Being Neighborly

Chapter 37

"I'll trade you one sheep for three ore," Nate offered, raising his eyebrows at me.

"I don't think you understand how this game works," I say, declining his trade.

"I don't think it really matters if he understands because there is no way in hell he is going to win a round," Nicole says throwing her cards on the floor of my living room. "None of us are going to win against Tristan! It's been like 3 rounds already and he's always won!"

"What can I say, I'm a natural at building things from ground zero," Tristan replies, smirking and picking up the die to roll.

After watching a terrible indie film at the movie theater, I texted Aunt Clara and Uncle Luke asking if my friends could sleepover so we could decompress before we got back to studying the next day. Conveniently, I left out that Tristan would be joining us for Uncle Luke's sake. Reason being conflict of interest business wise or just the weird tension always surrounding them, it doesn't really matter. All I know id that once he get's home from the office, he may or may not need a beer. Or several.

"Maybe we should switch to something else that we all have a fair shot at?" I suggest, putting my cards on the floor. Nicole was right: there was no way any of us had a chance at winning against Tristan, no matter how much we changed our strategy.

"Can we go back to the murder board?"

"INVESTIGATION BOARD!" Tristan, Nate, and I all correct her loudly at the same time.

"Whatever," she says, laughing. "I know I said we should take a break from all of that, but I just thought of a new connection. It might be far fetched, but I think we might have the resources to look into it."

"Honestly, all I have left is Jenga and Uno, but something tells me Tristan would be good at those as well," I say. Tristan just nods to himself, indicating that board game nights in the future will have to exclude him if it were to ever be fair. "So, yeah let's go back to the investigation board. What's the connection you were thinking of?"

"We've been focusing so much on Katy and Carter, but we haven't really explored other people in their lives," Nicole states. "Like their friends. Or their parents. Distant cousins maybe? What about the breeder Katy got her dog from?"

"Nicole, this is actual a great idea," Nate says. "Not the dog breeder part, but the friends and family thing."

"That's true, we haven't really considered if anyone in both of their lives are connected to one another. Katy and Carter might not even know each other at all, but just know of each other," I add.

"You guys might be on to something," Tristan says slowly. "But even if that is true, why would Katy have such a stake in Leila and Carter's history if she only knew about him? What would that have to do with her? And why would it be so pertinent that she would just bring it up like she did?" he ponders out loud.

"I don't know, but it's something worth looking into," I push the board game aside to make room for my laptop. We have some intense Googling ahead of us.

****************

Nothing. We found nothing. If there was some obvious connection between Katy and Carter, it didn't exist on the internet. We spent a good chunk of our night taking turns trying different search queries. Nate even tried some coding stuff to advance our search, but it yielded no result. We were all burnt out by the time Aunt Clara set up our dinner. And then Uncle Luke came home.

He's usually a very good natured type of guy. Always friendly, never angry. Very protective of those he loves, but would never hurt a fly. He doesn't get frustrated by much, especially people since he always says you never know what's going on with them. I guess that goes for him too because when he say Tristan sitting next to me at the table eating dinner he visibly looked uncomfortable.

Uncle Luke was very nice, but because I know him I could tell he did not want to be in the same room as Tristan. Which is strange considering they have secret meetings and phone calls all the time. Aunt Clara seemed to notice; she's not very good at hiding how she is feeling. She's also very sympathetic, even if she has no idea what is going on. And I could tell she had know idea of Uncle Luke and Tristan's business together because she had genuine confusion written all over her face. Eventually, she suggested the two of them eat dinner together in the formal dining room to leave us kids alone.

I didn't see my uncle for the rest of the night. Not that that seemed to bother Tristan.

Now it's close to eleven. Nicole has passed out on the couch from eating too much of her leftover movie candy. Nate is watching some reruns of soccer tournaments on his phone, snuggled up in a sleeping bag with his headphones on. Only Tristan and I remain, making last ditch efforts in our attempt to internet stalk anyone either Katy or Carter have known.

"Tristan, maybe we should just give up," I finally say, closing my laptop and plunging the living room into darkness. The only light is coming from the corner of the room where Nate is laying on his side, facing way from us, on his phone. It's just enough to see the concern on Tristan's face.

"Are you sure?" he asks. "I don't want you to have any lingering questions or regrets if you think we're close to figuring this whole mystery out."

"It's not the only mystery in my life, so I think I'll survive if this one goes unsolved for now," I whisper, looking away from his intense stare.

Tristan turns me back to face him with his finger under my chin. he isn't forcing me to look up at him, but I do so anyway. He has a magnetic pull to him, I can't help it.

"If I could tell you, I would," he whispers, inching closer to me. "But it's not up to me. If it were, I would have told you the moment I decided I wanted to be with you."

He leans in to plant a soft kiss on my lips. He doesn't pull away like he normally does with the quick pecks here and there, so I don't either. Tristan's hands moves from under my chin to the side of my face, making its way through my hair to grasp the back of my neck. He increases the pressure of the kiss slightly, and if I wasn't already sitting on the floor, my knees surely would have buckled from beneath me.

The cinnamon cologne mixed with the taste of the lemon and orange sherbert we ate for dessert overwhelms my senses. Though he can frustrate me sometimes, those negative feelings get cancelled out and more by the calmness and content he brings to my soul. Unsolved mysteries or not, I could die right now in this moment and be satisfied.

Tristan pulls away, and moves back away from me a little bit. "Sorry, I wasn't sure if that was okay," he says hesitantly. I want to ask him what he meant, because that was clearly more than okay. At least it was for me, as PG as it was. "You know... with everything you've been through. I've actually never asked you what you're comfort level is." Even in the dark, I can see the red start creeping up from his neck to his cheeks. Tristan Johnson is actually blushing. This is amazing.

"That's very sweet and considerate of you to think of," I comment honestly. Granted, I have never actually been in a situation where someone cared enough to think of asking, nor was I ever actually thinking of it myself. But now it means more to me than I could ever describe. "I am very comfortable with you, but if I am going to be truthful, I don't exactly know how far I could take things intimately. I mean, we're not even dating."

"We're not?" he smiles a bright smile through the dark. "From my understanding, I have been your boyfriend since Monday morning."

"Shut up," I roll my eyes, playfully pushing his shoulder a little. He catches my hand in his and pulls me closer to steal one more kiss.

"We should probably get to sleep soon," he whispers in my ear. "We have a long day of studying tomorrow." Tristan kisses my cheek gently and then crawls over to his sleeping bag on the opposite side of the living room.

I don't think I have ever looked forward to studying more than I do right now.