The New Neighbor

That Girl

-Ashley's POV-

"I think you should go out and meet the neighbors. You might even make some new friends," Grandma said.

It had been a few hours since I got home from school. I had no homework so I was just sitting on the couch and watching tv. There was nothing else to do. So why not?

"Alright. I'll be back in a few," I said.

With that, I walked out of the house. I started with the house to the right of ours. They were just a family of 4 with 2 of them being twin toddlers. The other houses had an average of 4-6 people living in them. They were all mostly nice.

I decided to go to just one more house before heading home again. There weren't any cars in the driveway, but I was going to check if anyone was there anyways.

I went up the walk way to the door and knocked. Someone from inside said "coming," so I put my head down waiting for them. Turns out they were home.

When I saw who was behind the door, my heart stopped. Literally...I think. It was that cute girl from school. I swear, I don't know what it was but seeing her face to face like this, allowed me to take in more gorgeous features of her. She had the most beautiful brown eyes I had ever seen.

Wait, what was I here for again? Oh! Right..

I snapped out of the trance as soon as I noticed I hadn't said anything and she hadn't either.

"Um... Hi. My name's Ashley. Ashley Purdy. But you can call me Ash if you want. I'm good with both."

"Damn it Ashley! Who cares? What a stupid way to start off talking to her like that!," I thought.

"I just moved in to that house over there," I said pointing to it, "yesterday morning and I'm just going around meeting my neighbors."

She glanced in in the direction I pointed at and then turned back to me.

"Hi. I'm Xena," she said, slightly laughing rather cutely.

"Well nice to meet you, Xena," I replied smiling. Hopefully my smile looked friendly enough. I couldn't exactly tell, for now I was definitely nervous.

"Nice to meet you, too," she said still smiling, "Would you like to come in?"

I didn't want to get my grandparents worried, but I really did want to keep talking with Xena. Oh well. I'll have to explain to them what happened when I got back.

"Um... sure," I replied.

She stepped aside and I walked in. I waited once inside for her to close the door and lead the way. We entered what looked like the living room and she gestured for me to sit on a couch while she sat in other.

"So where did you move from?," she asked as she sat down.

"Berger, Missouri," I answered.

"Oh cool," she said.

"Yeah. I live with my grandparents though. My actual parents died in a car accident when I was 4," I explained.

"I'm so sorry. I can understand. My dad left my mom when I was 3 months old. According to my mom, he was found dead about 2 years later due to a drug overdose. So now it's just me and Mom living here," Xena said.

"Wow. I bet that's hard to go through as well."

I would've never thought that about her. No wonder she isn't that social. She's having some kind of problems with her past and it's affecting her present. Now hopefully I can help her with her future.

"Yeah. She's not that nice either. I have to do everything she tells me to," she's said, starting to lower her head. I could tell she's probably ashamed of having a mom like that. "You can't really say she's the best mother a kid could have. She's strict about many things. The only reason I'm even allowed to have a phone is because she has to call me whenever she needs me to do one of her chores or tell me to pick something up for her somewhere."

"Damn. Where is she now?" I asked.

"At work. She doesn't get home until another hour," she said checking the time in her phone.

"That must suck," I said now looking at the floor. I know shouldn't have brought any of this up. I was now ashamed of myself. Not like I already did for years. "I mean, I never really had any serious problems with my grandparents so I don't know what it's like."

"Believe me, you don't want to," she said in a softer voice.

She now turned to the wall. I could see how she really didn't like her mom. Just talking about her when she wasn't here made her uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I'll take your word for it," I said.

It got silent after that. How come it seemed like it was an hour before we talked again when it was only like 10 seconds?

"Anyway, you're the only person that lives around here that's about my age. The others are kids, babies, and grown adults. And you're in a few of classes," I said lifting my head up to meet with her memorizing eyes. I had to ask her now that I had the time to. It's been killing me inside. "Is it ok if I hang out with you more often and be friends?"

"Yeah. Of coarse," was all Xena said.

YES!! I had the opportunity to be with the most beautiful girl in school more now!!

I was so happy! I really haven't ever been happy. I'm just glad that I found someone here to help me have a better experience in this new town.

I smiled and looked down at my hands again as I felt heat rise up my cheeks. The only way I could think of hiding it from her was with my hair. I just hope she didn't see it.

"Cool," I finally said noticing I hadn't said anything in reply.

Yet another moment of silence was put in between us. But that was ok. I was silently celebrating in my mind that I finally had a new friend.

After that, we got into conversation about our day and school.

I suddenly realized after maybe half an hour into our talk that I needed to go back home. It was getting pretty late and my grandparents would probably be worried by now. I really didn't want to leave, but by the way Xena's mom sounded to be like, I think it was for the better or good that I left before she got home.

I smiled and waved at her one more time before she opened the door for me to leave.

"Bye Xena. It was nice meeting you."

"Bye A-"

I had cut her off with a hug. I just couldn't contain myself anymore. But I kept it friendly. I could tell I had surprised her with it. She tensed up, but then relaxed and slowly, but hesitantly, hugged me back.

I let go of her as I said," I'll see you tomorrow," and walked outside.

I think I heard her say something after that, but I just shrugged it off. It might have been nothing. Maybe I was just hallucinating or something.

Wow this is a pretty long chapter haha sorry.. But I hope you liked it😊 be sure to vote👇🏽👌🏽👍🏽