Chapter 7: Neighbors

"Which do you mean?" and turning round, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me."

Mr. Blingly follo––

"Cass, Grace and Gabby are here to see you."

Mom's yell snaps me out of my Pride and Prejudice induced daze.

I don't go out of my way to read books, and I much prefer my phone over a book, but when I'm required to read one, I find myself getting lost in it.

The outside world vanishes, and I can visually see all the events occurring in the book.

It's a wonderful feeling, but I'm not looking to experience it all the time or become a person who lacks social skills because they're always reading, so I don't read very often.

"Coming, Mom," I yell back.

I was sprawled against the floor while I was reading, but now I mark my page in the book and sit up just as Gracie and Gabs walk through my open door.

I look up at them from the floor and grin. "Hey, guys."

"Hey," Gabs says slowly. "Why are you on the floor?"

"Reading," I say simply as I stand up and walk over to my desk so I can put the book on it.

"Why are you guys here? It's six o'clock."

During Ms. Kelsey's class, she passed out copies of the book and instructed us to start reading.

I, while proceeding to ignore Aaron, didn't start to read because I couldn't focus with him sitting beside me.

I honestly tried to lose myself in the book, but I could feel Aaron inhaling and exhaling, and I instead found myself counting how many breaths he took until class was over.

Pathetic, I know.

What's even worse is that I was disappointed that he wasn't at least trying to talk to me. I mean, I couldn't have scared him off that easily.

Could I?

Anyways, I started to read almost as soon as I came home because neither one of my parents were home and I got super bored.

I get bored super easily, if you couldn't tell.

Unfortunately, I got a little side-tracked by my phone, so I'm only on, like, chapter two of the book, even though I've been home for around three hours.

"It's Friday, remember? Movie-night-slash-sleepover day?"

Oh, yeah. We do those every Friday, unless an emergency comes up and one of us can't make it.

"I love those. It's kind of weird having it after only two days of school, you know? I mean, why would you start school on a Thursday, out of all the days? Not that anything's wrong with the other ones, it's just that why would they only make us have two days of school and then a three day weekend. It's ridiculous. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just wondering why they would do that. It's just that I don't understand why these district people, who are so for education and stuff, would only give us two days of school, and then not give us school the following Monday. I'm fine with it, as I'm sure many others are, but still, it's a little weird. Oh, and speaking of weird, I saw the cutest little mix of dog breeds. Not that it looked weird, but it was so cute. It was a golden retriever and husky mix, and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen and-"

She stops, trying to recover her lost breath.

"Okay," Gabs says as she claps her hands together, annoyance in her voice and on her face. "Now that that's over, let's get this party started."

Gracie squeals excitedly before running towards my king-sized bed and throwing herself on it, bouncing up and down once she lands on it.

I roll my eyes at her antics before heading downstairs to make popcorn for the movie marathon, which is most likely going to be a Twilight marathon or a Fast and Furious marathon. For the record, I would greatly prefer the latter over the former.

I walk into the kitchen and start to dig around in the cupboards for the box of microwave popcorn. I find it and put it in the microwave so it can start popping.

Just as it's beginning to start popping, Mom comes down the stairs.

"Movie marathon?"

I nod my head. "Yep."

"Don't stay up too late, okay? The couple next door is moving out and the new neighbors are going to be here tomorrow."

"Okay..."

I'm a little confused. Why does that concern me?

"They're going to be coming over for dinner tomorrow and I don't need you acting like a sleep-deprived zombie because you stayed up until five in the morning giggling with your friends."

I give her a dry look.

"What?" she says defensively. "It happens every time. And they need to be gone by three in the afternoon so you can clean your room."

I'm halfway up the stairs when she says this, and I turn around sharply. "What?" I groan. "Why? I just cleaned it yesterday."

"And you're going to clean it again. This house needs to be spotless for dinner tomorrow."

"The house?" I ask in disbelief. "Not just the living room, or the dining room, or the kitchen, but the entire house?"

She nods.

"Why?"

"Because I have deemed it necessary. A clean house allows for a more positive environment, and provides a calming effect that I think will impress our new neighbors."

Mom's a lawyer. I hate getting into arguments with her because I rarely win.

Dad's a lawyer too.

Before I was born, or "back in the day", as my parents would say, Mom was a prosecutor and Dad was a defense attorney. They met while they were both working the same case, except from different sides. The trial lasted for, like, three days, and ended in a mistrial. I don't know the exact details, but apparently they both started to become "attracted" to each other and then my dad asked my mom out for drinks and now they both run one of the most well-known law firms in the country together and yada yada yada. It's supposed to be really cute, but they always decide to tell me about their love story on the weekends, when I'm barely able to keep my eyes open long enough to eat.

"That doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does," she replies. "We want the new neighbors to like us and to feel welcome. If having a clean house boosts our chances of achieving those goals, shouldn't we clean the house?"

Yes.

"I guess," I grumble reluctantly.

You know all those things online about how parents should become lawyers when they say "Because I said so"?

Yeah, try having actual lawyers for parents. It's way worse because they can actually justify everything they're telling you to do.

Not to mention the fact that they're barely around.

Both of my parents were gone all of this week, just got back early this morning, proceeded to spend all day at the firm anyways, and I think they're leaving again on Sunday.

It sucks.

"So, you're going to go and clean your room, and your bathroom, and the upstairs hallway, and the guest bedrooms, and the living room, right?"

"Okay."

She smiles victoriously at me. "Great. I'll see you in the morning, sweetie."

"Night, mom."

I hate it when she does that. It's even worse when they reverse psychologize me. Lawyers suck.

I make my way up the stairs, the bowl of popped popcorn in hand, and go into my room, closing the door behind me.

Gabs and Gracie are talking to each other on my bed, but they stop once they hear the door close.

They both turn to me and smile, but each of their smiles looked forced.

"Everything, okay?" I ask them hesitantly.

Gracie nods half-heartedly.

"Everything's great!" Gabs tells me. "We're both just so excited for the movie marathon."

As Gabs is prattling on and on, I look at Gracie to see she's looking down at my bed, an expression I can't quite describe on her face.

"You okay, Gracie?" I ask her.

Her head snaps up to mine, a small smile on her face, and she opens her mouth to speak.

"She's fine," Gabs says. "Like I said, everything's great, we just had a little disagreement about which movie we wanted to put in to start the marathon. Right, Gracie?"

Gracie's face falls and she looks back down at the bed before nodding.

I stare at her, conflicted.

She looks really sad and insecure about something, and I want to ask, but I don't know if I should do it away from Gabs or not; she was being kind of... mean towards Gracie.

I decide to let it go for the moment and I walk towards my TV to insert the movie disk in.

I hear low voices conversing behind me after I put the disk in, and I hesitate, wondering if I should eavesdrop or not.

They're my best friends; if something was wrong, they would tell me, right?

Right?

No answer comes from my brain, and I let out a small sigh before I turn around and plaster a smile on my face.

"You guys ready?"

They both have smiles on their faces and I walk towards them to sit on the bed after I turn the light off.

As soon as I sit down between the two of them on the bed, both of their smiles drop off their faces.

What in the world is going on with these two?

---------

I'm growing more and more concerned with every passing second of the first movie in the Fast and Furious franchise.

Normally, whenever we watch this movie, Gracie would be commenting on how cute Paul Walker is, or how sad it makes her that he died in that car accident, or how Vin Diesel might just be her favorite actor of all time, but today, she's oddly silent.

And that's not normal.

Not that she can't not be silent. It's just that she talks so much, which, again, isn't necessarily a bad thing, that whenever she is quiet when the situation doesn't require her to be, it's a little weird.

Something's wrong.

Gracie is usually the start of all conversations; topics come from her rambling.

Without her, I have no idea what to talk about, and apparently neither does Gabs because she isn't talking either. It feels... awkward, and it is never awkward between the three of us.

These two are the two people that I know exactly what to say and how to feel with.

And I'll be damned if I let something ruin that.

I pick up the remote, pause the movie, and turn to Gabs.

"Gabs?"

"Yeah?" She sounds sleepy.

"Can you go pop another bag of popcorn?"

She groans but starts to get up and move.

As soon as she's out of the room, I turn to Gracie.

"Start talking."

We have approximately two minutes and forty-five seconds before Gabs makes it back into the room, not taking into account the trek up and down the stairs.

"What?"

"What's going on? Why are you so quiet?"

"Nothing's wrong, I'm fine, Cass."

I glare at her. "Bullshit. Tell me what's wrong right now, or I'll ask Gabs."

Her eyes widen and her breathing picks up.

"Nothing's wrong," she insists. "I'm fine, Gabs is fine, everything is fine."

"You're lying to me, Gracie. Tell me the truth."

Her eyes start to water.

I wait.

"Do you like me?"

What?

"What?"

"I mean as a friend. Do you like me as a friend?"

"What type of question is that?" I ask in disbelief. "Of course I like you. I love you. You're one of my best friends."

Gracie sniffles and falls silent again.

"It's just that––" She stops to take a breath. "Sometimes I feel like you think I'm annoying."

"Oh, you are," I grin at her. "You definitely are, but that's why I love you. You wouldn't be you if you weren't annoying."

She shoots me a small smile and opens her mouth to speak again, but Gabs walks into the room.

She stops, the bowl of popcorn in hand, and stares at us suspiciously. "What are you guys talking about?"

Gracie sniffs. "Nothing."

Gabs stares at her, and Gracie continues to stare down at the bed, not meeting her eyes.

What the fuck is going on?

"Sit down, Gabs," I say. "You're in the way of the TV."

Only after I say it do I realize that my tone was very harsh, way more harsh than any tone I ever use to speak to most people, even when I'm angry.

I guess Gabs realizes it too because her gaze snaps to mine.

"What?"

Nice. Say it nicely.

"Sit down. You are in the way."

The harshness went away, but my tone decided to go lower, giving it a threatening sound.

She stares at me blankly for a few more seconds before transferring her eyes to Gracie, who is still looking down at the bed.

"Whatever. I need to go anyways. Mom texted."

I nod at her, not trusting myself to speak.

She shoves the bowl of popcorn into Gracie's lap.

Gracie barely manages to keep the bowl from tipping over.

"I'll see you guys later."

Neither one of us speak.

I turn to look at Gracie to see she's already staring back at me.

"Are you going to tell me now?" I ask her.

She opens her mouth to speak, but before she can, her phone vibrates.

She picks it up, reads what might be a text message, and tears fill her eyes.

"My mom just texted. I need to go."

Without waiting for my response, she hands me the bowl of popcorn and leaves the room.

I sit, dumbfounded.

I am officially confused.

---------

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I lift my arm and lean towards my nightstand, reaching for my phone.

I crack one of my eyes open to turn the alarm off, only to realize that the annoying beeping sound is not my phone. It's a truck.

What type of truck makes that noi––

Shit.

I stumble out of bed and make my way towards the window. I crack the blinds to see a moving truck backing up into the driveway next door.

Fuck, I'm screwed.

According to my phone, it's two in the afternoon.

After Gabs and Gracie left, I stayed up watching the rest of the movies by myself, which ended in me being wide awake at three in the morning. I then proceeded to watch Pretty Little Liars on Netflix until, like, six in the morning.

Oh, fuck me, I'm dead. Mom's going to kill me.

I still have to clean all of those rooms and then help her cook.

Oh, God, I'm dead, I can barely keep my eyes open.

I groan and head to my closet, picking out a pair of sweatpants and a tank top and I put them on, putting my hair up in a messy bun.

Cleaning spree, here I come.

I walk out of the room.

And then I walk back in to grab my phone and my headphones, glancing at the car that just pulled into the driveway behind the truck.

I can barely make out two male profiles due to the distance.

I shake my head and walk back out of the room.

---------

"Cass, are you ready?"

I look at myself in the mirror.

Mom said the dinner was casual enough so I didn't have to wear a dress, but I assumed it wasn't causal enough so I could wear sweatpants and a tank top, so I'm wearing my nicest pair of jeans, at least, what I think is my nicest pair, a plain white blouse, and those gold sandals I wore to school, along with some gold earrings my mom gave me, my hair down, falling down to my lower back. I texted Gracie for help, giving her the details of the dinner, and she responded almost immediately.

I look over myself in my mirror.

I'm so uncomfortable.

I groan. Why me?

"Cass?"

"Coming!" I yell back.

I glance over my outfit one more time before putting my phone in my back pocket and going downstairs.

I'm running down the stairs when I hear a very familiar voice say a very familiar nickname.

"Cassie?"

My right foot drags on the steps and I start to stumble down them. I'm about to hit the ground at the bottom when a pair of arms wraps around me and straightens me.

I look up and meet Aaron's eyes.

I close mine and sigh.

What did I do to piss God off this time?

Well, the Bible preaches forgiveness and all of that, so maybe you should just, I don't know, forgive Aaron and things will get better? Just a thought.

My inner self needs to shut its ass up.

"Falling for me already?" Aaron smirks at me, amusement twinkling in his green eyes.

I roll mine. "You wish."

"You bet I do."

I feel a blush rising in my cheeks and I untangle myself from his arms and turn to his parents who hopefully didn't see my feat of embarrassment.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Brewer," I say, shooting them a wave. "I'm Cassandra, but you can call me Cass."

They both smile.

"Nice to meet you, Cass," Mrs. Brewer says. "But please, call me Roxanne. All this 'Mrs.' stuff makes me feel old."

I smile politely.

I'm never calling her that; I always feel weird calling adults by their first names.

We all move into the dining room, which already has food out on the table, and sit down.

Almost immediately after I sit down, my phone buzzes in my back pocket.

I covertly reach into my pocket, slide it out, and hold it under the table, reading the message as inconspicuously as possible.

Bitchass: nice job almost dying back there

I look up at Aaron, who is sitting right across from me at the table, and I glare at him once I see the smirk on his face.

Me: I wanted that to happen

Bitchass: oh so you WANTED to break your neck back there

Bitchass: my mistake

Me: fuck you

Bitchass: you're not my type cassie

I roll my eyes at my phone. He is such an ass.

Me: where did you move here from?

Bitchass: I used to live across town closer to the school

Me: why did you move?

Bitchass: parents thought the house was too big for just three people

Me: same

Me: we used to live in a bigger house but after something happened my parents decided they wanted to move

I leave out the part where the decision mostly was because I had trouble living in the same house after what happened.

I still have nightmares about that night sometimes. It haunts me in my sleep, and it haunted me when I was awake in that house.

So we moved.

I jump when I feel my phone buzz in my hands.

Bitchass: you okay cassie

Bitchass: you seem a little out of it

Me: I'm fine

Me: stop texting me we're going to get in trouble

I put my phone back in my pocket and start to poke at my chicken with my fork.

I feel my phone buzzing, presumably with more texts from Aaron, but I ignore it.

I try to focus on the adults' conversation but I end up zoning out once I realize that they're talking about politics.

I feel like that's all adults talk about with each other; their lives must be pretty boring.

Just think, one day, that's going to be you.

Oh, God, no. I hope that will never happen.

I feel a sharp kick to my shin.

"Motherfucker!"

All conversation stops.

I'm still feeling a little tired, and when I'm tired, my filter goes away.

My parents look extremely embarrassed, while Aaron's parents look like they're trying not to laugh. A glance at Aaron tells me he's tried to do the same and is failing; he's laughing like there's no tomorrow, tears coming out of his eyes.

I'm surprised he's not on the floor.

Asshole.

"I apologize," I say. "I, uh, bit my tongue."

At this my dad drops his head on to the table and softly bangs his head against it.

Jeez, he's so dramatic.

"Fifty cents, Cass."

I nod at my mom before looking back at Aaron's parents.

"Again, I apologize, it just slipped out."

"That's no problem, honey," Mrs. Brewer says. "You should hear this one when he stubs his little pinky toe. Cursing like a sailor."

"Mom," Aaron groans.

I laugh at the embarrassed look on his face. "Aw, is wittle Aaron embarrassed?"

I throw my head back and laugh harder.

After I calm down, the rest of dinner passes uneventfully.

My dad and Aaron's dad bonded over sports, and my mom and Aaron's mom were giggling together like a bunch of teenagers.

Just my luck that my parents like his parents.

"So," Aaron says.

"So," I say awkwardly.

Silence.

We're both standing by my front door, waiting for our respective parents to stop talking.

"Cassie," he says hesitantly. "I am sorry. You know that, right?"

I stare at him, unconvinced. He didn't seem sorry as he called me a bitch.

But he's sorry now.

And?

And that means something.

I'm not going to forgive him.

Why not?

Because he's an asshole.

And?

And I don't like him.

I doubt that.

Oh my God, just give it a rest already.

I continue to look into Aaron's eyes.

I wish I could look away, but the swirls of green and gold, mixed with regret and guilt, won't let me.

Damn you, human emotions.

"Cassie?"

I sigh. "Fine, whatever. I forgive you."

He eyes me. "You sure?"

I nod.

His grin takes me off guard. It's so big I think his face is about to split in half.

Ew, that was a nasty image.

"Thank you, Cassie."

"Yeah."

Another silence.

"Well, kids, it's getting late."

My mom heads over towards us and eyes our proximity to each other, and I finally notice that Aaron's arm is brushing against mine.

I sidestep away from him and my mother grins at me devilishly.

"It is," Mrs. Brewer says, her hand on Mr. Brewer's arm. "It's way past Aaron's bedtime."

I try to hold in my laugh.

I fail miserably.

Aaron glares at me. "Keep laughing, Parker."

"Is that a threat?" I ask him boldly.

He smirks at me. "Maybe."

I see the mischievous glint in his eyes and my heart rate speeds up.

What did I just do?

His parents leave, but Aaron hangs around on the doorstep.

"See you later, neighbor."

His eyes hold a question.

I nod. "Later."

He smiles and walks away, looking to his right once he reaches his front door to wave at me.

I wave back and he walks inside.

I turn around and close my door, leaning against it.

I can't believe what I just did.

"Later?" I say to myself.

"Talking to yourself, Cass?"

I jump and place my hand on my beating heart.

My mother is standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking at me with amusement.

"Of course not," I say nervously.

She makes a 'yeah, right' sound.

"Whatever you say, Cass. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

She walks up the stairs and I relax.

What is going on with me?

I need to sleep.

Tomorrow is Sunday, so I can sleep tonight and most of the day tomorrow.

Sleeping is literally one of the only things I'm good at.

---------

Surprise! Did you correctly guess who the new neighbor was? What do you think of cass' parents?

--Rose