A Spin and Shuffle
Tossing and turning in bed that seemed a bit too small for me, I finally sat up, glancing at the clock as I did so. Damn the oppressive humidity. I was a California boy; born and bred to deal with dry summers and this humidity was killing me. The lively LEDs screamed at me, 2:30am. It was late and I had to be up early to go do the touristy thing.
This was supposed to be an educational and cultural experience for me. At least that’s what my parents had hoped for. But hey, I was 13, going into high school, and spending my summer in France of all places. What did I care about culture and education? It was all about interesting people, exploring new places and having a bit of fun. Instead, I had been pretty busy running around with my family, checking out different places on my uncle’s itinerary, seeing how he had everything perfectly mapped out.
Sighing inwardly, I reached over toward the nightstand and grabbed the waiting bottle of water. Taking a couple of long pulls from it, I spun the bottle absentmindedly in my hands. My thoughts wandered back to Stephanie, that girl I met while checking in a few days ago. I hadn’t seen her since then, and I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I had to see her again.
Her visage popped into my head, smiling and laughing, eyes full of mirth. Smiling to myself, I lay back down, rolled over and pictured her, as I drifted back to sleep.
Waking with a start, I found myself staring at the underside of a pillow my cousin had thrown at me to wake me. Typical. Just wait, I’ll get her back soon enough. I was probably the last one up, so I needed to hurry before I got into trouble. Rolling out of bed and half stumbling to the bathroom, I grabbed a change of clothes and hit the shower.
Coming out of the shower, I heard Lynn say something through the door that got muffled underneath the towel covering my head.
“What? I can’t hear you,” I yelled out from under the towel.
“Come on, we’re going to be late for breakfast,” she called to me.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
“Okay, but hurry up, or else you’ll be late.”
Hearing the heavy door close shut, I hopped on one foot and attempted to put on my shorts, half stumbling around the room in the process. I must have sounded like a herd of stampeding bunnies hopping around like that.
Grabbing my shirt, I slipped my shoes on and bolted across the room, careening into the hall, slamming the door shut behind me with a loud bang. “Whoops,” I thought to myself. I really needed to pay more attention to my surroundings. One of these days a door would come right off its hinges with my carelessness.
Just like the last couple of mornings, I hoped that I’d run into Stephanie so I could ask her to hang out. Lost in thought, I shuffled down the stairs as fast as I could. Paying attention to my feet so I wouldn’t stumble, I shuffled along faster. At the very last second I looked up and saw her staring at me, wide-eyed, like a deer caught in the headlights of a 175lb mac-truck bearing down on her.
Spinning left, I twisted my body out of the way and jumped the last 2 steps to the bottom, sliding to a stop a few away from her. Looking at her sheepishly, I got out a breathless, “Sorry ’bout that.” As she gazed at me with those dark shimmering pools that made my stomach knot up with nervousness.
What the hell was I thinking doing something like that? I almost felt like hitting myself in the face because of my recklessness. I could have ended up bowling her over. That would have been a great way to say hi.
“Are you ok?” I finally managed to blurt out.
That’s when I heard her sigh.
