Cindy flipped her pillow over for what must have been the thirtieth time that night, but the cool cotton exterior did nothing to incite sleep. She had been tossing and turning since 10:30, but no amount of soothing music, herbal tea, or well-written prose brought her any closer to stage two sleep spindles. This had been going on for the last few nights. It seemed that all the stress of her senior year of high school was finally getting to her. Sitting for long periods of time, staring at a back-lit computer screen for hours, drinking excess amount of caffeine: all the things you weren't supposed to do were necessary for academic success. And her sleep schedule was suffering because of it.

She tried to pull off the blanket, but it was firmly anchored to the end of the bed. She sat up to see why it wouldn't budge, and saw Humphrey snoozing away.

Lucky dog. You can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. No one expects you to memorize lines of Chaucer or write a four-page essay in one night. I can't even go to sleep when I want to.

She reached over to get her phone off the nightstand. The artificial light made her tired eyes burn, but she needed some form of relief from this dreaded insomnia.

Would it even be worth the humiliation? Is a good night's sleep really necessary? I've gone without it plenty of times before.

She pulled up the contact and pressed call.

After three rings she was about to hang up, but a sleepy voice picked up, "Hello?"

"Did I wake you up?"

"Well it is two-thirty. But I'm frequently up this late. What's going on?"

"I, um… I couldn't sleep."

"And you called me?"

"Well, Libby has color guard practice at eight A.M. and I'd rather not risk her ire."

"I see you have no such qualms when it comes to me."

"Well, you understand what it's like to have your restless mind keep you from getting rest."

"I suppose, but whenever I go without sleep some warm milk usually does the trick."

She chuckled, "Seriously?"

"Well, my mom usually has something to do with it."

A wave of melancholy overcame her. "You know, when I was little and I couldn't sleep I would climb in bed with my mom, and she would rub my back and tell me stories until I fell asleep."

"What about now?"

"Now if I dare disrupt her, she just tosses me a bottle of Ambien and says that if she wakes up with dark circles, she'll take her concealer out of my allowance."

There was a pause on the other end. "That's actually really sad Cindy."

She shrugged, "What can you do?"

"Well, it is a Friday night…although at this point it's technically Saturday morning… Would it really be the end of the world if you slept in tomorrow?"

"Probably. Goodness knows I can't get a late start to studying."

"It's not going to do you much good if you fall asleep while trying to read. Unless of course the ink transfers to your forehead. Then you can just look at your reflection to get answers."

She laughed, before being overtaken by a yawn.

"Sounds like you might be able to fall asleep after all."

"Yeah, I think I might. Sorry for waking you up."

"Don't worry about it. Goodnight."

"Goodnight. And Jimmy?"

"Huh?"

"Thank you."