odaxelagnia || payne ||

1

"Liam!" I raised my head from the flowerbed looking over at the purple house next door. "Don't you dare drop that box, young man."

Our new neighbors had pulled up a few minutes ago, while I wanted to go over and introduced myself I didn't because of two things; 

one- I was sweaty and looked disgusting. I wanted to make a good impression. 

And two- I couldn't show up empty handed, I needed to make cookies or bake a cake.  

"Yes mum, I know!" A boy- Liam yelled back in a thick English accent.

British, yes please. In my experience, all English guys were very, very, very attractive. 

 We had this foreign exchange student named Clark last year and man, what I wouldn't give if he got in my crumpet. 

But he ended up in Macy Hall's instead. 

Ugh. 

"Liam don't yell back at your mother!" 

I smiled to myself and returned to planting the new rose plant my father had gotten me. 

We weren't sure what color they were going to be, but my dad being the wonderful father he is, got me them to cheer me up. 

"What do you think?" He smiled.

I looked at the burlap sack, "I love seeds."

"Funny, they're roses." 

"What color are they suppose to be?"

"I don't know. The lady who ran the store said, it was a metaphor. So I bought them because you enjoy metaphors." He shrugged.

I pursed my lips together as I peered down at the contents of the bag. How was a bag of rose seeds a metaphor?

"What is it?"

"The metaphor?" I nodded.

His  dark, bushy eyebrows furred together, "Well. When I asked her what the metaphor was, she said that the seeds were like life. You don't know what you are going to get, except for the fact it's going to be roses. Think of it as a surprise."

"What if they are some ugly color?" I smiled. 

" It's like what Forest said about life being a box of chocolates. Happy planting, Cleo." in

I readjusted myself on the ground when the arguing began again, this time it was about the weather.

"Liam shut up!" The mom yelled, "We get it, it's hot."

"I said I was hot. Not the weather, that was dad."

"Liam, quit being an ass. Geoff, stop complaining! The sooner we finish unpacking, the sooner we can relax."

"Damn it, woman. I will do as I please!" The dad- Geoff returned. 

But it was a fair statement, it was a hot day. Almost ninety degrees and I felt like I was melting. 

"Hello neighbor!" I turned to see the husband waving at me, his face was sunburnt for sure.

"Hello!" I returned.

"Sorry if we disturbed you." He apologized. "My son is kind of a pain in the ass."

"Not at all!"  

"Alright. Well carry on miss." He smiled. 

I gave the new planted seeds one last pat before heading into the garage to escape the heat. I returned the shovel and rake into their appropriate bins. I stole a look at the 1965 Chevy truck rusting in the corner. My dad had bough it years back from a junkyard. He claimed he'd plan on restoring it but life got in the way. His job began to require him to travel more and more so it slowly started to become forgotten. 

Just like most things that we had planned to do together.

My self pity was interrupted by a crash next door.

"Bloody hell." She exclaimed. "LIAM!"

I entered the tiny kitchen and washed my hands in the sink under the window. I figured I should properly introduce myself. And what better way to introduce oneself than with cookies?

I opened the fridge and grabbed eggs, then in the pantry, I grabbed; flour, sugar, chocolate chips, oil, vanilla, and brown sugar. I preheated the oven and began mixing the ingredients. After sneaking a taste, I scooped the  fresh dough onto baking sheets, and put them into warmed oven. 

I had twelve minutes to kill before they were ready to be taken out. 

I took in a deep breath, then wrinkled my nose, "Oh God, what's that smell?"

I lifted my arm, "Shower. I need to shower."