Eyes for Midnight | a Crankgameplays Story

Temporary

     "Tessa, mail," Mark slides a package across the table towards me. It glides over, coming to a slow stop as it lightly knocks against my cereal bowl.

     "Thanks, Mark." I nod at him as he walks towards the fridge, shuffling through the rest of the mail. I reach for the package, one hand still on the spoon hanging from my mouth. My eyes skim smoothy over the label:

Tessa Fuller

     However, my mind trips me up when I see the address; it still shocks me to read the new house number and street name, not to mention the large "CA" taking place of the comfortable "OH". I find myself wondering if my brothers, Brandon and Garrett, felt the same way when they first moved to LA. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I hear mark calling a faint, "mail call!" to the others, but my thoughts linger with my eyes at the words in front of me. I feel a small twinge of what I would assume is homesickness deep in my stomach, and for a moment, I'm not hungry anymore. That feeling quickly goes away when I hear the sounds of scraping against the kitchen floor.

     I turn and sling my arm over the back of the chair, watching Chica scramble excitedly around Ethan and Tyler, who are now grabbing their mail from Mark.

     "No, Ethan," Mark says, reaching for one of the envelopes in the boy's hand. "That one's mine. Unless you want to pay my bills, too."

     I can't help but smile. The move has definitely been unsettling, but when I'm with the boys, I usually feel confident in my choice. I don't realize that I turned back to my bowl of cereal until I feel pressure on the back of the chair.

     "Hey, Tessa, what'd you get?" I look past my bangs and I'm startled; Ethan is a lot closer to me than I expected.

      I give a short sort of cough, brushing my hair away from my face, only for it to fall back into place. "I don't know, I haven't opened it."

      "Is it one of your things from back home?"

     I shake my head. "No," I pick up the package, pulling at the glued flap. "Amazon."

     "You haven't gotten any of your stuff yet?"

     "I don't think they've even sen-" As if on cue, my phone starts to go off. My mom's name pops up on the screen. I pick up my phone and press the green button before bringing it up to my ear.

     "Hey, mom. How's it going?"

     "Tessa! We're good, how are you?" My mom's voice on the other end sounds as friendly as ever, and I think I hear my dad's voice calling a greeting in the background.

     "I'm fine. Just eating breakfast with the guys."

     She pauses for a moment at the word "guys", and it's easy to tell how unsure my parents still are about the change. But she quickly bounces back with a chirpy, "Oh of course! I forgot about the time difference! I'm telling you now, it'll take me a long time to get used to that."

     Mouth full, I mumble back, "Mom, Brandon moved to LA six years ago. And Garrett's been here for two." When she doesn't answer in the next few moments, I swallow my mouthful of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and take a swig of the milk from the bowl, followed by an abrupt, "Hey, have you guys sent any of my stuff in the mail yet?"

     I can hear both of my parents groan from the other end of the phone. "No, the post office is still closed from the weather. Your dad and I haven't even left the house in the past day or two."

     A sigh escapes my lips and I lean my chair backwards, rolling my eyes at Mark and Tyler, who lean against the counter, partially listening to my conversation and partially tearing their own mail open. "Okay, cool. Can you just let me know when you send them?"

     "Of course honey. I wish you could've taken it all with you. I feel so bad that we can't get the rest to you right away."

     "It's cool, mom, don't worry about it. The stuff couldn't fit in my car, so I left everything I could live without for a bit there. I don't necessarily need all of it immediately."

     After a few more minutes of worried apologies from my mother and my half-caring reassurances, I say my goodbyes and end the call. Grabbing my bowl, I stand up and move to the sink.

     "I can do dishes today," I offer, resting against the cold counter.

     "You don't have to do dishes everyday, Tessa," Tyler pointed out. "There are three more of us here. You haven't even been here a week and you're already pulling your weight, plus most of ours."

     "Yeah, and Tyler's got a lot of weight to him," Ethan quips.

     I offer him a half-amused smirk. "No, it's alright. It's really cool of you guys to let me stay here. I'm going to do what I can to make it easy on you guys."

     Mark lets out a half-laugh. "Tessa, you're paying rent. You live here. You're a roommate now."

     I shrug. "It's only temporary."

     "Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ethan rolls his eyes. "Just wait. You'll like it here."