The Boy Not So Next Door

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"You're welcome," I said breathlessly, staring at the closed door. I was still in shock from that quick meeting with this wonderful boy. I must have been standing in that same spot on the street for 10 minutes, at least. "Okay, Chels, snap out of it. He's just a person. A flawless person, but still a person," I said to myself, trying to give myself a pep talk in order to leave my spot on the curb. I wandered down the street for a little while until I reached a huge forest. The expanse of trees seemed to go on for miles. A never-ending sea of leaves and branches. I decided to go back to the woods another day because the sky started to look as if it were going to burst with rain at any moment. I went back to the house and shoved a small umbrella into my purse and left for the main part of town. After walking a few blocks I came to the main street which was lined with shops and restaurants. I walked a few blocks more and reached the local high school. At this point it began to rain, which I felt was quite symbolic. As I surveyed the building in front of me, I heard someone approach me from behind. I turned and saw a girl with blonde hair, about as pale as me. She looked like she was about my age. "Hi there, sorry if I scared you, I just wanted to introduce myself. I live next door to you and I saw you and your family pull up. Then, I saw you walking over here by the school," she paused for breath, "Since you are new in this town, I figured you should make a new friend." I looked at her sideways and said, "You sure do talk fast. I'm surprised that your lungs can hold that much air." I'm not that tall to begin with, about 5'6, but this girl must have been 5'1 or so. She laughed at my comment and stuck her hand out for me to shake. "My name is Rory. I'm a Senior here," she said gesturing to the school at our side. "I'm Chelsea and I'm a Senior, as well," I replied. By now, the rain really started to pour down. I pulled out the umbrella from my bag and opened it up for the two of us. "Oh, I like a girl who comes prepared. I can't stand girls who need to depend on others. You seem pretty independent, like you like to do everything for yourself," Rory said stepping under the shelter of my umbrella. "Yeah, pretty much," was all I said in return.

We walked down the road towards the quaint downtown area in silence. I made a mental note of the hardware store that was to the right of me so I could pick up some paint for my room. "Do you want to stop and get something to eat? I'm starving and I can only imagine how hungry you must be," said Rory, stopping in front of a little diner. "Uh, sure, why not," I replied with a tiny smile. I was always ready to eat. We stepped into the diner and sat at a booth in the corner of the room. A waitress took our order right away, leaving us to sit there with little to talk about. "So...where did you move from?" asked Rory. "Texas. The heat was dreadful, so I'm happy to have left," I said taking a sip from my shake that had just arrived. "I would never have guessed you were from Texas! You're so..." she trailed off. "Pale?" I questioned. "Yeah," she replied, looking down. "It's fine. Not like I didn't know. So what do you do for fun around here?" I asked Rory, who suddenly looked excited. "Oh there is tons to do! You can go to the mall, or movies, or the pier. Just, don't go to the pier at night," Rory said with a strange look on her face. "Why? What could be so bad about it at night?" I couldn't understand why her demeanor had changed so abruptly. "There are some shady people that like to hang around the dock at night. It's not a good crowd to get mixed up with. Just stick with me and you should be fine," Rory said with a big smile on her face. She seemed to really want to be my friend. She was nice, but not overly nice to the point where I wanted to slap her to get an emotion other than joy. As the waitress delivered our food, a boy walked into the restaurant. "Oh my gosh, Travis! Hi! Come here and meet the new girl, Chelsea," Rory exclaimed to the boy. He walked over to our booth and sat down next to Rory. "Hey, I'm Travis," said the boy, sticking his hand out to me. This was clearly a very polite town. "Hi, Chelsea," I replied, shaking his hand. "Travis is my best friend. He lives just down the street from us," said Rory. "That's nice," I said absentmindedly because the waitress had delivered our food. We all sat in silence, eating. I could tell this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.