What if..? A Top 🔟 in The #MidnightSunMovie Contest!

What If..?

They'd been next door neighbors for three years, only talked twice and now Trevor Andrews and Paige Dunham, oddly, find themselves staring up at the stars, him lying on the roof of his garage, her perched in her bedroom window.

For the past three nights, neither could sleep, so they agreed to work together to combat their persistent insomnia.

1:05 AM

"What if..?" Paige muses.

"Yes..?"

"What if we try running around the neighborhood, like, one hundred times?"

Trevor groans. "Like I don't get enough running at football practice? Seriously?" He sits up, and catching her determined gaze, lets out a slow sigh.

"All right. You're crazy, you know that? And no, not one hundred...but I'll give you ten. Ten laps around the neighborhood."

"Deal!" Paige claps. "Meet you out front in five!"

2:21 AM – Sitting on Trevor's Roof

Paige moans, "I can't feel my legs..."

"There's got to be a better way to fall asleep," Trevor considers. "What if..?"

"Um-hmm..."

"What if we drink a gallon of warm milk?"

"Ew!" Paige screws up her face.

"Oh, c'mon. Don't tell me you're lactose intolerant, 'cause I've seen you throwing back milkshakes at Doug's Diner after football games."

Paige looks over at Trevor, who's got his arm tucked under his head and his gaze trained on the heavens.

"You've noticed me at Doug's before?"

"Yeah, you always sit in the back, by the kitchen, with that girl who was your VP when you ran for student council president."

"Annabeth..."

"Yeah, Annabeth. You're usually thick as thieves back there, passionately debating--God knows what--just blissfully ignoring the rest of us plebs."

A beat of silence.

"We never meant to ignore you," Paige says. "We just...didn't think you saw us there."

"Oh, I saw you..." Trevor smiles, his voice trailing off into the quiet of the night, his words leaving Paige stunned.

Surrounded by his football friends, not once had he ever said hello to her, or waved at her, or given her a nod of acknowledgment. Not once.

Trevor sits up with a sense of determination.

"So, we gonna do this milk experiment or what?"

3:17 AM – Lying on Trevor's Roof

"Milk...bad idea. What if..?" Paige coos.

"Yeah..?"

"What if we tell each other every Christmas present we've ever received?"

"Like, since birth?"

"As far back as you can remember."

"Cool. You start."

"Okay..." Paige lets her head dip towards his. "When I was five..."

4:29 AM – Trevor's Roof

"I love that you played with toy trains as a kid," Paige murmurs, her eyelids growing heavy, sleep finally pulling her under. She curls up and tucks her head tighter into the crook of Trevor's arm.

Holding her tightly, with Paige snoring softly, Trevor looks up at the night sky--the moon full, the haze of an asteroid belt far in the distance--and whispers...

"What if I told you I love you, Paige Dunham? I have since the first day I met you and every day since. Hmmm? I wonder...what if..?"