I couldn't stand it anymore. I jumped up from my chair, pushed away my keyboard, and looked out the window. This essay was about to make me lose my mind. I took a deep breath and looked out of my window. Earlier I had drawn the blinds because the sun was high up in the sky and I didn't want to waste any electricity when the sun was right there. But right now, the sun was slowly going down and it was surrounded by soft pinks and yellows. I let myself be surrounded by it too.
I stayed like that for a few minutes, just sitting there with my eyes closed. My music was still playing from my computer, filling up the otherwise empty space. My parents had left a few hours ago which finally gave me quiet time to be able to work. But I was going mad now. I had sat in front of my glowing screen for almost three hours with absolutely no clue of what to write, and this paper was due tomorrow. It wasn't even a matter of procrastination this time, my teacher just sprung it on us out of nowhere. I know I wasn't helping myself by wasting time sitting at my window, but I justified it by saying it was a much-needed break.
I don't remember falling asleep, but I did. I slowly woke up to find that I was still by my window. I brought my head up from my window sill and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. It was nearly pitch black outside, but the moon kept the sky lit up. Crap. My room was dark also, my computer screen being the only source of light. I sighed and slowly started to walk towards it, tripping over a few things on the way and even managing to hit my knee on the edge of my bed.
I finally made it to my computer, Uglykid by Hobo Johnson was playing and I just let it. I looked down at the clock on the screen and it read '4:56 AM'. I let out a soft groan and dragged my hand down my face. I can't believe I slept for that long, and this paper was due in a few hours. Great, just what I needed. I slowly pulled my chair back out and sat in it, my eyes tracing over the words already had written on screen to get a grasp of what I was writing. It looked like my dog threw it up, it made no sense. I just went with it.
A few hundred words later, I checked the time again to only find out that it was 5:30. It felt like it had been longer. My head started to feel heavy, my body was demanding that I go to bed, but I just couldn't. I didn't even have school today, it was a weekend. That was probably the worst part of all of this.
I leaned back in my chair and it made a soft groan in protest. Suddenly, my phone dinged. The sound almost made me jump out of my seat, and I didn't check the notification until my heart finally started to slow down. The notification was from Winston? I blinked twice to make sure that I was seeing it right, because Winston definitely not the type to treat a last-minute paper lightly. I opened the message.
Dumbass: Hey, look outside.
I stared at my phone in confusion. There's no way this boy is outside of my house at 5 in the morning.
Me: That sounds like something a serial killer would say at this time of the morning.
Before he responded, I got up from chair and made my way to the window that I had fallen asleep at. The moon was still out and full, but instead of looking up, I looked down at the dark ground. Or it would be dark if there wasn't a flashlight shining up towards my room.
Me: Oh yeah, definitely serial killer behavior AppWinston.
Dumbass: Just come outside.
I rolled my eyes before quietly making my way downstairs. The house was pitch black. Jesus, why is everything so dark today? You'd think someone would keep at least one light on.
I finally made it to the back door. Lucky for me, my parents' room faced the front of the house, so they weren't able to see the bight light from Winston's phone.
Winston heard my door open and looked up, thanks to the moonlight I could tell that his hair was a mess and so were his clothes. He looked like he got dressed in three seconds. "Hey," I whispered as I walked over to him.
"Hey," Winston whispered back when I was finally in front of him.
"So what's this all about?" I doubt Winston's parents knew that he was out this late, and it wasn't like Winston to come out without his parents knowing. As a matter of fact, Winston has been really different since the night of prom. Apparently he had some crazy experience with his date and it really changed him, even though they didn't stay together. The breakup seemed to change him even more.
"We're going somewhere." He didn't say more than that and just turned around before walking off.
"Oh boy, you're just bringing up all of the 'I'm gonna murder you' vibes today." Winston just let out a soft chuckle and led me to his car that was a couple of houses down. His dad had actually bought him his own car after all that happened.
I jumped in the passenger side before Winston had the chance to try and open the door for me. I could feel the hard eye roll he was doing as he walked to the driver's side. Winston was parked under a streetlight, giving me a few seconds to properly look at him now. His hair was definitely a mess like I had previously noticed, his shirt was messily tucked into his jeans too, and he was wearing an old pair of sneakers. "Let's get going," his voice made me snap my head up and he sped off.
We drove for a few minutes and I was very tempted to fall asleep, but my essay was keeping me from doing so. "Winst," he made a noise of acknowledgment, "When did you finish your essay?" He slowly pulled into his driveway before he answered me.
"I finished mine at around 11," he turned off his car, "And I finished yours at 3."
It took me a few seconds to fully register what he had just said, and in that time he took the opportunity to open my door for me. "You did what?" I made sure to keep my voice down as he led me to his backyard as to not risk waking anyone up.
He opened the gate to his backyard before shrugging his shoulders. "It was no big deal. I knew you were going to be stressed with this, so I decided that you deserved a break. I mean, it's the least that I could do."
Before I could say anything in response, Winston gently pushed me forward into his backyard. There was a small tent set up with soft shining lights surrounding it. Then, in front of the tent, there was a small screen with a mini projector pointing at it. I was shocked to say the least.
"So? Why are you still standing here?" He gave me another gentle push in the direction of the tent.
I walked towards it with him trailing beside me, "Wait, you did this for me?"
Winston stopped just before the tent to bend down and press some buttons on the projector. "Well, yeah. You've helped me a lot, especially with the astronomy club. You stayed up for weeks helping me with that in-school planetarium. It kept our club funding going as well." I sat down on one of the many pillows that were spilling out of the tent as Winston finally finished with the projector.
Winston went into his house through his backdoor. He was in there for a few minutes before he came out with two armfuls of snacks. By this time, the sun was starting to rise, beginning to mimic how it looked when I fell asleep a few hours ago.
He sat next to me, placing a few boxes of candy and a few bags of chips on the ground. "Make sure to help yourself to whatever you want inside too." He pulled some pillows out from the tent to lean back on. Winston lifted up a remote and clicked the play button.
Halfway into the movie, I felt my body getting heavy again and this time I let it. As I started to lean backward, I felt one of Winston's arms wrap around me and pull me close to him. I tried to tease him about it, but I was just too tired. I just smiled a little before falling into a deep sleep.