Silently Falling

Chapter Two - Sponsored by Prime Video

The condensation from my lemonade drips onto the patio, evaporating almost instantly from the leftover heat from the blazing hot summer day. I move the towel around my legs and let it fall to the ground, placing the chilled glass on my sunburnt skin without a breeze to cool it down.

"So...that's it? Alyse happened to see you watching that movie and you were a jerk to her?" West asks carefully as he looks between the two of us.

Toby lolls his head to the side to look at West and lifts his hand to shield the fading sun from his eyes, "I was convinced that she had somehow made it her mission to tell everyone that I saw a chick flick. Which was completely an accident, might I add. As a seven year old boy, that was pretty much the worst thing that could happen to me socially. The only good part was that it meant a cute girl saying I was with her at the movies, which probably could have gotten me some of that social status back. But it was all monster trucks and Goosebumps at the time for boys."

"You know, Toby, you aren't great with first impressions."

"Yeah yeah, I know. I'm too quick to judge. I'm working on it," he sighs, sitting up slightly to grab his lemonade from its spot on the porch.

"It's okay, he gets better as the story goes on," I tease, nudging his legs. "Since Raine and I were best friends, I used to come over all the time. Which meant Toby and I were stuck with one another, which neither of us particularly liked at the time..."

Every playdate, every movie night, every sleepover all through elementary school consisted of Toby and I trying to either avoid one another or play a prank on each other. They started off more innocent than not, such as the spider in my lemonade or the time I put a slug on his head in church. One thing was for certain, whatever he dished out to me, I was able to dish right back and vice versa. We had a never ending childhood of back and forth pranks and teasing, which our parents mistook for kids being kids rather than a rivalry that all stemmed from one movie theater mistake. The pranks continued as we went through elementary and middle school, but they became more sophisticated and well thought out. It almost became our thing. If either of us could admit that we even had a thing.

Between all of the pranking, there was a sort of friendship that formed. Though, neither of us would have owned up to it. Toby began actually hanging out with Raine and I for a while. The movie nights between Raine and I became movie nights with all three of us, pool days for the girls became a pool day for the girls plus Toby, and he even got the two of us into video games. We still didn't particularly get along, but our initial hatred was slowly fading into something else entirely. Something that neither of us would recognize for years to come.

The older we all became, Toby began to turn into the borderline cocky older brother that he still likes to be today. Even back then he was popular. I guess being the cutest guy in his grade had a lot to do with it. However, his looks and popularity really took off when he became a freshman in high school while Raine and I were still only in middle school. Hanging out with us suddenly wasn't the cool thing to do, and he started spending time with his other friends, like Warren.

Day by day, the pranks began to thin out and our movie trio was slimmed down to two. I was okay with it, of course. After all, I was still adamant that our little rivalry was very much alive. As much as Toby's features started becoming more defined, mine did too. In 8th grade, I finally started to look my age rather than some little girl stuck in 5th grade, and boys noticed.

Raine and I were both something to be talked about. Her with her blue eyes and long, brown hair and features just as stunning as her brother, and me with my unique green eyes and lighter, short hair. Boys in our grade started to shift from simply talking to us, to flirting with us. By the middle of 8th grade, I had finally been asked on my first date. My months spent flirting with Scott Cameron finally paid off and he asked me to go to the arcade with him.