The Boy Next Door Owes Me Oreos.

The Boy Next Door Owes Me Oreos.(15)

Saturday came faster than I imagined it would, but I was excited to go surprisingly. Not because I had this newly found thinking that I actually needed a social life, but because I wanted them to like Abel as much as I was starting to. I found myself over his house, well to be more specific his lawn every afternoon to just talk. Somehow about everything and nothing all at the same time. Abel wanted to know about New Hampshire, from having never leaving Florida in his whole life. I had to break the news to him that it actually gets colder than 70 degrees, but it was said all jokingly and in the end Abel stuck his tongue out at me.

For some reason I felt like I could trust him with deep dark secrets, I just wished I had some to share. Besides the whole kissing Chase thing, that will just never leave the cave of secrets because only God should be aware of how much I want to take that back. But still, I told him about the friends from New Hampshire, all the funny times and how dearly I miss them. Abel was a really good listener, and I felt relieved to finally tell someone how badly I wanted to go back.

"It just isn't fair." I complained one day, when the sun was just setting casting pretty shades of pink across the sky. I looked over to Abel and without thinking plucked a strand of grass from his shabby unkempt hair, but he flinched and turned his head to stare at me wide eyed. I matched his shocked expression as I showed him the blade of grass. "I... grass." I said lamely, staring down at the lawn again and Abel sighed heavily.

"Yeah... sorry." Abel said, before looking back up at the sky.

"Don't worry about it, I should have asked before creepily touching you." I let out a shaky laugh.

I remember that afternoon perfectly, because it was the first time I actually tried to get him to say something about himself. I know that sounds horrible, but I really had spent the past two days just talking about myself. I don't think I annoyed him, he always asked questions, and was in the conversation. He liked the stories between me and the friends back from New Hampshire and I liked telling them. The memories made it seem like I was there again. I opened up and told him how I reacted when my parents told me we would be moving thirteen states away, and he said it was reasonable. But when I asked him how he took it when his parents made him move a couple towns away he immediately got quite. I laid in the scratchy grass, waiting for an answer but all I got was the sound of his breathing. I didn't know how to continue the conversation, so we just continued staring up at the pink sky fade to gray and then suddenly a dark blue. I didn't care that I should have been home twenty minutes ago, I couldn't make myself move. It was like I kept expecting him to answer.

That night, after awkward goodbyes I came home and realized the only thing I knew about Abel was his name, the fact he's the loner in school, and that he likes to lay in his yard for hours on end just thinking. He knew everything about me, my best friends names, the guy who liked me since the sixth grade and how I refused to date him, the horrible school dance in eighth grade when I started my period, everything. Yet I knew nothing about him and it drove me insane.

It didn't stop me from showing up again the next afternoon, after a quick run to get in shape for soccer, and even though our goodbyes were awkward it didn't stop Abel from smiling at me when joined him. Part of me hoped he would finally tell me how he reacted... or tell me anything about him even if it was something trivial like his middle name but nothing. The conversation finally started that day by a dog barking.

Something about Abel kept me coming back though, I didn't know if it was the way he made me think about things I never would have thought about before, or the fact that he was one big mystery I wanted to solve, but it reeled me in... hook line and sinker.

I ran down the street, awkwardly in my Old Navy flip flips and shorts to get Abel. Excited to get him out of his front lawn and in a new scenery. Maybe he would change, like stepping out of the comfort zone of his over grown grass would suddenly make him laugh harder and smile wider but I knew it wouldn't. My hair bounced on my shoulders and back and I bounded up his walk to his house. A smile prominent on my face, I was about to knock on the door when it fell open before my knuckles made contact to the wood. Abel with a sour face stepped out and closed the door without a word and walked past me. I frowned more for show as I fallowed him down his walk and to the side walk.