Beautiful Chaos

D.J.

I hate car rides, I get car sick 30 minutes in and have to sleep the rest of the trip, then I don't sleep the rest of the night. Which sucks, but luckily I don't have to be anywhere or do anything tomorrow.

I live in Arkansas, which probably has the most paper towns than any other state and the only things we have are Sonic, Walmart, and Dollar General. Unless you go to a big town then you get a wider variety of stores, but if you want to go to a fancy restaurant you have to drive 30 minutes away, but at least we have cheap gas.

My dad told me about a month ago we were going to Galveston, Texas for the summer, he says it's for vacation but I overheard him on the phone talking about a possible job opportunity. I wouldn't mind moving, the only thing about Arkansas I like is the heat.

Which is probably why I fell in love with Galveston the second we drove over the boundary line. The air was fresher, the sun was actually sunny and not covered by fog and smoke. You could go to the ocean, the water is probably dirtier than the water in Arkansas but I don't really give a shit. We drove past the pier and it was so beautiful, and there are so many interesting looking people.

Our rental was one of those houses on stilts, seemed a bit unsafe but I wasn't too worried about it. The inside was much bigger than what it seemed on the outside, and I had a whole room to myself that had its own bathroom. Usually my sister would get the bigger room but she is off at some college program right now so it's just me and our younger brother at home with our parents. I don't mind tho, my brother is quiet and not a little shit most of the time.

As I was grabbing my last bag from the car I looked over at the house neighboring ours, a blonde girl sat on the porch, a group of teenagers around my age sitting around her. She looks at me and smiles, I smile back and continue down the stairs to my car.

Once I pop the trunk I hear a voice call out to me, "need any help?".

I look up, blonde hair and brown eyes grabbing my attention, it was her. This girl was tall, well taller than me, I'm not exactly average height. She had freckles splattered across her face and short blonde hair that fell in perfect waves. She was also tan, and the white shirt she had on made her skin pop.

I smirked a bit and hand her the bag I pulled out of the trunk. "If you're offering", I say with a toothy grin.

A chuckle rises from her throat and my heart skips a beat, causes guilt to pool on my stomach. 'Shit' I think to myself as I look down at the ground below me. She takes my bag and slings it over her shoulder before she closes the trunk of my car.

"Where are you from?" She asks as she begins to head up the stairs.

"Arkansas" I answer quickly, I think curse myself for sounded like an absolute dork.

"Figured, you don't sound like you're from around here", she said looking back at me.

"Oh yeah? How do I sound?" I ask, for guilt pooling in my stomach since I was most definitely flirting.

"Southern", she said a bit dead panned.

"You literally live in Texas".

"But I live in a part of Texas that isn't southern, its coast".

"True", I say nodding my head, "but depending on how this summer goes I might just be keeping permanent residency here".

"Oh really? Well that's good to know", she stops walking and turns to face me. I stop right in front of her, my arms dangling by my sides and look up at her.

"Thank you for helping me with my bag".

"Any time ", she slips my bag off of her shoulder and hands it to me but before I can grab it she pulls it backs towards her. "First, tell me your name".