When the Sun Goes Down

Cara Haley kneeled on her bedroom floor, peeking out of her window as Travis and who she assumed (from Nicole\'s text) to be Jesse Buchanan unpacked suitcases from the shiny Lexus that sat out of place on the Blanchard\'s driveway. She was a little old for spying, but the giddy little girl deep down inside of her wanted to catch a glimpse of the famous Jesse Buchanan, or at least that\'s what she tried to tell herself. The truth was that she wanted to see Travis. Even from her long distance view she could see how he wasn\'t all skin and bones anymore like he was when he left for college.



She continued to watch the two boys until they had cleared all of the suitcases from the car and disappeared inside. She almost screamed when she saw the light in the room above the garage turn on and Travis and Jesse walking in engrossed in a conversation. One of her bedroom windows was directly across from one of the windows in the room above the garage, Travis\'s room, and she wasn\'t sure whether she loved it or hated it.



She remembered when they were younger and their parents would call them in because it was getting late, and they would imagine Travis eventually being able to move into the room above the garage so they could make can phones and talk to each other with them from their windows all night. That never happened, though, because by the time Travis took the room they were no longer friends. They\'d sometimes both be closing their shades at the same time and would make awkward eye contact, or other times Cara would go to close hers and catch a glimpse of Travis and a girlfriend, but that was all. Something had changed between them once Travis moved onto middle school and she stayed in elementary school, he was all of the sudden too cool to have a tomboy friend.



Cara hated when people talked about her tomboy days, about how she used to play football and basketball with the boys while all of the other girls stayed inside and played house or barbies. Travis was the reason the other boys accepted her, otherwise they would think she had cooties like all of the other girls. And then once boys and girls weren\'t scared of cooties anymore, and they started having first kisses, all of the kids would chant things about Cara and Travis sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-ging. But their relationship was far more physical than that.



Rather than pouting out their lips and squeezing their eyes shut, they would play one-on-one and push and shove each other until one of them won. Whenever Cara won, Travis would slam the ball down and head inside his house and ignore her for the rest of the day, but then the next day he\'d be knocking on her door as if nothing ever happened. When Travis won, Cara would smile while he jumped around rubbing it in her face. But no matter who won, they both knew that they\'d have each others backs no matter what happened. They had long ago swore they\'d be the best of friends until the end of time, but that was before they experienced growing up.



Cara leaned against the wall adjacent to the window, hoping the boys hadn\'t seen her peeking in on them. She practically laughed out loud to herself when she realized how silly she probably looked. She was a senior in high school and she was spying on boys. She stood up and went into the bathrom connected to her room and turned on the shower in hopes of washing away the memories that had just came rushing back at the site of Travis Blanchard.





****



"Whose that hot girl staring at us?" Jesse looked out the window and asked nonchalantly. Travis\'s head whipped around, but it was too late. He only saw the swinging of the recently touched curtain before the light flicked off.



"Cara," he responded knowingly. Although he didn\'t see her, he knew it was her. She was an only child and it was her bedroom window.



"The girl you got a thing for?" Jesse asked with a mischevious grin on his face.



"Not at all." Travis began taking his clothes out of his bags and stuffing them into drawers.



"Alright, then I\'ll take her," Jesse replied with the same grin on his face, the face of a kid who purposely says something just to get a reaction out of someone.



"Not your type," Travis said back blankly, avoiding eye contact.



"My type is female, and I\'m pretty sure that wasn\'t a dude," Jesse went on. Travis ignored him and continued on with his business. He would admit that Cara was hot, but he hadn\'t held a conversation with her in god knows how long. For some reason though, everyone seemed to think he had some big crush on her, no matter who he dated. He remembered whenever he would break up with a girl in high school, their first reaction would be, "So and so told me not to go out with you since you\'re in love with Cara" or "It\'s because you like Cara, right?" Quite frankly, it pissed him off. He did not have a crush on Cara, in order to have a crush on someone you have to talk to them..right?



"She\'s gon\' play basketball up at UNC next year," he finally added.



"Yeah...not my type." Jesse laughed. Travis knew that would change his mind about her. While Jesse was a cool guy to be friends with and hang out with, he could be as cocky and shallow as they come. He would never date an athlete (unless it was a cheerleader or dancer), no matter how goodlooking they were. Travis\'s mind drifted back to Cara. He wondered if she had gotten bulky like a lot of female basketball players, or if she was still the same skinny, beautiful girl she had been the year before.



He suddenly remembered what Jesse said about how she was watching them. He knew she watched him sometimes, but he watched her too. He\'d sometimes lay on his bed in the dark so she couldn\'t see him in hopes that she\'d turn on her light but not close the shade. He didn\'t do it in a perverted way, it was more out of curiousity. He wanted to know who she had become. Once they stopped being friends she had slowly phased out of her tomboy stage and became a girl. Then her and Nicole became best friends and Travis only knew what she was like from what Nicole told him.



He\'d been home for less than 5 hours and he had already spent most of it either arguing that he didn\'t have a crush on Cara or thinking about her. Time to think about summer, he thought to himself. He closed his last drawer and looked up at Jesse who had made himself comfortable in the reclining chair in front of the TV next to his bed.



"You want the grand tour now?"



"Surrrre," Jesse slowly pulled himself off the chair and took one last look out the window, and then did a double take, "she looks like a blonde Jessica Biel," he said out of no where. Travis walked over to the window and followed his gaze. Although she had turned off her bedroom light, the boys could see Cara by the bathroom light wrapped in a towel, her body dripping water. She looked like an angel as she left the bathroom and made her way into the bedroom. Both boys continued to stare as she reached for a lamp on her dresser and turned on the light.



"Shit," they both yelled as they quickly jumped to the side of the window when she turned around and looked directly at them. Before Travis could recognize the sheepish grin on Jesse\'s face, he was being pushed back into the frame of the window where he was clearly visible. He glanced up to see Cara staring at him, reaching for string to pull down the shades. Before he knew what he was doing, he waved and unlocked the window and was now sliding it up. Cara gave a confused look and then did the same.



"Hey Car, how are you," Travis said loudly, completely hiding the nervousness and uncertainty of his voice.



"I\'m alright, you?" She said back, still a little confused. It was the most words they\'d exchanged in years.



"I\'m good, i\'m good... This is my friend Jesse," he said, pulling Jesse towards him. Jesse gave her a half smile and waved.



"Alright, well I have to get dressed and stuff, I\'m sure I\'ll see you later." She said, happy with herself that she ended the conversation first.



"Yeah, have fun at school tomorrow," he teased.



"Yeah, yeah, it\'s almost over," she whined back, cracking a tiny smile, "Bye guys." She closed her window, locked it, and yanked down the shade. Why was he acting like they were good pals? She\'d never understand boys.



"Nice one asshole, now she thinks were peeping toms," Travis said as he pulled down his window and locked it. Jesse just smiled at him and headed for the stairs.



***



Nicole finished blowdrying her hair and jumped onto her bed with her phone at her ear.



"Hello," a deep voice groaned on the other end.



"Heyy babe," Nicole said in a perky voice.



"Whatsup?" He asked, his voice becoming less groggy.



"Nothing, what are you up to?"



"Sleeping, what do you want?" He said with a rude tone.



"I just wanted to talk, jeeez," she replied, getting defensive.



"Nic, I\'m beat, can I just wait to see you tomorrow?"



"Fine, bye," she closed her phone angrily and slammed her head against her headboard.



"Awww, boy problems?" Travis\'s voice startled her, she hadn\'t even seen him and Jesse standing in the doorway. Good thing she wasn\'t on one of her calls to her friends talking about how Jesse was staying with them for the summer.



"Shut up, Trav," she said with a frown.



"I\'m just showing Jesse around the house, sorry to interrupt. Unfortunately for you Jesse, your room is right next to this things room." Travis said loud enough for Nicole to hear.



"I thought he was going to get your room and you were gonna take the guest room," she asked as she hopped off the bed and headed towards the boys.



"We decided it\'d be a pain to take all of my clothes and stuff and put them in here, so Buchs is just takin this room for now." He explained as he went through the connecting bathroom to the guest room(which used to be Travis\'s room). He helped Jesse get all of his bags in the room and then stood in the doorway to the hall. "I\'m beat, I\'m just gonna go to bed. If you need anything, the bathroom is there, but if Nicole\'s in it then there\'s another one down the hall. My parents room is upstairs if you need them for any reason, kitchens downstairs if you\'re hungry, computer room is across the hall, and there\'s weights and a treadmill and stuff down the basement if you get bored."



"Alright, I think I\'m good man, thanks." Jesse said before Travis shut the door and made his way out of the house. He was too tired to unpack so he grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste out of his bag and headed into the bathroom. Nicole was at the sink on the left and he nodded to her as he turned on the other sink.



"You guys are already going to bed?" She asked after she finished brushing her teeth and wiped her mouth.



"Yeah, we\'re pretty beat," he replied with a mouthful of toothpaste.



"At least you don\'t have school in the morning."



"Sucks, are your parents already asleep?" He asked blankly.



"Yup, they always go to bed at like 9 on Sundays." She replied, opening the bathroom door that led to her room. She couldn\'t believe she was standing in her bathroom having a conversation with Jesse Buchanan.



"Nice...well have fun at school."



"Thanks, I\'ll try. Goodnight."



"Night."



After she closed the door, he finished brushing his teeth and headed back into his room. He pulled down the comforter and almost climbed into bed, but instead he reached for his cellphone and quickly dialed his mom\'s cellphone. No answer. He tried his dad\'s. No answer. They were spending the summer in Paris, he had chosen not to go. He had already seen it plenty of times. "So much for being able to call you whenever I need you" he said to himself before he threw his phone into his bag and climbed into bed. This summer was sure going to be interesting.