Written

Chapter 2

I looked out out my bedroom window and lo and behold there is Peyton Hill sitting in our old tree house. I have known Peyton for as long as I can remember. Mainly because we were neighbors for most of our lives, thus literally making us 'really close friends'. When we were younger we did everything together, from things like homework to video games. It didn't matter what it was, you name it, we did it. We became so close that our parents built us a treehouse in my backyard. Though, as we got older we drifted apart. In high school, she was popular. I was not. She was hot....I was not.

"You knew I would say 'yes' didn't you?" I asked after opening my window.

"Yep." she answered with confident tone.

"What if I said 'No' "

"You wouldn't say no to me." she said as if it was obvious.

"So you took advantage of me?" I asked while climbing out of my window into the tree house.

"Maybe this is my way of getting revenge for that time you tricked me out of a whole month's worth of allowance."

"Well played." I laughed a bit remembering how mad she was.

"Well I learned from the best." She said picking up her stuffed Yoda she once clung to for an entire day because we were watching a Star Wars marathon.

"You must unlearn what you have learned." I say in my best Yoda voice. She got a kick out that. "You should have seen your face when you realized you had to give all your money to me." I tried to puff out my cheeks and look mad just as she did back then.

"I can't believe you did that, you jerk." she laughed as she playfully punched my arm.

"If it makes you feel better I ended up using it all for that princess playhouse thing I bought you for your birthday that year." I said sitting down next to her.

"Really?" She looked at me with a skeptical expression.

"Yeah....well OK I mean I might have kept a few bucks for those jawbreakers you threw at those birds."

"Those birds started it when they took my pretzel."

"They took the pretzel and I paid the price. Do you know how many months I had to dog sit Ms. Flynn's flesh eating 'pooch'? Seven months and I still have marks on my arm from that thing."

She laughed as I showed her the marks. We laughed about some more embarrassing and memorable moments in our past until we ended up looking at the stars and trying to remember our weird song we made to remember the constellations.

"Simon can I ask you something?" she asked

"Yeah. Go ahead."

"Why aren't we still like that anymore?"

"Like what? Artemis and Orion? I'm pretty sure she accidentally killed him."

"No I mean like Castor and Pollux?"

"You mean the twin constellations?"

"No I mean the two stains on your shirt" she said sarcastically. "Yes, I mean the constellations. They were best friends too right? Even in death they're still best friends. Why aren't we still best friends?"

"I guess we just grew up."

"Come on now....that can't be the real reason."

"Well I guess when my mom died I wanted to be alone more and it got only got worse when my dad disappeared."

I guess she realized that this was a touchy subject so we just ended up laying there in silence.

Her yawn cut through the dead air like nails on a chalkboard.

"Jeez Godzilla, You tired?"

Her chuckle barely made it out of her drowsy voice. "Yeah. Do you mind getting me a pillow?"

"You're going to sleep in the tree house?"

"Yeah. I'm going to use these sleeping bags."

"Those sleeping bags were made for nine year old children."

"So."

"I'm not letting you sleep in this tree."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. You can sleep in my bed." I said standing up to look for her bag. "Where are your clothes?"

" I didn't bring any." she said while stretching.

"What? Why....you know what never mind. Come on get up" I said before helping her to her feet and into my room's window.

After we made it into my room I turned my lamp while I rummaged through my dresser for something to sleep in.

"I don't have any girl PJs." I whispered.

"Whatever you have is fine."

"Here" I said tossing her a pair of basketball shorts and the smallest shirt I could find.

"Wait is this that shirt I wore when we played hooky went to Disney world with my sisters?" she asked as she took off her jacket.

"Yeah I think so."

"Wow. I can't believe you still have this?"

"I have bigger shirts if that doesn't fit."

"No no it'll fit....I think." she said holding it up like she was examining it. "Is it clean?"

"I don't know"

"Ewww." She instantly dropped it.

"I'm just kidding."

"Don't do that again, you jerk." she said before launching a pillow at me.

I couldnt help but think about what she said. "Don't do that again." Does that mean this is going to be a regular thing?

"I'm going to change so don't look."she announced.

I turned around to avoid watching her change. Though I will admit that it was extremely hard not to look at the crystal clear reflection in the window so I shut my eyes. When she finished she turned out the lamp and literally jumped into bed. I already had shorts so I just had to take off my shirt. I had put a sheet on the floor for myself before laying on it.

"Simon..."she said without even bothering to lower her voice.

"Yeah?"

"Are you serious?" she said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you really going to sleep on the floor?"

"Yeah."

"Boy if you don't get your ass in this bed...."she muttered. She then got out of bed,grabbed me by my hair, threw me onto the bed and laid down next to me.

"Ummm....are you sure about this."

"Don't be such a prude, Simon. Its not like we're having sex."she said "Besides, we've slept next to each other before."

"Yeah but-"

"Go to sleep Simon." she said before nuzzling into my body.

The last time we slept next to each other was when we were nine. We slept head-to-toe,in our tree and we were in two separate sleeping bags but things are different now. Things have changed. She had changed.

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