After dinner was done, Kristen went back to her homework and I started cleaning up the mess and piling the dishes into the dishwasher. When I was done, the first thing on my list was to call one of the other board members and see if she knew anything about this kid Brett. Since I had a girl, I knew about some of the other girls at the school, but really not that much about the boys. Like I said before, being on the PTA did have its perks. I closed the dishwasher and walked out to the living room and leaned down to Kristen who had her headphones blaring so loud that I could hear every word of the song she was listening to. I easily plopped one of the earbuds out of her ear.
“Kristen, we’ve had this discussion before. You need to turn your headphones down. It’s not good for your hearing for you to have them up that loud. I don’t want to argue about this, please just turn them down. I’m tired and am going to go to bed. I don’t want you staying up too much later, it’s already a quarter to 9. Do you have much homework left?” She glanced back towards her books calculating in her head. “Well, I have a little more Spanish left and then some Geometry homework, but I should be done in about 30 minutes or so, then I’m going to take my shower and get in bed. I’d like to get to school a little early tomorrow so I can meet with Mr. Alexander and get a little help with my Math, if that’s ok with you.” “I don’t have a problem taking you early, just wake me up if I’m not already up when you get up, so we aren’t late. You know I’ve been dragging the last couple of days.”
I walked down the hallway into my bedroom and closed the door. I changed into a pair of yoga pants and a tank top and then grabbed my cell phone to call Cheryl to see what info she might have on this boy, Brett. “Hey Cheryl, it’s Arianna. Hi, how are you? Oh, we’re fine thanks. Sorry for calling so late, it’s been a pretty hectic last few days. I’ve been sick with that stomach bug that’s been going around. Had it something terrible, but I’m starting to feel better, more myself. Hey the reason I’m calling is that Kristen came home today talking about some boy named Brett that she wants to go to the movies with this weekend, well it’s a group outing, but I have a feeling that she may like this boy Brett in particular. Do you happen to know who he is and can you give me some details?” There was a short pause and then it all came out in a woosh, “Oh, she must mean Brett Miller. He’s a cute boy. Very much into sports, get’s good grades, never heard about him ever getting into too much mischief. His parents are nice and low-key. They like doing family outings, going camping. I think they even like riding dirt bikes like you guys do. They moved here a couple of years ago from somewhere in California. He has an older brother and I think 2 younger sisters. They live not far from us as a matter of fact. If the kids are going to the movies this weekend, let us know, Autumn has been dying to get out of the house and she’s driving me insane!” “Hey thanks Cheryl, I’ll definitely let you know. I’m sure Kristen will talk to her tomorrow about it, once they all figure out what they are going to do and what they want to see. I know Kristen wants to go to the Marketplace and make a day of it. Stop and get lunch and maybe hang out down there for a little while before the movie. Alright, I better let you go. Tomorrow is going to be an early morning for us. Kristen needs some extra help with Math. That girl has so much more drive when it comes to school than I ever did. That’s for darn sure!” “Goodnight Arianna.” “Night Cheryl”
I hung up my phone and rolled over on my bed. I was tired, but not really ready for sleep. I knew if I didn’t go to sleep soon, I was not going to be able to get up to take Kristen to school early in the morning. If I turned the TV on to help me fall asleep, I’d probably just end up staying awake and watching whatever program was on TV. Probably better to listen to my iPod. I reached over to my nightstand and opened the drawer to pull it out and found “Mr. C’s” note again. Man for such a crazy guy, he sure was hot, if my memory was good of that night. Which really, I was buzzed, but not really totally drunk, I don’t think anyway. I never remembered getting drunk enough before where I had passed out and couldn’t really remember what happened the night before. I really had a high tolerance for alcohol. So this whole experience for me was somewhat awkward. I was starting to wonder if maybe he had slipped something in my drink? Or someone else had and he was just worried that he would get in trouble for it? Maybe I should call him to see what his reaction would be? I heard Kristen’s book close in the living room and her walking down the hall towards her bedroom. I looked at the clock and it was already 9:30 p.m. I had thought about this for long enough. I needed to grab my iPod and go to sleep. I could think about this later. Maybe I would decide to call him tomorrow.
I turned my iPod on and tossed and turned in bed for over an hour before I finally closed my eyes and refused to open them again. I don’t know how long I stayed that way before I finally fell asleep, but I know it was quite a while. Counting sheep didn’t work, telling myself to go to sleep didn’t work. Making my mind blank didn’t work. I finally had just dozed off at somepoint thank heaven.
