So this is my 2nd attempt at a story! I had such great feedback from my last one that I didn't feel as nervous posting,but I'm still working on getting better. The title was an inspiration by the song Take a Bow by Rihanna. I got the idea when I heard that song so I hope you all like it!! It's only the first chapter so please review and let me know what you think!! Remember constructive criticism!! Sorry if there are any grammar errors, its impossible for me to catch them all for some reason. lol This is rated T for now but it may change in the future!

Chapter 1

Jack Mercer was standing in the living room of his late mother's house. He was watching his new neighbors moving into the house next door. It seemed like there was a family of three moving in. He saw what looked like a young couple, and there was a young woman that looked to be only a few years younger than himself. She was too old to be their kid so he assumed that she was a sister of the woman because he could see the resemblance.

In all actuality he was lucky to be standing here today. About two years ago there was a shooting outside of his house where he was shot multiple times. He thought he was going to die but it seemed he had a guardian angel looking over him that day because he lived. He liked to believe the angel was his mother who was murdered just days before. It was his mother's death that made him decide to move home permanently. He was living in New York with his band trying to make it big but it was cut short when he got that phone call. He had quit the band and was now living in his mother's house with his older brother Bobby. A good friend of his had opened a record store and he had been working there for the last year and he loved it.

"What are you looking at fairy?" Jack looked over his shoulder to see Bobby walking down the stairs wiping the sleep out of his eyes. Bobby was now working with his other brother Jeremiah or Jerry as they called him. Jerry lived about ten minutes away with his wife and two kids.

"We got new neighbors. And fuck you." Jack said glaring at Bobby.

"No shit? Someone's moved into old man Norman's house."

Mr. Norman had been the Mercer's neighbor for over thirty years. His wife passed away five years ago and he had passed away six months ago. None of his relatives had wanted to keep the house so they put it up for sale. Bobby walked up to the window and stood next to Jack. He noticed the two blond haired women come out from the back of the moving truck holding boxes and making their way into the house.

"Damn look would you look at that cracker Jack. That's what you call a real woman." Bobby said looking at the older of the two woman who was tall and had short curled blond hair that seemed inspired by Marilyn Monroe and the front was held back by a black head band.

"Yeah I bet that guy knows just how much of a woman she is too." Jack laughed. Bobby followed his gaze and frowned when he saw a man sitting on the edge of the truck The blond woman walked out of the house back to the truck, kissed the man and said something to the younger girl who was also sitting on the truck.

Jack himself was sizing up the younger woman. She seemed like a younger version of the older one. He guessed that they were sisters. The younger one had straight blond hair that hung just passed her shoulders and had wisps of the bang covering the side of her face. While he was looking the girl over he noticed a silver SUV pull up in their driveway. He saw Jerry get out of the car and smirked seeing him walk over to the new neighbors. Looks like they'll be meeting them sooner rather than later.


Christina Wilson ran a hand through her hair wishing she had put it up. It was early in the morning and the sun was hot since it was the beginning of September and the summer wasn't completely over yet. Sighing she walked up into the truck that was in the driveway and picked up another box. She walked down the ramp and began to walk to the house.

"Careful with that my dishes are in there." Her older sister Ava said walking past and into the truck herself. Christina rolled her eyes.

Christina was a 19 years old from the small town of Stockbridge, Michigan and had graduated high school a year earlier. She had to stay an extra year because she didn't have enough credits to graduate with her friends. She was upset about that but stayed in school anyway wanting to get high school done and over with. The fact that her friends had graduated before her was almost good because since she had no one to talk to in school she had no choice but to study and do the work so her grades were better than ever. So during the year she thought that she would try to apply for collage. She put in an application to University of Detroit. She decided that she wanted to major in medicine. But she knew she couldn't be a doctor because the sight of anything bloody or gory made her stomach turn, so she went for the next best thing and become a nurse. She could still help people and not have to do the bloody work as she liked to put it.

The only problem was that if she didn't get a place in the dorms then she wouldn't have a place to stay and she really didn't want to dorm with a stranger. So she was ecstatic when her older sister Ava said that she and her husband Alex were moving to Detroit because of his job that she could live with them while she finished school.

Ava was an interior decorator and was well known in the town they were from and wanted to expand her job so she was going to try and get a job at a well known place in Detroit called Harris Design Group. She already had a letter of recommendation from her former employer and had already sent in her resume. She got a call a few days later and had an interview for the tenth of September. That gave her a week to settle in her new house.

Her husband was Alex James. He was a high school teacher English teacher and had gotten an opportunity he couldn't refuse. He was going to be starting his teaching job in just a couple days when school started at Detroit Central High, the local high school.

Christina was grateful that her sister and brother in law let her live with them. She knew they wanted to start a family and with her around it would be a little bit harder but they assured her it was fine. They had bought a older house but Ava insisted that once she was done with it, it would look as good as new. It looked old from the outside but inside it wasn't really that bad. It was a two story, three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, but Ava said she was going to turn the basement into a guest bedroom because there was a separate bathroom down there. Ava had driven her and Alex's car to the new house while Alex had rented a moving truck and had driven that. Which lead them to the present.

They had officially moved into the house that day and were now moving boxes into the house. The major furniture like the beds, sofas and dressers had been delivered the day before. At the moment Christina was exhausted. It was too hot out to be moving but Ava insisted that it had to be done as soon as possible. And what Ava wants, Ava gets.

"Tell me again why we couldn't hire movers to do this for us." Christina grabbed a bottle of water out of the cooler Alex had packed since they had nothing in the refrigerator that was cold yet, and sat on the edge of the truck.

"There's nothing wrong with your legs or arms so what's the problem." Ava said cheekily. Christina scowled at her.

"I wanted to hire movers but I learned not to disagree with her a long time ago." Alex said sitting next to her after getting a drink himself. Ava smiled triumphantly and leaned over to kiss her husband.

Ava had been with Alex on and off since Ava was 21 and Alex was 25. They had been together for six years and had gotten married the year before. They had both talked about wanting kids but were waiting until both were settled in their careers and were financially ready.

Christina rolled her eyes and let out a small smile while watching them. Ava saw the eye roll and glared playfully.

"Well what are you waiting for theres more boxes to be unloaded. Chop chop." Ava clapped her hands twice for effect and went back into the house.

Just as Christina jumped off the truck to put her drink back in the cooler so it wouldn't get warm a silver SUV pulled up in the driveway of the house next to them. Alex stood up next to her and obviously saw the SUV as well.

She watched as a black man stepped out of the vehicle. He was about to walked up to the the house but then looked over at them and made his way over.

"Hi. You must be the new neighbors." He said when he approached them.

"What gave it away." Christina said sounding rude even that wasn't how she meant it. Way to give a first impression. She thought to herself.

Alex cleared his throat and held his hand out. "Yeah I'm Alex James and this is my little sister in law Christina."

"Jeremiah but just call me Jerry." Jerry shook Alex's hand. Ava took this time to walk out of the house.

"This is my wife Ava. Ava this is Jerry. He lives next door to us." Alex said more like a question and glanced at Jerry.

"No I don't live there. My brother's do. I just came over here for a visit. I live about 10 minutes away with my wife and two daughters."

"Aww, you have two daughters? How old are they?" Ava loved kids and anything to do with them. She couldn't wait to have some of her own.

"Amelia is seven and Daniela just turned ten last month." Jerry said with pride.

"Aw, well once we have everything unpack and settle and the house the look doesn't look like an abandoned warehouse, why don't you all come over for dinner. Including your brothers. We could use any friends we can get. And I would love to meet your wife and kids." Ava laughed.

Jerry nodded his head chuckling. "Yeah you want to get to know the right people in this neighborhood."

Alex tilted his head when Jerry said this not knowing exactly what he meant by that.

"Why don't I give you my house number and you can call whenever your settled and we'll set something up." Jerry said.

"Yeah that would be great. Hold on I need to get my cell so I can program it in. Alex where's my cell?"

"Chrissy where's Ava's cell?" Alex turned to Christina.

Christina sighed and went to the car to get the large bag Ava called a purse and began to dig through it. She really didn't understand why some girls have to have such large purses. Finally she found it in one of the many secret pockets and brought it over. Ava grabbed it and programed Jerry's number in it.

"Well I guess I'll see you soon." Jerry nodded to the three of them and walked back to his brother's house.

"Well so far so good." Alex said as he put an arm around Ava's waist and pecked her cheek.

"Mmhm. Now get to work. I want to get everything in so we can start unpacking."

Alex and Christina looked at each other and rolled there eyes. She was commanding but you couldn't help but love her for it. If it wasn't for her they would probably never get anything done.


"Well looks like Jerry's making nice with the new neighbors." Bobby said looking out the window. Jack stood next to him and grinned when he saw that Jerry got the neighbors number. Jerry walked into the house and shoot his head seeing Bobby and Jack looking out the window.

"Bobby what the hell are ya'll doing? Spying on the neighbors." Jerry said.

"Well Jackie was spying first. So who are these people?" Bobby asked.

"Well Alex and Ava James are married and Christina is Ava's little sister. I don't know why they're here but they seem nice enough. They invited all of us to dinner once they're all unpacked and settled in."

Bobby nodded his head and sat down on the sofa. He reached over to grab the remote and clicked on the sports station that was playing replays of the baseball game that was on the night before.

"Damn it. I can't wait until the hockey season starts." Bobby mumbled to himself. Jack left the window and sat down next to him.

Suddenly there was a loud voice coming from the front door.

"I swear that girl is going crazy." Everyone looked up to see their brother Angel walk into the room with a scowl on his face.

"What did La Vida Loca do this time." Bobby drawled out referring to Angel's wife Sofi. They had gotten married as soon as Jack had recovered from the shooting. Now both of them lived just down the street from Bobby and Jack. They had their share of problems and when they did Angel had stayed in his old room.

"Girl is crazy. I was at the store and left without my wallet. The girl working there looked up my address on my I.d and called to tell me she had it. I don't know what the hell Sofi heard but she went crazy on my ass. So I came here to let her cool off." Angel sighed and collapsed on the chair next to the sofa while Bobby and Jack laughed at him.

"So you finally got some new neighbors. I saw two of them girls. Not bad." Angel said grinning at Bobby who had a wolfish grin on his face.

"Yeah I saw." Bobby laughed and thought about how Ava looked. Jerry seemed to notice the look on Bobby's face.

"Bobby no. She's married so don't even think about it." Jerry scolded Bobby as if he was a little boy.

"Since when has that stopped me before." Bobby snickered. Jack scoffed at Bobby.

"What's wrong fairy something caught in your throat."

"When was the last time you were able to have a serious girlfriend Bobby?" Jack said looking over at him.

"When was the last time you had a girlfriend?" Bobby retorted back to Jack.

"I've had girlfriends."

"Yeah right your probably still a virgin aren't ya. Don't worry little brother your time will come." Bobby said chuckling. Jack knew he didn't mean to be cruel but sometimes it pissed him off.

"I'm not a virgin. I could get any girl I want. There's just none around at the moment."

"Well I bet you couldn't get the new girl next door." Bobby said.

"I could get her if I wanted to." Jack crossed his arms and glared at Bobby.

"Bobby stop before you say something you regret." Jerry said interrupting the two of them.

"Shut up Jerry." Angel said wanting to see where this is going.

"I bet that you couldn't get that girl Christina even remotely interested in you, let alone sleep with you."

"Fine. I'll take that bet. If I win every time we go to the bar you have to pay for my drinks for the next six months and you have to stop calling me fairy."

"Alright, when I win not only will you pay for my drinks at the bar, you are going to be at my beck and call for the following six months. Deal?"

Bobby and Jack shoot hands. "Deal."

Jerry just groaned and ran a hand down his face while Angel couldn't stop laughing.

"Man I can't wait until this dinner."

Please review! It would make me very happy!! By the way I posted some pics of the characters that have been introduced so far!