The House Next Door

Chapter 2

"Hi?" A guy, maybe my age, stands in front of me. Shaggy, brown hair, tall, looks like a footballer. 

"You don't want to come to a party tonight, do you?"

"Sorry do I know you?" I rub my eyes as I stare at this guy, trying to figure out what he is doing here. My brain's too tired to think about this.

"I guess you're just about to. The name's Jack Winters, welcome to my life." I stare blankly at him, who is this guy and what is he doing asking me to a part, at 7:30 am. "Do you talk or are you just going to stare?"

"Sorry what?"

"Wow she does!"

"Look, I'm really tired and if you don't mind I'm just going to close this door."

"Actually, I sort of do mind." The nerve of this guy. "I live next door and I'm throwing a party tonight, just wanted to let you know."

"Thanks! It's really good to know that you have a social life!!" Now please be kind enough to leave so that I can get back to lying on my bed and brooding over my miserable life. "Is that it?"

"Ooooh she's sassy. I'd better not get on your bad side."

I begin to close the door. No need to say bye to someone who didn't even say hi in the first place.

"Wait! One more thing. Might want to close the curtain when you're changing," he says as he grins and throws me a wink. I swear my mouth literally drops to the floor, and I stand there with the door half open, watching as he walks over to my fence and effortlessly jumps over it.

***

I am sitting cross legged on my bed, with a bowl of Frosties, and a now empty packet next to me, with both the door and curtain closed. I haven't changed out of my clothes from this morning and I haven't done my hair. I have been sitting here for the past 4 hours; it's nearly midday. You can officially call me a mess now. I finish the last spoonful of Frosties, and flop back on my bed. If I knew that this is what my summer would have been like, I wouldn't have come back home. No, you know what? I'm going to have a good summer, and who cares if I do it by myself. I jump out of bed, swing open the curtains, and look through my wardrobe. I grab out a bikini and my favourite pair of shorts and a shirt and chuck them on my bed. I go to put them on, before remembering that I literally just opened the curtain, so I close the curtain, slip on my clothes, do my hair, and even put a bit of makeup on, which is something to me. I pack my beach bag, walk downstairs, write a note that I've gone somewhere and I'll be back by tonight and head towards the beach.

When I get there, it's packed. Well, packed for South Ridge. I look around. There's a few kids, splashing around in the water, an elderly couple walking along the beach, and what seems like hundreds of groups of friends, all tanning together, or swimming, having a good time. While the town in North Ridge is where most people want to hang out, with the mall, the designer brands, the coffee shops, South Ridge has the better beach. I grab out my towel, find a quieter spot, away from the tanning girls, and the kids, lie down and bring out my favourite book, The Great Gatsby. People might think that I'm old, but, not wanting to spoil anything, I find everything about it amazing. Now this is a relaxing holiday. I read for what only feels like 5 minutes, but when I check my watch, I realise that I've been here for nearly 2 hours and probably burnt to a crisp. I get up and look around again. All the same people are here, the kids now making sandcastles, the girls still tanning, the elderly couple settled down on a bench and watching the ocean. Right now, I am a part of this scene, the girl reading Gatsby, in amongst all the others. Together we make the beach, the sand and the ocean. We bring the summer to it, and the life to it, each of us with our different stories, and as I walk away from the beach, I smile.

***

I get to Wal-Mart and head straight to the cereal aisle. I came here for only one reason. After the beach, I had lunch, grabbed a coffee, and was about to head home, when I realised that I couldn't go home if there were no Frosties there. And so, in my Frosties deprived state, I practically sprinted to Wal-Mart. I could hear them calling me. I scan through the aisle, looking for that precious blue box and cannot see it. I upturn boxes, look behind each of them check every single inch of the aisle. While I'm doing this an employee walks into the aisle. I walk, no, I angrily stomp towards him and put on a fake smile. "Hi. I was just wondering if you had any Frosted Flakes." I look up at the employee's face to find my new favourite person... Jack Winters.

"Grumpy face! What are you doing here?"

"Look I don't have time for this. I just want my Frosties."

"Well we don't have any." I stare at him with disbelief. Could this guy get any worse? I think I stammer out a 'what?' because he says "There's no Frosted Flazes. Out of stock. Zero. Nada. Zilch"

"Ok yeah I get it you don't need to rub it in but are you sure there's nothing out the back because this can't be possible. I mean you always have Frosties and the one day I run out they're out of stock." My voice has become high pitched and strangled. I can't take this.

"Wait, they're out of Frosties?" I turn round to look at the new voice. A girl with long, wavy, black hair, walks over to us. "This can't be right. I came here to buy Frosties and you're telling me there's none?" Wow I swear this girl is reading my mind.

"I said there was none before. I can't do anything," Jack Winters says before walking off to gloat about how he probably has Frosties at home, while I have to live without them.

Just in that moment, a lady walks into the aisle and as I look towards her, a flash of blue shines through my rage and as I look into his shopping cart, I see three whole cartons of Frosted Flakes! I nudge the girl next to me, but she's already seen them and I see a smile planted on her face. "I'll ask him to grab something for me, you take the Frosties and run," she whispers into my ear.

"I can't do that. It's stealing," I attempt to whisper, but not really whisper, to her.

"It's not stealing if he hasn't paid yet." A slow smile creeps on to me as she walks up to the lady. The lady is a fake blonde, tall, wearing heels, she has a designer bag, a fully made up face, expensive sunglasses on the top of her head and is walking as if she owns the place. A North Ridge wannabe. "Hi", my inner voice friend says, "do you mind passing me that cereal box, I'm too short and can't reach." The lady looks down at her with contempt as I stealthily reach the shopping cart. The lady brings the cereal box down from the shelf and I realise that I've been too slow. "Wait. Not that cereal, the one next to it." The lady puts the box back up and I use my crazy good ninja moves to grab out the first and second box without any noise. The third is at the bottom of the cart, under everything pretty much. I try to reach it, I'm moving everything above it to the other side of the cart, when I move a packet of peas and they all move around. The lady goes to turn around. "NOOOOOOO!" The lady snaps back to look at my friend. "I mean, this has sugar in it, I guess I can't eat it now. Do you mind just putting it back up?" I ditch the third box and run with the two I got. I hear the girl in the background "I'm so so so sorry for bothering you and wasting your time. I'm on a diet at the moment where I can't eat any sugar and I was sure that this one was sugar-free which is why I got you to get it for me but I guess it has sugar. I didn't realise, I didn't mean to bother you."

I don't hear what happens after that because I'm already at the checkout, paying for the Frosties. Now they're mine and the lady can't do anything about it. The girl soon follows and I hand her a packet. "I think we make a good team," she says. "I'm Ash."