Life Isn't All That Bad

"Guess what." Was the text that I finally sent Liz, much later that night. It was nearing nine thirty when I realized I hadn't told her. All through the afternoon, the neighbor boy kept filling my thoughts. And I was too busy helping my mom with unpacking and setting things, the thought that I forgot to text Liz never crossed my mind.

While I waited for a response, my thoughts kept drifting back to the strange boy. He was... good-looking, to say the least. He had to be at least seventeen, maybe eighteen. His copper hair was messy, the just-out-of-bed look that I'm sure he spent hours perfecting. It seemed his shirt had something about zombies, but he was gone too fast for me to get a good look.

But best of all was his eyes. His electric-blue irises were, quite honestly, breathtaking. I'd never seen eyes like that.

"UR HERE?!? FUCK BITCH, WHEN DID U GET HERE?"

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Earlier today. Sorry, I kinda got distracted today."

"What could possible be more important than me?! No, but seriously, tomorrow, u should hang with me and Kenny!"

Ah yes, Kennedy. He was the musician boyfriend I had heard so much about. He was in a band named The Maine, which I found somewhat ridiculous, considering they were from Arizona, but apparently they named it after a song they all liked. I'd listened to them briefly, and they were good. Despite all the times I'd visited Liz, I'd only meet her boyfriend of a year and a half once, very briefly.

In one of my more recent visits, I was on my way into her house, and he was on his way out. Liz introduced us, before Kennedy had to leave for band practice.

I changed into my pajamas, my beat up Ryan Adams shirt, and purple booty shorts, walking into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Once I was all cleaned up, I flopped down on my new bed. All that covered it was a thin sheet, along with a light blanket, but in this heat, I didn’t need anything more.

"Definitely. Look, I'm beat. I'll talk to you tomorrow, k?"

Within seconds, I was out cold, unaware of my buzzing phone sitting on my nightstand.

Of course, at 8:39 in the morning, I heard my phone. Its bazaar-buzzing pattern was incredibly loud, and I swatted blindly for it. There were two new messages.

"I miss your mom's pancakes. All I have are Eggos, and they are shit." Danny's message read. Over the summer, he'd spend most mornings in my apartment, enjoying my mom's cooking. He was practically a brother to me, and my mom treated him like a son.

"You little bitch, do you have any idea what time it is here?!"

"A decent time to wake up?"

"Way too fucking early." I groaned, knowing that there was no way I'd be going back to sleep at this point. I checked the other message. It was from Liz, from last night.

"Denny's. 10 o'clock. Make yourself look pretty."

I sighed, climbing out of bed. I put on Love Is Hell as I searched through boxes for something decent to wear. The clock read 8:52 at this point.

My fingers curled around dark green fabric, pulling out a t-shirt I'd cut into a tank top. It had three wolves howling to a moon. Next, I pulled out a pair of ripped white jeans. The heat couldn’t be that bad, could it?

In the end, I grabbed turquoise vans that matched my studded belt. I typically didn’t bother matching my outfits, but Liz had told me to look nice.

By the time I was changed and ready, makeup and all, it was 9:34.

"Can I just go to your place? I don't know how to get to Denny's..." I sent to Liz, sitting at the kitchen table.

It was true. In the drive around to find our home, I'd figured out my way to Liz's house. She lived on a busier street that was only a few blocks away.

"Of course, my darling. I'll see u in a bit?"

With that, I yelled to my mom that I was leaving. Quickly, I applied a thin layer of Burt's Bees chap stick to my lips before heading out the door.

The heat surprised me. It was already this hot this early? I was tempted to run back in and change into shorts, but I kept walking.

Parked across the street I noticed a small, obnoxious yellow car. A teenage boy probably owned it.

At the thought of boys, the neighbor boy popped back into my head. Which house was his? I didn’t even know his name, but I couldn’t seem to get him out of my head.

Soon, I arrived at Liz's home. When I rang the doorbell, a middle-aged woman answered the door. "Beau Neil, is that you? Oh my! Look at you! Darling, you just keep getting prettier and prettier!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around me. A heavy southern accent flowed in her words.

"Hi, Mrs. Owens! It's so good to see you again," I grinned, hugging the woman back. Liz's parents were basically my second parents, while my mom was like a second mom to Liz.

"Liz, honey, Beau is here!" She yelled inside the house, pulling me in. A gust of cool, air conditioned air hit me. I'd never felt anything so comforting. Before I could even enjoy the cold air, I was being tackled into a hug, tumbling back out the door.

"Beau!" The much taller girl shouted, hugging me tightly.

"Hi Liz!" I smiled widely, hugging Liz back.

"Mom, I'm taking her to Denny's for breakfast. I'll be home later. Bye!" She called over her shoulder, pulling the front door shut. As we walked to her car, I noticed how well she dressed. She'd also kept up with fashion trends, something I could never do. Her plain white t-shirt was tucked into a high-waisted floral skirt, which matched her yellow high-heels.

The car ride was full of random chatter; either telling stories of things that had happened to us, or telling "Remember when..." stories of our past adventures. Finally, we pulled into a Denny's parking lot, and my stomach let out a tiny growl.

"I hope you don’t mind, all the guys are coming. I'm not that close with them, but their Kenny's best friends. Plus, maybe you can make some new friends," Liz flashed me her million dollar smile, climbing out of the car. The clock said it was a few minutes after 10.

Entering the diner, I noticed a rowdy table of teenage boys, laughing and throwing things at each other. I had to admit, they were all quite attractive.

Liz started walking towards the table, and my jaw dropped a little bit. These were not the type of people she typically hung out with. Liz wasn’t a stuck up bitch, but I knew that this wasn’t her typical crowd. If she hung out with all these boys just for her boyfriend, she obviously really loved him.

I followed after her, suddenly feeling really self-conscious. The table fell silent, and all the boys watched us walk over.

One boy stood up, and wrapped his arms around Liz's waist, pulling her into a small kiss. Kennedy, I assumed.

"Lizzie, who's your shadow?" Kennedy asked with a chuckle, looking over at me. I hadn’t realized I'd practically been hiding behind Liz.

"Oh!" Liz exclaimed, moving over to stand beside me. "This is my bestie. She just moved here from New York, so I thought you'd wanna meet her, so she could get some new friends. Boys, this is Beau. Beau, this is... well, everyone."

All eyes were on me as I offered an embarrassed wave. "Hi," I mumbled, my cheeks burning.

A boy with long, messy brown hair smiled, waving rapidly at me. "Hi! I'm Pat! You can sit here!" He exclaimed happily, patting the spot next to him. I smiled, taking the seat next to the overly hyper boy.

Liz and Kennedy sat across the table from me. "I know I've met you before, but I'm Kennedy, incase you didn’t already know."

I chuckled. "I remember you, despite only meeting you for like, a minute." He gave me a wide smile, before returning to his conversation with Liz.

The boy with blonde-ish red hair sitting on the other side of Pat waved at me. "Hi, I'm Jared."

"Hi Jared. I'm Beau."

Now the boy on the other side of me introduced himself. "I'm Eric. Eric Halvorsen. Feel free to call me Halvo. I'm going to be your new best friend."

I couldn't help but laugh at the dead serious tone in his voice. "Well that isn’t creepy at all."

"Well of course not! I'd never creep out my new best friend," he laughed, giving me a goofy grin.

The last boy at the table had a cocky smirk on his face. I gave him a look, as if to say 'are you going to introduce yourself?' "Hello, Beau. I'm John Cornelius O'Callaghan the fifth. Pretty impressive, huh?"

I rolled my eyes. Great, just one more cocky, conceited boy in my life. I opened my mouth to give him a sarcastic remark when Liz cut me off. "Wait, we're missing someone... Where the hell is Garrett?"

"He said something about being late. I don't know. But I'm fucking starved, I say we just order food without him," Halvo said, checking his phone.

My stomach grumbled noisy. "Yes, let's eat!"

After getting our food, we all instantly began stuffing our faces. Even Liz was devouring her food. I was busy shoving chocolaty pancake pieces into my mouth, listening to Pat tell a funny story about why he got kicked out of Wal-Mart one time. Apparently, screaming and yelling at people, and just generally being a psycho, will get you kicked out.

The bell above the front door chimed, signaling that a person had just entered.

"Guys, I'm so sorry. My mom had me cleaning the house like crazy. Apparently she wants to have the new neighbors over for dinner or something," a boy said, practically in one breath. I glanced up at him, my eyes growing wide.

It was the boy. The neighbor boy.

"The new neighbors with a daughter our age, right?" John asked with his mouth full, not even looking up at him. He just continued to shovel food into his mouth. I nearly choked on my own food, causing me to swallow it all in a big gulp.

"I never told you guys! I met her. She's really...." his voice trailed off, his incredible blue eyes falling on me. "It's you...?" His tone was questioning, as if he wasn’t sure that he was really seeing me.

"Hi," I smiled weakly, feeling awkwardness overwhelm me.

Liz looked back and forth between us. "You two know each other...?"

The boy nodded. "She just moved in across the street from me..."

"Sweet!" Pat exclaimed loudly. I shot him a confused look. "Now we can go straight from band practice over to our newest best friend's house!"

The boy was in the band with them? How did I know that our strange encounter yesterday wouldn’t be the last?