a long way from home ; g.d.

f o u r

"So how long have you lived in New York?" Grayson asked.

It was a normal question, that I knew how to answer. I'm an 18-year-old runaway from Colorado trying to get away from my emotionally-draining mother and entirely too repetitive life. But I'm trying to make friends here, and I didn't wanna scare them off. "Oh I don't live here, I'm on vacation."

"In the middle of April?" He asked.

Great. "Well not really a vacation, just a small getaway. My school back in Colorado was cancelled for a while because of a flood, so my parents let me take some money out of my savings account and spend a few days in New York for a sort of 'senior trip' thing. Since I'm 18 they figured it'd be safe enough for me to go alone. I've always wanted to come here." That literally makes no sense. Great job, Chavelle.

"Yeah, it's a pretty great city. We've been here a few times throughout the years. We used to come here with our parents, but they both have the flu right now and are too sick to travel," Ethan said. "We moved out last year. We live in LA."

"Oh, well I'm sorry to hear to that. I hope they feel better soon. And really? Los Angeles? That sounds sick. I'm guessing you both surf?"

They both laughed. "We wish," Ethan said.

I liked them, both of them. They were both extremely easy to talk to, and seemed like they were just naturally that way. Some people are absolutely impossible to have a genuine conversation with, but they were the exact opposite.

After a ridiculous amount of small talk in the women's section, we walked through the store together and continued talking. They told me all about life back in L.A., and how they're actually from New Jersey. Grayson's favorite color is orange and Ethan loves pineapple pizza. If that's not small talk I don't know what is.

In total, I only spent about 100 of my 800 bucks, and I got mostly everything I needed.  Ethan began telling me about his girlfriend, Emma. In a way, he reminded me of Gus. A few hours of knowing each other and he begins treating you like you're his best friend. I didn't mind though, it gave me that same relieving feeling that Gus had. Like I wasn't totally alone, even when I was, in fact, totally alone.

"So she's about 4 or 5 inches shorter than me, she has dark hair, blue eyes, and she always wears scrunchies. And she always takes my hoodies. I can't tell you how many of them she probably has hanging up in her closet right now, I have to steal some of Grayson's because I'm always out."

This made Grayson snicker. "And it would kill you to just ask for some of them back?"

Ethan smiled. "She's my girl, what's mine is hers."

"And what's mine is mine, you both can just be cold," Grayson reponded.

I laughed and shook my head. "He's right, girls aren't satisfied until they have one in every color and sprayed with every one of your colognes."

They both laughed.

"Alright I still have to pay for these glasses, but when I'm done do you guys wanna go get something to eat? I could use some pineapple pizza right now." Ethan asked. Grayson and I, who were standing right next to the mannequins at the front of the store nodded. Ethan handed the cashier his credit card once he reached the check-out line.

Grayson smiled and dropped his head. "He buys her something for every anniversary they have. For their 3 month he got her a bouqet of white roses, a teddy bear that was probably bigger than you, and very overpriced necklace."

"Well every girl likes to be spoiled Grayson, let's be honest."

"Do you?" he asked. "Because if I were a girl I don't think I'd want a truckload of stuff after only 3 months of dating."

"I don't blame you, it's not really my thing ever. It's so over the top, a simple 'happy anniversary' would be satisfying enough. Just knowing they remembered, you know?"

He smiled down at me. His whole face lit up when he smiled. It was a very kind and welcoming smile, and he had the whitest teeth I'd ever seen. That wasn't really important, but it was worth mentioning.