Something New

They played until eleven and then we all left the bar. Nate still had his arm around me, now it was on my hip. I said goodbye to Chelsea, Kristian and Paige and told them I’m IM them or something once I got there. Since Nate and I lived in the same neighborhood we walked home together, and Jon had decided to get a cab back and make sure everything I had left in the apartment I used to live in with my mother was in the truck.
Nate walked with his arm on my hip and I had mine around his waist. Since I had forgotten my sweater he had lent me his for the walk home, because for some reason I had started shivering less than a block away from the bar.
We talked most of the way home about causal things since neither of us wanted to bring up the fact that I was leaving in the next few hours. Once we got to where I, technically used to, live everyone was out somewhere. I knew Jon was returning the rental car but I wasn’t sure of anyone else.
We went into the backyard and lay on the picnic table and looked up at the sky. Nate had one arm behind his head and one arm around me, I had my arms around him and I was resting my head on his chest. I knew it was almost skanky to be lying here with him only a few hours after breaking up with Kristian but I didn’t care, it was probably the last time I was going to see one of my only remaining childhood friends. We heard a car pull half way up the driveway but it was just my grandmother. She went inside without so much as a glance into the backyard.
We had both sat up at the sound of the car; instead of laying back down he put his arms around my waist and we sat there for a moment hugging in silence. Then Nate broke the hug and I looked up at him, almost confused but not really. He moved his hand from my waist and brushed the hair away from my face and took it in both his hands. He stared into my eyes and I did the same to him. I never noticed how much eyes could sparkle in the dark with only the moonlight shining.
“You know Aliki, you’re eyes sparkle so much in the moonlight.” He said, I could tell he was smiling.
“So do yours Natie.” I smiled back.
“I’ve waited so long to do this, forgive me.” He said quietly.
The next thing I knew we were kissing. He had slowly moved his hand from my cheeks to my waist again and I snaked my arms around his neck. I felt his tongue brush my bottom lip, and I denied him playfully trying to make this last as long as possible. We kept kissing but soon I felt his hands pinch my sides and, as I gasped, he took the opportunity and, almost gracefully, slid his tongue in my mouth. We fought for dominance but I decided to let him win. It seemed like he explored every possible part of my mouth like twice, we fought for dominance again and this time I won and did the same to him.
Eventually we stopped making out and eventually just went back to kissing. It felt so different from kissing Kristian, of course I had never actually made out with Kristian. A little while later we started making out again. I could almost tell that we both wanted to go farther, but didn’t since ‘a’ Jon could be back at any moment, and ‘b’ we were outside in the middle of my backyard, and my fence didn’t hide anything from the neighbors.
We went back and forth between kissing and making out for a few minutes longer then I pulled away.
“What’s wrong?” He asked concerned.
“Absolutely nothing Nate.” I said smiling, and I knew he could tell.
“Then why’d you stop?” He asked confused
“Because if I didn’t stop now then I never would.” I replied, I knew I wasn’t the only one blushing.
“Oh.” He said, I could tell by his voice that he was smiling too.
“In case that didn’t already give you an answer, Nate, and I know this is a horrible time to say this, but I think I like you.” I said looking at my hands.
“I know I probably shouldn’t say this, but Aliki, I think I might be in love with you.” He said looking at his hands to.
“Nate, promise me you’ll come visit me this summer.” I said placing my hands on his.
“I promise, I get to take a vacation by myself this summer anyway, and it looks like I’m heading to Chicago.” He laughed lightly.
“You better Natie.” I replied throwing my arms around him in one of this biggest hugs I’ve ever given.
He wrapped his arms around me as tight as physically possible, and it seemed like it still wasn’t close enough. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and his kissed the top of my head and rested his chin there. Every time I inhaled all I could smell was the subtle cologne I’d remembered him wearing since like the seventh grade. I could tell he was pretty much smelling my hair too, but I didn’t mind.
“Aliki, can I ask you something?” He said nervously and I pulled away only far enough so I could look him in the eye.
“Aside from that, sure thing Natie.” I smiled and I heard him laugh softly.
“Will you, I know you’re leaving and all, but will you be my girlfriend?” He asked nervously.
I pulled my camera out of my pocket and held it up so it would capture both of our faces.
“What are you doing?” He asked with a slightly confused laugh.
“Capturing this moment forever.” I smiled and I moved my finger over to the shutter button.
“Yes Nate, I would love do be your girlfriend.” I said smiling and I pressed the button as the biggest, most sincere smile appeared on his face.
I pressed the shutter button one more time, right as he kissed my cheek. Within a second or so I heard a car door close and the cab Jon had taken back here pull away. I heard the door to the house open and close, knowing Jon was saying goodbye to my mother.
“I guess this is the last time we’ll see each other for a while.” I sighed burying my face in the crook of his neck once more, and inhaling his scent until it practically consumed me.
“We’ll still talk and IM and text. We’ll keep in touch and I’ll be in Chicago to see you as soon as I possibly can.” He said kissing the top of my head again.
“I know.” I sighed pulling away from his neck again.
He looked down at me and we kissed one more time before getting up. I quickly ran inside to say goodbye to my mom while Nate waited at the bottom of the stairs for me to come back. Within a few minutes Jon was in the truck waiting for me, letting me give Nate one last goodbye.
“I’m gonna miss you.” I said hugging him tight.
“I’m going to miss you too, but I’ll make this as easy a possible for us both, well talk everyday, and tomorrow I’m going to go buy a laptop with a webcam so I can see you whenever and wherever.” He smiled hugging me tight.
We kissed once more, okay it was more than once but whatever. I got in the car and Nate closed the door of the truck for me. We were about to drive off and then I remembered I still had his sweater on.
“Wait, Nate you’re sweater.” I said making sure Jon knew not to start driving.
“Keep it, love, I’ll get it when I see you next.” He smiled.
“Then wear this until I can give you back you’re sweater.” I replied untying something from my wrist.
I carefully untied the bracelet I had bought one day when I was out with Nate when we were probably about ten.
“Give me your wrist.” I smiled.
He did as I told him and I tied the bracelet gently around his wrist, the whole time we were both smiling.
“There now we’re even.” I replied.
“Come here.” He said indicating he wanted me to lean out the window of the truck.
“Okay.” I said once we were face to face.
He kissed me gently.
“Now we’re even.” He replied as we both smiled and I sat back up in the truck so I wouldn’t fall out.
“Well we should go.” I sighed.
“Yeah we should.” Jon said speaking for the first time.
“Bye Natie.” I said, almost sadly.
“Bye Aliki.” He replied the same way, and then we drove off.
~~~~
Thirteen hours later we were in Chicago. The drive itself was only about eleven hours but we stopped for about an hour to get something to eat, and then again at an Ikea since I needed a dresser, bookshelf and beside table, Jon insisted on getting me a new desk too since mine was shit. One of the things I liked about Ikea was the fact that their stuff was relatively inexpensive, so I had more than enough money to get the things I needed, Jon insisted on paying for the desk since it was his idea.
We spent most of the drive talking and actually getting to know each other. To me Jon seemed like good people, he seemed really nice and rather optimistic, which I thought was a good balance to me. He also played bass and helped out with his friends’ bands. I was actually excited to live with Jon he was really chill and so I knew he wouldn’t be as controlling as my mom had once been.
By the time we got to Chicago it was about four in the afternoon and we wasted no time in getting everything up to the top-floor apartment where Jon lived. There were three elevators in the old building, so Jon would bring stuff up in one and I would do the same in the other, it only took a few trips to get everything but the bed and mattress up to his apartment, since we had to use the stairs for that.
It took us close to an hour to finally get everything up the stairs and that was the first time I actually got a chance to look at the apartment.
It was one of those apartments that looked like it would be from Brooklyn as apposed to Chicago, most of the walls in the living room and kitchen were bare, red brick walls. There were shelves and a few pictures on the walls of various things. The walls in the bedrooms and bathroom had been fully finished and painted nicely.
I looked around my new bedroom for the first time since I’d arrived as I was bringing in a pile of boxes. Three of the walls were painted white, with around the widows, doors and baseboards were painted black and one wall was painted a nice red and the baseboards were painted red, and the ceiling was black. When I saw it I almost dropped the pile of boxes on my foot.
That explains why Jon told me to get the black furniture. I laughed slightly as I thought to myself. I pulled the sheets and blankets out of one of the boxes and put them on my bed. It all looked so perfect together. My sheets were currently red and my duvet cover, which I had made myself not long ago, had a black and white checkered pattern on one side and the other side was a deep-ish red. I threw the pillows on my bed and set the boxes in the corner.
It was then that I saw my closet, it was a decent sized walk-in and there was enough space for me to hang clothes on the sides and to put my new dresser at the end, it looked like it would just fit; which also meant Jon and I would have to build it in the small space.
I walked out of the room and back into the living room where Jon had taken the desk out of the box and had it half assembled.
“You want a hand with that?” I asked sitting down on the couch in the living room, which was actually a futon.
“Not with this, but you could start on the bookshelf, I can’t imagine it would be that difficult.” He sighed and shoved the tool box so it was between the two of us.
I pulled the flat box towards me and pulled out the pieces. Within fifteen minutes I had it built, while Jon was screwing with some stupid part of the desk that wasn’t cooperating with him. I brought the bookshelf into my room and put it where I wanted it. I went back out in to the living room and got the dresser box and carefully, and slowly, brought it into my room, and then into the closet.
I read the instructions and grabbed the screwdriver I needed, and a hammer just incase. I pulled the pieces out of the box and had it built in half an hour or so. I carefully shoved it into place and went back out to the living room where Jon was finishing up the bedside table and was waiting for me to help him carry the desk into my room.
Once we got all the furniture settled I started putting my clothes away. In less than an hour I had my entire closet organized and had even hung a mirror over the dresser and put my make-up and the few hair-products I had on top of the dresser neatly, and I put my straightener in one of the top drawers of the dresser.
The top shelf of my closet held board games and other things, mostly still in boxes, which I had kept for memories sake. I had messily thrown my books on the bookshelf and all of my DVD’s and video games in storage boxes that fit under my bed. I had the rest of my room put together, aside from posters, by eight-thirty.
“Aliki, dinner!” Jon called from the kitchen.
“Coming!” I yelled back as I was pulling in my laptop, iPod and cell phone since they all needed to be charged.
I went to the kitchen and saw the pizza box on the counter. I took the plate he handed me and we both sat down on the couch. Jon turned on the TV to find a Simpson’s rerun a few seconds later.
We ate in silence and then watched TV a little longer before Jon and I both decided to get some sleep since it had been over 24 hours that we had both been awake. I yawned as I went into my new bedroom. I quickly got changed and crawled into bed.
It wasn’t long before I realized I couldn’t sleep so I got up and grabbed my laptop. I crawled back into bed and turned it on. I quickly logged into MSN and saw that Nate was online.
AutomaticAliki: : hola Nate.
NotoriousNATE: : Hey Aliki.
NotoriousNATE: : how goes the move?
AutomaticAliki: : finished, unpacked and everything.
NotoriousNATE: : that was fast, hows Chicago?
AutomaticAliki: : I don’t really know yet, the apartment’s nice I can see like half the city from my bedroom windows, it’s kind of cool.
AutomaticAliki: : hows Kingston?
NotoriousNATE: : boring as it’s ever been, well even more so now that you’re gone :(
AutomaticAliki: : atleast you know more than one person in the city.
NotoriousNATE: : that’s only a good thing when you want to see those other people…
AutomaticAliki: : you could always hang out with Jamie…
NotoriousNATE: : ironically Kristian just asked if I wanted to hang out with him tomorrow, do you mind?
AutomaticAliki: : if you want to go a head, I’d just avoid telling him about us being together… it would probably be a horrible idea.
NotoriousNATE: : why?
AutomaticAliki: : I’m pretty sure he’d kick your ass, and then hound me about ending things with him to avoid the long distance factor, which I know he couldn’t handle, and then dating you less than six hours later, and he claims he’s still in love with me..
AutomaticAliki: : plus you’ve got a nice face, it’d be shame to see it all beaten and bruised.
NotoriousNATE: : you’ve got a nice face too. :p
AutomaticAliki: : aww thank you Natie :D
NotoriousNATE: : it’s nothing really, just honesty :P
NotoriousNATE: : so what are you planning to do first?
AutomaticAliki: : I don’t know, a few of Jon’s friends are coming over tomorrow, so I’m gonna meet new people.
NotoriousNATE: : as long as you remember you have a boyfriend that cares about you…even if he is out of town.
AutomaticAliki: : you can’t think I’d cheat on you, I’d hope you trust me.
NotoriousNATE: : I don’t think you would, but I don’t know your brothers friends thus I don’t trust them.
AutomaticAliki: : I’m not the little girl I was when we were five Natie, I can take care of myself and I can easily say the word no.
NotoriousNATE: : just making sure…
NotoriousNATE: : Guess what!
AutomaticAliki: : what?
AutomaticAliki: : tell me it’s good news…
NotoriousNATE: : it is, it’s very good news.
AutomaticAliki: : Ooo then what is it?
NotoriousNATE: : both my exams are on the first day, so I can come on the Wednesday and stay as long as I want… or you want me too.
AutomaticAliki: : why don’t you come the week after, Jon has a shit load of stuff planned for the next few weeks, and the you can get your exams back and stuff, it’s not like I’m going anywhere.
NotoriousNATE: : okay I’ll do that, plus it’ll give me more time to chill after and make sure I’ve got everything set. But I’ll need to know how long to book a hotel for.
AutomaticAliki: : just stay with us, Jon already says he doesn’t mind, as long as we keep it PG-13.
NotoriousNATE: I dunno if I’ll be able to keep my hands off of you that long ;p
AutomaticAliki: it will be a struggle, I mean have you seen how hot I am? :p lol jk
NotoriousNATE: and so modest. :p
AutomaticAliki: of course, how could I not be? Lol
NotoriousNATE: you must be tired, you should get some sleep.
AutomaticAliki: yeah I should, I haven’t slept since Thursday night.
NotoriousNATE: then you should most definitely get some sleep.
AutomaticAliki : yeah, you’re right, nighty night Natie-kins
NotoriousNATE: night Aliki, sweet dreams.
*NotoriousNATE is no longer online*
I closed my laptop and set it on me bedside table and pulled up the covers. I put my headphones is and it wasn’t long until I was asleep.
When I woke up the next morning Jon was still asleep. I wandered into the kitchen and decided to make pancakes. It wasn’t long before Jon was sleepily walking into the kitchen like a half- dead zombie, his hair was a shaggy mess and I laughed softly at the sight of him.
“How many pancakes do you want Jonny boy?” I asked, oddly upbeat.
“Ummm, a bunch?” He said groggily.
I set a plate with a huge stack of pancakes in front of him.
“That enough?” I asked with a laugh.
“More than.” He replied grabbing a fork and pouring himself some orange juice.
I finished off the pancake batter, which only left like three decent sized pancakes, which was more than enough for me. I grabbed a class from the cupboard and poured some juice for myself. When I tuned around I saw the stack of pancakes I had given Jon less than five minutes previous half gone and drenched in syrup.
“You’re going to give yourself a heart-attack.” I said pouring a small amount of syrup on my own pancakes.
“I’ll worry about that when I’m old.” He said finishing the rest of his pancakes.
“Whatever.” I sighed putting the plates in the skin and rinsing them before putting them in the dishwasher.
“Thanks for breakfast Aliki; I think those were some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had.” He replied making himself some coffee.
“It’s no problem; they’re our grandmother’s recipe.” I said with a small laugh.
“Is she a good cook?” He asked almost sounding disappointed.
“Yeah, she’s one of the best.” I replied honestly.
“Is she nice?” He asked the same disappointment in his voice from before.
“Yeah, her and our grandfather are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met. It makes me wonder how they produced such and loser for a son, and then two good people came from that.” I smiled laughing.
“Maybe decency skips a generation?” He suggested, only half smiling.
“You’ve never met them have you?” I asked curiously.
“Nope, I’ve spoken to our grandmother over the phone and in emails but that’s it.” He sighed.
“They’ll probably come and visit, make sure I’ve settled in alright and stuff.” I said trying to almost comfort him.
“They said they would, sometime at the end of august.” He replied cheering up slightly.
“You can count on it then.” I sighed smiling.
A few minutes later the intercom buzzed.
“Who is it?” Jon asked pressing the button.
“It’s Will, Pete and Mike.” Said a voice coming from the speaker.
“Come on up.” He said pressing the other button.
Jon unlocked the door and within minutes three boys entered the apartment. The second I heard that people were coming up to visit Jon I went straight to my room; since I didn’t feel overly comfortable letting strangers see me in my shorts and tank top. I threw on a pair of grey jeans and a blink-182 t-shirt. I brushed out my hair and applied a quick layer of eyeliner and then went out to the living room.
“Aliki, these are a few of my friends, a few more will most likely come by later.” He said as his form of and introduction.
“I’m William Beckett, he’s Pete Wentz and he’s Mike Carden.” A skinny boy with long-ish messy brown hair said pointing to his two friends.
“Nice to meet you, like Jon said, I’m his half-sister Aliki.” I said with a smile as I shook their hands.
We all sat around in the living room and waited for Jon to get dressed, which only took like two minutes. Within seconds Jon had broken out guitar hero and Pete had challenged me to Miss Murder by AFI, he set it to medium thinking that I wouldn’t be as good as him and the rest of the boys.
“I call winner!” William said right as the song was starting.
The entire song I was in the lead when the final score showed on the screen my final score was 99% and his was 94%. Jon, Mike, William and I burst out laugh since Pete had been so sure he would win.
William and I played Hier Kommt Alex by Die Toten Hosen, on expert just for shits and giggles. William and I both played horribly since I was only on hard and he was just starting the same level. Everybody was laughing, us included.
“I’m definitely playing winner this time.” Jon said as he tried to catch his breath because he was laughing too hard.
When the final score came up I had 67% and William had 64%. We were all baffled that we didn’t fail let alone make it over 50%. Jon took the guitar that William had just used and stood next to me. We played Monsters by Matchbook Romance on hard.
“You know what I play loser, Aliki has played one too many times for me to play winner.” Mike said as Pete and William burst out laughing.
“Mike, you just don’t want to get your assed kicked by a girl, playing your instrument.” Pete said shoving him.
“No, besides Guitar Hero is way different than playing the guitar.” Mike said defensively.
“He’s got a point.” I said looking over my shoulder at them as the song finished.
“You play guitar?” Jon asked me surprised.
“Well I used to, I can’t imagine I’d be very good anymore, it’s been probably a year since I had to sell my guitar.” I said.
“Why’d you have to sell your guitar?” Pete as curiously.
“Our computers power source exploded and I needed one for school and stuff and I only had the money to bring it someplace for document recovery so I had to sell my guitar and I’ve just never had the money to get another one.” I explained as I finally looked back at the screen to see the scores.
“Looks like Mike’s playing Jon.” William sighed as I passed the guitar to Mike as he stood up.
We waited to see the results and Jon lost again.
“It’s probably the guitar, I mean every time someone’s used that guitar today they’ve won.” Jon said giving the guitar to Pete.
“Sure Jon, it’s entirely the guitar’s fault you suck.” I replied as everyone laughed.
“Shut up.” Jon muttered as the next song started.
“I most definitely will not.” I replied making both Pete and Mike miss the first note.
“Sorry.” I muttered as they both groaned in annoyance.
We played a little longer and then the buzzer thing rang again. Jon ran over to the intercom in the kitchen to let whoever it was in. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door.
“Aliki would you be a doll and let Sisky and Andy in?” Jon asked as he was getting his ass whopped by Pete.
“Sure.” I sighed and reluctantly got up from between William and Mike.
I opened the door to see two tall, odd-looking guy standing in the hallway.
“Come in!” Jon yelled from around the corner.
“Hey I’m Andy and this is Adam.” Said the one on the left ad they walked in.
“Also know as ‘the butcher’ and Sisky.” Adam commented.
“And you are?” Andy asked.
“I’m Aliki, Jon’s half sister.” I replied as we walked back into the living room.
I sat back down where I was, now between William and Pete. It wasn’t long before Pete had ‘casually’ had his arm behind me on the back of the sofa with his hand resting on my shoulder. I tried to be polite about it but I was really bothering me to have some pop-punk/emo wannabe trying to be all sauve and ladies man-ish when he probably didn’t know my name.
“I’m not trying to sound rude but do you mind moving your hand from my shoulder, I don’t think my boyfriend would appreciate it much.” I said moving away from him slightly.
Pete’s cheeks turned the same shade of red as his fringe and all the guys either said ‘oh snap’ and snapped their fingers or were obviously thinking it.
“You have a boyfriend? You’ve been here like a day.” Mike said shocked.
“Yeah, but he’s back where I used to live, and we’ve only been dating like two days.” I said nervously scratching the back of my neck.
“Have fun with that.” William said, his voice thick with sarcasm.
“What.” I sighed in annoyance.
“Long distance doesn’t work.” He sighed like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Something you don’t know about Nate and I, okay well you know nothing about Nate or me but, we are two of the most stubborn, strong willed people when we want to be. I’ve known Nate since we were like four or five and this is the happiest I’ve ever seen him, so I think it’ll be fine.” I said almost bitterly.
“I guess only time will tell.” He almost challenged.
Everyone but William and I started almost giggling.
“What?” We both almost whined at the same time.
All of a sudden the room filled with the sounds of the four other boys saying nothing as they shook their heads. I got up and started walking to my room.
“I knew there’d be a downside to this.” I said loudly enough for them to heart.
“And what would that be Aliki?” Jon yelled to me.
“Boys are stupid.” I yelled back and closed the door.
“Aliki! Come back, you need to pwn Sisky at guitar hero!” He yelled as we walked towards my bedroom door.
“I don’t want to!” I yelled back at him.
“Why not?” He asked getting annoyed.
“Because Pete touched himself at night.” I yelled since I couldn’t think of anything else, I almost had to struggle to keep from laughing.
“If Pete promises to stop hitting on you will you come join us?” He tried almost bargaining with me.
“Fine, but only if he screams it.” I cried.
“I promise I’ll stop hitting on you!” Pete yelled at the top of his lungs.
“fine.” I sighed in defeat and opened the door.
I walked back to the living room. I shoved William over so he was sitting next to Pete instead of me.
“What was that for?” William whined as he straightened himself up.
“I don’t want to be next to Capitan hormones over there, if he’s going to hit on anyone it’s going to be you.” I sighed as I flopped down next to him.
“Hey William.” Pete said rising and eyebrow as he snaked his arm around Will.
“Hey Pet- you know I just can’t play along, this is too weird.” He sighed pulling away, and elbowing me in the ribs.
“Ouch! Watch where you aim those boney elbows Beckett.” I said shoving him back into Pete.
“Sorry, man you’re right Aliki,” He said turning to face Pete, “You know what Pete you’re a creeper, you should sit on the floor.
In a second there was a ‘thud’ and Pete was on the floor, Sisky and Will and shoved him to the floor.
“I told you.” I stated obviously as I rolled my eyes, and everyone but Pete laughed.