Through the Bedroom Window
I think I fell in love the moment I saw him. Yeah, it's weird, and certainly not normal nor believable at all, but it's true.
"Mommy! Hey, Mom! Are those guys really our neighbors?" My first glimpse of him was out my bedroom window. For two years I had lived in that house, and I never knew that I had a neighbor my age. I was ecstatic.
"Yes, of course they are, honey! What did you think they were?" My mother smiled, stroking my dirty (literally) blonde hair with a hand as soft as silk. I shrugged. My seven-year-old self's thought process was never the most advanced, so to speak.
"Did you think that maybe they were…aliens?" Mom whispered excitedly, her eyebrows rising and her eyes widening in mock surprise. I yelped with joy. "Aliens! Awesome!" Forgetting shoes, I ran downstairs and out the door barefoot.
"Hey you, alien kid! Put yer hands up!" I yelled, forming my hands into a deadly hand gun and pointing it straight at the accused. He was a boy of about seven years old as well, with hair a lighter shade of blonde than mine, bright green eyes, and the thickest eyebrows I had ever seen.
He stared at me, blinked, then narrowed his eyes and scowled. "I'm not an alien! Who are you, anyway?"
I beamed, forgetting all about my alien conquest. Our first encounter was going along just great. "I'm Alfred F. Jones, the totally awesome superhero, and also your neighbor!" I gestured behind me with a flailing hand. "I live right there!"
The boy rolled his eyes, but held out his hand for a shake. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Arthur Kirkland. I live at number 24." I stuck my hand out and shook his happily, feeling like a responsible adult. If only my dad could see, I wished! Oh, the stories I would tell him when he got home from work. I could see it now. He would go into work the next day, telling grand stories of how his awesome son Alfred - now known as SUPER ALFRED across the globe – not vanquished, but befriended the local aliens, starting a human-alien alliance to last for generations.
"Hey! Earth to Alfred!" I shook the clouds out of my head and blinked, realizing I had drifted into a daydream still shaking Arthur's hand. Pulling away awkwardly, I wiped my sweaty hand on my jeans and beamed again. "Whoops! Sorry about that, dude!" Arthur sighed, but I thought for a second I caught a tiny grin. That's when I realized what I wanted most in the whole wide world was to make Arthur Kirkland smile. Running back into my house with glowing eyes and sweaty palms that day, I threw myself into my mother's arms happily.
"Hey Mommy, guess what?"
"What?"
"Artie Kirkland is my bestest friend ever!"
My mom just smiled and ruffled my hair, letting me run back up into my room. Jumping up onto my bed to look out my window, I gained a new favorite sport as well. Instead of bird-watching, I called it Artie-watching. I figured someday it'd be an Olympic sport and I'd be the world champion, but I wasn't getting my hopes up. Not yet, anyway. I'd save that for another day.
For now, I was perfectly happy just watching my new best friend out the window of my bedroom. I regretted the end of summer, for I knew with it would come the end of my days playing for hours on end with my new bestest-ever friend.