The Girl Next Door

8

She was gone when I woke up for work the next morning, and the hope I'd been feeling when I fell asleep the night before, had evaporated.

I didn't see her again until work the next morning, and even then things were quiet and awkward. I had a hard time even getting her to look me in the eyes. The more I tried, the more my heart filled with this weird hopeless feeling.

When three days had gone by, I'd decided it was time to have another talk with Travis, it was the fourth day of her not looking at me and hardly talking. So I sent him a text asking him to meet me at my house that afternoon.

When I got home, he was sitting on the couch chatting with my mom. My mom looked so excited, her skin was radiant and she had a hand resting on her growing belly.

"Don't kill me." Was the first thing Travis said.

"What? What do you mean?" My eyebrows scrunched together as I shut the door behind me.

"You didn't tell me you had a crush on the girl at work." My mom grinned.

"No I didn't." I shrugged, not even bothered by her knowing. "I didn't think about it since nothing is happening."

"Are you going to tell me what has happened?" My mom asked, looking at Travis for back up.

"Mom, you really don't want to know." I threw myself down on the recliner that was stuffed into the furthest corner of our living room.

"Oh come on. When have you told me anything that has actually bothered me?" She questioned and I knew she was right, I mean, I came running to her the day I lost my virginity.

"We've had sex twice, and immediately after both times she made sure I knew it didn't mean anything. When we went to a party together, she made sure everybody we talked to knew we weren't actually together. We finally kissed once, outside of any sexual act, and she hasn't talked to me in four days." The words rushed out of my mouth quickly, so quick that when Travis and my mom sat in silence for a couple of minutes, I wasn't really sure if they'd understood.

But finally, Travis let out an exasperated sigh. "Damn dude. That's some rough shit." Then he sunk as deep as he could into the corner of our old tan couch.

"What sucks most is that she's the one who kissed me. I've been laying as low as I can, trying not to make her uncomfortable. I mean fuck, you saw me at the party."

"Quiet and respectable. Looking like you got into a fight with a leach." Travis nodded. "She was all over you though."

"Right! And that's the thing, whenever we're together, she's just like that. She's the one who cuddles up to me, she's been the one to initiate sex both times. She's the one who-" I cut myself off when I remembered my mom was listening.

"Oh please, continue." My mom laughed.

"She's the one who suggested the shower." I ran my hand through my hair. "I haven't asked for or initiated anything."

"Sounds like maybe she's questioning things." My mom suggested.

"What do you mean?" Travis and I asked at the same time.

"I mean, it sounds like she likes you. But there's probably something or someone holding her back. How much do you actually know about her? Maybe she's questioning her sexuality. Being a seventeen year old girl, comes with a lot of difficulties and sometimes it's really hard for the girls to communicate or figure out exactly what they want or are feeling."

"So what should I do?"

"I mean, I can't tell you what to do for sure kid." Mom sends me a sad smile, "but I wouldn't give up hope. I think you should try to talk to her about what you're feeling."