One House Behind | ✓

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝

Tanner

Waking up, I found that the sun was blocked by the sudden clouds. I felt cold and the wind wasn't helping. I rubbed my eyes as I sat up.

"What are you doing?"

I turned to see my mom standing at the door. It was closed behind her but Susie was watching. Rolling my eyes, I got up with a groan.

"Sleeping." My voice sounded hoarse.

"Yeah but why outside?"

"The sun felt warm and nice so I decided to sunbathe."

"In pants?"

"Yes Mom, in pants," I said, confirming the oddest-sounding thing for the moment.

I looked at the fence. I couldn't see anyone and figured that Shelly had gone inside. Biting my lip, I collected the blanket and trudged to my mom as she walked inside.

"Was she outside?" Susie asked.

I gave her a look. It wasn't as if Shelly was a secret but my parents would make a big deal. I hadn't been with anyone, like actually dated someone, and they would think she was someone I was interested in.

I had barely talked to the girl. I knew nothing more than her face, name, age, school, grade, and that she was struggling with everything. There was nothing more to her, she was just a friend. 

"Who?" Mom asked.

"No one."

"The girl he was peeping at." Susie giggled.

"Tanner!" Our mom slapped my back.

"I wasn't peeping at her, she knew I was looking." I defended.

"That doesn't sound better Tanner, what possessed you to do that?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to see what she looked like." I was being honest.

"You can't go looking at girls like that, what if her parents saw?"

"I would introduce myself?" I hadn't thought of that.

"Don't do that again." She pointed her finger at me and then wiggled it.

"Okay." I wasn't going to listen anyway. Shelly and I had moved passed being each other's peeping toms. 

"They talk." Susie continued.

"Susie!" I groaned.

"Do you-"

"I'm not answering. She's a friend and I don't have many of those here. I'm going to my room, goodbye," I said as I pushed passed them to my room.

I locked my door and flung myself on my bed. I rolled over after and then grabbed my phone. I decided to watch Netflix but found nothing fascinating.

Going on Instagram, I was scrolling through my explore page when I got the idea to look up Shelly. I typed her name in, a few came up, but since I didn't know her last name I was left having to go through all of them.

Adding school names, graduating years, and ages, I still came up blank. Checking one last time, I found one with a profile picture who looked like her. From what it looked like anyway, it was too small to convince me.

It was a private account and so I had no choice but to follow her. My heart raced as it also couldn't be her. What if it was and she rejected the request? I bit my lip and then exited the app.

Going back to Netflix, I had watched Arrow for a while before my phone pinged. I saw that it was an Instagram notification. My heart raced.

I clicked on it to see it lead me to the page I thought was Shelly. It was open now and a few pictures showed. I automatically looked at them. She seemed to have a nice life here but most of it was her traveling.

Her description was nothing more than her graduation date, her school's name, the word hodophile, and a smiley face. I smiled at how simple she was and couldn't find anything wrong with that.

At the top of my screen, a white piece came down to show someone texted me. I clicked on it quickly, knowing that if I didn't it would end up disappearing and I'd have to do more work, to see it brought me to a new message.

Shelz.B

Hey Tanner

Tantheman

Heyo

Shelz.B

Should I be worried I have a stalker??

Tantheman

No, I was bored and since I figured you were, maybe we didn't have to be outside to talk?

Shelz.B

That's reasonable

But you are still a stalker as you found me (@_@)

Tantheman

Haha (note the sarcastic laugh) im no stalker ಠ_ಠ

Shelz.B

Love how you use those kinds of emojis...never met a boy who did

And shut up!

Let me feel noticed!

I laughed. I don't know how she wasn't noticed. She was odd in a likable way. It was like a breath of fresh air when I talked to her. Nothing was normal.

And I liked that.