Chapter 2: A Good Day

DPOV

She was beautiful, and it was painful to watch her.

When I had first gotten home from practice, all I could hear about was the girl who moved in next door. Tori didn't like her much, saw her as quiet and shy, but Tori didn't really like anyone. Simon had taken a liking to her. It was almost annoying how he kept saying how cute she was. Normally Simon and I don't have similar tastes, due to the fact I didn't really have a taste, I wasn't one to date much. Actually, I've never dated at all.

I was surprised to see the pale petite girl in a towel across from my window. And instantly I knew I was attracted to her. Her hair had been wet and hanging in clumps and I could see the shiny drops of water on her freckled skin. I almost jumped out the window when she fell back. I had become relaxed when she was able to stand and closed the curtain. I had closed mine in return and began pacing back and forth. Was she Ok? Did she hurt herself? I slipped on my long sleeve over my sweats and sped down the stairs.

"I'll be back."

"Where are you going?"

Deciding it was best not to say I saw the beautiful neighbor who had been staring at me fell over and I was was worried I said, "Going for a walk."

"K, tell me if you decide to have dinner with us."

I only grunted and made my way outside and quickly walked to the gigantic house next door. She obviously had some money. And according to everyone else, she was home alone. Would it be weird that I came over knowing she was home alone?

I didn't regret it though, it was nice of her to offer me food. I was actually starving since I had just gotten back from practice. One cup of noodle didn't fill me, but I wasn't going to tell her that.

She hadn't texted me that night, and somehow that made me more nervous when Simon and I got ready to go over the next day.

"You ready?" Simon came from his room that was on the first floor. I was sitting on the living room, finishing off an apple. I grunted in response, slipped on my shoes and followed him out the door. "Wait till you see her, she's really cute. I'm not sure if you'll think so, though."

I agreed, more than agreed, actually. I almost felt jealous hearing Simon go on about Chloe. "Don't you have a thing for Liz."

He looked embarrassed for a second. "Doesn't mean I can't keep my options open." I grunted in response.

The front door was already opened slightly and Simon pushed it open yelling for Chloe. "In the kitchen!"

I followed Simon to the kitchen, since according to him, this was the first time inside the house.

I was again reminded of her beauty while her back was facing us and she was putting food away in the cabinet. She was wearing black leggings and a light blue tank top and a bright pink sports bra. Her strawberry blonde hair in a high long tail. She was on her toes trying to put away some cans. I stepped forward and grabbed the can, putting it up where she had tried to reach. She jumped back and squeaked. Maybe she didn't text me because she's actually scared of me? However, once she saw it was me, her cheeks flashed red, just like last night.

"Sorry." I mumbled and stepped back.

"This grumpy guy is my brother, Derek." She looked confused for a moment before realizing I hadn't told them I came over and she nodded, giving me a small smile. "So, what will we be doing?"

"Simon, could you put away everything in the bathroom? Derek can help me with the kitchen since he can actually reach the taller shelf." Simon seemed unhappy that he wasn't the one who could be helping her out specifically, but he didn't voice it.

"Where the bathroom?"

"There's one down here, down the hall the second door on your left and another one on the second floor first door on your left."

Simon left to his task I turned to Chloe, waiting for her to tell me what to do. "Can u put all of these cans up there? I'm going to put away all of the pots and pans." I nodded, taking her spot and started to fill the top shelf with the cans she had. "On the next shelf, but all the seasonings and the bottom one will have all my instant stuff."

"Easy access to your top ramen?"

"I'm getting ready for college."

"Ah."

We unpacked in silence except for the clinking of metal pots and pans hitting one another. "So… you didn't tell them you came over last night?" I grunted. "...Why?"

"Didn't know how to explain that I was making sure my peeping neighbor didn't break an ankle while staring at me."

I heard a crash and I turned around to see her on her butt and a couple of pans around her. Her face was red and I did my best to hold back laughter at the sight. "Yeah. Makes sense. Please don't ever tell anyone about that."

"Our secret."

She nodded, gazing downward sheepishly. She got back up and finished putting the pans away before pulling out some plates. We worked in silence, and once I was done with my box, I turned to see she was putting snacks away in a cabinet. "Anything else?" She jumped and I rolled my eyes. "I didn't even sneak up on you."

"Make a noise or something, it freaks me out. I already finished everything else here. I can feed you guys, I went grocery shopping this morning."

"You drive?"

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah, but I have to share a car with Tori and Simon, it gets annoying."

"If… you ever need a ride… I could give you one."

I nodded and she smiled, her beautiful smile. "I'll go get Simon."

"I'll make sandwiches."

I set off to the downstairs bathroom first and he wasn't there, so I jogged up the stairs. "Simon?"

"Dude, in here."

I followed his voice and found him inside a blue room that had a large bed and was decorated with movie posters. Simon sat on the edge of the bed, a picture frame in hand. "Simon, this is not the bathroom."

"No duh, I'm snooping. Don't you think it's weird that she moved in the middle of the year and she's left by herself?"

Of course the thought crossed my mind but I had been too busy staring at her perfect baby blue eyes to think about it more. "Doesn't mean you can just go through her room."

"I'm not like, going through her underwear or something. Look, you think this is her mom?"

He showed me the picture frame and it had what looked like a very young Chloe smiling with her face smoothed together by a man and woman. The woman looked a lot like Chloe, strawberry blonde hair and all, but the man had her blue eyes.

"He's the guy who was helping her yesterday before leaving, so it's gotta be a family photo. I wonder what happened."

"Why don't you ask her?"

"Cause I'm not that much if an asshole." I gave him a look. "Dad said not to pry." I grunted and rolled my eyes.

"She's making us sandwiches. Stop snooping." I took a quick glance at the closed curtains, remembering the night before and then turned to exit the room.

We went down stairs and was greeted by a plate of sandwiches. "Thanks for helping me, I should be able to get everything from here. I figure you might have homework or something."

"I don't, but Derek here is a genius and can't keep his nose out of a book."

"Oh?" I just shrugged.

"Don't be modest, dude." He elbowed me and tried to laugh with a mouth full of food.

"Well, maybe we'll be in some classes together."

"Doubt it, since we are in different grades and Derek is on a different level entirely."

Chloe laughed which made Simon feel a lot better after having me scold him. "I hear you all share a car."

"Yeah, it's horrible to have to share a car with the witch, otherwise known as my sister."

"What time do you go to school?"

"We have morning practice, so we have to be at school at 6:30 am. We normally take the car and then my dad gives Tori a ride. After school Tori takes the car and we get a ride from some friends back home."

"I could give you a ride tomorrow."

"Really?" Simon asked eagerly.

"Sure. I need to be at school early anyway and I want to explore coffee shops here."

"We wouldn't want to-" I tried to say but was cut of by Simon.

"Yeah, that would be awesome. Meet you here at 6:15?" She nodded and Simon gave her a bright smile back.

"So what do you guys do besides basketball?"

I almost groaned as Simon visibly brightened at the topic of his hobby. "Actually, I draw comics."

"No way, that's so cool."

"Yeah, I'll show you some of you like, I'm entering a contest soon, hoping to get a scholarship."

"Oh yeah, college applications are coming up. Where are you applying?"

"I want to stay local, there's a pretty good art academy a couple towns over."

"Oh, yeah, I actually went to the high school affiliated with it."

"No way, that place is crazy expensive. Why'd you leave?" I knew the topic of her school was a touchy subject, especially after seeing her tense up the night before. I saw her tense again and cast her gaze downward.

"Oh, you know, with my dad's job we are always moving around. His main office is here now, so we decided it would be easier if we just moved."

Oblivious to how Chloe was feeling, he continued to talk about it. "You must be so mad. If you stayed there, you'd get into the college for sure."

"I'm not planning to apply there. My top choice is Emerson."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Quick to try and make the mood less awkward, the light shifted to me. "Derek is applying to a bunch of ivy league schools, makes the family proud. He's already got a bunch of scholarship offers for sports."

"I'd like to be a mechanical engineer."

"Wow, you must seriously be smart." She drank from a glass of water before saying, "I don't mean to kick you out, but my Aunt is coming over in like an hour and I need to take a shower."

She gave us each $20 bucks even though I tried to refuse it. Simon politely refused at first and then took it after she insisted. I only took it after she pushed that I needed to go and she wouldn't let me go unless I took the money.

We went home and Tori was gone, no doubt hanging out with Liz. Simon called the shower first so I went in my room to grab some clothes and take out my school supplies to work on homework. They were right, I did have a lot of homework to finish. I opened my curtains and gazed at the blue and white ones across at the other house. I was about to leave for my shower when her curtains flung open and she smiled at me, waving. I waved back. She held up her finger to tell me to wait and I nodded in understanding. She left view for a moment before coming back. She was looking down at something and brought it up to show a gigantic sketchbook. She had written CHECK YOUR PHONE. I grabbed my phone to see I had a text from an unknown number. All it said was Thanks.

No prob

I texted back. She smiled as she received it.

My Aunt is here. I'll ttyl.

K

She waved again and left no doubt to go greet her aunt. I left my window, too, but both of our curtains remained open.