a long way from home ; g.d.

f o u r t e e n

It's been about about a week and 5 days since I've arrived in New York, and so much has changed. I got a few more ear piercings, a small tattoo on my ankle, my whole hotel room is basically an art studio now due to all the art supplies I have strung out everywhere, and I haven't heard anything from my mom since that one night. I've been good on money, and have a part time job at, believe it or not, Forever 21.

As for Emma, Ethan, James, and Grayson, I've finally broken out of that awkward stage and I feel like I can truly be myself around them now. There's still a lot they don't know about me, and I don't have any intention of telling them. They know I'm not a "Mommy and Daddy's" girl, I ran away, and I'm never going back. That's the deepest we need to go for now.

Grayson and I, on the other hand, are very close. Like, disgustingly close. We hang out pretty much all day every day, mostly with the other 3, until night comes, and we wander around the city looking for things to do. I didn't even know it was possible, but I like him even more than I did at the start. Although he was never shy around me in the beginning, I feel like he's kinda broken out a of a shell of his own.

He's told me so much more about himself. The music he listens to, he books he reads, his hobbies, his beliefs, and we have nothing in common besides music. I've told him that I draw, and he's asked numerous times to see some of my pictures, but I haven't really done any that I feel like showing off.

It was about 2:00 in the afternoon, and I was currently laying on my bed, reading, watching HGTV, and drinking pink lemonade. It's the first time in days I've had "me" time, considering I've been with the Ethan, Grayson, James, and Emma pretty much every day. It was bright and sunny outside, as it mostly is this time of year, and my balcony door was wide open to let in some fresh air.

I began to turn to another page in my book, until I heard my door open and saw Grayson walk in. He closed it behind him, and walked over to my mini fridge. Without looking up from my book, I said, "whatever you get out of there you're paying me back for."

He pulled out a coke can and closed the fridge door. "Come on, Elle. Don't be like that." He walked over to my bed and plopped down next to me, taking the remote from the night stand. He leaned his head on my shoulder, and started flipping through the channels.

"Missed me already?" I asked. He literally just went home maybe an hour ago. He nodded against my shoulder. "You know it."

I sighed and laid my book down on my night stand, moving in closer to him. He wrapped his arm around me, still flipping though the channels.

We weren't necessarily dating, we were just kind of in that weird stage where we do couple-y stuff like this and when people ask if we're dating we say no. Which I'm fine totally fine with.

We still haven't kissed though. There was a night when the five of us were sitting in their room, watching a movie, and him and I kept whispering jokes to each other about the movie. For split second, I could've swore he was going to because his face got extremely close to mine when he was leaning in to whisper something else. He paused for a second, then smiled, shook his head, and looked away. "Not yet," he muttered.

I raised an eyebrow at him, and spent the rest of that night asking him what he meant, and he blew off every question, telling me that I'd just have to wait.

"So, what do you wanna do tonight?" He asked.

I shrugged. "I don't really care, whatever you wanna do."
He raised his head up and looked at me with a smirk on his face. "Alright I'm glad you said that, because I have something planned. Be ready and dressed by 5:30."

He jumped off my bed and winked at me before running out the door. He's an adventure, I'll say.