The girl from New York

14| "Research"

I looked down at my phone hesitantly. I don't know what I was expecting, but I'm still surprised that he lives in such a nice house. It had a beautiful garden with symmetrical plants lining the walkway to an elegant two story. I looked down at my lousy jeans, wrinkled shirt and wore Vans. How did I think this outfit was cute this morning?

Taking a deep breath, I put up my hair in a ponytail and took a step towards the walkway. I can do this, I won't die of embarrassment. Dad has already encouraged me to do this, so it's not like I'll get in any trouble.

I took another step, again and again until I reached the tall door with beautiful stained glass. Nervously, I lifted a gentle fist and knocked twice on the door. No answer. I waited another moment before knocking twice more, this time slightly harder. No answer. I lifted my hand again to knock, but a woman with short brown hair with a platinum blonde ombré answered the door before I could knock again

Her white smile was welcoming as she chirped, "Brooklyn, right? Come in, come in!" I stepped in awkwardly, my hands folded in front of me as I stood beside a leather couch. The silence was awkward between us.

"You have a beautiful house." I said quietly, hoping to break the silence. Where was Alex?

"Thank you! And may I just say, your outfit is absolutely adorable." Mrs. Holland said with a sweet voice. She spun her chain of keys, impatiently tapping her foot. "I need to get to Alex's brother's concert, so I'll be leaving as soon as he gets down here. I'm so sorry to keep you waiting." He has a brother?

"Oh, it's fine." I would have continued the awkward conversation, but, fortunately enough, Alex raced down the stairs, one of his hands gripping the railing while the other brushed through his damp hair. I froze.

"Okay, I'll be going now. Alex, be nice and Brook, don't be afraid to ask him for directions. Love ya, bye!" She said pleasantly before stepping out the door. I stayed put, my feet frozen in spot. Why did he have to look so adorable right now?

"So, are we going to start researching or are you going to continue staring at my wall?" Alex asked smugly. I blinked twice and managed to step towards him.

"Er, Yeah, let's start the research." I followed him up the stairs and into his room, where he had laid out books from the library and had an open laptop sitting on his desk.

The room was painted and greyish white and  his full size bed was placed in the center of the room, his bed sheets showing a black and white checker pattern. There were two chairs at his desk, which was placed against the wall parallel to his bed. It was a lot cleaner than I expected, honestly.

"Uhm, so I'll take to the books and you can look stuff up? Don't forget to write down the website name so we can credit it later." I said, picking up a book titled 'Venetian History', taking a seat on the floor. Alex shrugged and plopped down at his desk. This was going to be a long day.

•••

My stomach growled, breaking our silence. I looked at my watch to find out that we had already been researching about two hours. Alex turned at the sound of my stomach, chuckling at how it sounded like a tiny whale. I sucked in my stomach subconsciously.

"You hungry? We've been at this for a while, we should take a break anyways." He said, standing up before I could decline. He held out a hand to help me up, but I stood up by myself, crossing my hands over my complaining stomach.