Nate and I didn't spend our wedding night together. I highly doubted we'd be spending any nights together, really. I was supposed to move my stuff in the next day. It was a Sunday, and since we spent all of our weekdays at school, we had to make the move on a weekend.
When I woke up the morning after, I got up to have my Sunday tea, with a little creamer and a squeeze of caramel as usual. I drank it on the porch and then got ready for the day.
My room was a collection of brown boxes. All of my clothes were packed, so my dresser and closet were empty. My desk was cleared, and I packed up my bedding, the final thing needing to be put away. Looking around my room, it wasn't the boxes or the bare walls that made the move real for me. It was looking at my bookshelf that made me finally realize that this was happening.
My bookshelf was huge and my complete pride and joy. I've been a book nerd for as long as I can remember, and the shelf has been overflowing for years. Some books were worn paperbacks, while others were pristine hardcovers, but I loved every book the same. Half of the boxes in my room were filled with books. I knew Nate wouldn't want all of these in his bedroom, so I'd have to put them in a storage room.
"So, you're really leaving, huh?" I turned to find my sister standing in my doorway.
"Guess so." I shrugged and went back to the boxes.
My sister crossed the room and sat down on my uncovered mattress. "It's gonna be weird not having you around."
"Kate, you're always either working or out with friends. You'll hardly notice." I pointed out to her.
"Maybe." She said, unsure. "You're gonna come visit, right?"
"Of course," I said, joining my sister on my bare bed. "I'll see you all the time. We've already agreed to Sunday dinners with the families."
Kate scooped me into a tight hug. I squeezed her back. "Who would've thought my baby sister would get married and move out before me?"
We laughed at Kate's comment. Kate was five years older than me, so, while I was beginning my senior year of high school, she was already graduated from college and in the working world. She hasn't had a serious boyfriend yet. Nowhere close to marriage.
My sister sobered and stood up quick. "Alright, it's time for you to go be a wife."
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The Keller Estate was a huge piece of property off a back road in town. Many acres made up of woods and manicured lawns stretched on for seemingly forever. The big house was plopped in the middle of the yard, an extra long driveway leading up to it. Behind the house there was a clear blue pool that would soon be closed down for the season. A hot tub connected to the pool would also be winterized soon, but I knew that there was another one somewhere on the property that could be used all throughout the winter. A nonfunctional barn was tucked back against the edge of the woods, and, opposite that in the other corner of the yard, was a smaller house. The Kellers called it a cottage, and, despite it being just a small guest house, it was still finely decorated and nicer than the house I grew up in.
I took a deep breath as I walked up to the door. I hesitated. Do I knock? I mean this was technically my house now, I shouldn't have to knock, but yet I didn't feel quite comfortable with just barging in. I sighed and sucked it up, deciding to walk right in.
"Hello?" I called out, setting the heavy box I'd been holding down in the entryway.
I heard footsteps and watched as Nate rounded the corner. He was wearing a thin white T-shirt that hugged tight over his muscles. His skin glistened with a slight sheen of sweat, probably from moving all of his heavy boxes in and arranging furniture to his liking. Instincts kicked in and my body betrayed me as my tongue darted out to wet my lips. He looked good.
"Hey, Evie," Nate greeted, seemingly not noticing my hungry stare down of him. "Any of your family with you?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but Kate stumbled inside at just the right time, weighed down by boxes and answering Nate's question. He saw her struggling and, being the gentleman he always is, offered to take the box off her hands. He walked off to place it down in another room.
"Thanks," she huffed, obviously exerted from the exercise of carrying one box from the truck to the door. I rolled my eyes at her. She'd been a cheerleader, like me, when she was in high school, but hasn't done anything resembling physical activity since then.
"You should start going to the gym," I suggested teasingly.
"Oh, please, you know I don't do exercise," she dismissed me, wavering her hand in a vague gesture.
Nate returned, still looking very sexy. Now, he works out. I quickly looked away, embarrassed of how often I thought of Nate's appearance.
"I've already moved all of my boxes, so I can help bring in yours?" Nate offered, as my mother and father walked through the door, each carrying one of the obviously lighter boxes.
I accepted Nate's help and thanked him. We strolled out to the truck to each grab a box. "A lot of this is junk," I told him, breaking the silence we'd been in as I got a grip on a particularly heavy box. "I packed quickly, so I didn't have the chance to go through a lot it," I explained. "I guess I'm trying to apologize for having so many boxes." I internally cursed myself for my lameness.
Nate chuckled a little. "Don't worry about it, really. There's this empty room--I think it's meant to be a second bedroom, but there's nothing in there. We can just throw any extra stuff in there."
I nodded, but stayed quiet. Second bedroom. I supposed the thought had crossed my mind before, but now that it was happening and real, I began having an internal panic attack. I'd be sharing a room with Nate. I'd be sharing a bed with this kid I grew up with, who is now the sexy football star. I didn't have nearly enough time to process the thought.
Nate and I both carried boxes I had labeled "clothes." He showed me up the stairs to small landing with four doors leading to two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a linen closet.
The windows pushed against the trees that make up the edge of the woods, so our room lacked natural lighting. The room was bathed in a yellow lamp-light tint. It wasn't a huge room. There was a bed, two dressers, and a nightstand on either side of the bed.
I spent the day unpacking my belongs along side Nate. We didn't talk much, and as the day ended I found myself thinking, what now?
Questions bubbled inside me that I didn't even think about earlier. Were we both going to sleep in the bed? The other bedroom isn't furnished, so the only options were the bed that filled our room and the couch downstairs.
"I'll take the couch." Nate said, walking into our bedroom, and answering my questions as if he could read my mind. He had a white flat sheet folded up in one hand, and he used the other to grab a pillow off of our bed.
"Are you sure?" I asked. I obviously would prefer the cozy bed over the lumpy couch, but I didn't want him to feel obligated to take the short stick.
He assured me he was fine with it and left downstairs. I didn't see him for the rest of the night, even as I got ready for bed. I was exhausted by the time I crawled under the covers. I was out like a light.
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:))
YOU ARE READING
Weight
Teen Fiction"Whatever happens, we're in it together," he murmured softly. I gulped, feeling the impact of his words. We were bound by law. And though we weren't in love, we were still in a relationship, however dysfunctional it may have been. *****************...
