April

I was woken in the middle of the night by the new storm. I could feel the rumble shaking my bed as I curled up, blocking out the noise.

An enormous boom and crackle made me give a squeak of fear and grab my phone with shaking hands.

Lucas picked up after three rings and I heard his sleepy voice ask me what the hell I was doing.

"Can you just... talk to me?" I asked urgently as I saw a flash of lightning from behind my curtains. He must have remembered my fear, because I heard his voice a moment later.

"Go to your window."

I opened my curtains nervously and saw him standing at the opposite window in a grey T-shirt and boxer shorts. He waved.

I lifted a trembling hand in response and sat on my windowsill, drawing my legs up close to my body.

"So what do you want to talk about?" His voice, husky from sleep, sounded almost like deep thunder itself, but it was soothing and calmed me instead of terrified me.

"Something. Anything. Just— what about your interests? I'd like to know about that." I was talking too fast, I knew, but Lucas's response was the only thing keeping me together.

"My interests? Well... there's football, obviously, and I'm actually more interested in motorbikes now that I've ridden with you." I smiled at this. "Music is probably my biggest thing. I want to be a musician when I leave school, a pianist especially, but I won't get into the subject or we'll be here for days." I wanted to tell him that I'd love to hear more about it, but he was already moving on, keeping the flow of words going, staying between me and my fear.

"I like walking in the countryside, too. When I was little we used to go to this forest near our old house a lot, and I've loved it ever since I first saw it. I've made so many memories there. There was this one time..."

I felt my eyes drooping as his soft voice told me tales of his times in the forest, and the next thing I knew it was morning and the glass of the window was cold against my shoulder.

"Wh-what? Why am I..." I looked at the floor, where my phone was sitting face-down as if I had dropped it.

I was incredulous. "Did I manage to fall asleep on the windowsill and not move all night?" I murmured to myself. My body certainly felt cramped enough.

I picked up my phone and saw a text from Lucas at one in the morning - Goodnight :)

My heart swelled. He must have seen me asleep and decided the text would be a nice thing to wake up to.

The thought warmed me as I dressed and I was grinning as I walked out the door, feeling suddenly ready to face the day.

Lucas

I felt like death warmed up. It had taken me about half an hour to fall asleep after I sent the goodnight text to April, and I was feeling every second of it. Still, if it helped her to sleep through the storm, then I figured it was worth it.

She was unusually quiet as we drove, and I tightened my arms around her waist in a brief hug as we neared the school. She seemed like she needed it.

I wondered if she was ever going to speak when she burst out, "Thanks for helping me to sleep last night. That... that meant a lot to me. I'm sorry that it kept you awake."

"It's fine, honestly!" I answered truthfully. "Any time you want to talk, just do it. I don't want to think that you'd be panicking in your room just because you don't want to disturb my sleep."

The smile she gave me was so grateful and full of happiness that I flushed slightly and turned away. This girl had an effect on me and I didn't like it.

Brad simply scowled as we walked past and neither of us even glanced at him. I guessed he was feeling the effects of Coach's lecture.

"I'm glad we're not doing any work in English." Her voice startled me and I looked down at her. "I honestly don't think I could cope with writing essays first period."

April never engaged in small talk, so I figured she was still embarrassed about last night and trying to distract herself. I decided to go along with it and agreed. I was glad too, though - I liked leaning back in my chair next to her and exchanging glances during the film that made both of us work to suppress our laughter.

We were watching The Breakfast Club, since our teacher thought it would be great considering our subject of getting to know others, and I was secretly in love with the film. I knew April was, too.

We had almost finished watching it, and I was feeling a little sad at the prospect of it ending. I waved goodbye to April as she headed to U.S. History and I went to music class. Only a few more hours until we met again to go to this café of April's.

***

April

Well, it was official. History class had the ability to make me fall asleep.

It was only for about a minute, but it happened. Luckily nobody saw but Ashton, and he didn't comment.

We had been thrown into groups for a project on the OK Corral gunfight, and I just so happened to be put with Ashton and two girls who constantly giggled behind their hands and did absolutely no work.

We studied one of two groups according to our teacher - the 'good guys' that history favoured, or the 'bad guys', the cowboys. We happened to be doing the good guys - Wyatt Earp and his two brothers, Virgil and Morgan, and their friend Doc Holliday. We were originally supposed to do one each, but Ashton and I had taken on the workload.

I decided to study Wyatt - because of his amazing moustache - and Holliday, because he seemed just as sarcastic and awesome as me. Probably just as humble, too.

Ashton was working on Virgil and Morgan, and it was while we were writing that he suggested we meet sometime to finish the project. I was a bit hesitant at first, but we were already behind with half of our group doing nothing, and I wanted a good mark for this. It would only be for an hour or so - I agreed.

His face lit up, and he pushed his chocolate-brown hair out of his blue eyes awkwardly. "Uh, great, so would Friday afternoon be ok for you? At two maybe?"

I didn't like how eager he was, but I would endure. "Sure," I said. "Your house would probably be best. My parents would be suspicious if I brought a boy home." Even as I said the words, I thought of Lucas. What would my parents think if they knew we could see straight across into each other's bedrooms?