See You Again

chapter three

sorry this took a while. I had the end of school and afterwards I just got lazy :) plus major writers block for this chapter in particular. this is the third time I've rewritten it so please enjoy. if I continue to get good feedback, I'll definitely post more.

Right now, Chelsea and I are doing a puzzle on the table. It's already noon and nothing interesting has happened. I've eaten and helped my mom with the gardening which didn't last long.

"Bored?" my dad asks as I stare at the puzzle with no interest. What's this even supposed to be?

"Yeah," I say. "Go check the mail for me, please," he tells me. It beats sitting here doing this nonsense puzzle.

I walk outside and see my mom crouched down watering her tulips. I walk past fast so she doesn't ask for help or anything. As I reach the mailbox, I hear laughter. I turn to look at my mom who's silently patting down soil now. Then I turn towards Nialls house. There I see him and a girl who looks around my age getting out of the car. As they walk to the door, I can't help but feel a little pang of jealousy in the pit of my stomach.

I immediately turn around and run back inside. When inside, I run past my dad. "Where's the mail?" he asks. "Sorry, got distracted," I yell as I make my way up the stair case.

In my room, I close the door and lock it. I let my body sink down against it. Why am I so sad? No, I know why. They real question is, how did I let myself feel this way so easily? I've literally known the guy two days. This isn't Romeo and Juliet.

I need to quit this before it gets any worse. I can't like him this soon, especially since I'll only be here two weeks in total.

To get my mind off of him, I pull out a book I'm halfway finished with. Before I know it, I've completed the book. I put it on the bedside table and lay for a few minutes enjoying the peace and simplicity of the moment. Phil knocks on my door minutes later. I get up to open it to stop him from continuing the knocking.

"Dad said you were up here. You should come with us," he says before looking to his right. I poke my head out the door and see Niall and the girl he was with outside earlier. Niall waves at me before I ask what they plan on doing.

"We're going biking." I hesitate before actually accepting the offer. If I'm going to ignore the fact that I have a slight crush on Niall, I'll have to accept that he has a girlfriend who he brought here.

Everyone waits on me as I get my blue bike from the shed on the side of our house. I ride it over to the others and then we take off down the road.

"Where are we going?" I yell. I'm so behind from everyone else because we've been pedaling for what seems like twenty minutes now and my legs ache already.

"This field I discovered a few days ago," Niall yells back. "It's not much longer 'till we're there." He laughs when he sees how far back I am from the rest. I feel embarrassed seeing that he's at the very front with Phil and the girl following after him. I tried to catch up to her a while back but I eventually gave up.

I see Niall start to slow down and eventually turn around my way. When he gets to me, he begins to ride at my pace.

"You're struggling, huh?" he asks. I bury my face in my shoulder before looking back up quickly to avoid a crash of some sort. "Well it's pretty tough. I mean, you all have long legs and mine are just so sho-" I say before be reaches over and covers my mouth with one hand, managing the bike at the same time. "No excuses, Jen." He laughs.

"Hey hey, we're here," he tells me. I look towards his pointed finger and see a big, open field that looks so pretty. There's sections of trees along the edges that provide shade.

I get off my bike, so glad that I get a break from all that leg work.

"Niall, don't you dare put that bike down. Race me first," says Phil. Niall rubs his hands together mischievously before shaking Phil's hand. Pretty soon, they're taking off on the path we came on, leaving me standing next to this girl whose name I have yet to know. At first it's quiet between us but then she breaks the silence.

"Boys will be boys," she laughs. "I'm Danielle by the way." She smiles and I smile back. "Jennifer," I say, telling her my name. "You're Nialls neighbor, right?" I nod. Neighbor and nothing more. We don't talk much after that because we're too caught up with laughing at the two dorks on bikes trying to sabotage each other.

"Ahah, I won!" Niall yells as he approaches us.

"That's only because you cheated!"

"No one said you couldn't throw rocks!"

We all laugh together. Afterwards, we all sit down and just talk. We talk about the field and conspiracy theories and anything that comes to our minds. It's been an hour or so and I think we're all regretting not bringing any snacks.

"I could eat a bear right now."

"I'm so hungry I could eat a whale."

"Well I'd eat a dinosaur."

"Are those bigger than whales?"

"It depends on the type."

We're in the midst of laughter before it goes silent. It's a comfortable silence though. One where you just think there's no place I'd rather be.

I decide to break the silence with a question.

"So Danielle, how long have you and Niall been dating?" Immediately, both her and Niall look up at me, faces red and everything.

"Oh no-"

"We're not dating!"

"She's my cousin! Gross!" Oh.

Never did I see that coming. I had just assumed they were together. We laugh it off and make jokes about it. When it comes time for us to leave, I walk up to Niall.

"Congrats on winning the race," I say. "I'm sure you're very proud." Niall smiles at me and then we make a pact that any time we go on bike rides, we'll stick together. Unless we are pulling something on Phil. We mutually decided that was acceptable.