The Square Root

“Welcome to Los Angeles, California. The current temperature is sixty-eight degrees and the current time is two in the afternoon. We hope you enjoyed your flight with us, and enjoy your stay in the City Of Angels,” the intercom said as the plane rolled to a stop. I bluckled myself out of my seat, and reached over my head to take my backpack down. I frowned as I realized that when I got on the plane, I just shot it like a basketball and because of my small frame, I needed some help.

“Need help?” a voice asked from behind me.

I turned around and was met with a gorgeous man. He stood about 2 or 3 inches taller than I and looked to be around my age. I was in awe for a second, but quickly snapped back to reality. “Yes please,” I said with my slight British accent. He flashed his pearly whites at me as I stepped out of the way and let him grab it for me. I smiled at the scent that greeted my nostrils. It was a manly yet sweet smell.

“Here you go,” he flashed his smile again at me as he handed me my backpack.

“Thank you so much,” I said to him.

“You’re welcome,” he grinned. “So, are you visiting someone here?” he asked, as we made our move forward in line. I should’ve taken first class.

“I guess you could say that,” I said as I fixed my backpack on my shoulder, and fixed my camera bag and took out my cellphone.

“Do you need directions?” he asked me.

I shook my head at him. “My brothers will be meeting me here,” I told him. “Thank you though,” I smiled at him.

“Alright, you sure? I have to go, so it’s your last chance,” he said to me, glancing at his phone and back at me as he walked backwards. I nodded and waved at him, he flashed his pearly whites again as he scurried off to another direction. I sighed as I looked around me. No change whatsoever, LAX will always be packed no matter what.

I picked up my bags from the carousel and put them in a cart as I looked for the familiar exit, and I was relieved once I found it, half expecting for me to get lost because of the crowd that blocked my view.

I saw a familiar figure as I took a deep breath and found some open space. I waved to get their attention, and when I did, he smiled wide at me.

“Tristan!” I screamed as I ran towards my brother and tackled him in a bear hug. Tristan and Nate - my two idiotic yet loveable brothers - decided to move to South California last year for Tristan’s senior year in high school, and Nate’s junior year in UCLA while I was sent off back to London with our Aunt Mary, since I was not of legal age yet. This year, my senior year, unfortunately still not of legal age, my parents agreed to send me to California to stay with my brothers (with months worth of begging from both my brothers and myself, of course).The upside? It’s my last year in that hell hole I call High School.

My brother then set me back down on the ground. “Are you still growing?” I asked him with a pot.

“Do I seem like it?” he asked, ruffling my hair. I glared at him, and he put his hands up in surrender.

“Yeah. You’re like, a foot taller than me now,” I frowned. “It’s not cool being short,” I mumbled.

“What? You wanna be my height?” he asked with a laugh as he grabbed the cart, and lead the way. “You’ll find a hard time looking for a guy if you were my height,” he laughed. “Wait, actually, that sounds tempting,” he paused for a second.

“Shut up,” I playfully punched his arm. “Where Nate?” I asked, looking behind him for a sign of my other crazy brother.

“He’s in the car. He was being cheap again, not wanting to pay for parking,” he said rolling his eyes. Typical Nate. I saw the familiar Sleek Black Range Rover at the front, my dorky brother in the driver’s seat grinning widely.

“Hi ugly,” I greeted, opening the backseat door while Tristan put my luggage in the back. “I like what you’ve done with the car,” I told him, looking around, noticing the Blacklights mounted onto the side, and the laptop that Nate had just tucked in between the compartment and the driver’s seat.

“Thank Tristan,” he said when Tristan came back in.

“Thank me for what?” he asked as he hopped into the front passenger’s seat.

“Fixing up my car,” I grinned.

“No problem,” he said to me. “Though, while you’re at it, maybe you should thank me for carrying those elephant bags of yours,” he mumbled.

“That too,” I chuckled.

After moving around from one state to another because of my parent’s profession, and then being away from my brothers, it’s really overwhelming and unbelievable that I could stay here. Since Nathan could already be my guardian. In California, the guardian has to be at least 21 years old, which Nate just turned a few months back. Yeah right, it seems like, I’d be their guardian.

I got out of the car, taking in the beauty of our mansion at the end of Crest Way, on our on hill in Beverly Hills, CA. There’s a massive black gate, an opening to our high, white-walled surrounded compound, at the front, which lead to a block long driveway, that circles around a lawn with a nice fountain in the middle. On both sides are huge gardens.

I looked back up to our modern looking mansion , very much alone at the top of the hill, and admired its beauty.

“You’re drooling,” Nate said. I quickly wiped it away, and realized he was just messing with me. I glared at him as he and Tristan started laughing.

“We’re leaving in an hour to get you settled in,” Tristan said, jumping in the driver’s seat, to go park the car into the pop up garage at the back. From the ground it pops up, nice huh? I think it’s pretty sweet. It goes up 3 layers, and we have maybe 10 of those, so we can store 36 cars, if we put any in the garage. But the guys usually use it for fixing up cars.

How do I know any of this? We made it a habit to come by every year, to keep everything in check. We used to leave this place with trusted housekeepers and guards.

“Settled in? Why do we have to leave to get me settled in?” I wondered.

“You’re not living here silly,” Nate said, smiling widely at me.

“What do you mean I’m not living here?” I asked. Nobody told me about this!

“You’re moving to somewhere near your school, of course,” he said and walked into the house, going straight for the kitchen.

“What? Where are YOU living?” I asked them

“Here,” he said simply, looking at me though the top of his glass, drinking water.

“I’m living alone?!” I practically screamed.

“Don’t scream, damn. This place is made of glass, you might tear it apart,” he mumbled, checking if his eardrums are still intact.

“So, I’m living alone?” I asked him, partly horrified, partly exhilarated about the fact.

“Yes you are,” he told me.

“Are you serious?” I asked him, a smile making its way to my face.

He nodded at me. “Plus, I thought you would’ve liked it. But, if you want, I can arrange something for you to live here.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll go live wherever you guys are putting me,” I said, trying not to show my excitement.

“You’ll just be there for the weekdays though, and we can sleep there for the first couple of weeks if it helps,” he offered.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be fine,” I smiled at them. “Let’s go!” I said and calmly walked out the door even though I was more than excited.

I’m. Living. Alone. It’s every teenager’s dream.

So, we went to the house that I was to be living in for the next, I don’t know, months maybe. And it wasn't bad. It was decent sized. It was a two storey, three bedroom, and 2 bath house, with a decent sized kitchen, and a living room, a pretty huge living room. It was fully furnished too. The living room was in Purple and Black, the Kitchen in all black, the baths in black and white, my room in Blue and White, then the other two rooms in Purple and Black. “Awesome”, I said when I finished looking around. Don’t think I’m depressed for liking black so much. But I think that it’s nice to be a motif of a home. It looks clean and simple.

“You like it?” Tristan asked.

“I fucking love it, holy shit!” I grinned and tackled both of them in a hug.

“Can’t… breathe,” Tristan panted, so I let go of them.

“So, I get to live here, by myself?” I asked them. They nodded. “Wow,” I smiled evilly.

“No parties,” Nate warned. I rolled my eyes.

“Fine,” I agreed. Not like I know anyone, anyways.

“Go get ready for bed, you have school on Monday,” Nate said.

I looked at him wide-eyed. “Are you kidding?”.

He shook his head. “The Semester break just finished,” he said. I groaned.

“You’re both staying here tonight, you’re taking me shopping tomorrow,” I said, and ran up the stairs. I opened my bags, looking for my pajamas, and picked out flannel pajama bottoms, and one of Tristan’s old shirts. Don’t hate, they’re comfy. And went into the bathroom to change.

I then fell asleep, the second I hit my bed. Do you not know how tiring flying across an ocean, and across the country is? Well, you shouldn’t try it. It’s terrible.

The next morning, I woke up to an alarm I did not know I set. I then looked beside me and saw there was a 13 inch monitor mounted onto my wall. I was already familiar with something like this, since the mansion had monitors in each room, that all connected to one ‘mother PC’, and it provided Internet, and all other necessities for the house.

I got up, took a shower, and got dressed into a pair of dark wash skinny jeans and an All Time Low band Tee, with my high top Supras. I put my hair up in a messy bun, and grabbed my white iPhone 4, and my purple wallet, that folds 3 sections, and the front has my name engraved on it in black. I walked downstairs to find my brothers eating breakfast on the couch.

“Breakfast’s in the kitchen,” Nate mumbled, mouth full of cereal.

“Is there oatmeal?” I asked. They nodded. They knew that I only eat oatmeal for breakfast. I can be a health freak sometimes.

We then went to the closest mall we could find, and I started on my shopping spree.

“Damn Haze, you finally got that raise?” Tristan asked with a smirk.

“35 a week,” I proudly nodded.

“Dollars?!” Nate asked horrified.

“Yes Nate, like I could totally pay for my expenses for 35 bucks a week,” I said sarcastically.

We continued with out shopping spree. I ended up getting around 30 shirts, 20 flannel shirts, maybe 10 tanks, 2 hoodies, a coat, 5 pairs of jeans, and maybe 3 or 4 pairs of shoes. By the end of the day, we were exhausted.

“Are we done now?” Nate moaned, carrying his own bags of his purchases.

“I still need a bag,” I frowned. “I think there was one in Abercrombie, I’ll be quick,” I said and made my way back to the store. I looked around and saw what I was looking for. It was a navy blue messenger bag. It was simple and I liked it. I went to the register, and while I was paying, I saw their new perfume “Fierce” so I purchased that too.

“For your boyfriend?” somebody behind me asked. I turned around to see a gorgeous guy, his hair, spiked upwards, revealing his electrifying eyes that would make any girl want to stare at them forever. Damn, South California breeds some pretty fine guys.

“Uhh, no,” I quickly said. “For uhm, me,” I laughed, and grabbed my bag of my purchases, and started walking towards the door.

“Wait up,” he smiled, oh man, he even has a killer smile, better than the guy at the airport. Oh and don’t forget that he’s a lot taller too! “So, a girl that would wear a guy’s perfume, that’s new”, he said to me, keeping up with my pace.

I just shrugged and kept walking. He followed after me, and once he crossed the door, the alarms started to ring. I turned to glare at him, as he just waved off one of the workers, putting the merchandise that he was holding onto on the nearest table.

“You’re an idiot,” I said shaking my head.

“We own this branch,” he said to me, smiling with pride.

“Was that supposed to impress me?” I asked him, tilting my head to the side, raising an eyebrow at him.

“It usually does impress other girls,” he laughed.

I beckoned for him to come closer with my index finger. And he did. “Well shit, too bad I’m not like other girls, huh?” I asked as I walked away and left the gorgeous cocky asshole dumbfounded.