Next door

Dinner

The next day, we had organized dinner with our new neighbors. By early afternoon, I was already fully ready, and nervously waiting to meet the new girl.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, my dad rushed to the door, and the family walked in, all smiling and enthusiastic, except for the new girl. She stood at the back of the group, in silence.
I approached them, shaking their hands one by one.
"Hi there, I'm Samantha." Said the mother
"I'm Jack." Said the father
"And I'm Clay." Said the son
I turned to the girl but she just stared at me, with her unforgivingly dark eyes.
"Ally." I told her, she nodded
"Stevie." She said

The four of them sat down at the table, and my family followed. It was a long period of silence before our parents began chattering, and we watched each other in silence.
Once the meal was finished, we moved on to the living room, where the conversations continued.
"So Stevie, what are you into?" My dad asked her, and before she could reply, her mom began to speak for her
"Oh she's one rebellious young lady, always out and up to no good. We have to lock her door at night, for we don't want her to sneak out, God knows what she gets up to with those friends of hers. That's one of the reasons we moved here, a fresh start..." Her mother began.
"I'm going to get some fresh air." Stevie suddenly said, with an aggravated expression, getting up and stepping out. I followed.

She sat down on the steps to the porch, and rustled through her pocket, removing a packet of cigarettes, and a lighter. I sat down beside her.
"Wow that was pretty dramatic." I said, smiling at her.
She turned to face me, "Yeah, me and my foster parents aren't the best of friends...". She pulled out a cigarette and clenched it with her teeth, then offered me one.
"No, I'm good, I don't smoke."
"Why, what are you scared of?"
"I dunno, cancer?", she laughed
"Good point."

She light hers and gave me a glare.
"Why do you watch me? Through the window I mean, every time I look, you're there, staring." She asked
"I dunno, why do you stare back?"
"Well because you're nice to look at." She said.
She turned away, and took a long breath of her cigarette, breathing out a thing stream of smoke, that drifted away in the summer breeze. I smiled.

"So how d'you like it here so far?" I asked her
"You know it's alright. It kinda sucks to move house just because your parents don't want you to have fun." She said sadly.
"I just like to have a bit of fun. And others don't get that." She finished. She stared at me with a lost expression. Her hand was placed just a couple of centimeters away from mine, so close. I slowly approached it, but she moved it, taking another breath of her cigarette. Realizing what I was trying to do, she lowered her hand, once again, and clutched mine.
"I get that." I whispered.