#2

10 years earlier

With night and the darkness it brought, the bushes next to the porch were the perfect cover. The old yellowed light bulb that was miraculously still working, cast only a faint glow around the front door of the older home in the rural neighborhood.

The bushes rustled a little more than they should have had there been any wind that night, and the muffled giggle that was followed by the smacking thud of someone getting hit upside the back of their head was definitely not nature made.

"Shh!" a loud feminine whisper came from the forsythia bush next to the porch. "You're going to ruin it, you big jerk."

More muffled laughter and another smack could be heard, but all was suddenly quiet as the headlights flashed across the front of the house as a car turned into the driveway.

The sound of a car door opening and then jogging feet on the crunching gravel drive as the driver ran around the car to let his passenger out seemed louder to the two teenagers who had been waiting barely patiently in the bushes for the past half hour. They could hear slowly strolling footsteps coming toward the porch, and the muffled talking became more clear as the unsuspecting couple came closer to their hiding place.

"I had a really good time tonight, Tyler."

"Me too."

The male half of the bush duo rolled his eyes, and they both tensed with repressed laughter.

"Well, goodnight." The girl hesitated at the bottom of the steps, just barely out of the direct light from the porch light.

The boy reached his arm out shyly, but suddenly straightened with seeming resolve and he more boldly leaned in for their first ever good-night kiss. Bending down toward his date, the boy marvelled briefly at his good fortune, the heady scent of her perfume surrounding any coherent thought he might have had two minutes earlier. As her arms came to rest lightly on his chest and then slowly circle up to the back of his neck, he leaned slowly towards her gloss covered lips and was sure he was going to remember this moment forever. A perfect moment in his sixteen-year old life.

Or would have been if the bushes next to the porch hadn't chosen the moment right before their anticipated kiss became reality, to make a horrific screaming noise causing his date to nearly rupture his eardrums with her own earth shattering scream.

"What in the heck?" Tyler jumped back and tripped over an abandoned tricycle, falling on his backside just in time to see the offending bushes part and his twin brother and soon-to-be ex-best friend leap out in camouflage gear and giant water guns and drench his still screaming and definitely retreating date with water as she ran into her house and slammed the door.

And then turn their imposing water weaponry his direction.

Eyes widening, Tyler back peddled as fast as he could and then stood and started running for his car.

"I'm going to kill you Chase!" He yelled as he grabbed the door handle, dodging streams of water as well as he could, but failing miserably. "You too Allison. Both of you are so dead." He leaped into his car and slammed the door shut, locking it as fast as he could and then smiling mischievously as he glanced toward his date's house and seeing the two hulking forms of her older--much meaner--brothers coming out the front door to uphold the honor of their very frightened sister.

Tyler started his car quickly, gave a mock salute and backed out of the drive. Noticing the exact moment his twin brother and friend saw their impending doom heading their way.

He'd never seen those two run that fast. Ever.

And he laughed all the way back home.