Living With Mr Mysterious

Chapter One - Summer and Surprises

Summer and Surprises

I burst through the front door and sighed. Summer was finally here! No more school. No more stupid boys messing around in the halls. No more annoyingly squeaky girls gossiping about every little thing.

That last one really got to me. I didn't understand why they felt the need to know every little thing about every little thing at Highwoods High School!

I threw my bookbag onto one of the chairs in the living room and pulled my phone out of the pocket of my jeans to text mom. She was a paramedic, so she was barely ever home. That being said, she enjoyed her work and we had plenty of money as a result.

I'm home, mac and cheese for dinner? I sent to her. I often cooked dinner and left mom's in the microwave for her. It wasn't long before she replied, which was unusual.

I'll get something from Richard's on my way home, I have the night off. I have to talk to you about something. I frowned. Mom never took a night off unless something really important was going on.

I shrugged to myself, slid my phone back into my pocket and flopped onto the sofa. Turning the TV on, I settled in to watch the Gilmore Girls. I got bored after a while and called my best friend, Fiona. It rang a couple times before she answered.

"Hey, Rose! What's up?" she asked in her usual chirpy demeanour.

"Hey, Fi. What are you doing tonight?"

"Not a lot, aside from sleeping," she replied. "Why?"

I grinned. "I was hoping we could maybe hang out? Mom has some news she wants to deliver tonight and I have no idea what it is. Want to come find out with me?"

I could almost hear Fi thinking over the phone. She was quiet for a while before she said, "Yeah, give me a second and I'll be right over!" With that, she hung up.

I was actually really nervous about tonight. What was so important that mom had to take a night off work to talk to me? It wasn't my grades; I hadn't done anything spectacular like scoring all 'A's for the semester or failing any of my classes. So what was going on?

~*~

"Rosa, I'm home!" mom called through the house.

"We're in the dining room!" I called back.

"We?" mom questioned as she emerged in the doorway. "Oh, you're here, Fiona. Are you staying for dinner, dear?"

"Depends. What are we eating?" Fiona asked cheekily.

"Why don't you have a look while Rose and I get plates?" mom suggested, placing the Richard's bags on the table and gesturing for me to follow her into the kitchen.

I did so and she started pulling plates out of the cupboards. "So what did you want to talk about?" I asked her, taking cutlery out of the drawer.

"It can wait until we're eating."

I sighed and carried everything back into the dining room, where Fi was waiting with containers of Chinese food. Serving it up, we began to eat. And mom began to make small talk. "So how was your day?"

"It was good . . ." I trailed off, knowing this wasn't what she wanted to talk about. "What's up, mom?"

"Well, I was wondering how you felt about house-sharing?"

"House-sharing?" I echoed. "What's that?"

"It's like fostering, but the child is usually older and is only there temporarily," mom explained.

"Okay. So why are you asking me this?" I asked.

Mom sighed. "I've signed up for house-sharing. Our guest will be arriving tomorrow."

My eyes widened. "What?" I exclaimed I shock. "Why didn't you talk to me about this before?"

"Calm down, Rosaline. It's really not a big deal. He'll be living with us until he graduates and goes to college."

"He?" I echoed. "I have to live with a guy?"

Mom glared at me. "Honestly, Rosaline! It's not the end of the world! It will be fine! He's just going to stay with us for the summer and his last year in high school. And apparently, he doesn't come out of his room much anyway."

I huffed an annoyed breath. She had won this argument, but it didn't mean I had to like the whole situation. However, as my punishment for overreacting, I had to clean the dishes and Fi had to go home after dinner.

I was really not looking forward to this whole 'house-sharing' thing. Hopefully, mom was right and I wouldn't have to associate with him much.

That made me sound really mean. But damn it, I really didn't care.

Hey, guys! What do you think? Let me know and I'll upload quicker! Of course, if you didn't like it, then you're not going to want me to upload, so . . . Damn it! Love you guys! <3