The Boy Not So Next Door

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

We payed for our food and stepped onto the rainy sidewalk. "So...are you excited to start school here?" asked Travis. "No, not particularly," I stated, kicking at a rock on the path. "It's really not that bad here, I promise," said Rory, trying to cheer me up even though I was in a perfectly fine mood. I just wanted to be done with high school altogether; it didn't matter where I was going to school. "I'm sure it's not. When's the first day?" I questioned. "Monday," said Travis with a frown. He didn't seem so psyched for the school year to begin either. It was Friday. I only had one more weekend of freedom and I was going to have to waste it on putting my room together. We came to our street and stopped in front of Rory's house. "Well, I'll see you both tomorrow then?" she asked, looking more at me than Travis. We both nodded in agreement. Maybe I could talk them into helping me set up my room or something. Travis and I walked the 20 feet to my driveway in silence. "I guess I'll see you later then," he said, giving a slight wave before walking down the road to his home. I watched him go so I knew which house was his. He lived two houses down. His house looked almost identical to mine, while Rory's looked just like the house that the strangely beautiful boy I had encountered earlier lived in. I made it my private goal to find out as much as I could about him. I would begin that quest in the morning.

I woke up to the sound of my brother pounding on my door. "Wake up, there's some chick here for you," Derek shouted at me. "Ok, jeeze, tell her I'll be down in a minute," I said, getting out of the bed and trying to make myself look somewhat presentable as quickly as I could. I padded down the stairs to the kitchen and saw Rory sitting at the table. "There you are, sleepyhead!" she said, giving me a huge smile. "It's only 9 o'clock," I said with a dead stare. I was hoping that this wasn't going to be a habit of her's but I had a feeling that I could look forward to many early mornings with her. "So, are you ready to go?" Rory was staring at me expectantly. "Go where?" I asked, a slight hint of annoyance in my voice. I was not a morning person. I liked to take my time getting ready and sleep until I felt fully rested; which normally meant about noon, but that wasn't the point. The point was, I barely knew this girl and she was getting to my house at the crack of dawn, practically, and was trying to whisk me away without letting me eat something first. "We were going to get Travis and then I thought we could take you on a tour of the town since the weather is nice today. I have a whole plan of where to go and what to do but if you don't want to..." she said, looking to the ground and slowly standing up. She looked a little hurt that I wasn't completely on board. "Oh, no, that sounds really nice, thank you. You don't have to leave, I just want to get some food first," I said, trying to back-pedal and make Rory feel better. I really did appreciate the fact that she wanted to help me so much. I grabbed a quick breakfast and we walked the short distance to Travis' house. "So what's the first stop?" questioned Travis. "I thought we could go to all the best places to shop in town and then head down to the dock?" Rory said, looking around for us to nod our heads in agreement. We walked to the main part of town, going in and out of shops. I noticed there was a large thrift store on one of the roads and asked to stop in there. I loved vintage clothing, especially if I could get it for a cheap price. Why pay forty dollars for a pair of overalls when I could buy someone else's for six dollars? I was looking at some of the hats towards the front of the shop when I saw him; the boy with the skateboard. He was walking down the road and stopped to talk to a boy with short, blonde hair. "Hey, do, uh, you know who that is?" I asked, pulling Rory towards me and away from the scarves she was browsing through. "The blonde? Oh, his name is James. He's really nice," she said with a cheeky grin on her face. "I was talking about the boy next to him, with the brown hair," I said as I kept my gaze locked on him. There was just something so different about him. Every move he made captivated all of my senses. I looked at Rory, waiting for an answer. Her face became even more pale than normal. Swallowing harshly, she replied, "That is Louis. Stay away from him." With that, she turned away sharply, knocking over a nearby coat rack. I couldn't understand for the life of me what had just happened. Why had Rory become so distant? I waved Travis over to me, hoping I would get more out of him about the strange boy. "Who is that? The brunette?" I asked, studying his reaction to the question. "Oh, him? That's Louis Tomlinson. Why?" he asked. "I sorta met him yesterday and I was just curious about him. I tried to ask Rory who he is but she kinda freaked out and wouldn't tell me much," I replied while fiddling with the rings on my hands. "There's not much to tell, really. He's bad news. My older brother was friends with him until he went off the deep end. No one in town really likes to talk about it," he said glancing around the shop. I could tell he was growing more nervous so I decided not to push the issue. "Oh," was all I had to say in return. If I wanted to know more about Louis Tomlinson I would have to find out in some other way. I watched him slip down an alleyway and fade into the darkness. He was so mysterious, what on earth could he have done to require this kind of reaction from the townsfolk? I let it go for the afternoon. At least I knew a name.

We walked around the town for a while longer before heading down to the pier. There were shops lined along the shore line and small groups of people were milling about. There was a long dock that stretched across the large expanse of ocean. There were a few boats anchored along the shore but there were many boats out on the water due to the nice weather. Right near the water was a large, old building. It looked like an over sized shed of some sort. "What is that building for?" I asked. Rory turned away from me once the question was asked but Travis answered me. "It's a bar. No one goes in until about 10 o'clock, though. It can be a pretty dangerous scene; you should stay away from it. For your own good, I mean." I was becoming sick of these people telling me who or where to stay away from. If this town was really that bad my parents wouldn't have moved us here, even if they did both find jobs right away. The move wasn't crucial to our lives, so I highly doubted that they would have shipped us off to some crime-ridden town. I guess I was going to have to explore this bar on my own, too. Rory pulled me from my thoughts, and my spot on the beach, when she found a little kiosk that was selling jewelry made of seashells. The three of us were looking at the items when a sudden movement near the bar caught my attention. Someone was talking to a large bald man at the side of the building. And who could it be other than the elusive Louis Tomlinson?