Lotus Blood - Age 14
A moving truck.
It sat in the driveway of the house to the left of ours. The house had been up for sale for over a year after an older couple had moved out of it. I assumed they moved out because both of their kids had gone to college and there was no need for a house of such size for only the two of them.
And now we had new neighbors because of it.
A large navy blue Toyota pulled up behind the large moving truck and I watched as the - seemingly married - couple slammed the car doors and walked up to the house.
I've never seen them before.
Surely they had been here to see the house before... surely I would have noticed...
Or maybe you were caught up in other things.
Turning away from the window, I shrugged on a sweater and wandered into the guest bathroom to blow dry my wet hair and brush the mess it was. It was twelve in the afternoon and the sun the weatherman had promised me didn't make an appearance, which left me with damp hair for two hours too many.
After what felt like ten minutes of wrangling my messy air into a simple half-up, half-down style,
I returned to my room to watch the moving scene unfold in front of me.
The three burly moving men had started to move the larger furniture such as couches and wooden tables while the couple out front started arguing about where certain pieces should go.
Then, my attention was intercepted by the shaking of the white curtains in the window just across from mine. Flinching, I observed as a boy about my age moved the pale curtains to the side with a small smile curving his lips. With wide eyes, I stared as both the boy and I noticed each other.
I contemplated closing my window and shutting my curtains so I could walk away without feeling guilty, but that plan fell flat when the boy opened his window and introduced himself.
"Hey," He beamed - revealing clear braces and a near-perfect smile. "I'm Blaine, I guess we're neighbors now?"
Nodding dumbly, I took note of his pale skin and ebony hair along with his pale pink lips and long eyelashes.
"You look like a vampire."
Blaine burst out into laughter and I pushed the window up higher so I could sit on the windowsill and hang my legs over the edge. His forehead creased and he tore his hands playfully through his dark hair despite it still looking like a bedhead afterward.
"Sorry, I-I didn't mean to say that out loud," my fingers hung at my sides, clutching the white wooden windowsill as Blaine adopted the same position as me. I would have to start closing my curtains more often because there were only about four feet in between our windows, which meant that it would be very easy to see in through to our respective bedrooms.
"It's okay, I get that a lot," Blaine smiled again and I tried to match his grin with a feeble attempt of my own. "I don't exactly love my 'vampire look' as you've dubbed it - but I've learned to live with it." Blaine sighed audibly and turned his attention to the two yelling adults in the driveway.
"Are they always-"
"Like that?" Blaine cut me off and forced a smirk on his pale lips, "yeah, it's becoming quite a theme." Deafening silence blanketed over us and my attention was caught by the squirrel moving around in the bushes below.
"Hey, I uh, didn't catch your name."
That's when the facade faded away. The feelings dissipated and I became guarded and silent as Blaine seemed confused as to what he did wrong.
'Not everyone is out to get you, Lotus.'
'Don't be afraid to make friends.'
Lily's voice plagued my mind and I mustered up the confidence to continue the conversation.
"My name is Lotus," I breathed out of my nose slowly, "I'm sorry I-I'm like this."
"No problem," Blaine stared up at the dusky grey sky and inhaled the cool winter air.
Trust.
Names are interesting things. I find that when people don't know my name there is no sympathy or pity tied to me - they don't feel anything for me because they don't know me. Names are just the first step in opening up to a stranger. Just from my name you can make assumptions, assumptions lead to questions, and questions get more personal because now they know my name so they think they are entitled to certain information.
I was paranoid like that. A name shouldn't be something I should feel like I need to withhold but it was something I did nonetheless.
Paranoid.
"So, I've, uh, never seen you around here to check out the house before now," I asked tentatively, pulling the sleeve of the sweater down farther so they only left the tips of my fingers uncovered.
"Yeah, I'm not sure why." Blaine shifted his position on the windowsill so his back leaned against the white frame and his arms draped over his knees. "It was sort of a split-second decision," then Blaine's coffee-bean colored eyes met mine and he rapidly looked away again mumbling 'I don't wanna talk about it.'
"You don't have to tell me anything you know." I said, partly talking to myself, "I'm just a stranger, I have no obligation to know anything about your life." Blaine shot me a small grateful smile and at that moment was when the unfamiliar feeling of hundreds of butterflies erupting in my stomach caught me off guard.
You like him.
No, I don't. I can't possibly like him. He's just nice. That's it. He's the only person who's nice to me that's why I feel this way.
I don't like him. It's too much of an inconvenience to like him. I'm too much of an inconvenience. Crush the butterflies.
You'll be fine.
You like him, though.
Fuck.
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