The sun beat down on me as I sat on the top step of the stairs outside of my house. For the last half hour, I had been watching my neighbor, Mr. Haynes, move boxes from his car into his house. He seemed to be struggling with a heavy box at the moment.
I'm not gonna lie, the guy creeped me out, but I was too nice to not help him. I stood up and headed over to him.
"Need any help with that, Mr. Haynes?" I asked politely, smiling kindly.
"Oh! Sure, sure Zane," He nodded and went around to one side of the box, leaving me to handle the other side. We hoisted it up and carried it inside his heavily furnished home, and to a room upstairs that was filled with the boxes.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's all this for?" I inquired. He looked around the empty room and exhaled, crossing his arms over his chest.
"My son is coming to live with me." He smiled over at me, chewing on his lower lip. There was a nervous twinge in his demeanor
"Son?" I was a little surprised, I never knew he had a son. Mr. Haynes seemed more like the bachelor type. He was handsome and fit; he just didn't look like the fathering type.
"I've never met him," He said sheepishly "He's lived with his mother in America all his life. I want him to come live with me, and she seems to have no problem with letting him go."
"Hmm, I see," I pondered, for a moment, looking over at him with a raised eyebrow. "What's his name?" I asked quizically, Mr. Haynes smiled.
"Eli, he's 17. His brother, Cody, isn't mine, but he's coming too. He's seven."
"She's giving you her kid too?" I asked, surprised, putting one hand on my hip.
"Yeah, Eli wouldn't come unless Cody could come with him. He's very protective of his brother, I hear." he sighed and looked around, his eyes glimmering. "Well, thanks for the help, Zane." I took that as my queue to leave.
"No problem, Mr. Haynes." I started down stairs and to the front door. He followed me and cleared his throat awkwardly. I turned around.
"Eli will be here tomorrow, maybe you two can hang out?" He asked.
"That'd be great," I smiled and walked out of the front door down the steps an across the street, back towards my house. Inside I was in a state of chaos. A new boy.. I had a shimmer of hope in the very back of my mind that he'd be cute. Even if he wasn't, I needed a new friend. It was probably stupid of me to get my hopes up; the odds of him being cute, gay, and nice were too slim. Especially the gay part. I sighed and decided to go see Cassie and Jay. I got up and made my way back out of the house, Mr. Haynes was still unpacking boxes among boxes... good lord, how much rubbish could these two boy possibly have?
Cassie's house was only a couple of blocks from mine, so I made it there in about five minutes. I didn't bother to knock, she didn't mind. I walked in to find Cassie and Jay snogging on the couch, I coughed and ran my hand through my messy wavy brown hair slowly, averting my eyes to the side as I shifted my weight from my left foot to the right.
"Get a room!" I laughed, going over to sit in the arm chair, Cassie blushed,
"Learn to knock, dummy." She said as she disentagled herself from Jay, who was big and buff. He had been a huge crush of mine, until I had figured out that he was straight, and into my other best friend. My heart still ached sometimes when I saw them together.
"Why do you look all concentrated?" Jay asked, a small grin tugging at his lips as he sat up, throwing his arms around Cassie's waist. She squeaked and smiled, resing her head on his shoulder.
"There's a new boy moving in next to me." I waggled my eyebrows at them. They both rolled their eyes and huffed in unison.
"Don't get your hopes up, Zane." Cassie said softly, pushing her lavender hair out of her face. I winced and sighed, plopping down on the couch as well, sitting across from them, playing with the edge of my shirt meekly. I felt my lower lip quivering.
"I can't help it." I shrugged, lowering my eyes. "He's from America, he's 17, and his name's Eli. And he's coming tomorrow." I filled them in. Jay frowned, a look of pure disgust gracing his otherwise angelic face.
"I bet he's trash, everyone from America is." Jay snickered arrogently. I'd heard enough, "shut up." I sighed. Cassie interviened "Not all americans are bad." she argued. "Just most..."
Jay laughed. I got up and frowned. "You know... I was looking for support from you two, but allI got was jay being an arse and you two beastly teens and your lust!" I spat, clenching my fists.
"See you guys later." I spat as I strode out the front door from which i came.. Tomorrow couldn't come fast enough. My stomach was flipping, and my insides felt like they were turning upside down.
