"Make sure you do all your chores before I get back!" My mom yelled from downstairs. "Your allowance is on the kitchen counter. But if your chores aren't done when I get home and you've taken the money and gone out, you can kiss your next two week's of allowance goodbye!" she added. "I'm headed to my yoga class and will have lunch with the ladies after, so I should be back around one PM. Love you!" she said as she hurried out the door.

It was June, summertime and almost nine AM. My lovely mother had woken me up and I was rolling out of bed, sluggish and tired. I looked out the window while rubbing the sleep from my eyes and saw that it was going to be a hot sunny Texas day. I threw on some junk clothes and headed downstairs to feed my face. I opened the fridge but there wasn't much there. Mom probably forgot to go shopping yesterday after work. I bet she'll remember after yoga and stop at Wholefoods on the way home, I thought. Since the selection was scarce I just downed a whole glass of OJ and headed out back to the yard.

Our house was in a Cul de Sac, an upper middle-class suburb, forty-five minutes outside Dallas. While it wasn't a mansion or anything spectacular, we did have a rather nice yard, which I was responsible for. And so I pulled the lawn mower out from under the back porch, ripped off my shirt, tossed it on the railing, threw on the ear muffs for the noise and began mowing under the scorching sun.

Even though mowing the whole lawn only took about thirty minutes, I found my mind wandering as I strolled behind the whirring hum of the motor. At sixteen and a sophomore in high school with a promising college swim career, I was unsure of my future. My coaches, scouts, my teammates, my mom all told me I had the potential to swim Divison 1A and do well, possibly make the Olympic team depending on how much my frame grew and filled out. I know I'm pretty good but I didn't think I could go that far, not to mention I was beginning to receive scholarship offers from colleges and Mom really wanted me to take one of them so she didn't have to pay for my college education. I wanted to attend Texas University and would probably have to work myself through classes and swimming, which would be a huge load, stressful etc. So I was contemplating options and stressing about the future when the lawn mower suddenly stopped with a bang. Probably a rock, I thought.

I squatted next to the fence and as I reached to turn the mower over I heard my neighbor's sliding back door open. I cocked my head toward the sound and heard the door shut and someone head down the back steps.

As I inspected the blades for any damage, I happened to glance left and through one of the gaps in the fence I caught a glance of my neighbor Staci.

Staci was a senior (or going to be in the fall) at my high school. She was one of the prettiest girls but unlike the others she was sort of a loner. Of course that didn't stop all the guys from lusting after her, but funny enough, most were too shy to approach her. I suspected it was because hardly anyone knew her really, or her personality for that matter. They probably didn't want to be shot down in a ball of angry flames or sassy rhetoric or something weird of that sort. I, while I didn't have her totally figured out, liked to think I knew her more than the rest of them since she was my neighbor and I did see her often, usually tanning at the pool or the occasional jizz-inducing glimpse of her in her bedroom.

So here I was, squatting just on the other side of the fence, fiddling with the lawn mower, glancing at her through the tiny fence crack as she walked toward the pool. Her hips were sashaying from side to side in that hypnotic way they always do, when I realized she probably heard me mowing the lawn. She also probably heard it stop suddenly when she came out. If she notices I'm right on the other side of the fence, not mowing the lawn, squatting down, peeping at her through the crack in the fence, it would be bad. Like really bad.

Here's the prettiest girl in school (who has always been my hugest crush), walking to her pool on a lazy morning to catch some rays and she spots me and my lawn mower jam. For all I know, she might think I'm taking a break to whack off to her in her tiny yellow bikini like a little pervert! If that happened I'd just die. Fuck swimming in college, if she made eye contact and shrieked like she'd seen a spider or some other critter and ran back into the house covering herself yelling 'Eeeew!' I'd be done. With everything. Scarred for life. 

Quickly pulling myself out of my horrific imagination, I started the lawn mower again and hurried along the fence line, eager to be away from any awkward and soul crushing scenarios. But much to my relief I saw that she simply laid out her towel and started tanning with her earbuds in. I made sure to run the edge of the property line, walking casually like nothing happened, then finished up, dumping the clippings in the green bin on the side of the house.