When I was about five, I had a neighbor called Julian Savers. He was a year older than me. I, being a little too grown-up for my age, fit right in with him. For a couple of years that followed, we had become inseparable. However, on the eve of our third year of friendship, his family packed and moved away to the other side of the country. Ever since then, the Savers’ house had been occupied by a couple of other tenants, but I never found a friend in the eleven-year-old snobbish excuse for a girl, or in the two-year-old cute kid that took too long to calm down. I wondered how it would be to have Julian back as my neighbor, and I wondered how our relationship dynamics would have changed if he had. However, I also wondered if I’d ever find a good enough neighbor to fill in his place as best friend. So, when Dexter moves in next door, my first instinct is to go and introduce myself, just in case he has forgotten me, and to make sure that he feels at home, because somewhere in the back of my mind, Dexter is the closest thing to Julian I can find.
So, brushing the earlier unfortunate incidents under the carpet, I drag Jayce by his collar, because he refused to co-operate peacefully, and head over to the Mavericks’, a wonderful choco-vanilla cake in hand. Just as I approach the gate, I stall a bit wondering if this is the best decision, but then second-guessing myself won’t help anyone, so I might as well go ahead with it. I walk up to their doorstep with Jayce in tow wondering if any hot girl had moved in, and ring their doorbell. It rings loud and clear, and I wait impatiently, shuffling my feet and shifting the cake bowl from one hand to the other. Finally, I hear footsteps on other side and the door opens to reveal a woman about five feet five with very pretty gray eyes, and a very compassionate looking face standing on the other side. I take an instant liking to her and smile my broad hundred megawatt smile. She looks surprised for a second; my smile does that to people, and then returns it politely. “Hello, ma’am. I’m Avery Cooper, and this is my brother Jason Cooper. We live in that;” I point towards our house, “house, we just came by to say hello and see if you have settled in or you need help with anything” I say, my voice as clean and polished as the marble floors of The Arch, my parents’ office building, also the tallest and smartest in the country. Yeah, I’m rich, if you haven’t figured that out by now. I hand her the cake and she accepts it with a smile so heartwarming, that I’m momentarily surprised. “Why, thank you, Avery! If only my children could be as polite and nice as you” she says, beckoning us to come in. We step in and I’m amazed by how organized everything is. For a household that’s hardly a day old, it sure did look all lived in. “Well, you seem to have finished all the unpacking already, um, Miss…” I trail off. “Tracie Jones. Call me Tracie, darling.” She responds. “And all this furniture was already here, as we bought the furniture and the house, so we hardly had to do anything. Well, do sit down; let me get you something to drink. Something cold, perhaps?” she asks. “Yes, Mrs. Jones. The sun has been beating down hard since a few days, anything cold will always be welcome” I answer, thankful that she does not insist on me taking coffee, like our previous neighbors did. “Call me Tracie, please, Avery. Let me just call my kids downstairs” she says and heads towards the staircase, slightly visible from where me and Jayce are seated on the couch. “DEX, MEGAN, AXL, COME DOWN HERE AND SAY HI TO YOUR NEIGHBORS” she hollers and I hear footsteps coming from above. I steel myself in anticipation of having to look at Dexter. First comes a boy who looks the same age as Jayce, which I would take to be Axl, for if he were not, it’d take some time for me to wrap my head around the concept of a guy named Megan. Trailing behind him is the hot-as-heck brother of his, the reason I’m here, Dexter. They reach the bottom of the stairs and make their way towards us. Axl looks like he has a lot of unbounded energy and his face lights up as he looks at us. Dexter, on the other hand, looks completely aloof. In fact, he isn’t even looking at us. Rude much? I look at Tracie and see a passing look on her face as if she just remembered something painful. I wait for Megan to come down too, but nobody comes behind Dexter. We stand up to acknowledge their presence.
YOU ARE READING
Between The Both Of Us
Teen Fiction"Between the both of us, I think I like you", he whispered in my ear. "Well, between the both of us, I think I do too", I respond, and for once, I feel free, of lies, of deception, of hate, of pain, of everything except the only feeling that is over...
