Stuck In The Middle

Learning to Tell a Story

It was a Thursday. Is that relevant? Probably not, but I think that's how most stories start. With a date. It was an odd day to be moving in somewhere. I had never seen anyone move into a new house on a Thursday. Monday? Yeah, I'd seen that. Friday? That makes sense! You have time to unpack over the weekend before work and school but a Thursday? That was new to me. Maybe that's why I took an interest, or maybe it was the fact that my brother was standing by our front window and peaking through the curtains at them. As if they would be able to see his bright blonde hair and tan skin if they looked. He reminded me of a walking pop art painting. His skin didn't seem to match his hair. Puerto Rican's don't just come with blonde hair, so he was pretty noticeable. He thought his dyed hair made him look 'cool' and edgy, while my whole family (myself included) thought he just looked like an idiot... But he was my idiot twin and I loved him even though he had bad hair.
"Luke! Come look at this," I grinned at me.
I rolled my eyes and laughed, "Evan, I'm not helping you spy on the neighbors. It's creepy."
"Oh get over here, you know you want to see this!"
I shook my head and chuckled, I couldn't say no to this idiot, "Alright, fine."
He moved the curtain to the side a bit for me, "I'll tell you what I've gathered this far. They had two kids, our age approximately. Appears to be a boy and a girl. I think the girl has claimed the treehouse out back though I doubt that'll be her room, and the boy chose uh..." He paused awkwardly, reluctant to say her name, "her old room."
I sighed, "Like I need a hormonal teenage boy across from me."
Evan raised his eyebrow, "Like any boy's going to be perv-ing on you!"
I punched Evans shoulder and he let out a quiet, "Ow.."
"Big baby," I muttered with a smile.
In the kitchen my mom was making cookies or brownies or some Puerto Rican recipe as a welcome to the neighborhood gift that made our whole house smell like sugar and Christmas. I told her to save me some and went upstairs, it was summer after all, I didn't have anything I needed to be doing! In my room I moved aside the sheer curtains and looked out the window. A moving crew was sliding a mattress into the room and a brown haired boy was sitting on the floor assembling what I suspected to be a desk. I slid my curtains closed as he looked up and we made eye contact.
The rest of the day was spent wasting my time, watching TV, playing on my phone, and for a short time drawing. The only bit of productive I had been in a while. The light outside had faded and it was nearly ten o'clock. My room has begun to heat up and even though I had the air on it was still quite warm so I walked over to my window. I moved my curtains aside and slid the window up. A cool breeze blew on me and I smiled. I looked across, no lights were on in the other room and the curtains were closed. They had either left for the night as most of their house was still in boxes or he was asleep. Either way, not going to bother me.
Boy was I wrong...