Take Me Along

Chapter Three

After about an hour of unpacking and listening to my Nicki Minaj radio station on Pandora, I was finally done.

Hopefully, I wouldn't have to pack and unpack anymore. I could just stay where I was. Perfectly content in LA.

I looked over at the double doors with glass over them that led to the balcony.

A little fresh air sounded nice.

I opened the door and felt the warm four o'clock sun beat down on my face.

The sky was completely clear and blue- something that was common in California.

The sound of a basketball hitting concrete caught my attention and I looked to the left to see two boys around my age playing basketball.

They looked like your typical California boys- tan skin, muscled, and really cute in general.

There was one with dark blond hair and the other had dark brown hair.

Great. I was living next door to stupid boys. The opposite of what I wanted.

Definitely not the type I would ever see myself going for. But there was something about the dark hair one that intrigued me.

The blond haired boy waved goodbye to the other one then proceeded to go home, I assume.

So, that meant the dark haired boy lived next door to me.

He held the basketball in his hands and then he looked up at me.

Damn it. He probably saw me staring. Not that I was interested, or anything. I was just looking.

I scurried back into my bedroom with my heart beating heavily in my chest.

I was never one to be nervous around boys, so I don't know what was getting into me.

An exhale escaped my lips as I moved over to the full length mirror to examine myself quickly.

My loosely-curled brown hair fell to my back and I was really sort of proud of that. I had been trying to grow my hair out for a while.

Another thing I liked about myself was my natural olive skin tone that I inherited from my mom.

Other than that, I really didn't care much for my appearance. I'm not saying I was a self-hating person; I just wasn't all that thrilled with myself.

My dark brown eyes stared back at me as I looked into the mirror, then I looked down at my outfit.

I was wearing light wash denim shorts with short brown fringy boots and a cream colored one-shoulder loose-fitted top.

Lastly, a long gold necklace finished off the outfit.

I wore things like that a lot. I described my style as "boho Indian" because I always found myself wearing some type of fringe or beading.

"Hey, I just met you and this is crazy. But here's my number. So, call me-" My phone sang from across the room.

The only person who I could think that was calling me was my mom. And of course when I picked it up off of the bed, it was her.

"Hello?"

"Hi. How are you doing? Did you get there okay?"

I wanted to laugh at the fact that she was pretending to care. She and I both knew that she didn't care at all.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Got here a little over an hour ago."

"Okay. Just making sure." She sighed. "I guess I'll be going, then."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

I hung up and set the phone down then let out a sigh.

That was a typical conversation with her. We would either give each other one word answers or at other times, you would thing World War III would be breaking out.

Thankfully, this was just a calm conversation.

I stepped back out on the balcony, not caring about the attractive boy next door.

My hands rested on the railing as I leaned forward to look out at the landscape of the backyard.

There was a huge pool and a few palm trees scattered here and there. My perfect scenery.

I bit my bottom lip and looked back over to the left where I had earlier seen the boy.

He was on the phone with someone and by his hand motions, I could see that he was frustrated.

I watched as he paced back and forth with the phone up to his ear, clearly getting angry with whoever was on the other end of the line.

Probably fighting with his girlfriend or something.

I just rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the landscape.

This summer was going to be all about me. Not about some stupid boy who lived next door that would probably never give me the time of day in the first place.

For some reason, I looked back over at him to see that he'd ended his phone call and he was putting his phone in his basketball shorts' pocket.

He sighed and then looked up at me again.

A half-smile played upon his lips and my heart skipped a beat.

What the hell is going on?

I pressed my lips together and ran back inside.

He probably thought I was a weirdo always running in and out of my room like a spaz.

I guess I wouldn't be using the balcony anymore.

"Vanessa!" I heard my dad call from downstairs. "Dinner!"

I bolted down the stairs to the kitchen to try to forget the fact that the boy next door smiled at me.

Once I reached the bottom, I looked around for the kitchen. I had absolutely no idea where it was.

"Dad?" I yelled. "A little help here?"

"Sorry. Just follow my voice."

I did just that until I finally found the kitchen and I was laughing.

"Jesus, Dad. You need to get me like a GPS or something." I laughed.

"You'll figure it out. I know you're a little slow, but you'll get there."

"Ha, you're so funny." I said sarcastically.

These were the kind of conversations that I missed.

All we did was make fun of each other and that was it.

"How much do you work now with your new job?" I asked as I pushed my green beans around with a fork.

"Well," He started before taking a drink of water. "The only day I don't work is Sunday. And I took today off. But usually I work from six to six."

"Damn." I grunted.

He laughed and continued to eat his dinner.

I was completely content with the fact that I wouldn't be partying or drinking this summer. Coming here was kind of like a detox for me. That's probably why I was sent here in the first place.

It came as a relief to me that I wouldn't have to put up a tough exterior much this summer. I could be myself and not have to deal with Kim, Principal Hayes, or my mom for a long time and I was totally okay with that.