Tripping Hazard - August 22, 2010

Isaiah

I wake up and wipe my eyes. I reach over on my night stand and hit the off button on my alarm. I sit up and pick up my phone. I turn it on as I get up and check my Email amongst other things. I get up and walk into the bathroom. I look at my short blonde hair. Of course it was looking wild since I just got up. I pull out a comb and fix it. I brush my teeth and other routine things. I walk back into my room to see my phone's light blinking. I had a text message. I open it.
“Hey, Isaiah, I liked you best out of the whole group. Honestly, I think you're really hot, and just awesome. I was hoping to go out tonight. If you want to, pick me up at my house at 8. But don't tell the others, I don't want them to get jealous and mad at you. Hopefully see you tonight. ;) “ the text message read.
My face lit up. I was just asked out by like the hottest chick I've ever seen. This is going to be the night of my life. I look at the clock: 12:32.
“Oh my gosh, I have to wait like 7 hours!” I exclaimed.
I sit down and start to play Xbox. A little bit later my phone rings. It was my parents.
“Hey son, what are you doing?” they asked.
“Nothing, playing Xbox, hey mom, can I go out tonight?”
“With who, might I ask?”
“A girl I met yesterday. Karlie. She's really nice, and she asked me out today. Please?”
“Sure, son. Well I'm going to go. Lots to do today. Love you son. See you later.”
I hang up the phone and smile. I was going on a date that night. I go back to playing Xbox to pass the time.

Seven hours later, after doing various things to kill time, I look at the clock: 7:32.
“Yes! It's time.” I yelled.
I get up. I take off my sleeping shirt and throw on my nice Aeropostale shirt. I put on my nice shorts, and then fix my hair one more time. I grab my iPod, lock the doors, and head out. I walk down the street. And eventually see the tripping hazard sign.
“I'm getting close.” I say with excitement.
I make it to her house and knock on her door. When the door opens I see Karlie in a purple dress. It was silky and very sexy. She was gorgeous. I take a moment to catch my breath.
“Well, ma'am, are you ready?” I say with poise.
“Yes, sir, I am.” she replies.
We both laugh a little. We start walking down the street.
“So where are we going? She asked.
“We are going out to dinner, and then somewhere special.” I replied,
She smiles. I smile. We continue walking. We make it to the restaurant. We walk in and I give the waitress the reservation name. She leads us to our table and we sit down. We order drinks, and then a little later, food.
“So, tell me, are you interested in school? Or are you the rebellious 'I hate school' teenager?” I asked.
“I love school. I have a 3.9 GPA and I am taking two AP classes. School is my number one priority. I'm going to be a great doctor one day.” she replied.
“Awesome. I love a girl who is actually interested in school. I currently have a 3.8 GPA, and I am taking one AP class. So, what's your favorite subject?” I ask.
“That's not bad at all. And my favorite subject, hmm... probably, social studies. World History to be specific. Which is ironic since I want to be a doctor.” she says as she chuckles.
“I am pretty big fan of history as well.” I say as I chuckle, too.
“So, you haven't said, what do you want to be?”
“I want to be a psychologist. I want to study the human mind and the thinking process in different humans. Also, I am going to be a computer programmer. My ultimate goal is to create a program that can create an accurate 'profile,' if you will, of a human simply through using a dichotomous key of sorts. In other words, I want to be able to feed a few characteristics of someone into a computer, and accurately produce a psychological profile of this person. Basically telling me how they think.” I say.
“Very intriguing. Well if you ever need any anatomical help, come find me.” she said as she winked at me.
The night continues on, and we finish eating. We exit the restaurant. I guide her down the street, and then down a dirt road. We come to a lovely waterfall. She smiles when she sees it. I look at her amazing smile.
“You know, your smile could light up the world.”
She smiles even more. Then, underneath the moon and the stars, we share a deep passionate kiss. After we kiss we pull back and gaze into each others' eyes. We both smile. She breaks the eye contact when she looks at the lake. She smiles and walks over to the water's edge. She untied the knot holding her dress. She threw it off, and was wearing a bikini. She jumped in the water and gestured for me to get in, too.
“Come on in. The water is awesome.” she said.
“I don't know. My parents would probably get mad if I went swimming at this time.” I say.
“Please? Pretty please?”
With those eyes she could get me to do anything. I throw off my shirt and jump in the water. We swim around before coming together and start making out. This was the best night of my life.
“Do you love me?” she whispered in my ear?
I was panting from the arousal and excitement. I had to catch my breath to reply.
“Yes. Yes I do.” I say back.
We start kissing again. A few minutes later, we decide it's time to go. The moonlight guides us home. I drop her off at her house.
“I had a lot of fun tonight. I'm really glad we did this.” I say.
“Thank you. I had fun, too. It's been a while since I had a good date.”
I smile at her and she smiles back. We lean in and have a small gentle kiss.
“I love you Isaiah.” she whispers in my ear as we pull back.
She walks inside and I stand there. Starstruck. Then I start heading home. I see the tripping hazard sign, and just as I did, I fell. I tripped over the rocky hump in the street. I felt so stupid after I tripped. But I got back up and went home.

Samuel

I wake up. It's bright and early. After a whole day of not hearing from Isiah, I wonder what I'm going to do today. I turn my phone on and get up. I look at my messages and notice I have a new one. It was from Karlie.
“Hey, I really like you. And I was wondering if you wanted to go out this afternoon. If so just text me, and pick me up at about four.” the message said. It was received at 8:24 a.m.
I look at the clock and its 2:30. I slept really late. But I get myself dressed and walk outside. I text Karlie and tell her I wanted to go out and that we can go earlier if she wanted. She agrees. I walk to her house and pick her up. She was wearing very short shorts and an athletic t-shirt like the first time I met her. She greets me.
“Hey Sam. Hey, before we go, can we not tell any of the others about this. Just to make sure they don't get jealous or mad?” she asks.
“Yea, sure. That's probably a good idea.” I say.
We start walking down the street. As we walk we make small chit chat.
“So what exactly are we going to do?” she asks.
“Well, I thought we would go to a movie.” I reply.
“That sounds good.”
As they walk toward the cinema, they discuss which movie they were going to see. They finally decide, and then shortly after, arrive at the theater. They buy tickets, and then snacks. They step into their designated theater and start watching the previews. The movie starts. As they watch, they start holding hands and cuddling. A couple hours later the movie ends. They get up and leave. It was about 6, now.
“Hey, I kinda need to get home now.” Karlie says.
“Oh, okay. Let's go.” I reply.
I walk her home. When we reach her house, I kiss her cheek s I tell her goodbye. She smiles, and then we pull into a full kiss. She pulls back, waves, and walks inside.
“That date wasn't very eventful, but it was still great.” I think out loud.
I start walking home, and when I see the tripping hazard sign, I fall face first. I had tripped over the rocky hump in the street. Feeling robbed of my dignity, I get back up, and walk home.

James

I look at the clock, it's 6:30. I haven't heard from any of my friends, and I have nothing to do. Suddenly I hear my phone ring, it was a text message.
“Hey, James. I thought you were amazing the second I met you. And it's like I fell for you instantly. Do you maybe want to go out? If you do, come pick me up now, and we'll do something. But don't tell the others, I don't want them to get mad or upset.” the text message said, from Karlie.
I let my mind process the message for a minute, then make my decision. I was going out that night. I walked down the road and eventually made it to Karlie's house. I knocked on the door and am greeted by a fashionable Karlie. She was wearing a skirt and a simple top. Nothing much, but still classy. And most importantly, she still looked great.
“Well, on my way over I thought about what we're going to do. We are going sky diving.” I say.
Her mouth dropped.
“Sky diving??” she asked.
“Yep. My dad works at the airport and one of his buddies does sky diving. He takes me anytime I want to go.” I say.
“Sounds awesome.” she says nervously.
We make our way to the airport. When we get there, I pull the strings, and within ten minutes we are suiting up for sky diving. We board the plane, and talk as the plane lifts off. After the conversation starts getting dull we hear a static noise.
“This is the captain speaking. We are now at 10,000 feet. It is time to dive.”
“You ready?” I ask Karlie.
“As ready as I'm getting.” she answered.
We both get up and go the door. I buckle us together to make sure we both land safely.
“3,” I start counting down, “2” I continue with excitement, “1” I exclaim, “Jump!”
We start free falling from 10,000 feet. Even though we were falling in the air, it was still incredibly romantic. After a few minutes of steady falling I pull the chute. The parachute pops out and expands. We begin slowing down. A couple minutes later we softly touch down on the ground. I unbuckle us, and we get out of our equipment. Karlie turns and looks at me, and she kisses me.
“That was awesome. I've never done something like that before.” She says.
“I'm glad you liked it. But I need to get home. So let's go.”
I take her home, and standing outside of her door we kiss and say our goodbyes. I turn and walk up the street. When I see the tripping hazard sign I suddenly feel something on my face. It was the ground. I had tripped over the rocky hump in the street. With my dignity stained on the ground, I get back up and walk home.

Trace

I sit up, and look at my phone after a long nap. I had a text message. I look at the time: its 9:30. I then read the text.
“Hey, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out. Just text me if you do. But don't tell the others. I don't want them getting mad or jealous.”
I sit there and think. I text he back.
“Hey, I'll pass on going out. I guess I'm just not really looking for someone right now. Sorry.”
What I was hiding from Karlie, and all my friends was the fact that I am gay. I pretended to be drooling over Karlie when we first met her simply to fit in. I don't want the guys knowing I'm gay. But then I started feeling guilty. I decide to walk down to Karlie's house and talk to her about not going out. I get to her house and knock on the door. She answers.
“Hey, can we talk?” I ask.
“There's nothing to talk about.
“Actually there is plen-” I start, but am interrupted by her lips being pressed against mine.
After she kiss me, she pulls back, winks, and then closes the door. Even though I am gay, I still caught butterflies from that. I turned back, and started walking home. I saw the tripping hazard sign and had a mini-heart attack in the air as I fell. I hit the ground and felt my dignity shatter. I gather my thoughts and get back up. I walk home.

The Confrontation

The next day all the boys get up. They all go to Karlie's to see, what they think is, their girlfriend. Except Trace. He was going to tell her the truth. They all conveniently get there at the same time.
“What are you doing here?” Isaiah speaks up.
“I'm here to see my girlfriend!” James exclaims.
“Your girlfriend! Bull! She loves me! She's my girlfriend!” Isaiah loudly responds.
“You're both stupid, she's mine!” Sam throws out.
“She kissed me!” Trace says.
The crowd continues to bicker until Karlie walks outside.
“Care to explain what this is all about, Karlie?” Isaiah confronts.
“Yea, why are we all saying you're our girlfriend?!” Sam snaps.
“Well, I liked you all. So I decided to date you all. But I didn't want to just take one. I wanted you all.” She responded.
“In other words, you're a filthy whore who's tried to date us all at the same time?!” James spouts.
“You could say that, I guess. But it was fun. And I'm moving today. So what's it matter?” She says. She winks and gets in a car. The car along with a convoy of moving trucks drive away. She was gone.
The boys all look at each other perplexed. Each questioning how they fell for her. As they all walked back home, they all saw the tripping hazard sign. Each one says at the same time:
“Ya know, after our date, I tripped here.”
Then they all got an idea. They went and got some spray paint, and came back to the sign. On a piece of plywood they wrote:

“Tripping Hazard: You never know when you're going to trip and fall in love.”

-Nick Alexander