was tired and my side hurt from laughing . I laid the flashlight against the wall while leaving it on so that we could still see , and I began to mix up the cards . The cards folded between my fingers as a shuffled them before we began . I dealt each card slowly as they slipped between my small fingers until we each had seven cards . There was barely any room for the cards between us and every time I moved my cards around my elbows ran into the walls . I was so determined to be comfortable that I made it happen , ignoring every new bruise and splinter .
The wood that enclosed us was hard , old , and smelled of rust and mildew . The sent of cardboard also filled my nose as I inhaled in thick air . The wood was unforgiving and we didn ’ t stand a chance against it . But just looking across from me to see my best friend smiling at me as she winced from the bruising was enough to get me to smile through it too . As we played we ate more and more chocolate chips , we were rebels for stealing them from the kitchen pantry ! I grabbed more and more chocolate each time I shoved it into my mouth for the sweet melting flavor . The chocolate let off a beautiful sweet aroma that filled the small space quickly . The cards we held slowest fell out of our hands as we lost interest in the game and began to talk . We continued to ask “ What do you wanna do ?” But the answer was always the same “ I don ’ t know ” because we were happy just where we were , doing nothing except as the same question every time we came back from getting side tracked in a new conversation .
We were having so much fun that we didn ’ t even realize the time go by , until we heard footsteps on the stairs . The dreaded sound of a mother approaching the gray carpeted floor that would lead to the small guest bedroom that lead to a whole new world that was just for the two of us . We were breaking the rules , but we didn ’ t care . If we heard the thumping of the stairs we scurried out of the small cupboard like mice . The small doors above our backs making it nearly impossible to escape . As we hit our heads and bent out of shape to get out we laughed and shushed each other as we did so in hopes of not getting caught . We didn ’ t know the consequences or the safety hazards of the whole thing , we didn ’ t know anything . We were young and naive and as I crawled out of the small space the only thing on my mind was the girl who laughed with me . As we slammed the trap doors closed I whipped my head around to see the tips of black shoes reaching the top of the stairs . With instinct we jumped onto the bed and acted as naturally as possible while trying to hide how out of breath we were .
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