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“Hey. What’s up?”

“Oh nothing.”

“I know you didn’t tell me to come out here in the middle of the night for nothing. Now, c’mon. For real, what’s up?”

Stip sighed. What he had to say to Jill was literally at the tip of his tongue, and yet he couldn’t do it. He was sweating (this was clear to Jill) and his hands were clammy despite the weather being cold and dry. He rubbed his palms against each other and then wiped them on the side of his jacket. Dry. His hands were dry. “Jill”, he said.

She stared at him intently, trying desperately to figure out why he had called her out in the middle of the night. He sounded so urgent, she thought, but she brushed it off as nervousness instead. She replied, “Yeah.”

“Ok, so, sorry for calling you out on such short notice. But I really couldn’t sleep with this on my mind anymore.” Stip was nervous. His hands were starting to sweat again so he slid his hands into his jackets pockets hoping to relieve the moisture.

“What are you talking about Stip?”, Jill asked in an irritated and confused tone. “What are you thinking about that is making you lose sleep? I’m really tired. Can’t this wait ’til morning?”

“Yeah, I guess it can. It’s just…”
Stip trailed off and stopped himself from continuing. He looked at her tired, puffy eyes and sighed. “Alright Jill. Sorry. This was really stupid of me.”

“No, no. Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just really tired, that’s all. But go on. I’m here and I’m listening to you”, Jill responded.

Stip’s mind was racing and he couldn’t figure out why. Normally he would have no problem telling Jill his exact thoughts and opinions but this time just felt so different. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why but his gut just knew that what he was about to say, or rather, what he wished he could say, was going to make some waves between him and Jill. He decided however that he would save the bulk of it for later, when the both of them were refreshed and when it wasn’t so damned chilly out. But he had to say something. So he said this: “I, well Jill, you probably already know what I’m talking about, so I guess I wanted to let you know that I just think you’re making a huge mistake.”

Jill took a step back and stared at him for a few seconds. For a moment everything seemed to move in slow motion, and Jill hated that. She hated the slow-motion sensation because she knew it meant something was happening. Something crazy and unexpected. Something she couldn’t control. And it was happening to her. Shoot, she thought, it’s happening to Stip and he has no idea.

Jill wrapped her hand around Stip’s protruding wrist and yanked his hand out of his jacket pocket.

“Let’s go. Let’s get out of here”, Jill whispered to him as she showed a hint of a smirk. “We need to talk.” And she smiled a big, wide smile.

“What the hell”, began Stip, but before he could finish his sentence, he found himself running behind Jill as she led him — hand in hand — to the park swings.