It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 18

A half hour later, Dannon’s eyes opened.

His hair was still soaked.  That made sense seeing how I went back and refilled the water bottle after, deciding to give it another go—not that it worked.  There must have been something wrong with him.  It just wasn’t normal for someone to be that deep of a sleeper.

“Why am I wet?” were the first words that came out of Dannon’s mouth.

“I dumped water on you,” I replied with a nonchalant shrug, looking at my nails from my spot at the kitchen counter.  Dannon leaned against the threshold, his arms crossed lightly over his chest. 

“Why?”

“You weren’t waking up.”  I looked up at him then, allowing an amused smile to cross over my face.  He looked like a drowned dog.  It was kind of hilarious.  If Kyla were here she’d be whispering in my ear about how sexy he looked with his hair sticking to his face, how his eyes seemed to pop now that his hair was two shades darker.  But Kyla wasn’t here.  Thank gosh.

Dannon was quiet for a moment.  I waited for him to realize the current situation we were in—that we weren’t in school but standing in my kitchen.  Whether it was because he just woke up or because he was still tired—which didn’t make any sense—I didn’t know; but he took a really long time to figure it out.  “Why aren’t we at school?”

He said it so nonchalantly.  Like it wasn’t a big deal that we were both receiving unexcused absences for all four periods today.  Like his dad wasn’t probably worried sick about him.  And, on top of that, the school team was going to be missing one of their players at the game today.  Poor team.

“Good question,” I said after a while.  “I was wondering that myself.”

Dannon rubbed his eyes, pushing off the threshold and making his way toward me.  “I’m not even going to ask what I’m still doing here for,” he mumbled sleepily.  “That seems to be rather obvious.”

I laughed shortly.  “Yeah.  You should probably get ahold of your dad so he can tell the school that you’re sick or something.”  I laughed again.  “Wouldn’t want Mr. Popular to have an unexcused absence would we?”

Dannon chuckled.  “Nickname not needed.”

“Sleeping Beauty’s up?” Garrett called suddenly, appearing in the entryway.  He grinned at Dannon, pointing to Dannon’s hair.  “Dude, you’re one deep sleeper.”

Dannon, not at all bugged by Garrett’s nickname, shrugged.  “Yeah, I guess so.”

I cocked an eyebrow at Garrett who was making his way to the refrigerator, probably to steal some of my mom’s food.  He enjoyed eating things that weren’t his.  He ate everything.  Everything.  “Garrett,” I drew out, watching as he pulled out a bowl of chicken noodles—which was my mom’s, by the way.  “Did you ever call the school like I asked you to?”

Garrett set the bowl on the counter, grinning at me.  “Nope, I’ll get right on that!”

“Now.”

I put my hands on my hips, staring him down until he relented.  “Fine!” Garrett sighed deeply.  “I will call your school now.”  He picked up the cordless, waving it at me.  “See?”  He began to dial.  “Calling, right now.”

Dannon shot me a confused look, but I just shook my head, biting my lip to keep from laughing.  This was going to be hilarious!

“Hello?” Garrett asked in a high-pitched voice, leaning back against the counter as the office picked up the phone.  I covered my mouth with my hand, muffling my giggles.  Garrett winked at me before continuing.  “Yes, this is Brianne Nichol’s mom.”  He paused.  “Yes, yes, I’m sorry, I’ve got a cold!”  He coughed ferociously for emphasis.  It was actually quite convincing.  “Yes, I’m fine, thank you for your concern.”  He rolled his eyes.  “Brianne will not be in school today, for she has a bad case of what I have.”  He pulled the phone away from his ear to laugh softly.  After containing his guffaws he brought the phone back to his ear.  “Yes.  Mhm.  Thank you.”