Across the Hall//Grayson Dolan

Chapter 1

We've been on the road for almost 21 hours.  We've taken five breaks since we left Maine.  And we still have about 28 more miles to drive.  You might be wondering what's going on so I'll just fill you in.  My mom has been a mess for a while now because my dad cheated on her and left her for one of his students.  Mom decided 21 hours ago that she no longer wanted to live in the memories, so we packed up and moved across the US.  I was never really close to my dad so I wasn't affected like my mom was.  Honestly, I'm super excited to be moving to California.  School just ended which means I'll have so many beach days to get my tan going before junior year starts.

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I heard the car door slam shut.  It was my mom's obvious attempt to wake me up and tell me we're here.  I lazily opened my eyes and noticed that we were in a parking garage.  A hotel?  There weren't many cars, and it wasn't a very big garage.  

"Mom, where are we?" I asked her slightly confused.

"California, sweety.  We're at the apartment complex.  Help me get everything unloaded."

We didn't bring much.  It was a last minute decision and with my mom's job, we can just buy whatever we didn't pack.  I get out of the car and go around to the trunk.  I grab my suitcase and two duffle bags full of clothes.  I grab my mom's duffle bag in my other hand.  And holy hell was it hard to move.  Why did we have so many clothes?  Just when I thought I was going to die, I heard a voice break the silence throughout the garage.

"Do you guys need help?"  the very fine male specimen asked.

"Yes please," I say almost begging them to take the weight off of me. 

The boy and who I assume is his brother came over to help.  One grabbed the three duffle bags from my hands and the other grabbed a few boxes from the trunk.  My mom and I got the rest and closed the trunk.  We all made our way to the elevator and my mom hit our floor number as soon as she entered.

"So where are you guys from?"  One of them asked.

"Maine," my mom said with a smile on her face.

"Oh wow, did you guys drive the entire way?"  he asked. 

"Yes we did," my mom said, again with a smile.  She's so friendly it's ridiculous.

"It sucked," I pitched in.  "I thought my legs were going to fall off because I couldn't use them for almost 50 hours." the other boy laughed at that which made me smile.  He thinks I'm funny.  Good.  I need friends.  

"Bailey Ann Taylor." Oh shit.  She hasn't said my full name in a while. 

"Yes, mom?"  I asked confidently. She didn't say anything back, instead, she glared at me.  I got the hint and stopped whatever it is she didn't like. 

"So your name's Bailey?  I'm Ethan. And this is Grayson.  I don't know why he's not talking.  He's normally a little more talkative."  With that Grayson looked at me and smiled a bit. 

"It's nice to meet you guys,"  I say with the same smile my mom uses. 

"Yeah, you too,"  Ethan says. 

The elevator dings open and we all walk out.  The apartment has six floors.  Each floor has two apartments,  one on each side of the hallway.  Our apartment number is 6b.  I hate top floors.  So many fears associated with heights.  Mom's trying to kill me.  We made our way the door and mom fished out her key.  She unlocked the door and pushed it open.  She walked in and put her boxes on the floor.  I did the same and the boys followed our footsteps.  They looked around and nodded. 

"I didn't think they'd look the same,"  Ethan said.

"Yeah me neither."  I hadn't heard that voice yet, but oh my lanta.  It was smooth and ugh.  It was Grayson.  I don't know him but his voice is all I needed to hear. 

"Do you guys need anything else?"  Ethan asked. 

"No you guys were a great help.  Thank you so much."  mom said.  She smiled and picked up a box that belonged in the kitchen to start unpacking.

"Anytime, we'll see you around,"  Ethan said as him and Grayson exited our apartment. 

I'll probably never see them again which is super sad.  I grabbed my suitcase and headed on an adventure to find a room.   Once I found one, I began unpacking my stuff.  

"Mom, can we shop for some furniture?"

"Yeah go ahead and start looking."

With her permission, I start shopping for furniture. I start with my room.  I need a dresser, a nightstand, and a nice ass bed.  I found everything I wanted and ordered it.  Mom said I could obviously.  I'm not that stupid.  

"Hey, mom can I go to the beach?"

"Sure thing.  Take your phone.  Don't be stupid.  Text me when you get there, and when you leave.  Got it?"

"Yes, mom I know the drill."  

I grabbed everything I thought I might need and said goodbye and walk out the door.  I shut the door and turn around into a body.  Which, by the way, smelt very nice.  I stumble back a little.  As I stepped back they turned to see what had just happened.  I mumbled out a sorry.  They just looked at me as if I was stupid.  "Hello?"  Again, they are just staring.  They looked confused.  When I say they, I mean there's two of them standing in front of me.  "Do you guys live across the hall?"

It took them a second but one finally spoke up.  "No, we were just visiting our friends.  We were all gonna head to the beach.  Did you just move in?"

"Uh, yeah.  My mom and I did."

"That's cool.  Welcome to the neighborhood then.  Have you ever been to Cali before?" The other one pitches in.

"Nope, first time actually."

"Sweet we'll have to show you around.  I'm Austin, and this is Tyler." 

"It's nice to meet you, I was actually headed to the beach now."

"Well then, let's go,"  Tyler says.

"What about your friends?"

"They can catch up later."  Austin chimes in.

"Okie dokie then."

And then we were off.

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