From the Window

5

After another few hours of hanging out with Jonas, I get a text from my mom. Jonas and I are sitting on some chairs in his room eating some cereal and playing a random game on our phones, so I nudge him in the arm.

"Hmm?" Jonas mumbles with a mouthful of cereal.

"Hey, my mom says that there's a severe storm warning for later this week cause of the hurricane that's hitting North Carolina. So I need to help bring stuff inside from our backyard and all that jazz." I say.

"Okay, I should probably do that too." Jonas says glancing out the window at his own backyard.

I finish my cereal, stand up, and put my backpack on.

"See ya later, Jonas." I say, waving to him.

"Bye Nora." he says still looking at his phone, not seeing my wave and opening his free arm for a hug instead.
I walk over to him, confused. I stand in front of him and he stands up, putting down his bowl but still on his phone. As I reach my arms out for a polite hug, he looks up into my eyes and smiles.

Before I could do anything, he quickly tosses his phone onto his bed, wraps his arms around my waist, and pulls me close to him. My head is against his chest, I can hear his steady heartbeat and his warm breathing above my head. He then lifts me off the ground into a very tight yet comfortable bear-hug.

I start giggling at how unexpected it was and he joins in. Jonas puts me back down on the floor, remembering how tall he is compared to me. Okay, 6'1" doesn't sound much taller than 5'7", but trust me, it is.
We wave each other a final goodbye as I bring my cereal bowl downstairs, put it in the sink, put my shoes back on, and walk to my house next door.
I open the door and see my mom on her phone in the kitchen.

"Well that was quick!" my mom says smiling at me.

"Yeah, my friend lives really close by." I say while taking my shoes off and putting my backpack down on a chair in the living room.

"Which friend were you visiting?" my mom asks while scrolling through her phone to look for a new audiobook to listen to.

"Jonas." I reply as casually as possible.

"Oh, our old neighbors? I didn't know they moved back in!" my mom says, clicking on a book and plugging in her earbuds. "Also, would you mind running down to CVS before it gets too dark and buy some batteries?"

"How many?" I ask, automatically starting to look for my mom's wallet.

"Um....a lot?" she says while putting her earbuds in.

I find my mom's credit card inside her wallet and put it in my own. I put my shoes back on before grabbing my phone and my bag with my wallet in it and heading out the door.

***

While I'm looking in CVS for the batteries, I notice a sale on printer paper. Being the boring loser I am, I text a picture to Jonas asking if he wants any.
I put a couple packs in my basket just in case and I make my way to the batteries. I got all the batteries from a list that my mom texted me while I was walking, so I start going over to checkout. I feel my phone buzz and see a text from Jonas.
Jonas:
Legit, you never know what you might need when you can't leave the house.

He was right. School was cancelled starting the day after tomorrow, probably only for at max a week. I grab two more packs of paper before checking out.

***

Walking home from CVS, I pass Jonas' house and decide to drop off 2 packs of paper in a "ghosting" style, as in I drop the paper at his doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run away immediately.

So, I carefully walk up to his door and put down the 2 packs of paper, ring the doorbell, and then sprint across his driveway and behind a Bush in my front yard.
I hear his door open and I can see Jonas step out of his house. He looks down at the paper and immediately looks over to my house. I panic and try to get further into the bush and end up shaking the bush a ton, giving away my position.
I can't see Jonas anymore, but I hear him laugh a little bit and pick up the paper, as well as him closing his door. I peek over the bush to make sure the coast was clear and run into my house.

"Got em" I mumble to myself, closing my door behind me.