The Boy Next Door

gymnastics and starbucks

"Dinner!" Mum says, holding bowls of noodles and chopsticks. Thai food.

"Ooooh, yum!" I say, taking a bowl. No amount of fatigue can make me lose my appetite to Thai noodles.

"So, tell me about your new friends!" Says Dad.

"You've only been in America for a few hours and you've already made friends!" Says Mum, beaming.

"Yeah!" Joseph begins, "the kids next door are so cool, Mum! There's Hayley, she's only seven, but she's super fast at tag and almost caught me, even though I'm like twelve years older than her!"

"Joey, you're not twelve years older than Hayley," I say.

"Ebony! You've just interrupted me!" He whines.

"Sorry, sorry, go on." I say, yawning.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted Ebony... There's Annie. Her name is actually Julianna, and she's like obsessed with gymnastics. She can do all the hand springs and stuff. Oh yeah and she's eleven. And last, there's Caleb. He's mostly Ebony's friend because he's fourteen like her. He plays American baseball."

"Joey, now that we're in America it's just plain old baseball," I say.

"Okayyyy then he plays baseball," says Joseph. "Oh yeah and Ebony fancies him."

Mum raises her eyebrows. "I do NOT!" I say, blushing. Do I? I think. Maybe a bit, but I won't tell Joey.

"But Caleb is really nice." I add, to make sure Mum understands I like being his friend.

"They do seem very nice," says Dad. "Have you met their parents yet?"

"Not yet," I say.

"I'd like to meet them," says Mum. Dad nods in agreement.

I finish my noodles. "I'm really tired," I say. My family all murmurs "yes" and "me too." Soon we're all headed up to bed. My room still smells like my perfume I sprayed this morning I inhale and then climb into bed. The Cath Kidston comforter seems softer in America. So far, this move couldn't have gone any better. I think I might fancy Caleb. I don't know if he fancies me though, after all he did see me asleep on his lawn furniture, drooling. If he didn't run away screaming then, I think I might have a good chance with him. But I do know one thing for sure: Caleb and my friendship will last for a lifetime. My head gets cloudy and I roll onto my side. Soon I'm fast asleep.

When I wake up, it's 6:00am. Far too early for me on a normal day, but on my body it feels like 11:00am. I try going back to sleep but can't, so I grab my glasses and phone. When I turn it on, I'm blasted with Instagram notifications. There must be hundreds of them. I quickly log on to my account, and see my 200 followers has gone to 600 and the selfie of Caleb and I has over a thousand likes. Most of my other posts, which there are only twenty others of, have likes in the hundreds. What's going on? My heart is beating really hard. I go to Caleb's post and scroll through the comments.

@hellokittyboo said "Caleb you better not be going out with her"

@clara123xo said "Ebony is one lucky girl #followingherRN"

@cookiemonstersbae said "CALEB I LOVE YOU"

@emilyemem said "Caleb will you be my one and only?"

The comments like this go on and on. A few girls even begged Caleb to marry them. I'm so confused. How is Caleb so popular? I continue to scroll through the comments. They're all very similar, though I find a few nice ones saying "Your friend is gorgeous" and "I like the girls hair, does she have youtube channel?" It's nice they want me to make a channel for YouTube, but I don't think I ever will. One catches my eye, @queenxelsa said "Ebony better sleep with a knife under her pillow tonight... #watchout" I shiver runs up my spine. Who are these people and why are they all so in love with Caleb?