I woke up to a tap on the shoulder. I opened my eyes and a young flight assistant and an empty plane. She was standing beside me with her hand on my shoulder. She had red hair that was tied back in a tight bun and had deep blue eyes and she smelled like lilacs. She smiled. “The flight’s over, dear.”. I stood up and gave a nervous smirk. “Sorry.” I said, reaching up to the compartment containing my bags. I got them down and out and made my way down the aisle and off the plane.
I got into the airport and it was populated with people. I stood on my tip toes, looking for my mom. I gave up with looking for her and dragged my bags over to the seats provided for travelers. I grabbed my phone out of my purse and began to dial my mom’s number. Before I could put the phone up to my ear I heard my name being shouted. “Willow!” I look up to see a woman with shoulder length brown hair and a small body figure running towards me with open arms and a big smile on her face. It was my mom.
I canceled the call and stood up, opening my arms for my moms hug to be successful. She hugged me and stood back, her hands on my shoulders, taking a look at me. Her face became somewhat uneasy. “You look so.. different.” She scoffed. She then grabbed my wrist and looked at my tattoo. “What have you done to your beautiful skin?” I snatched my wrist away. “I got a tattoo..” I trailed off. My mom sighed. “Well let’s just go ahead and get this stuff out to the car.” she gestured over all my bags.
We managed to cram all of my bags into her small car’s trunk. We both got into the car and soon pulled out of the parking lot and was on the road. California looked beautiful so far. “So..” she started off, glancing at me and back to the road. “I have a boyfriend! I think you’ll like him. His name is Jack and he’s so sweet.” my mom began to ramble on.
She rambled for a good 10 minutes about Jack and finally asked about me. “I’m pretty good. Not really any friends.” I answered. “Why?” she asked, sounding let down. I shook my head. “I just like being alone. Everything’s better that way,” I said, combing my hair with my fingers. “So.. are you a virgin?” mom giggled. I scoffed and shook my head at her. “Random questions much?” I asked, looking out the window and my arms crossed. “Well,” she started off. “I haven’t been around to talk to you and you barely ever call or text me.”
I gave in because I felt bad. She was right. I barely ever talked to her. I nodded my head. “Yeah.” I said. “Good.” she automatically said afterwards.
We pulled up to a two story house. It seemed to have been well kept. Beside our car in the driveway was another car and it was a black Mercedes. I’m guessing it was her boyfriend’s. She honked the horn and then popped the trunk, getting out of the car after. I did the same. I walked to the back of the car and began to grab my oversized bags until a hand took the biggest one from me. I looked up to see a scruffy man with blond hair and a blue and green flannel holding my bag. “Here, let me help you with that.” he said, then walked off into the house.
“Isn’t he cute?” my mom asked, giggling. “Was that Jack?” I asked. She nodded her head with a big smile on her face and took two of my bags into the house. Before I could get my fourth bag, Jack was already out and took it from me and walked back inside. I shrugged my shoulders and closed the trunk. I began to walking up to the two story house until something stopped me midway. It sounded like muffled music and seemed like it was coming from a few houses down.
It was loud and it sounded really good. I walked to the middle of the yard, trying to listen out and look for which house it was coming from. I finally gave up on my research and walked into the house.
-
“Any place you want to go in particular to eat?” Jack asked, with my mom sitting on his lap and him eating a snack sized bag of Doritos. I shrugged my shoulders. “I’d like to try an In-And-Out.” I said, sitting at the bar in their kitchen. “Oh, Jack, that sounds good! Let’s eat there!” said my eccentric mother. Jack nodded his head. “Well go get ready and we’ll eat there and we’ll go to a movie right afterwards,” he suggested to my mom. She jumped up and walked up the stairs to get ready, leaving Jack and myself alone. It was quiet for a moment and he finally spoke up. “I think you’ll like it here in Cali. It’s really nice and there’s lots to do.” I nodded my head while looking at the ground. He stood up from the couch and walked over to me. He leaned his muscular and toned body against the bar. I raised an eyebrow and leaned back some.
He stuck out his hand for me to shake it. I shook his hand. “I’m Jack. I’m pretty sure you know that but I just feel I should have greeted you right when you got here.” I let go of his hand. “Well if you’d like to know a little bit about me I’m from Texas and I’m 32 years old-”
I cut him off. “Look, dude, I didn’t ask for your life story. I’m here because my mom wanted me to be. I could care less about what happened in your life.”
He looked down and back up at me. “So you wouldn’t care about the fact that I had just recovered from cancer 4 months ago and I almost died?” I immediately felt like an idiot and apologized. “I’m sorry, Jack. I didn’t-I just..” I sighed. “It’s a new place and I’m not really a nice person to begin with.” He chuckled. “It’s okay, kiddo.” he said, rubbing my shoulder. I felt eerie and he pulled away the moment he heard my mom coming down the stairs. Something felt wrong in this situation and i knew it was him.
She was dressed in a casual purple shirt and a pair of jeans, grey Vans complementing her outfit. “I’m ready!” She said. “Great!” Jack said. “Now let’s go.” he said, grabbing the car keys that were next to my elbow.
We left the house and got into Jack’s Mercedes. As we drove down the street, there was a garage with four teenage boys. They all had some type of instrument to themselves. They must have been the ones who I heard earlier. But there was one boy who caught my attention. He was tall and had green hair. He was smiling and he looked so good. We soon passed the house and the boys were out of my sight.
I needed to find out who that one boy was.
