alone | noen eubanks

2

We had a nice house. It was a spacious two story. We had atleast 6 rooms. Pointless considering we were a family of 3, no pets. But my parents have money to spend so why care.

"You start school tomorrow. Please let this time be different." My dad said to me. He's usually the more sympathetic one although it only goes so far. I give him a fake smile. They just love reminding me.

"My old friend is coming over today with her kids. Talk to them." She adds force on the last words.
My dad has already been here for a few days settling the house done so mostly everything is done. All I have to do is decorate my room. My dad shows me to my room and I enter.

It's bigger than the one I had in New York. I have a bathroom in my room. I put down my suitcases and take out everything starting to unpack.

I eventually get bored and leave to explore the house. I go to the room next to me. It was turned into an office. It's a decent size.

I hear the doorbell ring and my mom greeting people as they enter. I ignore it and continue.

I head over to the next room. It has a pool table and a TV in it. A game room almost. I know I'll spend a lot of time here.

The next two rooms are just guest rooms, one with its own bathroom.

I don't bother checking my parents room and head to the backyard.

It has a pretty big pool that's connected to a hot tub. The hottub overflows into the pool with a water fall. I gasp at the sight, it's pretty. I turn around to head back inside.

"There you are Scarlett, this is my old friend Brittany and her son..?" My mom said pointing from the lady to the teen boy next to her.

He was a little bit taller than me, he had blonde hair, split down the middle, a piercing in his right ear that dangled and such beautiful blue green eyes. His mouth was pulled into a smirk.

"Noen." He said. Him speaking sent chills down my spine. I ignored it.

I waved at them and gave them a smile. I was about to turn to walk away when; "Why don't you show him your room, maybe he can help you decorate while we catch up." My mom said, his mom nodded. I looked at him and his face told me he didn't want to help.

"Yeah sure.." I said uneasingly before motioning for him to follow.

We head up the stairs to my room.

"Nice color." He said, my room was a purple similar to my hoodie.

"Thanks, it's my favorite color besides dark red." I said, looking for where to start again. My dad left a couple of boxes with my old decorations around. "I know you don't want to help, but I would appreciate it." I said while finishing unpacking my clothes.

He went to the nearest box and started taking stuff out. "Where would I know to put stuff?" He asked.

"I don't know, just put it where you think it's best suitable, if I don't like it I'll probably move it later." I said while focusing on the next box. I felt him looking at me but I refused to meet his eyes.
I don't need a distraction right now. But a friend I wouldn't mind.

"We need music." I say. I finally meet his eyes. We look at eachother a second too long before I grab my phone and open spotify.

I put one of my playlists on shuffle, the song ilomilo by billie eilish, starts playing.

"Rad." Noen says. I laugh.

"Who says rad anymore?" I continue laughing. It felt nice to genuinely laugh for the first time in awhile. He points his thunbs at himself and starts laughing.
Once we both stop laughing we continue unpacking.
I go to hang LED lights around my room, I climb onto a chair in the corner.

"Do you want help with that?" Noen asks me.

"No I'm good." I say. I hum along to the music.
I make my way around my room applying the LED lights.

Cool.

We both finish with decorating an hour later. I flop onto my bed. Noen just stands there.

"I know this sounds weird but you can lay down too if you want." I say in between breaths.

He flops down next to me and looks up at the roof, I do the same. "Why'd you guys move mid-year, especially with midterms right around the corner?" He asks me.

"Something happened in my old town and my parents wanted to get away from it." I say, I hate remembering.

I turn to look at him. He also turns his head. I stare into his ocean like eyes, shocked, yet charmed by the color.
He's attractive, I notice this now, I smile at him, he smiles back.

"What happened?" He says, attempting to get a conversation going.

"Nothing that I want to remember. I rather leave the past in the past." I let out a breath and close my eyes, pushing the memories down. All the pain I felt, I just keep pushing it down.

I don't allow for myself to feel anything, feeling means remembering. In order to cope, I stopped allowing myself to embrace my emotions. I stopped trying to have emotions. Sometimes they surface but I take a second and push them back down.

"Are you gonna go to Loganville High?" Noen chances.

"Yeah, is that where you go?" I open my eyes, he's looking at the roof again.

"It is, I could show you around tomorrow. Introduce you to some of my friends, I'm a junior." He says.

"Me too." I look up at the roof too. "Thank you."

"No problem." Noen says. Just then his mom calls him to go. We both get up.

"Well bye than." I say.

"Till tomorrow." He smiles. He turns to leave.
Just as he opens the door he turns around. Then he hugs me. I hug him back. It was warm. I felt safe.

He lets go and leaves without another word. I stand there confused for a second.

I close my eyes and begin to push down my feelings.
I can't let friendliness get to me. That's what put me in this position in the first place.

I begin to look at how he decorated my room.

Fuck.

He decorated my room.

I panically look for it, I find my secret box. Shit. He saw it.

I open the box. It has a note over all my blades.
'if you ever need a real friend, here's my number' signed by Noen. The o has a smiley face in it. Along with his number under it.

I give a half smile at it and enter his phone number into my phone. He just left but I feel the urge to text him.

I send him 'hey'