Henry's Big Night (Lame title, I know)

Sarah Page
Word Count: 1,825
Henry’s Big Night
This was the night. He looked across the room at Dave and grinned over his American Heritage book. He looked back down after Dave returned the smirk. Dave adjusted his baseball hat the way he did when he got anxious about something. Henry and Dave had been planning this for a long time, since freshman year actually-- before they had served missions. Now they were back and ready to keep that freshman fire alive and they had found other people willing to join in. They were willing to try anything for fun.
The library was quiet. There were only a few people around, and only half of them were still awake and alert. Henry couldn’t keep his eyes on his book. He scanned the room again. He found the other conspirators scattered about the first floor of the library. Dave was in front of him on a computer. Sam was at one of the tables with Tina. They all looked very studious until a glint of mischief passed over their eyes as they peered across the room for their friends. Henry sat reading, smiling to himself. He knew Laurie and Toby were upstairs and he tried not to laugh at the fun of it all. They would be scanning the fourth floor bathroom by now, watching for late-nighters who might interfere with their plan. Henry checked the clock again: 11:47. In three minutes, all the sleeping kids on the chairs would start and make their way out of the library.

“It has to be this weekend,” Henry had said to Dave. “We just have to do it.”
“I don’t know, man. It sounds cool when we’re plannin’ it all out and stuff, but what if somethin’ happens and… I don’t know, man,” Dave adjusted his hat.
“Come on, Dave. You were the one who had planned it all out. You’re the master mind! You can’t just not try it now.” Dave didn’t look convinced. He was smiling nervously. “Come on, it’ll be awesome. You’re doing it.” Henry patted his best friend on the back hard as they made their way into the apartment out of the cold night air. They had spent the evening at the library. They had remembered their plan from a few years ago and Henry was ready. Henry had been studying non-stop. He was the kind of guy that had to solve every problem—figure it all out. And in his major and with the classes he had going on this semester, those problems were a little harder than he was used to. He needed a break, a big one. Something to get all of the anxious energy out of his system and clear his head for a while and his and Dave’s plan seemed perfect that cool night in October. Henry tossed his stuff on the couch and followed Dave into the kitchen.
“Hey, man, look at this.” Dave had picked something up off the kitchen table and was looking at it with a huge grin.
“What is it?” As Dave turned around to face Henry, Henry saw a small yellow piece of paper with the words “HENRY JAMES!” in big letters at the top. “Hey.” Henry grabbed it and Dave laughed.
“Oh man! Watch out! She’s got it. She’s got it.”
“Shut up,” Henry couldn’t help grinning from ear to ear. He heard Dave chuckle as he went back into the living room.
“Hey! How’s it going? I just stopped by to get some help with French tonight but I guess you weren’t around. I was just going to tell Juan to tell you I came by but then I thought a note would be way cooler, so here it is! Ha. Well, I hope your day was AWESOME and I’ll see you later. –LAURIE”
Henry looked up from the note, got a glimpse of his reflection in the kitchen window and realized he was grinning like a goober. He put the note in his pocket. Laurie.
BANG! The kitchen door swung open and in came Sam with Tina followed by Toby. “Hey. Thanks for the knock, Sam. You’re awesome.” Henry chuckled as he said it. He was still thinking about her.
“No problema, Henry,” Sam said pulling up a chair at the table, his girlfriend taking the seat next to him.
“What’s for dinner, man?” Toby asked, watching Henry as he grated cheese onto his tortilla.
“Junk,” Henry said still smiling and put it in the microwave.
“Yeah yeah,” Toby laughed and took a seat at the table too. “What you been up to tonight, man? Where’s Davey?”
“Oh I think he’s on the couch in there. DAVE! Come here, man! We got to tell ‘em our awesome idea.”
Dave made his way into the kitchen, grinning his uncertain grin. “It’s killer,” he said. They laughed.
“What? What is it?” Tina asked amused.
“Okay. We don’t know for sure how this is all going to work out, but we had this idea a while ago and want to try it out and we want y’all to do it too.” Henry kept looking to Dave for support and saw him grinning. “One night—soon—we’re going to spend the night in the library.” It’s going to be sweet and we’re going to run around crazy and explore and try not to get caught by the custodians and—“
“Whoa whoa,” Tina was saying, smiling over Sam’s shoulder.
“That’d be sweet, man,” Toby agreed.
“Killer!” Dave exclaimed and everyone laughed.
“So, how ‘bout this weekend?” Henry asked tentatively.
They all looked at each other. “Sure. I’m up for it.”
So Friday night it was.
“4th and 5th floors are clear.” Henry read the text from Laurie. He was glad she agreed to come and spend the Friday night here at the library doing stupid stuff with his stupid buddies. He smiled as he thought about her roaming the halls upstairs, having a blast like she always did.
All the sudden the sparse sounds of clicking keys on keyboards and paper shuffling was interrupted with blasting music. 11:50. Time to leave. Dave grinned across the room at Henry again, adjusting his hat. A few minutes later, in waves, first Sam, then Tina, then Dave, and lastly Henry packed up their stuff and made their way out of the room. The workers were packing their stuff too, ready for the night to be over. Henry saw them slip into various side rooms, Dave into the bathroom. Henry took the back stairs up to the fourth floor, where he planned to meet Laurie. His is steps echoed in the stairwell, but the music muffled them well. “Hey!” Henry looked up. Laurie was smiling as she quickly made her way down the steps.
He stopped and smiled back. “Hey. How’s it going up here?” He asked, watching her hair fall around her face with each quick step.
“It’s good. Toby’s still up in the bathroom I think. He said he’d camp out there until all the people are cleared out,” Laurie said as they made their way back down the stairwell.
“Here, let’s hang out over here.” Henry took her hand like he’d been wanting to for weeks and led her over to the side of the stairs by the drinking fountain and the emergency doors. He was slightly embarrassed but confidant that it had been smooth. He looked back at her and looked away as he saw that her cheeks looked a little pinker than normal and she had a hint of a smile on her lips. Henry smiled to himself. He let go of his grip as they took their seats against the emergency doors. Suddenly, the music stopped. Everything was quiet. Henry checked his phone. Midnight. Closing time.
“This is it!” Laurie whispered.
“We should wait a little longer and then we can meet up with the rest of them and start the party,” Henry said, trying to make it sound as interesting as possible. He looked at her. Her brown eyes had flecks of gold, Henry could see. Then, they were gone. The lights in the stairwell had shut off in three loud clicks. Henry got up to see what was going on outside of the stairwell. He opened the door and as he did so, those lights went out too. Henry made found his way back to where he thought Laurie was, but ran into something warm on his way.
“Oh sorry,” he heard Laurie’s voice whisper. Henry thought she must have followed him over to the door.
“It’s okay, he whispered back. Man, its dark.” Henry led Laurie over to where her thought they had been sitting. He could feel her hand on his arm. The night got much more exciting much more quickly than Henry had anticipated.
“Oh, here.” He felt the wall with his hand. He turned to sit down, but Laurie was close to him when he turned around. A small sliver of window let in the only light in the whole space. Blue moonlight streaked across Laurie’s hair. He couldn’t see her face or anything else, only the shimmer in her hair. He could feel her near him though. As he turned, his hands met hers and he took them, naturally. They were warm and smooth. Henry leaned in closer to where he thought she was. He decided she must have been doing the same. Their noses touched and then their lips. Henry went to move his arm, but as he did so…
BEEOOOUU BEEOOOUU BEEOOOUU! A red flash of light lit up the walls. He had pushed on the door handle, turning on the emergency door alarm! Henry and Laurie broke apart suddenly in all the commotion. He could see her alarmed expression in the red light and he laughed. She laughed. They took hands and ran into the third floor corridor. Lights were flashing all along the walls and the walls and the alarm was ringing in Henry’s ears, but he was smiling. He saw Dave and the rest of the gang running down the hall. Dave motioned that there was someone was behind them.
“What?” Henry yelled down the hall.
Henry saw a guard appear around the corner at the end of the hall, a good sixty yards away. “Oh crap!” The guard was in a hurry, but didn’t appear to be pursuing them, but Henry knew if he saw them then, it’d be trouble. They turned around and headed back to the emergency doors, the closest exit, now that they had met up with the rest of them. They crashed open the doors and kept running down toward the Clyde building in the cold night air. They slowed to a halt at the edge of campus, everyone’s laughs subsiding.
He looked over at Laurie who was smiling broadly. It hadn’t gone as Henry had imagined, he felt all right about it. Dave was right. The night had been “killer.”