that was then*
chapter 07
The following morning, Dora was awakened by the loud buzzing of her alarm clock. She mentally slapped herself for forgetting to switch off the alarm mode; after all, it was a Saturday.
She kicked the warm sheets off of her body, and reached over to turn off the alarm. When the annoying tone had stopped, Dora remained in bed, staring up at the high ceiling in her new bedroom. She unintentionally replayed the events that had occurred the night before over in her head.
After her and JC's brief hand-holding episode, the two didn't have the opportunity to pick up where they had left off. During dinner, Dora and Josh exchanged some glances here and there. However, they were seated on opposite ends of the table so further displays of affection were simply out of the question. At around 9 o'clock, Dora's parents decided it would be best if they got home, much to their daughter's dismay.
When a few minutes of day dreaming had passed, Dora knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. She hopped out of bed, pulling her pinstriped pajama pants further up on her narrow hips, right before heading down the stairs in search of some breakfast.
A few houses away, Josh slept soundly in his nearly pitch black room. The curtains were drawn tightly and the only audible sound was Josh's light breathing.
There was no way in hell he was waking up at before noon on a Saturday. He had been a late sleeper all his life.
Karen, Josh's mother, knocked lightly on her son's door as she gently turned the knob. She tried her best to keep the squeaky hinge silent. "Josh," she called softly.
She stepped further inside, and covered the bottom half of the phone in her hand. "Josh," she repeated, this time a little louder.
He stirred lightly under the protective covers of his bed. "What?" His voice was groggy and raspy.
"Bryce is on the phone."
Josh rolled over onto his back, and sat up. "What?"
"I said, Bryce is on the phone. He wants to talk to you."
He held out his hand, and Karen laid the receiver in his palm before exiting. He brought the phone up to his ear as he quickly glanced at his clock. "Bryce, it's 7:30 AM on a Saturday, what do you want?"
"I know it's early, and I'm sorry, but I just got in from Becky's a little while ago. Man, did you miss some great shit," Bryce chattered, the diction in his voice surprisingly chipper.
"I'll bet." Josh slouched further down on his bed and closed his eyes. "What else do you want?"
"I wanted to see how things went with that girl last night. You round the bases?"
"NO," Josh huffed with frustration. "Nothing like that happened."
"Well then, what did happen?"
"Hardly anything. We basically just hung out and did nothing," Josh elaborated as he stifled a yawn.
"That's it?"
"Sorry to say it, but yeah, that's it."
"Don't worry, things will go a lot better tonight."
Josh raised his eyebrows at his friend's statement. "I don't even want to know what you're talking about."
"Oh, but you do. Steve's brother is throwing a party at his frat house on his campus. You're gonna go with me, and if you're lucky, I might even let you invite a certain neighbor of yours...if you catch the drift."
"A frat party? Steve's brother hardly graduated elementary school. I think he's bullshitting you," Josh retorted skeptically.
"We'll go check it out. Come on, you can't bail two nights in a row."
Josh sighed heavily, and rubbed his weary eyes. "Fine, I'll go."
"Great. Call me later, and tell me if what's her name is going too."
"Dora," he stated quickly.
"Yeah, whatever. See ya later."
Bryce hung up, and Josh tossed the phone to the foot of his bed.
He considered exactly what his friend was proposing. He had been to a good number of frat parties during his high school career, and he wasn't sure if exposing an innocent mind, such as Dora's, to the mass mayhem that goes on at one of those gatherings was the sane thing to do.
He didn't want to send her the wrong impression, but at the same time he wanted to spend more time with her. It was like a double-edged sword.
His head crashed back onto his pillow, and he decided that he could make a wiser decision after some more sleep.