The girl next door

Chapter 17 - Heather

I gently stroke the soft fabric of my red dress with my fingers. The rest of the week in the city has stayed quite warm, so I don't have to worry about freezing outside. Today is the weekend my family comes to town and Grandma said it would be better if I came too: So I gave in and now I'm about to get ready to leave in the next few minutes. But I don't really look forward to the meeting.

About a quarter of an hour later I stand in front of the house where my aunt Theresa's apartment is located and press the bell button. Somehow I am quite divided. On the one hand I'm looking forward to my family a bit, while on the other hand I don't feel like asking the intrusive questions and asking my mother's advice.

After a few seconds I hear a soft humming sound which tells me that someone upstairs is pressing the automatic door opener. I quickly open the door and slip into the stairwell. Fortunately it is pleasantly cool there and I quickly climb up the stairs. My aunt's apartment is on the second floor and as I climb the last steps, I see my aunt waiting for me, leaning against the door frame.

I accelerate my tempo a little and close the black-haired ones smiling in my arms: "Hey, Theresa". "Hey, nice to see you, Heather," she briefly replies to my hug and then waves me into the apartment. "Is the rest of the family here yet?" I ask while I hang up my thin summer jacket. Fortunately, I've been here many times before, which is why I'm so familiar with the apartment.

"Yes, they arrived here about an hour ago," she tells me and I try to remember Grandma's message again. Am I too late? With a questioning look I pull my mobile phone out of my jacket pocket and call up her message again. No, I came exactly at the time she told me. "Is Grandma here yet?" I quickly slide my cell phone back into my pocket and then turn around to Theresa. "No, but she'll probably be back soon. After all, we turned that time off," she shrugs her shoulders and leads me to the kitchen: "Your mom managed to leave an hour earlier than she thought, which is why they're here sooner than they thought." That explains a lot!

"Kaden has already thrown the grill on," she explains and hands me a plate with pieces of meat on it before she goes to the terrace. I follow her a little perplexed. I didn't know we were grilling, but that's not a bad idea. After all, the balcony is big enough for that. "Wait, Kaden is here too", the surprise is clearly audible in my voice, while a broad smile appears on my lips.

"Of course, I wanted to see my little cousin again," there is a male voice on my right at that moment. I quickly place the meat on the table and then turn in the direction from where these words came. There I discover a brunette, young man with a broad grin.

"Kaden', I greet my cousin joyfully and approach him to take him in my arms: 'What are you doing here? "I'm not going to miss such a family celebration", he closes me in his arms and strokes my blond hair with one hand. Without being able to catch a glimpse of his face, I know that he is grinning. The tone in his voice is ironic and I realize that Grandma must have forced him to come here, too. To be honest, I'm happy about that because we've hardly seen each other since he hasn't lived with my aunt and moved in with his fiancée. So it's really refreshing to see him again, as he's one of the family members with whom I've always got along best.

"Heather", the melodic voice of my mother sounds behind me at this moment. I have to stifle a sigh and detach myself from Kaden to turn to my mother. She lights up at me: "How nice that you have come". From the corner of my eye I can see Kaden laughingly turning back to the hot grill. He knows as well as I do that my mother's surprise at my arrival is not real. After all, she will know for sure that my grandma will have invited me and perhaps even incited me to it. "You can tell me straight away how your first weeks here went," she says and looks at me with interest, but then I just sigh. It was clear that my mother wanted to know every detail directly. But what else did I expect?

"But first we'd rather eat, otherwise the food will get cold," my aunt turns in and looks over her son's shoulder to see how far the food has gone. "That's what I'm for," another member of my family says. I nod in agreement, because I have hardly eaten on this day so far in order not to be already full while barbecuing.

"Well, I can still wait", my mother gives in and I take a seat on a free chair, relieved. To be honest, I didn't know what to say. I really haven't made many contacts in the city yet. I could tell a little bit about Ava, but we haven't known each other for long and I don't want my mother to talk me into my new friendship. She often tries to give me 'tips' that are not very helpful in the end. And otherwise I only know Sebastian and Aiden better. But it would be better not to tell my mother about my neighbour. She still sees me as a little child and would freak out if she knew that I lived across the street from a guy. Although she is not old-fashioned, she can quickly become really protective.

So I decide to tell her about my job and my first experiences at university when she asks again. My mother reacts to this in an unusually relaxed way, creating relaxed small talk that I don't even know about us. Suddenly I hope that the situation between us will relax as I grow up and have my own experiences. Maybe that's also in their interest. Why else would she behave so differently than usual?