Boy Next Door||Axl Heck

Freshman Year

  I sat with my knees to my chest as the summer breeze ran through my hair. I pulled my sweater tighter around my shoulders.
 
   "Hey Kenz." The voice of Axl Heck sounded from the bottom of the latter to our treehouse.

   "Ax, the password."

  "Oh come on Kezie, you know its me." Axl said, popping his head through the trapdoor.

  I rolled my eyes, getting up to look out the window. Axl had been changing all summer. I knew we were getting older and becoming teenagers, but Axl seemed to be growing up too fast for my liking.

   All summer he'd been avoiding me, and when he did hangout with me, he didnt want to do the usual summer things. Not once did we catch fireflies, or go to the pool, or sneak into a movie like we did every summer.

  "Are you mad at me or something? You've kinda been avoiding me all week." Axl said, sitting in a bean bag chair.

  "No I'm not. I've just been busy with like school stuff." I said, not looking at him.

  "Yeah, crazy we're gonna be freshman huh? I mean the chicks in high school are gonna be so much hotter." Axl said, all he could talk about all summer was the "hot chicks on high school". It was getting old.

  "Yeah I guess." I said, getting up to sit by him "Are you nervous to be playing varsity football as a freshman?"

  "Not really, I think varsity football should be nervous that the Ax-man is playing."

  "Yeah not sure that's how it works." I said, nudging him playfully.

  We spent the night talking about our plans for the school year, and reminiscing on the summer we'd had. When the sun had set and the streetlights came on we went back into our houses.

  I went to bed with butterflies in my stomach at the thought of being in high school. Before shutting my eyes, I looked over at my cheer uniform hung nicely on my doorknob. Axl had been so busy with himself all summer that he didnt even know I had tried out.

   Something told me that was going to be a common theme with Axl this year.