Refuse to Love

Chapter One- Malibu, Maybe?

Chapter One

After picking up the box labeled essentials, I stared at my now empty room. After many arguments and plans, we were officially moving, and I had no say in it. I really didn't want to move, especially to a foreign place. Although California is in the United States, I still had never been there, and I didn't want to. I didn't want to have to get rid of all of my clothes just to buy new suitable ones. I didn't want to meet new friends and leave mine behind. I didn't want to get dragged to the other side of the country because of my dad's job. I certainly didn't want to leave my house; the one I had grown up in all of my life.

You'd expect your parents to at least talk to you about it, but all it took was a simple, "We're moving," and we were to accept it. They didn't tell us where we were moving to until yesterday. They informed us on how different our lives would be, how "exciting" it would be to start off fresh. How "fun" it would be to leave snowy, cold Lansing, Michigan, for warm, beachy Malibu. But I was happy with what was happening in my life before they mentioned moving all the way across the country; I didn't want it to change.

"I can't believe they're making you do this," my best friend, Scott, said. The ginger's hair fell into his eyes and he removed it with a simple shake of the head. As he watched out the window, he was fiddling with a Hot-Wheels car that he found on the floor.

I walked up to the window and stood beside him. "Me too. I don't want to leave Lansing. I love it here," I said. Of course I loved it, it was my home town. I was born and raised there. Everything there was so familiar; the bent tree from last year's blizzard, the frozen lakes I had taken my sister to for ice skating, my walk to and from school - for it was only a few minutes away. I had even carved my name into the fence of my house because I had expected to live there a while. All of it was being taken away from me.

Mom peeked her head in the door. "Scott, looks like you might have to head on your way home. We're going to be leaving shortly," she said. Scott nodded and shoved the toy car into his coat pocket. Mom left us alone to say our last goodbyes.

"See you, man. Come visit if you can, okay?" Scott asked. I nodded and extended my hand for our last hand shake. Once he mimicked my actions, we fist bumped and pretended our hands were jellyfish. That got a laugh out of us. I had hardly realized the tears in my eyes when I pulled my best friend into a hug. "I'll really miss you, buddy."

We exited the house, snow crunching under our feet as we stepped off the front porch. Scott waved as he started on his way home. He kept looking back at me as he walked away, tripping every so often. I stifled a laugh. What a dork, I thought as I got into the car. I shoved headphones into my ears and ignored the world, closing my eyes and falling into my seat. I felt the car start, and we were immediately on our way.

I felt Maggie's gaze on me, and I opened my eyes to look at her. I removed one ear bud from my ear and looked at her. "Can I help you?"

"You look like a whale when you sleep," my sister said. "And scoot over, you're invading my personal space." She pushed my shoulder, making me hit the window. I pushed her back, a thud sounding as her arm hit the side of the door. "Eli, stop! That hurt."

I grunted. "You started it. Besides, I was here first," I clarified, "and I wasn't even sleeping."

"Well, you still look like a whale," she commented, pointing at my face.

I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window. There were tall buildings that I hadn't seen before. We must be down town. Mom never liked us going here. She said that it was an area of the city that attracted crime like flies to a porch light. I wouldn't doubt it; the buildings were huge. Millionaires, no doubt, could live in these buildings, more or less buy the whole city. Sure enough, Mom was right: crime was all around. Kids were throwing water balloons of the tops of building onto the streets below (they immediately froze, which I guess was the purpose of throwing them), a man tried stealing fruit from a stand, and I watched as a naive woman got pick-pocketed right from under her nose.