[intro]
It's weird how it works when you're young. Nothing seems more important that who will play with you, or the Disney channel, or who you're going to share the swings with. It's amazing how it all changes once you're older; what's amazing is how little some things will change. Like you're stuck in the same place at the same time everyday; that's what it was like with him.
[one]
"Do you want to play in the sandbox with me?" a young boy approached my friend Amelia and I on the swing sets. "My name is Finn." I smiled shyly as Amelia nodded in response while I just stared. I was taking in all of his features; dark brown hair, deep chocolate eyes, rosy cheeks, and a crooked smile. At the ripe old age of eight I experienced my first crush. I nodded, following Amelia's, lead and a small smile made its way to my lips.
That's where it all started. That was a simple enough question with an even simpler response. I laughed out loud, much to the annoyance of my math class, "Ms. Boyd is there a problem?"
I dropped the pencil in my hand and looked to meet the gaze of my teacher, "No Ma'am, there's not a problem that I can see." I smiled.
"Then would you mind telling me the answer to the question on the board?"
She had me caught; I had no idea what the question or the answer was. "Negative two?" it was more of a question then an answer.
"I don't know how you do it, but that's correct." She frowned at me before continuing on with her plan. Fifteen minutes later I was back in my trance thinking back to all my years of school. Before long I was snapped out of my day dreams by an obnoxious ringing that could be heard throughout the school; seventh period had ended. "Ms. Boyd, may I speak with you please?"
"Of course and I also wanted to apologize for my behavior, it was rude." I smiled.
"It's okay, just remember that you're other teachers at this new school won't be as understanding. They don't know you like we do here, so just tread lightly miss."
"I'm going to miss you Aunt Liza."
"I'll miss you too kiddo. I'll meet you at the house after my date to help you pack." She hugged me gently and kissed the side of my head before pushing me in the direction of the door. "Now go before I cry."
I shrugged my shoulders in response and made my way to the parking lot of the school. "Taluca!" I whipped my head around to see Casey running towards me, "last ride from school I'll ever be giving you, aren't you just devastated?" she was always one for mellow dramatics.
"… and excited." I smirked. Locking arms with her, "I'm going to miss you too." I laughed.
[&takeachance]
The car ride home was silent; I could tell Casey was going to miss me, just as I would miss her. But I was excited to be going back to Ohio. We had moved when I was twelve and landed here in Florida. Not exactly where I wanted to be, after a while all the beaches lost their novelty and I began to miss home. What I had missed most was my friends, well, mostly just one. It has been four years; I doubted he would remember me anyways.
A lot can change in four years.
"Luca are you ready to pack?" I heard a gruff voice echo from the end hall.
"Ready when you are, Brand." I called back from the kitchen. Grabbing an apple I made my way down the long hallway to my room. I stopped at the bathroom door to see my brother messing with his hair in the mirror. "When did you get here?" I questioned. "How did you get IN?"
"Spare key." He smirked. "I used to live here too ya know. Now, how long are Mom and Dad gone for?"
"No clue. I know that they'll be gone until the big one-seven."
"You better be spectacular." He huffed.
"An angel." Sarcasm dripped from my words.
"I'm serious, Luca. This is huge, I'm only twenty-two, and I don't want you to die on my watch, "deal?"
"Yeah, yeah." I waved my hand in his direction walking across the narrow hallway to my room. "Deal, it's a deal, calm down." There wasn't another word spoken between us until my Aunt showed up to help me pack up the rest of my things. "There's just a few things left and then we're on our way out and you're a free woman." I laughed trying to lighten the mood.
"Oh, shut up, you know I'm going to miss you. You're my favorite niece, Luca."
"I'm you're ONLY niece." I laughed a bit harder before pushing myself up from the center of my room and wrapping my arms around my Aunt, tightly this time, so she knew I meant it. "I love you and I'm going to miss you too, Aunt Liza." I felt her shake lightly in my arms before I let my own cascade of tears fall down my cheeks. After we were done crying, we finished the packing process, and loaded everything into the large moving van in my driveway. It had been such a calm day, I felt like everything was at peace, nothing could have ruined my mood. I was going back to the place I felt I belonged; Lima, Ohio.
Somewhere between the gas station hot dog that I was still digesting in my stomach and falling asleep, we made it. I woke up just as we were pulling into the driveway of our new home. From what I could see of the outside it was going to be amazing. The fist thing I noticed was the wrap-around-porch, followed by the royal purple door, and matching shutters. The house itself was a two-story, cream color, which looked beautiful with the rich purple as an accent. "Well, go on, go check out your room." I could hear Brandon laughing as I sprinted towards the front door and a vague "Top of the stairs…first door on the left!" was shouted just as I threw open the door and kicked my shoes off. I followed his directions and made it to the room that would be mine for the next year and slowly pushed open the door.
It was beautiful. The walls were a deep sea-foam green, with floral print window accents, and lush brown carpet that I could feel beneath my bare feet. Directly in front of me was a long window, with a large cushioned bench that connected to it, and a little further back was my bed. Across from my king size bed was my desk and laptop which I had shipped the week before. I quickly ran back downstairs and into my brother's waiting arms, "it's beautiful!" I screeched.
"I'm glad you like it." He smiled back. "I wasn't sure that I knew anything about you anymore, I haven't seen you in forever it feels like."
"It's absolutely perfect, I wouldn't change a thing." I laughed, "You're the best brother ever." We spent the rest of our day unpacking my things. Sometime around seven in the evening we realized we were hungry. Deciding on the diner around the corner we jumped into his Hummer (which I'll never understand why he had), other than the fact that its bright purple, the car wasn't really all that amazing. Pulling into the parking lot of Fred's Diner I began to laugh at another of my brother's attempts at conversation which ended in, "I'm sure you'll make more interesting friends than me, I mean come on, it's not going to be hard, and you start school next week."
"I wish you thought higher of yourself." I laughed again. The familiar ding of the bell above the door greeted us, as did the older women with obviously self dyed, red hair. I waved in response and took a booth towards the back corner of the diner.
"Hi, my name is Greta, and I'll be you're waitress this evening." She shot us a fake smile and smacked her gum loudly between her teeth, which I noticed had smudges of fire engine red lipstick across them.
"Hi, I'm Taluca, and I'll be one of the customers you'll be serving this evening." I gave a small wave, "may I have an orange soda, please?"
"I'll have a diet coke, thanks." My brother smiled as she wrote down our drink orders and disappeared through the swinging doors that obviously lead to the kitchen. "I'm starving." Roughly twenty minutes later my brother and I had ordered and were now eating our food. Satisfied with our meals, we paid out bill, and then made the venture home. By midnight I was out.