Chapter Five-

Five and half minutes later, I’m outside with mom leading the way over to the neighbor’s house.

Yes, the so called five minutes she’d claimed she needed me for had expired due to me trying to squeeze into the black dress that had tightened over my chest area and rear end area since last year. Yes, since mom had bought the dress, my boobs had grown from a B cup to a C cup, adding even more to Dave’s fascination with me.

The neighbor’s front lawn was covered with toys, ranging from soldiers, to superheroes from Marvel and such. There were boxes and furniture like a worn brown leather couch lying on the footpath.

I nearly face-plant on the concrete ground after skidding on skates that were hidden beside said couch. I managed at the last second to grab onto the tray of muffins I was carrying before continuing on the short yet filled with booby traps footpath.

Mom rang the doorbell which did a wind chime ring before fading out.

The click clock of heels could be heard from the other said as someone made their way to the door. A woman of around her mid to late thirties appeared as the door was pulled open. She had fire red tresses flowed past her shoulders and the greenest eyes you could imagine that was glowing as she watched us curiously with a megawatt smile.

“You must be the neighbors,” she exclaimed.

Mom nodded before introducing us. “I’m Margaret Klaus and this here’s my daughter, Santana.”

“Pleasure to meet you both,” She paused as she eyed me up and down before looking back at mom. “Scarlet Archer,” the woman smiled warmly before welcoming us into her house. “Please excuse the mess. My husband isn’t here and the kids are no help at all.” She chuckles as she leads us into the living room area. “Have a seat. I’ll be right back.”

Mom and I take the couch, my eyes initially takes down the full itinerary of the room.

Family pictures were already up. I could make out three kids, plus the lady and a man I concluded to be her husband. Another was of two kids who were identical in every way except for the fact that one of the kid’s hair was shorter than the other. Twins.

“Here ya go,” the woman’s voice trilled before she appeared again carrying a platter with three cups of orange juice. She placed them on the coffee table before sitting down on am armchair.

“These are for you,” Mom placed the goodies on the table and I followed suit. “I was doing some baking when I saw the moving truck through the kitchen window.” I smiled, Yeah right. More like you did the baking after seeing the moving truck. Here’s the deal, mom tends to stay away from making deserts or baking unless she has no other choice, or she wanted to impress someone. Which in this case was our new neighbors.

“Oh thank you,” Scarlet smiled before taking it and disappearing off into the kitchen again.

“So where did you move from?” mom asked as Scarlet returned and claimed her seat.

“Manhattan actually,” she replied.

My eyes widened. They were from the big city and they wanted to move to our small ass, dead town? How did they even find out about Port Liston anyway? It wasn’t like it was well known. Heck with its meager population of six hundred people, steadily decreasing as new high school grads left town, I would be surprised if there was more than a hundred people left in ten years.

Scarlet must have noticed my shock because she smiled at me before adding, “My great aunt grew up here and I usually vacationed over during summer break. I guess I just think the kids need some… grounding.”

Grounding? Which means I was dealing with the high-class, snobby and spoilt teens for their parents to have moved to this in-the-pits place.

“How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?’

“Uh… seventeen?” The statement came out like a question.

Scarlet’s smile broadened even more if that was even possible. “Great then. I hope you’ll help show my kids around.”

“How many do you have?” mom asked.

“Three. Two boys and a girl. You?”

Mom smiled. “Just the one. We, my husband and I, decided to have only one. She’s quite a handful herself.”

I rolled an eye as I heard her.

“I hear ya. Three kids in itself is torture. At least I have some me time when they’ve left for school.”

Funny. Mom came here hoping I’d make a new friend and here she was making hers.

“Why did you have to hit him?” I jumped an inch as the loud screech filled the air. “You should just mind your own business!”

“I am minding my own business!” a deeper voice replied.

Scarlet eyed me and mom apologetically. “And that would be my oldest.”

“Stop trying to run my life!”

‘You’re my little sister. I won’t let some douche just think he can hurt you like that.” Anger seeped into his voice.

“Four minutes, Jes. You’re older than me by four measly minutes!”

Footsteps crunched their way towards us. Suddenly two teens entered the room, the girl glared at the boy before noticing us, shock and embarrassment lit her face.

“We will discuss this later,” Scarlet broke the silence as she narrowed her eyes at the two. “We have guests over. They’re our new neighbors.”

The girl’s eyes landed on mum and me, pausing as she took in my confused state. The boy’ eyes were on the floor, studying his Chuck Taylors.

“I apologize,” Scarlet began as she turned to face us, “My kids are ill-mannered.”

Mum brushed it off with a wave.

“Introduce yourselves,” Scarlet said to the two.

A wary smile appeared on the girl’s face as she faced us.

Her blonde hair was in a messy bun on her head, a few strands loosely hanging, framing her angular face with high cheekbones. She had clear emerald green eyes that were slightly red as if she’d been crying for hours. “Hi, I’m Jenny,” she paused, turned her head towards her brother who made no move to say hello, “and that’s my brother, Jesse.”

Jesse continued his lack of interest as he ran a hand through his messy brown hair that maintained that out-of-bed look that many tried to pull off but few succeeded. Jesse was one of the few that could.

Undeniably, Jesse was hot. And he knew it. A bad combination. I hated boys who were like that.

Granted Daemon was like that but he was my closest friend so I accepted that, but Jesse Archer, with his bored-out-of-my-effing-mind look going on a few feet away, made me fester with anger.

Who did he think he was anyway? Couldn’t he spare us a glance or two?

She said to me, ‘Forget what you’re taught

Cause good girls are bad girls that haven’t been caught

So just turn around and forget what you saw

Cause good girls are bad girls that haven’t been caught.’

It takes me a while to gather that my phone is ringing.

I smiled apologetically at Scarlet before pulling out my phone, hitting the answer button before muttering into the receiver a “Busy right now. I’ll talk to you later Daemon!” before hanging up. Daemon had custom set the ringtone for himself, saying something about it being ironically true.

I smiled at the thought of my quick brushoff of my best friend. I was still hurt that he’d chosen a hook-up over me.

“I’m so sorry,” I muttered before hitting the silent mode for my phone.

“You like 5 Seconds of Summer?”

I looked up, meeting Jenny’s eyes, before nodding.

“Cooool,” she dragged on, her smile becoming more genuine. “Which one’s your favorite?”

“Calum,” I answered.

“Luke,” she smiled.

“Mom, I got some things to do,” the deep voice pulls my attention of the blonde and onto the guy whose eyes were firmly fixed on his mother.

Green. He had the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen. High cheekbones that you only saw gracing the coves of magazines and the big screens and an olive complexion that hinted at Grecian heritage. He towered over his sister and easily everyone in the room, at least five to six inches more than my five foot six. His hands in his jean pockets, he managed to look aloof, reserved, mysterious and sexy, all wrapped up and making up the person that he was.

Scarlet nodded and a second later, Jesse was out of the room followed by the echo of steps as he ran up the stairs.

“Did you drop Jake off at Aunt Carol’s before you got into that huge banter?” Scarlet asked Jenny who nodded along.

The screen of my phone lit up, alerting me to a text.

I paused, deciding on whether I should even bother to give him the time of day after he didn’t even bother with me after reading it.

Outside your house. Need to talk.