chapter 6
1642 Words
It was already a beautiful morning in Avi’s room. The sun shone brightly through the window, filling the space with warmth. Avi woke up and turned to the other side, only to find Lily sleeping deeply beside her, her mouth wide open. ‘She looked so funny’, Avi thought to herself.
She reached under her pillow for her phone, lifted it carefully, and took a picture of Lily. Just as she lowered the phone, a message popped up on her screen. She frowned and opened it.
It was from an unknown number.
‘Good morning, beautiful. How was your night? We had a kind of wild night yesterday, huh? 😂’ the message said
“Huh?” Avi murmured. Who could this be?
Then it clicked.
Ray.
She had given Ray her number.
“Shoot,” she muttered to herself.
“Beautiful,” Lily said in a sleepy voice, peeping through one eye, “someone had a nice time yesterday.”
“Damn, girl. Your mouth stinks,” Avi commented.
“Girl, shut up,” Lily replied, rolling over. “My morning breath smells like roses. Spill the tea. Who is that?”
“That’s Ray,” Avi said, still looking at her phone, trying to text him to see if he was okay from the punch Isaac gave him last night.
“Ray?” Lily squinted. “Who the hell is Ray?”
“Ray. Raymond. Roy’s brother,” Avi replied. Not paying attention to what she was saying.
“My head aches. I can’t even process anything right now. “lily said
Avi sighed. “Speaking of head aches, Lily… you were so embarrassing.”
“What?” Lily asked, confused.
“I swear to God, you’re so embarrassing.” She said covering her head in shame, on her behalf.
“What?” Lily asked again, getting frustrated. She grabbed a pillow attempting to hit Avi with it.
“What did I do? Is it because of my bad breath?”
“No,” Avi said. “It’s not because of your bad breath.”
She then told Lily everything that happened the night before, from beginning to end.
“Oh my goodness,” Lily exclaimed. “Damn… I said all that to Amir? How am I going to face him now?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Avie replied.
Lily groaned loudly and fell back onto the bed in frustration.
“You know,” Avi added calmly, “I read somewhere that when you’re drunk, you actually say what’s really on your mind.”
That was when Lily finally hit her with the pillow.
It was a playful morning. And a dramatic one.
After freshening up, we went downstairs for breakfast. Isaac was sitting at the dining table with his laptop.
“Hey,” I greeted.
“H-hi, Isaac,” Lily said with an embarrassed smile, clearly remembering what happened the night before.
Isaac smiled and nodded.
“Hey?.” He asked me “not good morning big head or the gods finally decided to wake up”
I looked at him, my face asking did I say something wrong? Not going to lie, I was still mad at him for yesterday. I tried to let it go, but it wasn’t going.
“Come on, mama,” he said, pushing his laptop aside. “Are you still mad?”
“No,” I replied quickly.
I reached for an apple on the table
“ maaamaaaa” he said, stretching the word mama with that deep, morning voice of his, that would make any girl go crazy. Honestly, if he wasn’t my brother, I might’ve folded.
“A slaughterhouse? Really, Isaac?” I said. “I’m not four anymore. And I can see those tattoos are real.”
“Tattoos?” Lily asked shocked giving a ‘since when look’
We Both shot her a death glare.
“You know what?, I’m going,” Lily said, heading for the door. “I’ll come back later for my things.”
And just like that, Lily was gone.
“I’m telling you, they’re not real,” Isaac said in frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Whatever you say, Isaac,” I replied.
He stepped closer, tapped my head, then bent down so we were face to face. “Sunshine, if you want one, you can get it. And if my tattoo doesn’t go away in the next two years, I owe you a golden retriever.”
He smirked, revealing his left dimple.
I lit up immediately. I knew Isaac was allergic to dogs and terrified of them too. I loved dogs, but we never got one because of him.
“For real?” I asked excitedly.
“Yes.”
I jumped up in excitement and hugged him, my head barely reaching his chest. He was tall. Very tall.
Lily’s POV
I walked down the street since my house wasn’t too far from Avi’s. I took a shortcut, about half a mile from home, when I noticed something strange.
My street looked weird.
“What’s going on?” I thought.
Two blocks from my house, people were moving in.
“New neighbors?” I murmured.
I ran straight home.
“Mom! Mom! Mom!” I screamed.
“In here!” she shouted all the way from the kitchen
I walked into the kitchen. “Oh banana bread,” I said eagerly. “I’m hungry”.
I reached out to grab some, but she slapped my hand away.
“Mom!” I asked, confused.
“It’s for the new neighbors,” she said, still searching for something.
“New neighbors?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Let’s go say hi.”
“I don’t want to,” I said.
“You are going,” she insisted.
“Fine,” I rolled my eyes.
Ding dong. Ding dong.
The door opened, and a surprisingly beautiful young woman in are middle 20’s smiled at us.
“Hi,” she greeted.
“Hi,” my mom replied warmly. “I’m Bethany, and this is my daughter, Lillian.”
“HI” I greeted. I just wanted to eat.
“Please come in” she insisted.
We stepped into the house, and it seems like they were still unpacking.
“ Ignore the mess we haven’t settled in yet” she said cautioning us to have a sit
“ oh no worries, if there’s anything we can do to assist. We bought banana bread” my mom offered.
‘Anything to do to assist?, is this woman crazy, I just wanted to eat, maybe if I stare at the bread for long she would notice and let me have a bite’ I thought to myself.
“ Thank you”, she said talking the bread from my mom
“Where are my manners, let me introduce you to my kids”
Kids? This woman gat kids?
“Jamesssss!!!! “ she yelled “ we have visitors”.
For what seems like a minute, a guy emerged from the stairs holding a little cute girl in his arms. He had a dark curly hair, brown eyes which matched is skin and hair perfectly. The aura around him was undefinable
“ this is my son James and my daughter Mirabel. And kids this are our neighbors”
“Hi” Mirabel said waving her rabbit bunny at me
“ you look pretty”
“Aww thank you” I said sounding so sweet
“Good morning ma’am” he greeted my mom and waved at me
“good morning young man” my mom greeted and I waved back.
“ em James, can you help me with this, and show Lili our backyard .please?” James’s mom asked
Huh backyard. Oh please I know what they are trying to do and it won’t work I said to myself. He looked as surprised as I was . But we already knew their plans.
He dropped Mirabel to the ground and took the bread and we both went outside.
We got to the backyard …
“Nice back yard” I said, “so this is what we are going to do, you would go to the kitchen and bring out the bread, then I would use my hands to cut it into my desired portion, and you would return it. If they ask you ‘what happened?’ you would say it fell and scattered into pieces and you threw half away” I instructed.
Then he started laughing.
“what?!, what is funny in the whole thing I just said ?” I asked
“You know….. I would always remember this first impression you are giving” he spoke
“ what ‘first impression?’ I asked
“ A thief” he blurted out
“ What I’m not a thief, I’m just hungry” I said making it clear.
“ yh right “ he said under his breath.
“ what was that?” I asked pretending not to hear him.
“ Oh, it’s nothing”.
“so …where are you from?” I asked striking a conversation .
“ Miami “he said plainly
“Oh… that….”
“ James, mommy is calling you and your wife” Mirabel said
“she’s not my arrrggg, forget it” he said leaving realizing that it was no point explaining because she wouldn’t understand .
“Do you always annoy him like that” I ask Mirabel, squating,after he had left. She nodded with a smile.
“I love that, now let’s go” I got to the sitting room and the smile on my mom’s face was questioning, oh God what has Bethany done? I asked myself.
“Sooo, I have decided that James will be joining you at Eagles high” she said
- Writer
