Give a little, Breathe a lot.

1 - The Chimes

"Hello?" I said as I peered through the mail slot on the door. I had to tip-toe in order to see in properly. I guess I am pretty short for my age of 16. Then again, my neighbors had a pretty weird door--having a mail slot 6 feet above the ground and all.

"Is anyone home?" I knocked again. I looked to the blinded window this time, seeing my blonde hair in the reflection on the glass. Noticing some of it was kind of out of place, I shifted the mail from my right hand to my left and started "combing" it with my right hand. I have medium length hair that usually falls into place after a little combing, and I prefer not to use my dominant hand when I do comb it. Call me obsessed, I just like to look nice.

And of course the door opened as I was combing my hair and looking at my reflection in the window. That was great. Just kill me now.

Standing in the doorway was a boy who looked right around my age or so. He had short brown hair and gray eyes. His eyes were what caught my attention. They were kind of mesmerizing. He was surprisingly shorter than me, but not by much at that. Maybe an inch in difference. He had a watch on, and he looked at it right after he opened the door and saw me combing my hair. He was probably trying to distract himself from my embarrassing behavior.

I was initially startled when the door opened, so I kind of jumped back and almost fell off the porch steps. To make it even more embarrassing, I almost completely knocked off a potted plant on the porch railing. I'm pretty clumsy, if you haven't noticed already.

"Oh! Agh... Hey there...!" I managed to say after saving the plant from falling. At this point I was blushing red. "I, um... I kind of got your mail mixed in my mail and so I kinda came to give it to you? Sorry about almost destroying your plant by the way, and yelling at the door too, I guess..." If you can't already tell, not only am I clumsy, I'm also really bad at speaking. Especially in awkward situations.

The boy was smiling at me the whole time. He thought it was funny? He might've just felt bad for me and kept smiling to make me feel better. I don't know. I do know he kept checking his watch periodically during my whole scene, so I guess he thought I was boring or something. He didn't say anything the whole time.

After a few seconds of me standing there, he extended his right hand to me. I shifted the mail back to my left hand to take his. I shook his hand and said, "Hi, my name is Arlow. What's yours?"

He looked at me, puzzled. I let go of his hand and realized why he put it out in the first place. His mail. If I wasn't red already, I sure as heck was then. What's wrong with me?

"Oh! Sorry!" I yelled as I handed him the mail. He took it and checked his watch again.

Then all of a sudden he looked at me and started slowly tapping his watch wrist with his right index finger, indicating I was running out of time. "Oh, uh, sorry! I guess I'll be on my way then..." I said, "Um... by the way, I never got your name...?"

He took a minute from looking at his watch to look at me. He smiled at me, turned to his right, picked up a little slip of paper from inside the house, and handed it to me. It read, "Ty. It's nice to meet you :)" on it.

This made me wonder if he had a whole bunch of these written, just laying there on a table next to the door. But whatever. "Ty, huh? Well... it was nice to meet you too. Sorry about everything by the way! Have a great day!" I yelled as I sort of ran away from the house.

I just wanted it to be over. He stayed in the doorway for a second after I "ran" away until he finally went back inside and closed the door. I started walking slowly after I got to a certain distance from the house. I turned around and noticed he opened the window I happened to be checking my reflection in. It was a pretty hot Saturday I guess.

Then I heard it. A grandfather clock coming from the house. It wasn't just the grandfather clock though. There was an instrument being played along with the chimes of the clock. I thought it was kind of weird at the time, but it was really pretty sounding, actually. The way the instrument blended in with the clock, how it played different rhythms to counter the clock, how it ended in dull harmony with the clock chimes. I wish I knew what the instrument was and who was playing it with the clock, and I wished I was there to witness it. Just hearing it wasn't enough for me, apparently.

I guess I could ask Ty the next time I see him. Maybe I'll see him at school next week. There's always new kids the first first week of school, right?