back over at the homeless man and Eva's eyes followed, her heart jumping out of her chest a little when she saw he was staring right at her. She jumped up from the bench.

The young man looked at her again. "Are you sure you're alright?" He asked. Eva felt a strange sense of security with this group of men and it was really starting to confuse her stranger danger radar.