A Portrait Of Love

Chapter 1 - Minor Inconveniences

I woke up to the sound of a car engine rumbling.

"Sh*t" I hear a voice mumble beside me.

I put away the sketchbook and pencil in my lap and sat up straight on the passenger's seat, looking over at my brother. The two years older idiot sitting next to me, was now nervously tapping on the wheel.

"We need to find a gas station. Now!", he said and switched lanes.

"Didn't you fill-up the tank before we left?" I said and yawned.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. It doesn't matter, we need gas now"

I quickly checked the map on my phone. "Go right at the next crossroads and then left after 50 meters" I mumbled out.

"Well thanks, Gally, at least you're good for something," he said and shifted into a higher gear. I rolled my eyes and lightly showed him:

"How many times have I told you not to call me Gally, Olly?!". He snorted at his nickname and pulled into the gas station.

We both got out of the car and he filled up the tank. I watched the numbers turning on the screen and my stomach started to growl.

"Want anything from the store? A beer maybe?" Oliver asked putting back the pump.

"You know despite the fact that you meet the legal drinking age here, you are still not allowed to drink while driving right? And me being 17 means I shouldn't even go near alcohol," I said crossing my arms.

"All the things that you said are just minor inconveniences and by your age, I could already name every beer by brand and price" he said smugly.

I raised my eyebrows and shot him a surprised look.

He rolled his eyes and headed inside: "I'm just kidding Gally".

"I still think it would be better if I come with you," I said and grabbed my wallet from the car.

I was just picking out some crisps when I heard a girl laugh behind the cash register. I turned around just to see Oliver leaning on the counter, running his hand through his dark brown hair, as one of his classic player moves.

I let out a long breath in annoyance.

Here we go again.

I picked out two bags and headed for the counter where Oliver was chatting up the girl. When I got there, I put the snack down in front of me and nudged him to the side. He scrunched his freckled nose and pierced me with his dark brown eyes.

"Can't you see I'm having a conversation here Gally?"

"Well no Olly, all I can see is you trying to get a gas discount"

He looked at me with wide eyes pretending to be hurt: "I can't believe my own sister thinks so low of me. Miss, please don't mistake my kindes for anything like that, but sometimes a man just can't help himself especially around a girl like you" he said winking at the cashier and the girl turned bright red. My whole body cringed at that sentence so left the snack on the counter and headed towards the car.

Oliver returned five minutes later with a smug look on his face and an extra bag of gummy bears. He got in the car and handed me the stuff. I took a look at the receipt.

Wow, his chatting up really does work wonders.

The girl charged us only three-quarters of the gas price and added in the gummy bears for free. Oliver must have noticed my shocked look and put a hand on my shoulder: "See Gally? That's the power of my charm".

I scoffed: "No, that's the power of your annoyance".

I knew I was just lying to myself. He attracted girls like bees to honey and he didn't even have to try sometimes. You can safely bet that where there's Oliver, there are girls, but unfortunately most of the time also trouble. It's funny how those two things are always connected. I guess it was stupid of me to hope that things will change after we move halfway around the world. I mean it's Oliver we're talking about. Once a player, always a player.

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"Dad we're home" I yelled as I entered the house dropping our backpacks on the floor.

I walked to the living room and took a seat on the ground next to the fireplace. I looked around the room, it was all still so new to me since we just got here. My dad got restated so we moved from Manchester to Edmonton. It was a pretty big change but since my parents are divorced my mum stayed in Europe and kept our old house.

Our new house was...nice, it was big enough for us to finally have our own rooms and it had a huge living room with a fireplace and a big flatscreen TV. Next to it was a large kitchen that opened up to a patio which was next to the pool in the garden. There was also a basement where Oliver kept all his training gear and he occasionally used it as a workshop for his bike. Nobody was allowed in there except if he personally granted you entrance. So since he basically got the whole floor to himself, I got the extra room in the attic. It wasn't an old dusty one full of junk like you see in the movies, but it was open and clean with a great view of the street and the neighborhood. I turned it into my art space and a gaming room, so basically I kept all my art stuff there and there was also a sofa with a PlayStation in front of it. It was nice and cozy and I furnished it in the way that reminded me of my room back in England. It was my own place and my escape from reality, that no one else had access to.

I woke up from my thoughts as my dad walked into the room with a sandwich on a plate and a beer in his hand.

"Hey Abby, how was your trip?" he greeted me as he sat down and turned on the TV.

"It was nice, we saw a bunch of interesting things and I sketched some pretty good landscapes on the way,", I said, running my hands through my tangled light brown hair.

He gave me a pleased smile before turning to the screen.

"And where's Ollie?" he asked.

"Putting the stuff in the garage," I said while getting up.

"Oh great and before you go into your room, put away the bags that are laying by the door, will you?" he said watching a hockey game.

I swear he's been here for two weeks and he's already acting like a true Canadian.

I picked up the bags on my way upstairs and put Olivers in front of his room. I then went to the bathroom and took a nice long shower. I had to wash out all the dirt from our three-day trip and that was not an easy task.

When I was finally clean-ish, I went into my room and dropped on to the bed. I took my phone from the bookshelf above my bed and checked the time zone delay in England. All my friends back home were already asleep so I pulled up my new schools' website. We moved during the school break right after the end of the semester so we would be starting fresh at our new school.

The website was nice, it was in red and yellow so it reminded me of the Manchester football team. I wasn't a big sports fan but when our team played I had to watch.

I clicked on the schedules and saw that tomorrow is going to be a long day. I had seven hours of class but luckily one of them was P.E. plus a lunch break. I was kinda sad to see I won't be having an art class until Thursday but overall the schedule wasn't so bad.

My leg fell asleep from the weird position I was sitting in so I stood up and walked around the room, trying to get rid of the tingling sensation. I stopped at the window and looked out around the neighborhood. My eyes stopped at the house next door. Through the window, I could see a boy standing in his room, arguing with someone. I couldn't see the other person, but the fight was getting heated and I saw the boy throw, what I believe was a shirt, across the room. The fight then stopped and he buried his head in his hands. I felt like a creep watching the whole thing, but I just couldn't look away.

Suddenly the boy looked up through the window and his eyes met with mine. I quickly jumped away as his intense gaze sent shivers down my spine.

I turned out the lights and got into bed as fast as possible.

What the heck just happened...