Rich should have been asleep. He was comfortable; he was curled up in between Jake and Brooke under a very soft blanket, but still he couldn't sleep. It started to frustrate him. Eventually he sighed and wriggled out of bed without waking anyone.

He wandered around the apartment for a bit before heading outside. He felt a little silly going outside in his pajamas. Even sillier that he was in the apartment-shared front yard. Nobody was awake, he reasoned, so it's not like anyone would see him, right? He bit his lip before climbing one of the trees.

He sat on a branch for a while, watching the street and the stars, until he started to get sleepy. And it was getting a little chilly, anyway, so he should have really gotten down.

Except he couldn't. He tried climbing down, reaching his foot towards a lower branch, before nearly slipping and falling, scrambling to hold onto one of the sturdier branches for dear life.

"Oh no," he said quietly, breathing fast. He held onto the branch he'd grabbed like his life depended on it, before pulling himself up to sit on it. He looked down at the ground, frowning. "I guess I'll wait then," Rich mumbled, wishing he had had the foresight to bring his phone with him. At least then he'd be able to call Brooke or Jake and wake them.

So he waited. He wasn't sure how long he'd waited. All he knew was that he couldn't stop shivering by the time the sun started to rise. He remembered reading somewhere that the coldest time of day was right at dawn since that was the longest time the earth went without sun before the next day. Probably from his geography textbook. He wasn't certain.

He wondered if his lips had turned blue and his cheeks red, like in the books and movies.

Or maybe he was being dramatic. He didn't know.

He kept an eye on his apartment door until it opened and Brooke poked her head out. "There you are!" she said upon spotting him in the tree.

"I - I got stuck," Rich admitted.

"I'll help you down!" she assured him, not realizing she would soon be facing the same fate. She studied the tree for a moment before reaching up and grabbing a branch, climbing up to help her boyfriend down.

She didn't get far. She hesitated before looking down at the ground and feeling her stomach drop.

"Oh no," she said, repeating Rich's earlier words.

Rich sighed softly.

"I guess we're both too short," Brooke observed, and Rich cracked a smile.

"Jake took a - all the tallness," Rich half-joked. A pause. "How long do you think it'll take for him to notice we're out here?"

Brooke hummed in thought. "I'm not sure."

It took ten minutes for Jake to come outside. Rich was still shivering and Brooke had reached up her hand to hold his. "Hey, Jake!" she called out.

"What are you two doing in a tree?" Jake said in surprise.

"We got stuck. Wanna help us down?"

Jake walked to the tree and started helping his datemates down. Brooke first, since she was in a lower branch, then Rich. "You're really cold Rich," he noted.

"Y - yeah well, I was up there for hours," Rich replied, too tired to really come up with a retort.

Jake's eyes widened. "Why didn't you try calling?"

"Phone was inside."

"C'mon," Brooke said, grabbing Rich's hand and dragging him inside. Rich really hoped nobody else in the apartment complex saw him get stuck in the tree. He wasn't sure how he'd live that down.

"I'm going to get sick," he stated as Brooke and Jake led him back to the bedroom.

"Then we'll take care of you," Jake said gently. He put an arm around him and Rich leaned into the touch with a quiet sigh.

Rich crawled under the blankets, his shivering lessening somewhat. "Don't leave," he whined when Brooke and Jake had started to go. The other two glanced at each other before getting into bed next to Rich. "Just for like... an hour," the shorter boy mumbled, already closing his eyes and clinging to them.

They stayed a bit longer than that.