Boy Next Door

I heard the door open and close and the thud of a hockey bag fall to the floor in the main room. I took my Halloween cookies out of the oven and placed them on the counter. I walked over to the intruder from the kitchen and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

“Hey Marc,” I greeted. He picked me up with a huge smile on his face and swung me around before he set me down. “Ewwwww! Now my clothes are all sweaty!” I whined. I slapped him in the arm. He let out a soft “Ow!” as he rubbed the stop where I hit him.

“What a great way to be greeted,” he muttered as he followed me into his bedroom. I quickly changed out of the shirt I had on and into one of Marc’s old hockey shirts. When I turned around, he still had that giant grin on his face.

“Why are you so happy?” I laughed. I’ve seen Marc happy before, but just not this happy, especially after a practice. He usually just sits around and does nothing for the rest of the day, unless I dragged him out.

“Because we’re going to my parent’s house,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I completely stopped in my tracks and whipped my head around to stare at him. “WHAT?!?!” I screamed. He seemed a little panicked; like he didn’t expect that kind of reaction from me. “When?” I asked when he didn’t answer me.

“Tonight.”

“And when did you plan on telling me?”I was starting to worry. I literally had no clue what he was talking about. I know that Marc always really tried to pay attention when I was talking about something he didn’t care about, and I always tried to do the same. I would feel horrible if I wasn’t paying attention to him talking about his family.

“Didn’t I tell you?” he asked. He had his head tilted to the side with a dumb expression on his face.

“No, you didn’t,” I sighed. He made his way into the living area and sat down on the couch. I sat on his lap and he snuggled his face into my neck.

“Well everyone has two days off so we are flying into Thunder Bay. Oh! And we need to leave in an half an hour,” he explained. I turned my head so I could look at him with a wide-eyed expression. I frantically jumped off of Marc’s lap, accidentally slapping him in the face. I ran over to my apartment, pulled my suitcase from under my bed and threw half of my closet in it. Marc was laughing hysterically at my packing method. I pulled the drawer that held all of the stuff I kept in my bathroom and dumped it into my suitcase. I grabbed my I-pod, phone, and their chargers off of my nightstand and threw them into a small duffel bag for my carry on. I threw on a grey long-sleeved shirt with a white camisole on underneath with dark blue skinny jeans and black converse.

“Let’s go!” I sighed, slightly out of breath from the rush-packing. Marc grabbed my luggage, and brought it down to the car. We hopped in and head to the airport, Marc still laughing from my “over-reaction.”

I decided to be a little bit of a bitch and gave him the cold shoulder for the ride over. The fact that he forgot to tell me that we are going to his parent’s house and then laugh at me for panicking pissed me off. I stared out the window with my arms crossed listening to my I-pod on the ride to the airport, giving him the message. Marc kept trying to talk to me, but I kept ignoring him.

We went through the luggage check and security, me still giving Marc the silent treatment. This tortured Marc, so he was basically begging for me to talk to him. Finally, something that was worrying me clicked in my head.

“I hope I turned the oven off,” I said as we sat down in the waiting area.

“Same, here. Or else I’m going to have to live with you.”

“Don’t act like it’s a bad thing,” I laughed. He gave me a smirk as we were called to board the plane. I slapped him, not meaning it in the way he was thinking.

“What is up with you slapping me today?” he asked, slightly annoyed.

“Every time you piss me off, I’m going to slap you. It’s as simple as that,” I explained as I sat down in my first class seat. “Now,” I said, trying to get comfortable. “I am going to take a nap. Oh! And tell Brandon to go eat the cookies I made or they are going to go stale.”

“Will do,” he said as he placed a kiss on my forehead. I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.

*~*~*~*~*

We were in motion when I woke up. It wasn’t smooth like a plane ride; I was more of a staggering movement. I opened my eyes and realized Marc was carrying me. He didn’t know that I was awake, but I smiled at him anyways.

“Why are you carrying me?” I asked. Since he didn’t know I was awake, I freaked him out, causing him to drop me.

“Because you can be a really heavy sleeper,” he said as he helped me up. I dusted off my butt and laughed. I could just picture Marc sitting there yelling in my face and shaking me trying to wake me up. I put my small hand in Marc’s larger one as we walked over to get our luggage.

Unlike most people, I wasn’t that nervous. I had already met Jordan and he seemed to like me, so I figured the whole family would, too. Why wouldn’t they? It’s not like I’m a horrible person or anything.

We walked outside, luggage in tow, and quickly grabbed a cab. Marc and I each looked out a window. I was taking in the beauty of the area for the first time, while Marc took in the familiar scene he called home. The car pulled to a stop in front of a gorgeous house. I got out of the cab and stared in awe at the house. Marc paid the driver and got out the luggage.

He grabbed my hand and gave it a tight squeeze before he led me to the front door. He rang the doorbell and turned to give me a smile.

“You actually ring the doorbell to your front door?” I asked. When I go home, I either used my key or went it through the garage.

“No, but my mom would have hurt me if she didn’t get to open the door for you.” The door opened and I was immediately engulfed in a hug. Being the polite person I am, I hugged the person back. Not seeing who I was hugging though, it was a little awkward. Marc saw my predicament and mouthed to me that his mom was the one hugging me.

“Oh honey, it’s so nice to meet you!” she squealed.

“You, too, Mrs. Staal,” I responded.

“Please, call me Linda.” A buzzer went off in the kitchen. Linda quickly excused herself before hurrying off into the kitchen to check it out.

I walked into the entryway of the house and looked around. The house was beautiful, inside and out. The chandelier that hung over the entry way was gorgeous. I could picture one exactly like that in my house.

I was tackled to the ground by someone from behind me. My head hit the ground when I fell, and, still not being completely symptom free from the concussion, it hurt like hell.

“I was wondering when I’d be able to kick your ass in soccer,” Jordan said, still sitting on me. I put my head down on the floor and let out a drawn out “ow.”

“Jordan! How many times do I have to tell you not to tackle the guests?” Mr. Staal said, scolding his son. Jordan got off of me, hung his head, and muttered an apology. Marc helped me up and my hand immediately went to my head. I could feel a massive headache coming on.

“It’s nice to meet you Mr. Staal,” I said, shaking his hand.

“Call me Henry,” he said quickly and went off into the kitchen to help his wife. Jordan turned and laughed at me in my pain. I quickly smacked him in the arm, earning a soft ow from Jordan.

“What was that for?” Jordan asked.

“For you being born,” another blonde look alike said, coming down the stairs. He and Marc shared a man-hug before the older look alike put Jordan in a head-lock.

“Stop being mean to your brothers,” said a petite blond woman. She came down the stairs with a three year old coming down shortly after her. “Hi, I’m Tanya. And you must be Danielle. I’ve heard so much about you,” she said politely.

“Really?” I asked. I really didn’t think that Marc talked about me all that much to his family. I mean, I hope they would know of me, but I didn’t think they would know a lot about me.

“No,” she laughed. I laughed with her, causing my headache to hurt more.

“And who’s this little guy?” I asked, kneeling down so I was eye level with the child.

“I’m Parker!” he said excitedly.

“Yes you are. And it’s time for your dinner,” Tanya said, picking up her son and walking into the kitchen. Eric followed his wife, leaving his brothers alone.

“It was nice to meet you Eric,” I called out sarcastically. He didn’t even say one word to me.

“Eric likes to be anti-social sometimes,” Marc whispered in my ear. The door opened and slammed closed behind me. I put my head down on Marc’s chest from all the pain I was having. The boy who just came in said something to Marc before running up the steps.

“Are you alright?” Marc asked me. I picked my head up off his chest and nodded my head. “Stop lying!” he said, pointing a finger right at my nose. I took in a deep breath, contemplating on whether to tell him the truth or not.

“Massive headache.” I muttered. Linda came in to tell us that dinner was ready. We all walked into the dining room and sat down at the large table. Jared came and sat down soon after.

I looked around the table. Four brothers, two parents, one wife, one three year old, and a girl with an extremely bad concussion that only gives her excruciating headaches, I thought to myself. This is going to end great…