The Girl Next Door

Chapter 1

Matthew - 16 Ridley - 14

Matthew

You know, sometimes I really hate my parents. Not usually. Normally they are great parents. Loving, caring, always willing to listen to how I'm doing and help me to get to where I want to go. But there are times when I do feel like I drew the short straw. Like tonight. I could be out at my best friend Dustin Morgan's party, totally not drinking and trying to decide which cheerleader to spend my night with, but no. Instead, I have to stay here with Ridley Fredrickson of all people.

It's not that I hate the girl or anything, but she's a total loser. She always has her long brown hair in a bun or high ponytail (she never does anything it, even though she has more of it than most supermodels). She practically wears the same outfit all the time, just a T-shirt, leggings, and boots. And she wears these thick glasses that covers up most of her face.

All of this is fine. As long as she's comfortable with what she wears, it's really none of my business. It's her personality that really gets to me. She's just so... boring. She is a total push-over. I know that sounds a little harsh, but it's true. She only talks when directly spoken to (I swear we have gone through entire dinners where she hasn't said a word). She always has her head down in a book like she's trying to hide from the world. And I don't think I've seen her at a single social event that her parents didn't force her to go to because everyone else was there (or, my parents made me take her to cause 'It would be nice for you to introduce her to your friends').

Needless to say, not someone I would ideally like to be spending time with. However, since our moms are practically joined at the hip, I don't get much say in the situation. They met in middle school and have been best friends ever since. They even bought houses next to each other when they got married. I even think they were trying to have kids around the same time as each other, although that didn't really work out. All I know is that they said they were both having issues, which is why me and Ridley are both only children.

However, even with our two year age difference, that didn't stop our parents from trying to push us together at every available opportunity. They claim that they just want us to be close friends since we didn't have any siblings to be with, but I think our moms have been secretly planning our wedding since birth.

It wasn't so bad at first. When we were younger it was nice to have someone to always play with. And Ridley always just went along with what I wanted to do, like she was just happy to be there. She was fine playing superheroes, or throwing around dodgeballs, even playing on my Wii. She was kinda chill as a kid. However, we started growing older and found completely different interests. I got super interested in sports, mainly basketball and baseball, while Ridley preferred to stay inside and read until I'm positive her eyes start to bleed. However, our moms still thought of us as those two babies running around in the backyard.

I've tried everything to make my parents see that we just aren't meant to be super close, but nothing works. My mom still insists that I spend time with Ridley and take her with me when I have plans with my friends. And since our families are so close, we spend almost every holiday together and go to all the school and other social events together, where I am basically Ridley's chaperone. It doesn't help that sometimes Ridley will show up and ask to hang out, like we don't spend enough time together anyway (which doesn't make sense since whenever we do hang out we basically ignore each other). I swear if I didn't start sneaking out to see people, I would never have a second away from her.

Which is how I ended up spending my Friday night here at Ridley's house. Our parents had fancy reservations for their wedding anniversaries (yes, they actually got married in the same month), so I had to come here to keep Ridley company while they were gone. Which is completely unnecessary if you ask me. She's 14 years old. Sure, she probably can't spend a week by herself, but surely, she can be left alone while they go out to dinner.