Boy Next Door

“I want the last breadstick!” Jordan yelled.

“No! I want the last breadstick!” Jared yelled back.

“No, its mine!”

“Mine!”

“Mine!”

This went on for a little while. Eventually, I just reached out, grabbed the breadstick, ripped it in half, and gave one half to each of the boys.

“Better now?” I asked as both boys ungratefully ate their half of the breadstick. I saw that Linda had gotten up to start cleaning the table off.

“Family hockey game?” Eric called, challenging his brothers to a two on two duel. The three other brothers agreed and went out to the backyard rink. Henry had grabbed Parker to take him to bed. Tanya, Linda and I were left to clean the table.

“You can go out with the boys if you’d like, Danielle,” Linda suggested.

“Oh no, it’s alright,” I politely declined.

“Are you sure? I know Jordan was looking forward to playing against you in soccer,” Tanya pitched in.

“I would love to show him who’s boss, but I can’t. I have a really bad concussion. The flying and the arguments and the getting tackled didn’t help the headaches much, either,” I explained.

“Well you can take a nap if you want. Or just go to sleep now. It is nine o’clock,” Linda said.

“That actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” I admitted as I finished putting the dishes in the dishwasher.

“Well you just make yourself right at home sweetheart. Marc’s room is the second door on the left. The bathroom is right across the hall from his room.”

“Okay, thank you so much. Goodnight,” I said to both Linda and Tanya before heading upstairs.

I found Marc’s room with ease. It was painted his favorite shade of blue and had a few Rangers items lying around the room. I quickly changed and took a pain pill before hopping into the full size bed. I fell asleep quickly with thoughts of Marc filling my head.

*~*~*~*~*

Bright light shone in my eyes, making me temporarily blind for a few seconds. I let out a yawn as I stretched my arms.

“Good morning Sunshine,” Marc whispered into my ear. A smile formed on my lips. When the first thing you hear in the morning is Marc’s voice, it usually means that it’s going to be a good day.

“Morning,” I responded. I crawled out of bed and ran a hand through my hair as I let out another yawn. I turned around to reveal a very shirtless Marc Staal standing in front of me.

“How are you feeling?” he asked caringly.

“Good, actually. My headache is gone,” I replied honestly.

“Good, because we have a busy day planned,” he said with a smile formed on his lips.

I gave him a quizzical look before responding. “What do we have on our itinerary for the day?” I asked as I searched through my suitcase for an outfit to wear.

“First we have our traditional Halloween breakfast. Then we all have to go get Halloween costumes. From 12 to 3, Parker, Tanya, Eric, Jared, Jordan, you and I are all going trick-or-treating. After that, we come home, eat food and hang out for a while. At 5, everyone is going to start putting up our decorations for the haunted porch. Once we get set, we all get in our places and scare the shit out of annoying teenagers,” Marc explained.

“TRICK-OR-TREATING!” I squealed like a little child. “I haven’t done that since forever ago.” Marc chuckled at my childishness and told me that I should probably shower now so I wouldn’t have to wait later. I listened to his advice, grabbed my bathroom stuff and walked across the hall.

I locked the door behind me and turned on the shower. I stripped myself of my pajamas before stepping under the hot spray of the shower. My shower wasn’t that relaxing, since I tried to get out as quickly as possible. I figured that everyone else wanted to shower, too.

“Hurry up Danielle!” Jordan yelled as he banged on the door. “Other people want to shower, too!”

“Ten minutes!” I called back.

I quickly combed and dried my hair before putting on the clothes that I had picked out before. I put on my make-up, brushed my teeth, and did everything else before walking out of the bathroom.

“You need to learn how to be more patient,” I said as I walked passed Jordan and down the steps to the kitchen.

“Good morning Linda. Good morning Mr. Staal. Good morning Tanya. Good morning Eric. Good morning Jared. Good morning Parker,” I said greeting everyone that was already seated in the kitchen. I was greeted back by a large chorus of good mornings.

“Guess what!” Parker said excitedly as he ran up to me.

“What?” I asked. I leaned down so I was eye level with the toddler.

“I going twick-or-tweating with Mommy and Daddy!”

“No way!” I said, trying to sound as shocked as possible. “Can your Uncle Marc and I come, too?” I asked.

He shook his head eagerly. “Only if Uncah Jordan and Uncah Jared can comes, too,” he added.

“I’ll make sure they come,” I whispered. He squealed and ran over to Tanya to tell her the news.

“Okay everyone! Gather round the table,” Linda said once Marc and Jordan came down the stairs.

Somehow, I got stuck in between Eric and Jared. Linda put down three giant stacks of pancakes in various Halloween shapes like pumpkins and ghosts. I had to say that she really out did herself. We all sat in silence, quietly eating our food in peace. We all thanked Linda for breakfast as we all cleaned off the table.

“Okay guys, time to go get costumes,” one of the boys announced. I think it was Jared. I wasn’t really paying attention.

“Come on!” Parker squealed. He grabbed my hand, leading me towards one of the cars.

“You better watch out Marc. Looks like someone’s stealing your girlfriend away from you,” Tanya said jokingly. Everyone laughed as we all got into different cars. I went with Eric and his family while the other three went in a different car.

“So Danielle,” Eric started. Oh boy. This meant that I was about to get interrogated. “How long have you and Marc been together?” he asked.

“Almost three months,” I answered.

“That’s it!” Tanya said incredulously.

“Yeah… Why?” I asked. I was a little scared of what her answer might be. What’s so shocking about us only dating for three months?

“No reason,” she said quickly. I shrugged off her answer and went back to looking out the window.

Within a few minutes we were outside a costume store. The other car pulled in shortly after us. We all got out of our cars and walked over to each other. I started talking to Jared, who I found insanely funny. Our giant group walked into the store with a ton of people staring at us. Yeah, I would be staring to if the entire Staal family just walked past me. The boys stopped to sign autographs while Tanya, Parker, and I walked into the store.

I started looking through the rack of costumes when Marc came up next to me. “How about this?” I asked him, holding up a nurse outfit. His eyes went wide before nodding his head in agreement. I chuckled at his reaction.

We all had our costumes within about ten minutes. I was a nurse, Marc was a mafia gangster, Jordan was Waldo from Where’s Waldo, Parker was a Bam Bam form the Flintstones, and Tanya and Eric were Mr. and Mrs. Flintstone. We each bought our costumes and accessories and headed back to the house to get ready.

Instead of wanting me to go home with him, Parker wanted Marc to sit in the seat next to him. Wanting to keep the title of best uncle, Marc fulfilled his request. So now I was sitting all alone in the back seat while Jordan was driving and Jared was sitting in the passengers seat. The two of them were holding some conversation, leaving me to just sit quietly and look out the window, so I pulled out my phone to text Mike since I feel like I haven’t talked to him in forever.

Me: Mikey!!!!!!!!
Mike: Dannie!!! You disappeared.
Me: Yea. Marc stole me and took me to Thunder Bay.
Mike: Haha he would. Look, I know we haven’t talked in forever, but Lauren and I are going out soon so I have to go.
Me: Okay no problem. Have fun and tell Laur I said hi.
Mike: Will do. Bye
Me: Byeeeeee

“Awww, the little lover can’t stay away from little Marcy,” Jordan mocked.

“Actually, I’m texting my friend. Oh, wait. You don’t know what a friend is since you’ve never had one before,” I retorted. This comment left Jared in a fit of hysterics in the passengers seat. Jordan had no witty comeback, so he just sat there quietly.

“I like her,” Jared managed to say through his hysterics.

Eventually, both cars pulled up to the house. We all filed out of the cars and crowded into the kitchen for a quick lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches. After we finished and cleaned our plates, we all got ready for trick-or-treating.

“Come with me Danielle,” Tanya said, grabbing my hand, leading me towards the guest room of the house. That’s where Parker had slept the night before. “You and I can get ready together.” I grabbed my bag of stuff and followed her.

We made small talk as we put on our costumes. “Oh my gosh. I have shoes that match that outfit perfectly,” Tanya said.

“Really?” I asked. “Because I don’t have shoes with me that would look good with these at all,” I confessed. She nodded her head and ran back to Eric’s room to grab the shoes.

“Oh my god! Those are gorgeous,” I gushed. She thanked me for the compliment and I thanked her for letting me borrow her shoes. I went into the guest bathroom and applied my make-up. Once, I was done, I put the shoes on and showed Tanya the completed outfit.

“I wish I could look half as good at you in that,” Tanya said. I thought she was kidding, since her body looks just as good as mine, but her face showed that she was dead serious.

“You’ve got to be kidding. You would look just as good as me in this, if not better,” I admitted.

“Well I’m just going to warn you. Everybody is going to stare at you tonight.” I shrugged off her comment and walked downstairs.

“I always knew Marc would be the one to date the supermodel,” Linda sighed once she saw me.

I started laughing at her comment, since I was anything but a supermodel. “Actually, no. I’m going into sports photography and I play soccer. I’m not a supermodel by any means.”

“Well that outfit tends to disagree with that statement.”

I heard a whistle come from behind me. I turned around to come face to face with Jordan. “Nurse, I think I need a full body examination,” he said with a wink.

“Nice try Jord, but she’s my girlfriend,” Marc said. I could tell he wanted to slap Jordan for the remark, but he held back. Everyone else came down within five minutes and we left to go trick-or-treating.

*~*~*~*~*

Besides the fact that I didn’t get any candy, trick-or-treating was so much fun. We were all joking and laughing the entire time. Almost every guy I walked past would stare at me, but Marc would always shoot them a dirty look.

Right now, we were all just sitting around in their family room waiting for dinner. Tanya and I asked if Linda needed any help, but she kept insisting that guests don’t help cook dinner. So while Linda was in the kitchen working her ass off to get dinner ready, the rest of us were just lounging around being lazy. I was sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the couches. Jared was also leaning against the couch. Marc and Jordan were sitting on the couch I was leaning against. Eric and Tanya were on the other couch while Parker was sitting on Tanya’s lap. Henry was sitting on the recliner reading the paper.

Parker got off of his mother’s lap and walked over to me. “Uncah Marc said he lubs you vewy much,” Parker said as he sat down on my lap so he was facing me.

“Well I love your Uncle Marc a lot, too,” I said to Parker.

“Are you’s gonna get married like Mommy and Daddy?” he asked. I let out a small chuckle at his question.

“Not right now, but I’ll let you in on a little secret.” I leaned down so I could whisper my secret into his ear. “If he were to ask me, I would probably say yes,” I whispered. “But don’t tell your Uncle,” I said loud enough for him to hear.

“You’re coming with me Parker,” Marc said as he swooped up his nephew and brought him into the kitchen, most likely to try and squeeze the secret out of him.

“I hope Marc knows that his efforts are useless. Parker can really keep a secret,” Eric said.

“He’s probably bribing him,” Jared pitched in.

“Dinner!” Linda called from the kitchen.

The rest of the night was spent laughing, hanging out, and scaring people who came to get candy from the Staal’s. Marc kept pestering me, trying to get my answer to Parker out of me, but I refused to let him know. I was sad when the night came to an end, because I knew we had to leave the house at six in the morning. I said my goodbyes to everyone that night and told everyone that we needed to keep in touch. After the goodbyes, I went upstairs to go to bed.

“So how do you like my family?” Marc asked me as we crawled into bed.

“I loved them. They are absolutely hysterical,” I said with a smile.

“Good because I think they like you more than they like me.”