Somewhere New

Opening up

It was a he. He wore maroon sweatpants and a tight t-shirt. The outline of his back through his t-shirt and his toned arms and his hair and his jawline.. damn.

LACEY!!? What the hell this isn't some teenage story where you sit here gawking over some stranger. God how predictable can you be? I'm sure he's going to be a lovely neighbour who will leave you alone and mind his own business so start by example and walk inside.

He definitely saw me in my car, staring. Shit! He gave me a friendly smile and I casually waved back. I got out and went around to the back tried to open the boot, but for some reason, I couldn't get it open. It's literally a new car, come onnnn!

I glanced over to the boy who looked a few years younger than me and tried to open the boot again. As he approached, I started to feel nauseous.

He stopped at my car and leant on it.
"Hey. I'm Noah, obviously as you can see, I live next door." I smiled and leaned on my car as well trying to play it cool.
"I'm Lacey." I said happily and stuck out my hand out for him to shake it.
"Now I don't want to seem incapable or anything but I literally can't get my boot open." I said, embarrassed.

He looked down at my hands which were tightly gripping the key.
"Can I have your keys?" He asked and I hesitantly handed them to him. He pressed the unlock button and easily opened the boot.
Mental. Fucking. Facepalm.

"Voila! The magic of technology these days." He sayid laughing at my stupidness and I joined him to cover my shear embarrassment. "Wow.." I panicked, not knowing whether to try and be witty or seem cool calm and collected or. "You must be pretty handy!", is what came out, not what I had planned on saying to my new neighbour. Great. First. Impressions. Lacey.

He chuckled, reading my nerves as it must have been clearly written across my forehead in red sharpie by then.
"Well I'll see you round. Good meeting you Lacey." He said as he backed away to return to whatever he was doing. Not going to lie, I kind of blanked out watching him walk back to his house, but quickly regained consciousness and start to haul my suitcases into my new house.

A few hours later, my new fridge, tv and other appliances arrived and the delivery teams helped put them in place. Our house is nearly complete. I'm just missing one thing. Kayden. I decided to give him a call and tell him the house was nearly furnished and that I couldn't wait for him to be here.

I went outside and sat on the swinging chair that I had ordered and got delivered from one of those fancy furniture stores down the road. I took a casual glance over the fence and saw Noah fixing his car or something. I decided to go over and attempt to make a better second impression.

"Oh hi. So where are you from Lacey?" He asked as he saw me making my way up his driveway. "I'm from Australia. I moved to America because my boyfriend and I are moving in together." I explained, staring at the ink peaking out from his t-shirt that I hadn't  noticed before. "There are amazing sites and destinations here. Have you been sight seeing yet?" He asked closing the bonnet of his car. "No, I haven't really. I pretty much headed straight here from the airport." He nodded.

I hesitated and tried to hold my tongue but it didn't work and I unintentionally blurted out what was on my mind, "What's your tattoo?" Then I leant onto his car like he did before when he was at my house and tried to play it cool.
"You wanna see it?" He asked proudly and I nodded instinctively. He rolled his sleeve up onto his shoulder which revealed half of this beautiful work of art. "So this is the forest where I used to go when I was a kid. I used to practically live there, I'd take care of the kids on my block camping and stuff all the time. But one day, we had to say good bye to it because it was the perfect spot for a block of new apartments. I was devastated, so a few months after they cut it down, in memory of it, I it as a tattoo." He remarked, smiling but checking my reaction. That impressed me, that a guy could care so much about a forest and looking after kids. My heart at this point was literally melting.

"Wanna see the rest of it?" He said fiddling with the bottom of his shirt. At this point he was definitely testing the waters and attempting to show off but I went with it.
"Yeah sure."
He swiftly swiped his shirt off in one smooth motion to reveal an amazing mural. (He definitely practiced that!) It was this deep blue and vibrant green with tall dark pine trees and small purple flowers. "It's. It's beautiful. I love the purple flowers." I gasped while continuing to examine it. He put his shirt back on and comber his hair with his hand.
"The purple flowers are the same ones which were planted at my mother's grave. My brother and I made sure she'd be buried in the forest so she could live in pure serenity. But shortly after, they decided to go through with the plans and-" His voice wavered and I swore at that point a tear ran down his cheek. He quickly wiped it away.

"Anyways." He said in attempt to change topic. "Yeah so um I have to go finish unpacking. But thanks for sharing that remarkable story about your mum, I'm sure she was lovely. It was nice meeting you Noah." I quickly got out while backing away and waved with a plastered smile upon my face.