The Haunted House

Chapter One: The House

I stuffed my hands deeper into my pockets as I made my way up to the front door. Once I was safe under the porch, I pulled my hood back. The rain had pretty much stopped, but everything was still dripping and it had taken an hour to get my ponytail just messy enough and I didn't want to ruin it. I pushed the doorbell and then pushed the doorbell two more times because I knew it annoyed Paisley. Even if she wouldn't say it did.

The door opened and I quickly moved aside to make room, but she didn't join me. "Sorry," she said, tucking a brown curl behind her ear, "I was upstairs." She stared at me a moment, no doubt expecting me to apologize for my impatience, but I stayed silent. She sighed and turned her head, "I'm leaving with Carrie now!" she yelled. I didn't hear anything, but she must have because she pulled the door closed and joined me under the porch.

Now that we were standing next to each other, our height difference became apparent. I'd always been the tallest girl in my friend group, since I was 5'7" but that changed when Paisley moved here two months ago. I, like everyone else, had to crane my neck to look up at her, which I refused to do now. I didn't want to see how perfect her hair and makeup were, even though I knew they were. They always were. Her soft, silky, brown curls always had the perfect twirl to them and her green eyes always stood out. I pulled my hood up and began walking to the sidewalk.

It wasn't Paisley's fault. I knew that. She wasn't intentionally making herself look good to make me feel bad about myself. She wasn't like that. She was actually really sweet. She was the type of girl that brought oatmeal raisin cookies to all the neighbors to introduce herself when she moved three houses down from me in August. She also tried curling my unruly, auburn hair, one day, but it just wouldn't hold a curl like hers did. Instead she did an extravagant braided up-do, which I loved. She was even patient when she had to show me three times how she did it. And when I still couldn't do it, she continued to let me practice on her until I gave up.

That used to be the worse of our problems. I could never replicate the hairstyles or the makeup that would make my brown eyes turn golden, instead of their usual dull color. But then school started and Paisley suddenly got a lot of attention. I wasn't surprised by it. You'd have to be blind not to notice how gorgeous she was. But what did surprise me was James.

James was a friend and also my crush. He had thick, dark hair and piercing icy, blue eyes. He had high cheekbones and a strong chin. He was a real life Clark Kent, but without the glasses. We had known each other since middle school. We knew how to make each other laugh and when and how much space to give when one of us was upset. We knew each other's secrets and dreams. It wasn't until last summer when he spent it away at some camp that I realized how much I liked him.

I had hoped he might like me too, but that hope shattered when I saw the way he looked at Paisley. He had never looked at me like that. When James looked at Paisley it was like they were the only two people in the world. I would try to get his attention, but once she walked into a room, and he always knew when she did, it was like no one existed except her. I had cried when I got home from school that day.

Paisley found out about my feelings for James and she assured me that her and James were just friends. But neither one of my relationships were the same. James would come over and insist that Paisley would join us. Paisley would continue to assure me there was nothing going on, but my jealousy and animosity toward her continued to grow. And now, here we were almost at the end of October and I had purposely rang her doorbell multiple times because I knew it was a pet peeve of hers.

"Why are we taking Circle? Aren't we meeting up near Peach?" Paisley asked, but she followed me as I turned onto Circle Road.

"I thought we could take the scenic route today," I said instead of the truth. I wanted to take as long as possible before we joined the others and James would be lost to me.