My first everything at 16

...

"Wakey wakey sleepy head." He said lightly shaking me. This was where my acting skills were put to the test. I first yawned then stretched my arms. Then I opened my eyes.

"Woah!" Mike said. "You're not on your bed remember. You are on me." I looked around looking all confused and all. Don't worry it was still part of the act.

"How long was I asleep for?" I asked.

"Almost an hour." That was when I lifted my head off the jersey-pillow. 

"What! An hour!?" I was genuinely shocked. "You let me sleep on your lap for an hour!?"

"Well you said you were tired. Didn't you?"

"Yeah but..."

"No buts you feel better and that's what matters." He said cutting me off. "Anyways let's go we have somewhere to be." He said standing up.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I also stood up. As I stood there was a pain in my shoulder. Probably from the way I slept on the bench.

"Don't worry we'll see it once we get there."

"Okay." I said as I started walking. He hadn't though. "Why aren't you moving?"

"Because I need to blindfold you." He said nonchalantly.

"What! Why?" I asked trying to keep the distress out of my voice.

"Just do it please." He asked. I turned around so he could put the blindfold over my eyes. I couldn't help but wonder why he needed me to wear a blindfold. Was he taking me to go be initiated? Then he pushed me forward to start walking. His hands were on my shoulders. 

After a while of walking in silence we stopped. And I felt the grip of his hands on my shoulder disappear. 

"Okay so we've stopped." I said. My voice echoed but i got no response. "Why are we standing here with my eyes still blindfolded?" Still no response. "Mike?" Was I standing alone? Just as I was about to take off the blindfold, I heard footsteps. They were inching closer to me. Then they stopped. I think once they were in front of me. Then whoever was standing in front of me reached out to take off the blindfold. I knew this because I felt their fingers graze my temples. Even once the blindfold was off I kept my eyes closed. If Andrew was standing there in front of me I promised myself that Mike would be in for it big time. 

When I opened my eyes, my first instinct was to jump. I jumped onto him and he caught me. He actually held me. I squeezed tight just to be sure that this moment was real. And it was. He was here. For my first day of school. When I felt his grip loosen I got down.

"Dré." I finally said his name and he was standing there in front of me. My first instinct should've been to slap him but I knew deep down that I didn't want to angry at him while he was here. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"Well I couldn't miss your first day of school now could I?" He asked. And damn did I miss his voice. It was soft when he spoke to me but you couldn't miss the richness in it either.

"Yeah. You're right. You couldn't because I was going to hate you forever."

"What!? Forever is a really long a*s time."

"Consider yourself lucky then." I said smiling. "So when did you get here?"

"Yesterday. Ay and your mom wanted it to be a surprise." Oh so that's what they were talking about in the morning. Well it's the best surprise ever. I love them so much. "And I brought you a little something." He said as he picked up a gift bag was sitting next to him. I don't know how I didn't notice it before because it was huge. 

"This malady is for you." He said bowing.

"Oh thank you, you kind sir." I curtseyed. That was a thing we liked doing. I find it amazing how we can fall back into being ourselves like nothing happened. Like there was no distance or time between us.

"Well aren't you going to look inside it?" He asked pulling me from my thoughts. I smiled at him then looked inside the bag. Inside was a CD, a beanie and a hoodie that said Rap Queen and boxes of chocolate. The last item i almost missed. But it was an envelope. It probably had a letter inside it.

"What did I do to deserve this?" I asked.

"Nothing really. I guess it's my way of apologising for not being there for you and to le you know that I really missed you."

"I was beginning to think that you forgot about me. That you found yourself someone else." I said trying desperately to hold back the tears that were trying to escape.

"Don't you ever think like that. Okay?" I nodded in response. "No one can replace you . You're irreplaceable. Believe me I've tried."

"Wait. You tried replacing me?" I couldn't and didn't hide the hurt in my voice.

"No. I had girl friends but none of them were like you. There was always something missing. Okay to be frank, I did try to fill the void that could only be filled by you."

"Well when you put it like that it's kinda hard to stay angry at you." From the way he was speaking you would swear he was talking about me being his girlfriend. Which I wasn't because I was his girl friend. See the difference. The space is the difference. That's just the way we are. 

"Lets go." He said pulling my hand. 

"Where are we going." I asked still allowing him to pull me to where ever he was taking me. When we finally arrived at our destination I spoke. "I keep forgetting this was your school even before it was mine."

"Wel stop forgetting because this is a place i want you to remember."

"Why?"

"I used to come here to collect my thoughts. And not a lot of people knew about this place. So it will be empty most of the time."

"So what did you think about?"

"Anything that needed thinking about."

"Oooo  like your darkest secrets or the girl you liked."

"Yeah. Something like that."

"So why'd you bring me here?"

"So that this could be your thinking spot." He looked at me like the answer was obvious. Okay it was. I'm a little slow sometimes.

"Oh. I asked the most stupid questions sometimes." I said laughing. 

"Yeah i know but I missed it." He said as he stared into space.

"Dré!" I said snapping my fingers at him. "This is my thinking space now so you can't be thinking here anymore." He laughed. Then he pulled me to the ground (it was really the grass and not concrete). We lay side by side looking up at the sky. 

You know you need a person when it's not their words that you want. It is when their presence is enough to fill up all the empty spaces. It's when their presence is enough to satisfy your need for them.

"I missed this." I said

"Yeah but I missed you more." We stayed there on the grass for a while. I fell asleep. No surprise there though right? Anyways Dré woke me up after the bell rang. 

We walked to the gate because we knew Ay would be there. And we were right. She was standing by the gate with Lilitha.

"André you're here?" Lilitha asked.

"Yeah. Long time no see." He replied.

"And you know Bree? Well of course you do. She's Ay's best friend and your Ay's brother. So obviously you two know each other. Are you two dating or something?" She said as she noticed our closeness. Dré and I just laughed at her question.

"No we're just friends who haven't seen each other in a while." Dré answered.

"Oh. Yeah makes sense." She said. Then a car stopped in front of us. "Well that's my ride." She hugged us all goodbye then got in the car.

"So," Ay said finally speaking, "where'd you guys disappear to?"

"We went for a walk." Dré said obviously not wanting her to know where we really were. 

"And...?" She said as if asking for more.

"And what?" Dré asked getting irritated.

"Did anything happen on this walk?" She persisted

"Yeah. We were catching up. We haven't seen each other in almost a year. What did you think would happen." I said siding with Dré. 

"I don't know. Dré what did you have in mind?" She said directing her question at him. He glared.

"So how are you guys getting home?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"My dad Is picking me up. I don't know about you guys though." Mike replied to the question that was not directed at him. I was still grateful though. 

"Mike!" Dré shouted. They gave each other a bear hug. 

"Dré what are you doing here?"

"I came to see my girl on her first day." He said putting his arm around my shoulders. 

"Oh you two are together." Mike asked sounding somewhat deflated.

"Why is everyone asking me that?" I asked to no one in particular. I removed Dré's arm from my shoulders. That seemed to put Mike at ease.

Before anyone could say anything else my dad showed up. 

"Do you guys want a ride?" I asked the two sibling standing in front of me. Their response was getting in the car.

Just as I was about to get into the car myself Mike said, "What. So no kiss goodbye?" I knew he was playing. So I just played along.

"Sorry hunny but I don't kiss on the first date." He started laughing then waved goodbye when I got into the car.

"Bree." Dré called from the backseat.

"Yeah?" I said turning around.

"Just so you know. Two people isn't the whole world."