Boredom

I try my best to be the definition of perfect.

Personally, I'd have preferred to be this chill guy in sweatshirts and baggy jeans that rode to work everyday on his bicycle, earphones plugged in. But because my parents are the ideal society parents, I have to be so much more.

I have to be dressed in a suit and tie every Sunday when we go to church, and volunteer for community service on Saturdays instead of going out to play ball like normal eighteen year olds do.

I must not be seen with girls at odd places or odd hours, plus all my fun time is with my family.

This isn't a life, this is a prison.

“Dylan?” That's my younger brother, Jason. He's eight years younger than I am, but he's my best friend.

“Hey champ,” I toss the baseball in my hands to him. “What's up?”

“Shawn's having a party. Think you can cover up for me tonight?”

My parents aren't going to be home for the weekend but there's this distant relative, Luna, who comes to stay with us when our parents aren't home.

He wants me to pretend like he'll be sleeping in my room tonight so she wouldn't notice.

“Sure. Anything for you, champ” He tosses the ball back to me.

“Thanks.” He says.

I throw him a salute and toss the ball to the wall, stopping only when he calls my name again.

“Do you think you'd want to come? You stay holed up in here every other day. Now you're tossing balls at the wall, that's clearly caused by boredom.”

A smile quirks my lips. He's smart, this one.

“Come here, Jason.” My hands pat the space beside my bed so he knows I want him to come sit beside me.

When he's on the bed, I sling a hand on his shoulder. “Listen, the only reason I let you sneak out to have fun is so that you don't become me. I've lost my chances to do a lot of stuff I should've done as a kid.”

When he does that funny pout like the one on his face right now, I know he doesn't agree with me.

“But you have several opportunities to do them now!
You're wasting away here reading books by Mahatma Gandhi and Barack Obama….”

“Hey.. what's wrong with Obama? I love the guy!”

He pokes me in the side and we both burst into hysterical laughter.

“Point is, we can both go to the party tonight.”

I shake my head, it's too risky. If anyone should get caught, it shouldn't be him. Besides Luna isn't cool, she's grumpy and complains about every little stuff Jason does to my parents.

“Look, I don't even know what to say when I go to parties like that. You needed to see me during prom!”

“Your date was horrible. Mom chose someone you couldn't flow with and she ended up ruining your prom.”

Kathy Drulinger was truly someone I couldn't flow with. I never liked her because she was loud and bossy, but her mom and mine attended church group together so they automatically think we'd be married or something.

“I have an idea!” Jason says, interrupting my thoughts. “What if we tell Luna that we'd be staying up all night to study, so she shouldn't trouble us. That'd also explain for us sleeping throughout the morning!”

That's a genius plan, but I don't want to go through with it. Luna hates coming up to my room because I barely acknowledge her.

She only throws all her rackets with Jason.

“She wouldn't even come up here to check on us, trust me!”

I know he's telling the truth but my heart fails when we both sneak out of my room window that night. We made sure to keep the light on in the room so she'd think we're really staying up.

Jason's a pro at this stuff. He leads me through a couple of yards and soon, we're at Shawn's.

“Look at all the cool stuff you'd have missed!” He yells excitedly as we arrive at the apartment. Shawn's parents are also away for the weekend so we have the house to ourselves.

There are a lot of girls. I don't think I've been around so many girls in my entire life.

Jason drags me upstairs, past the board games, the snooker, the booze and pizza, all the way to Shawn's room which has been converted into a karaoke bar.

“Dylan, hi!” That's Naomi, Shawn's older sister. I used to be one grade ahead of her.

“Hi Naomi.” I'm sure my pale cheeks are now a bright pink color because I can feel blood flush up my face. Jason nudges me towards her. When I turn around to scold him, he's already turned away from me, leaving me alone with Naomi.

“So…I thought you weren't the party type.” Naomi says, smiling shyly at me. I shrug my shoulders, completely oblivious of what to say. This is exactly why I don't attend parties.

“Well, I guess I came.” Ugh! What a lame thing to say.

She giggles. “It's okay if you don't know what to say, you can just ask me for a dance.”

I'm not a party pooper, but I can read the signs when I see them.

I don't leave the dance floor until Jason comes to tug on my sleeve. “We have to leave! We have thirty minutes until morning.”

Ah. I never realized the time had flown that fast. It seems like I just got here.

“I hope to see you again, Dylan.” Naomi says, winking at me. She slips something into my pocket and when I dig my hands in to check it out, it's her phone number.

Jason doesn't let me thank her for it. We run across the yards we came from then climb back in through my window. Luna knocks on my door almost immediately and says she's been knocking.

I look her dead in the eye and say, “We were asleep. It's a little too early to be knocking on someone's door, don't you think?” Then I slam the door in her face and fall on the bed.

This has been the best day of my life.