Summer was here! That meant endless time with my neighbors watching movies and walking to Walmart. But an exception was in order. I had recently met the new neighbors who moved in the town home across from mine. They were a family of three, a single mother with two of her six children. Laura and Joel. For personal reasons, I will keep last names out. Anyway, they were new because their mom and dad recently got divorced. They were great kids.
The first day I met them was kind of awkward. They were moving in the same day my birthday party was supposed to happen, when nobody showed up. So I got a whole bunch of my neighbors over and we ate cake and played tag. We watched the neighbors move in, and waved to them occasionally. They waved back, but didn't say anything. Then, the night after my neighborhood party, the two mysterious neighbors I was so anxious to meet. They waltzed into my basement behind my brother Caelum. He announced their names, and I waved shyly at Joel. He grinned at me, and glanced around the room. I inhabited the basement, all of my furniture lining the walls and my clothes thrown about the floor in my room and bathroom/closet. My closet and bathroom were put together in one room so that we could have a storage area in the back. My dad lined the walls with Christmas lights and hooked up black lights in the tv area. It was a colorful mess. It looked as if a rainbow waltzed into my room and announced that it was moving in.
Joel and Laura played with dart guns, my brother and Laura battling with dart guns, and Joel and I chatting it up as he occasionally shot his sister. It was an unforgettable first impression. Ultimately true. I ended up spending most of my time with him and my friend Madisyn. I introduced Joel to Madisyn and her two brothers. Zander and Derik. They were pretty close pretty fast, and I already became close with them as friends and family. I was over at their house just about every day. We all hung out, watched tv, had sleepovers, played games, and us girls giggled about boys, watched her brothers and Joel play sports, and jammed out to music. Eventually giggling about boys turned into giggling about Joel. He was sort of scrawny, but cute. He was good at football, rocked at baseball, and was really funny. He was open, truthful, and flirty. So, I admitted it, and it was way less awkward than I had anticipated. Later that night, we played truth or dare. He smiled at me awkwardly after I got dared to ask him out. I neglected, but I did it, and he said maybe. He ended up walking me home, and as we did, he gave me a yes, with big bold reasons. I gave him a look, and he stopped me, set down his fancy BMX bike, and wrapped his arms around me in an awkward hug. I smiled and returned the favor, only to have him pull away. He dropped me off at my doorstep, and wrapped his arms around me again. It felt right.
I fell asleep that night with a smile on my face, a smile worth saving. For it wasn't going to return much after that.
YOU ARE READING
Love Lost
RomantiekA young girl meets the love of her dreams, only to give it up for her own will. She gives up the boy to her best friend, and she never forgave herself. That was, until the boy started using her for popularity. The willing and heavy story of falling...
