Stay With Them Tonight

“Allie?” My mom looked at me from across the table. To my left was my dad, and he looked over at me too.

“Yea?” I asked, twirling another forkful of spaghetti in my bowl. I brought it up to my mouth while watching my mom. She was smiling slightly, looking anxious and excited at the same time. She was absently twisting her fork in her own bowl, and there was a huge ball of noodles wrapped around it. I glanced back up at her face.

“What is your opinion on moving?”

I thought seriously for a second, because it seemed like a pretty serious question. Then I got it. A big goofy smile spread across my face, but I still had a mouthful of food so I choked it down as quickly as I could and said, “There’s a house just a few doors down from Kelly!”

My dad laughed. “We know.” I looked over at him, seeing sun-streaked brown hair and a nicely tanned face. He was the reason we took weekend-trips camping every other week. His eyes were an odd shade of brown, too light for his hair, an odd shade of soft, sunny brown. It sounds weird, doesn’t it? But he has these really fantastic, unique eyes. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit them.

My mom, being an outdoorswoman herself, had very light, very natural blonde hair. Well, after the birth of me sixteen years ago, I’ve heard her hair turned a shade or two darker, but she still had the same light green eyes as the pictures of when she was younger—the same green eyes I saw everyday in the mirror. In fact, I was almost a miniature of her—I had both her eye and her hair colors. My hair was a little bit lighter, but my eyes were exactly the same shade of pastel-green.

My older sister had her blonde blonde hair but my dad’s eyes, and was off at her third year of college in Arizona.

Cass called every night to brag about the pleasant weather and talk about random things. Here in Belvedere, Illinois, it was very, very wet. And all of this is very irrelevant.

Right. Moving. Excited. “When can we go see it?” I asked. I was still smiling, and my spaghetti didn’t deserve the neglect I was giving it.

My dad answered. “Next Tuesday. We already worked it out with the realtor.”

“Yes!” I punched the air and started getting out of my seat. “Can I be excused? I, uh, need to go to the bathroom.”

My mom smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Tell Kelly we said ‘hi.’” I grinned and ran up to my room.

I dialed the number I knew by heart, too impatient to look through my contacts or open up my recent calls list. It picked up after about three seconds of “She Likes” by Forever the Sickest Kids.

“Kells? You’ll never guess what my parents just said…”

* * * * *

It was, being the rainy season here, drizzling as we pulled up to the two-story, 5-bed/3-bath house, conveniently located nine houses down from Kelly. She was hurrying towards us in the rain as the realtor waved us inside, and we squeezed each other both for much-needed heat and for excitement.

It was a gorgeous house, all white with dark blue trim and decoration. There was a big green lawn out front, with a giant oak between our lawn and our neighbors’. They had a little toddler bike under the tree, and our other neighbors had a big bush of peonies in their front yard. Kelly jerked me inside. Hah. I realized I was already calling them our neighbors.

“Whoa, this is nice. And it’s like a replica of my house!” Kelly laughed. “The kitchen and the dining room are switched, though. And different colors…” she babbled on as we ran ahead of my parents and the realtor from room to room.

In each room, she had something positive to say, and always saying it loud enough that it carried into the other rooms, to my parents. “Look at that!” “Just wait till you get furniture in here!”

Whenever we passed my parents, they were smiling. Kelly and I grinned at each other the whole time.

* * * * *

“Have you seen that box of kitchen stuff, Al?” My mom called over from the kitchen, to my right. Her voice was stressed, but happy. I’m pretty sure that’s how we all felt at the moment. It seemed the boxes would never end, and none of them were where they were supposed to be.

It was Monday, and just this morning we got the last of the boxes from the moving truck. In two weeks I would be starting school.

“Here, Honey.” My dad’s steps echoed a bit on the hardwood floors of the upstairs landing, and he walked down the stairs. I saw his legs and then the rest of him emerged.

I puffed out a breath and sat on an unopened box labeled “Cass.” Cass is short for Cassandra, my aforementioned older sister. She wasn’t here to help move, but would arrive next weekend as a break between her two summer semesters of class. I would make sure to leave all of her unopened boxes in her bedroom; there was no way in hell she was getting me to unpack her room for her.

And I still had no idea why a box for one of the rooms upstairs was downstairs in the living room.

Kelly burst through the front door carrying four coffees from a local coffee shop, where everything was really, really delicious. She handed me my mocha frap, while my mom looked over with a “how-can-you-be-drinking-that-stuff-in-this-weather” look. It was unusually cold for this time of year, but I would never miss a good frozen drink if I could help it.

I looked at the clock, and it was almost noon. We had an appointment with the principal in an hour. . .

Kelly handed my mom and dad their drinks and their change, and came and sat down on my box. Well, the box. She sipped on her chai latte. “You know . . . there are quite a few cute guys around here, Al. In faaaact,” she drew out the word. “There’s–”

The doorbell rang, and I sprung up and ran over to it. My dad beat me to it, and I watched as he opened the door to reveal a pretty woman with dark brown hair in a blue raincoat. She carried a plate of cookies, which I stared at.

I noticed I wasn’t the only one staring; there was an adorable little boy with dark curly brown hair staring at them, too, standing close to the woman’s legs. His face was wide-eyed and intent on the cookies. He couldn’t have been taller than my waist, and I was only 5’5.”

“Hi, I’m Haley Luce, from the house on the other side of the oak tree. This is my youngest son, Danny.” She smiled. “I made some homemade cookies to welcome you to the neighborhood.”

My dad smiled. “Please, come in. I’m David Anderson.” He took the plate from her and shook her hand. He turned and saw me standing there. “This is my daughter, Allie. Why don’t we go into the kitchen?”

My mom was in the doorway of the kitchen, and she smiled. “Hi, I’m Melanie. Sorry about the house being a mess; we haven’t quite gotten a chance to straighten everything out.” We all walked into the kitchen. “Oh, this is my daughter’s friend Kelly.”

Mrs. Luce smiled at us. Kelly’s eyes lit up when she heard that this was our next-door neighbor. I would have to ask her about that later.

“Hi, Mrs. L,” Kelly said. “How’s Jason and Ryan?”

“Well, hi Kelly! They’re about the same as always.” She rolled her eyes, but her face was affectionate. “My husband is at work, but when I heard we had new neighbors, I decided to come say hi. Danny here wouldn’t let the cookies out of his sight.” She smoothed his hair unconsciously. He was still staring at the cookies, but he glanced at us and up to his mom, and then back to the plate in my dad’s hands.

“Why don’t you stay and have some?” my dad asked.

Mrs. Luce stayed for half an hour, during which little Danny finally had three of the delicious chocolate chip cookies. They must have had crack in them, they were so addicting.

Little Danny started talking to me as soon as he had his first cookie. “I’m six,” he said shyly, holding up six fingers. “How old are you?”

“I’m this sixteen,” I said, amused and smiling. It seemed like the first thing any kid did was tell you how old they are.

He grinned. “You’re old!” We continued on like that for the rest of the time, with Kelly smiling and rolling her eyes. I stuck my tongue out at her while Danny was busy munching on some chocolate-chip goodness.

Mrs. Luce finally insisted that she couldn’t distract us any longer, but offered her help anytime. Danny waved all the way back to his house.

That same day my mom and I went over to the high school Kelly was going to and registered me for the fall. I was going into my junior year with Kelly, so I would be taking English 3, US History, Algebra 3-4, and Chemistry as my main classes. I would also be taking PE Mondays and Wednesdays, Intro to Cinema on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a computer class on Fridays.

The principal told me my main classes, and then gave me a short list of electives to choose from. I chose the PE, Cinema, and computer classes.

The principal was a tall, light-haired lady that seemed kind and easy-going, but brisk and business-like. We were in and out of the office in ten minutes flat.

We were told by the office lady that I would get my complete schedule on the first day at the desk. She showed in the next girl, a frightened-looking freshman-type girl. I smiled at her as we walked out the front.

Feeling accomplished, we went back home and made hot chocolate. There was a reason I loved rainy weather. Hot chocolate was one of the few drinks that I like hot. I looked around the new house. My new home.

Kelly was out with her brother, who lived with her mom after her parents split up. He was born a year before us, and I used to have a huge crush on him for the longest time, but he once told me he wasn’t interested in his sister’s friends. I was embarrassed after that and we hadn’t spoken for a long time. I was conveniently absent whenever Kelly saw him. Anyway, she was out, and I was at the house, so I set my hot chocolate down on my nightstand and started unpacking my room.

I spent the rest of the day unpacking my bookshelf and my closet before dinner, which was just some Chinese takeout. I took a shower and went to bed early, knowing I had to get up for the morning shift at work.

I couldn't get to sleep though; my brain was restless.

I hoped that it wouldn’t be too stressful tomorrow.

I felt odd in my own bed, even though I always slept in the same bed. The room was different, and the bed felt different. I kept turning and rolling and opening my eyes to orient myself.

I remembered that I had to ask Kelly about earlier and how well she knew Mrs. Luce, but I avoided calling her because she might still be out with her brother.

Really, it’s been two years, Al. Why are you still avoiding him? I asked myself. I fell asleep, promising myself to call or text Kelly in the morning. Who was she talking about with our neighbor earlier? How well does she know Mrs. Luce? My brain wandered until I finally fell asleep.