Malcolm and Julie were sitting on the park bench. Alone. Reese was nowhere in sight. It was pure bliss.
Julie was talking about New York and...something. Malcolm wasn't listening. He was just staring into her perfect blue eyes. How could someone so beautiful actually be talking to him?
After a little while he realised she'd stopped talking, and was staring right back into his eyes. Here goes, he thought, slowly moving in to kiss her...
Suddenly her eyes dropped down and widened. She drew back from him in shock.
Malcolm, dreading what he would see, looked down and saw that he wasn't wearing any pants.
''AAARRRGGGHHH!''
Dewey groaned, rubbed his eyes and sat up, annoyed to be disturbed from sleep. ''Malcolm? Are you okay?''
Malcolm was breathing deeply, his heart hammering in his chest.
It was okay. It was just a dream.
He shook his head to clear it, and could just make out Dewey's face in the dark.
''I'm fine.'' he said, more to reassure himself than Dewey. ''It was a dream. That's all.''
Dewey sighed. ''I shouldn't be being nice to you,'' he said, ''after all the lies you told me to give me nightmares when I was little, but do you want a glass of water? You look kind of...''
''Yeah.'' said Malcolm. ''Thanks, Dewey.''
He'd calmed down by the time Dewey was back with the water, which he took gratefully.
When he'd finished, Dewey said, ''Now go back to sleep, and if you wake me up again your next glass of water will be going over your head.''
........
They'd arranged to meet Julie at 11. Reese was strangely calm as they walked to the park, whereas Malcolm could feel the beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. He tried to tell himself that there was nothing to be worried about. She was only Julie. She was only the most beautiful goddess in the whole world and if he messed up, he'd only have to crawl into a hole and die...
Reese was mentally going over his repertoire of favourite jokes, trying to decide which ones Julie would like most. He didn't have a soda can so the ''walk on the beach'' one was out. But he still had the ''wet dog breath'' one, and he was pretty sure the only reason the last girl hadn't liked it was because...
He never completed the thought. Julie was walking towards them. She was so...hot.
He'd never been one for words. But he seemed to have a little more idea how to use them than Malcolm at that moment.
''Hey Julie,'' Reese greeted her.
''Hi Reese,'' she said cheerfully, ''Hi Malcolm.''
Malcolm managed to come out of his trance just in time. ''Hey.''
''So, you wanna go sit down?'' she asked, pointing to a free bench under a huge tree a few metres away. The same bench from Malcolm's dream.
Even though he knew it was stupid, he found himself looking down to check he was wearing pants this time.
Letting out a breath of relief he didn't know he'd been holding, he followed Reese and Julie to the bench.