Waiting outside the lines

Chapter 1

Metaphorically, what sucks about love is when you're alone in a dark room.
And they're gone.
They aren't there to turn on the light like they used to before.
They left somewhere, left you.
And you wonder what you did wrong.
The answer is; absolutely nothing.
But that's just me.

For a while, it was easy, in fact I was enjoying life as it was. Until he came to my life.

It started when I was fifteen, nearly sixteen. I had sat on the porch for a bit, reading a book I had read for years on end.
I heard a truck pull up to my neighbors house and I looked up. Someone jumped out of the car, a woman, followed by a boy my age. No one had lived there for years, no one dared to. The guy saw me looking at him and smiled, the most adorable, kind smile you could imagine. Immediately, I looked down at my book, blushing. Sooner
than I thought, he was right in front of me.
I tried to hold in my excitement.
"Hello" he said, with that smile of his.
"Hello." I said pulling my hair behind my ear.
"What's your name?" He asked, still smiling.
"Janet." I replied, embarrassed. I look back down. Saying it out loud made me realize how dumb it was.
"It's a beautiful name." He smiled. He blinked and shook his head, realizing he forgot to introduce himself. "Uh, I'm Wayne. " He smiled again. We stared at each other for a while, smiling.
I notice different things about him that caught my attention. I notice a tattoo on his arm; above his elbow. It says 4485, at least, I think so. He sees me looking at it and pulls his sleeve over it. I look back up smiling, as if the tattoo didn't bother me. He doesn't look at me.
"So, are you... uh moving in that house?" I ask.
"What," He looks back as if forgetting, "oh, yeah!" He says.
"Where did you used to live?" I asked politely, trying not to sound too curious.
"You know, around..." He replied, smiling at the floor. It must be a touchy subject for him.
"Oh that's alright" I smiled, nodding. I honestly wanted to get to know him.
"I should..." He said, pointing back at the truck.
"Oh! Oh yeah, right." I closed my book and watched him walk back. "That's fine." I walked in my house, thinking about Wayne.
When I got back , I greeted my little brother at the door.
"Wanna play with my frisbee?" He asked, "do ya? Do ya!" He jumped up and down.
"Sure!" I messed up his hair and he laughed. The entire time I couldn't stop thinking about Wayne. I wanted to get to know him better. Maybe I like him, but I don't want to make the same mistake of falling head over heels for a guy I just met. I try to shake it out of my head, but I can't. Then I think of the tattoo. What could it mean? It was numbers? It could be nothing, or it could be everything. I decided I would take my brother inside. Because it was almost pitch black out.
"Hey, let's go inside."
"Okay!" He skipped inside. He was truly the best brother in the world, and I was so lucky. I tucked him into bed. He was dead asleep, so I decided to sleep myself. Dying to talk to Wayne, I thought all night about him, and hoped I could talk to him.
When I woke up, I realized I had to do homework. But I couldn't concentrate, thinking about Wayne. Why does he have that tattoo? It could be nothing, or it could be everything. What did it mean? Should I be worried? I decided I needed fresh air. I got dressed, and went outside, but brought my homework and my book. I tried to do my homework, but I still couldn't. It was starting to get cold. As I started to go back inside, a woman came up to me.
She looks at me frantically and says, "Can you please help me!" Without an answer she starts running towards her house, so I run after her. What's wrong? Is Wayne okay? Did he get offended by me staring at his tattoo and freak out? What happened? As we run into the house I see water all over the floor. "The water won't turn off!" I laugh at myself for thinking the things I thought. I'm the type of person who over thinks everything, quite a lot. I took off my shoes and socks and start looking for what's broken. I find it and remember that the exact same thing happened to us and we hired a plumber and he said it was an easy fix. I remember how he did it so I asked for some tools and started at it. Wayne came in with more comfortable clothes on but he still had something over his arm so I couldn't see the tattoo. He watched me as I got the right tools out and it was a little awkward for me. I suddenly forgot how to move my hands and dropped the tools in the water. He picks them up for me and I see his tattoo again. Definitely 4485. He pulls his sleeve down in frustration almost. I say thank you and start working again.
As I work, Wayne still stands stands at the door. After a while I finally build up the courage to say something,
"So how old are you?" Not much, but it's a start.
"15. I'm turning 16 in a few weeks. You?"
"I'm 15 too. I'm turning 16 in a few months." He nods and I continue.
"So are you going to go to school?" What? What kind of question was that! Of course he's going to school. I look down to try to hide my embarrassment. He laughs a little and says,
"Do I have a choice? Cause if I do that would be amazing." I laugh a little, and ask what school he's going to. He says the name of the school I going to and a smile creeps onto my face.
"Cool. That's where I go." I try to say not too excitedly. "Are you coming tomorrow?"
"No, I think I'm going to start on Tuesday. Get settled in here and then I'll probably be ready. Maybe you can show me around."
I try to hold back a smile.
"Totally." I say, as if nothing. Even though my heart was jumping up and down for joy. "Okay. Done." I say getting up.
"Wow. That was fast." I tell him how the same thing had happened to us and everything.
"Why don't you get towels so we can clean this water up?"
"Don't worry about it. You already did enough. I can clean." But I insist and he goes to get towels. As I walk around, I see a few pictures already out of there boxes, hanging on the wall. I see Wayne's family. His mom, his dad, an older boy that must be his brother. And I notice something odd. There are pictures of Wayne and his brother when they were little and then there's pictures of them now. Nothing in between. I look at them for a while confused and then Wayne walks in with towels. He looks at me kind if weird but worried at the same time. I smile as if nothing was wrong, and grab a towel. I walk to where the water is spilled and start cleaning.
We talk while we clean and it was actually fun. Finally, when we're done, the woman comes out from wherever she was and asked how it was going. I told her that I was done and we were just cleaning up. When we finished she thanked me and asked if I wanted to stay for dinner. I look at the clock and see its about 8:30.
"I would love to but I actually have to take care of my little brother. I left him alone for a while so I should probably go. Thank you so much though." She hugs me which surprises me a little. And I guess she notices too because she says
"Sorry, I'm a hugger." I laugh a little and smile at her. She is really nice. I partly hope Wayne is a hugger too but no such luck. He waves at me as I walk out the door and calls to me,
"See you on Tuesday." I nod and smile at him as I walk out. I go to my door and see that my little brother has locked it. I look for the key under the mat. I grab it but then hear Wayne's mother say something a little loud, so I pretend like I don't have the key and try to listen. I know I shouldn't but still.
"She seems like a nice girl."
"Yeah, she does." I could hear the smile in his voice and get butterflies in my stomach.
Then his mom says something quiet and I can't make out what she says the first time but then I realize and I look up from 'looking for me key.'
"Do you think she saw your arm?"