Why Me?

Chapter 4: The Dinner

He paused his music so he could talk. "Oh sorry, is my music bothering you?" All I could do was glare at him. It was bad enough having to show him around school, now I had to live next to him! The boy's got an ego the size of a yacht! I shut the window, closed the curtains, and laid on my bed.  "UGH!!!" Everywhere I go, he's there. No matter where I turn, I have to see his face. I stared up at the ceiling and decided that I needed to do something to calm myself. I got up, walked to my wooden desk, and sat in the chair. I opened the drawer and pulled out a light blue-colored journal. I picked up a pink pen out of my pen cup and started to write. I wrote about how good things were going wth Ash, how school was going, and how angry Leon made me. Writing always made me feel better and more calm. All of a sudden, Serena came into my room, telling me that dinner was ready. I went downstairs to the kitchen and saw that her parents had cooked better than usual. I mean, they weren't bad cooks before, it's just that tonight they went above and beyond. I noticed that there were five place settings instead of the usual 4. "Mrs. Williams, why are there 5 place settings?" She smiled at me.

"My dear, for the millionth time, please just call me Jade."

"Right, sorry."

"Anyhow, there are 5 place settings because our new neighbor is coming to dinner tonight."

"Wait! You don't mean-" but my words were cut off by a knock on the door.

"Oh! There he is now!" Jade went to open the door while I stood there in horror, hoping it wasn't who I thought it was. A moment later, Leon walks into our house, smiling the entire time.

"Hello, Mrs. Williams. Thank you so much for inviting me over"

"Oh, it's my pleasure, dear."

I couldn't move. I stood there as Leon walked right past me with his dumb smile. He sat down at the table in the chair where I usually sit, so I had to sit on the end. All throughout dinner, he was making small talk with Jade, Dean (Serena's dad), and Serena. He was doing it on purpose.

About an hour later, the agonizing dinner finally came to an end. Thank God, because I didn't know how much longer I could listen to Leon's annoying voice. While everyone else was taking care of the dishes and leftovers, I announced to everyone, "I'll see to it that Leon leaves- um, I mean, I'll see Leon out." He got up and went to get his shoes on with me glaring at him the whole time. He looked up at me and laughed. It made me even angrier. "And just what is so funny?" He laughed again.

"You being mad is what's funny" He laughed once more.

"You think it's funny? We'll see who's laughing in the end!"

He only laughed harder. "Yeah, alright."

He finally had his shoes on so I opened the door for him to leave and he stepped out onto the porch. He turned to face me with a smile and said, "Aw, I have to leave already? I was having so much fun!"

"Bye."

"But wait! Don't you want me to explain your, uh, "dream" to you?"

I stared at him. Either I make him leave and don't have to deal with him anymore or find out more about my dream. As much as I hated him, my curiosity got the better of me. I stepped out onto the porch with him and closed the door. "What do you know about my dream?"

"What do I know? I know everything."

"Okay, so are you going to tell me?"

"Make me tell you."

"Alright. I knew trusting you was a bad idea." I turned around and hand my hand on the door on when I heard his voice again.

"Wait! No, I'll tell you okay? It was just a joke."

"Does it look like I'm laughing? Just tell me what happened already."

He smiled once more and said, "Well you see, your "dream" wasn't a dream. It was all 100% real."

"Real? Are you serious? Enough with the jokes!"

"I'm not joking!"

"Yeah, okay. Sure."

"Do I need to prove it to you?"

"Yeah, go ahead. You can't prove something that isn't real."

"Alright fine. Come to the beach with me tomorrow after school."

"Fine." I opened the door behind me and went inside. I looked at Serena and her family in the kitchen. They didn't seem to notice that I was outside with Leon. That's a relief. I helped them finish cleaning and afterwards went upstairs. I opened my curtains to get some sunlight and I saw Leon in his window, looking at something in his hands and smiling. It wasn't his usual smirk, but an actual smile!