All characters in sexual situations are 18 or older. My stories tend to be self-indulgent, but I'm open to constructive criticism.
Thank you to the anonymous commenter who mentioned they thought one of the lines didn't fit well. I agree and have edited the line out.
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"The laws of gravity work everywhere except in the heart and the soul."
-Matshona Dhliwayo
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Tom lay in bed, wide awake. He had an exam in the morning at his community college, but it was 1 AM, and he couldn't sleep. He sat up, rested his elbows on his knees, put his head in his hands, and slowly rubbed his face.
It wasn't primarily the exam keeping him from sleeping, and it wasn't just his parents' increasingly rocky marriage, the death of his friend last month, the divided political climate, wars being waged, the various turbulent unknowns of the world, or any of a half dozen other things weighing on him--if not all at the forefront of his mind, then in his unconscious.
It wasn't any one of these things keeping him awake, but all of them combined certainly made a significant contribution. He felt a great weight in his soul.
And Caroline. Definitely also Caroline. She, his longtime close friend and neighbor down the road, was at the forefront of his mind, front and center, although he didn't comprehend and hadn't fully identified the new feelings swirling around in his head that had kept her firmly on his mind lately.
He sat like this for 30 minutes, paralyzed in uncertainty. Should he continue to try sleeping when he knew it was unlikely he'd succeed in the next several hours? Should he get up and do something, even if it would decrease the likelihood of falling asleep?
He decided that doing nothing and obsessing was the worst of all options, so he resolved to go for a walk. He snuck downstairs so as not to wake his family, put on shoes, left out the back door into the warm summer night, and began walking under the stars.
He didn't consciously have a destination in mind, but some part of his brain knew where he needed to go, and after a few minutes, he found himself in front of Caroline's house.
Her bedroom was in a back upstairs corner of the home with one of her windows on the side of the house. He noticed a faint light coming from this window, which piqued his curiosity. He knew her well enough to know she never slept with a light on.
Throwing caution to the wind with a sudden daring that was unlike him, Tom decided to climb up the strong trellis that went up next to her window. He was able to make it up without too much noise, and he peered inside Caroline's room.
Caroline was lying in bed under her covers, but her reading light was on, and she was staring at the ceiling, her lips pressed together in thought. He watched for several seconds, and she continued to lie there without closing her eyes.
Tom's streak of daring continued. He could tell the window was unlatched and didn't have a screen, so he started easing it open. This could be a mistake, but he couldn't just turn back and go to his dark, sleepless room again now.
Caroline heard the squeak of the window and sat up with a frightened look on her face, clasping the blankets to her chest in alarm.
"Hey, Car," Tom whispered, peeking through the opening. "It's me."
Caroline relaxed upon seeing it was her friend. Her hair was messy from tossing and turning in bed, and the light in the room was dim, but seeing her stirred something in Tom.
"Tom! It's so late," Caroline said, looking at him curiously.
"I know, sorry. Can I come in?"
She shrugged and nodded.
Tom pulled himself carefully through the window and quietly shut it behind him before turning to Caroline.
"Hey. I, uh...I had to see you, Car."
She raised her eyebrows questioningly.
Tom sighed as he looked around her room, not entirely sure what to say. He himself didn't even fully understand why he had come. He hadn't thought this through, and he certainly didn't have words on hand to tell Caroline what he hadn't worked through in his own head.
He walked over to her bed as she continued to watch him.