True Love

1: Surprise

I snuggled deeper into my white, down mattress- cover trying to sink back into sleep. I longed to fall back into my dream. I had been sitting on the edge of a waterfall just listening to the jungle surrounding me. But sadly the dream had been lost and now all I saw behind my eyelids was darkness. I forced my eyes open reluctantly. The sun was streaming in from the large window of the east side of my spacious room. I pulled my yellow comforter up to my chin and starred around my room. My mother had insisted on redecorating again this year, as she did every year. My bed was the same dark mahogany four poster queen I had had since I was twelve. It was pushed against the south wall, with my matching vanity to the right and side table to the left. My walls had been repainted from hot pink, to a soft yellow and warm brown stripe. My favorite book, a collection of some of Jane Austin’s finest works, lay face down next to the porcelain lamp with the light brown shade. I glared at the silver alarm clock on the small table. 6:30!
I groaned and forced myself to roll over. I let my feet dangle above the ground for a moment or two then I slid off the edge and my feet landed with a low thud on the waiting carpet. I walked towards the massive window on the eastern wall and pulled back the soft yellow lace curtains and blinked in the astounding light. I let my face absorb every ounce of light that warmed it. I opened my eyes, turned around and walked across the room. I sat down at my desk-that was the same mahogany as my bed- and opened my silver laptop. I sighed only one new email from Brian-Brian Lewis—the best guy friend I’d probably ever had. He was on the left tight end on our school’s football team. I read his email quickly and typed a short reply I knew he wasn’t awake yet so no use starting a conversation. I stretched glancing at my phone. I laughed when I saw the alert. I pressed the small green button and waited for the voicemail to start.
“Hey Shelbs. Its Brian, I might need a partner in crime tomorroe well today, I call you with the details later. Just don’t sleep in too late.”
I stood suddenly happy that I might have plans for the morning. I walked past the other large window near my desk, and came to a stop in front of the large white doors of my closet; I opened them and stepped inside. On the left side was a solid six feet of hanging clothes and the right was another six feet of shoes purses and belts. I paid no mind to either of these as I walked to the far wall that held what I really wanted- six more feet of cubbies holding t-shirts, shorts, pajamas, sweats, socks, and everything else. I pulled out my favorite pair of sweat pants and t-shirt.
I walked out of my closet and crossed the room to my night stand and grabbed my book. I was walking toward my secret tower when my phone began to ring. I stopped and sighed, deciding if I should answer or not.
“Hello?” I asked, I hadn’t been able to look at the caller Id.
“Shelby Grace Robinson!” the girl shrieked, I realized who it was.
“Anna? Why are you up this early?” Anna had been my best friend since the age of eight, and all these years I never remember seeing or hearing of her awake until at least noon during the summer.
“Never mind that Shelby, look outside your window right now!” Anna almost barked. I rolled my eyes.
“Which window Anna?” I sighed.
“Uh, the one over your desk.”
I leaned forward to glare out of the window expecting to see her in my driveway, but instead I saw a massive moving truck parked in front of my house.
“Wow, who is that?” I asked honestly curious, people usually just didn’t move into my neighborhood unexpectedly.
“I have no idea!” se shouted. I held the phone away from my ear slightly. “but it’s blocking your driveway and I can’t get in. And it woke me up with its stupid horn!”
“Ok Anna well why don’t you park your car in the driveway across the street and walk over here. I’m sure the Davis’ won’t mind, they are at the beach.”
The only reply was a roar and then sudden stop of her silver Volvo S60’s engine.
I jogged down the vast staircase that opened out into the foyer, and led directly to the front door- which was a masterpiece of glass and stained wood. Anna was already standing there jaw clenched, brow furrowed. Her green eyes were tight and I knew as soon as I opened the door she would unleash her annoyance and anger.
“I mean who moves at six-a –clock in the morning to Alabama none the less?” Anna ranted, sitting in my large brown and white chair in the middle of my room I was sitting on my matching round oddment in front of her laughing. I had been right she’d been going on for about an hour now, flipping her dark red hair to emphasize her words.
“I just can’t believe we didn’t know about it.” I chuckled, slightly entertained by her pointless fury. I remembered the last family to move into our neighborhood had been the Hartford’s and everyone had known almost six months in advance. Bourgesse, was a considerably wealthy neighborhood in Montgomery, Alabama. People didn’t just buy these houses on a whim, not in Alabama. I turned and looked out my window again, the truck was still there. My eyes snapped back to Anna when her stomach grumbled. “Did you eat breakfast?”
“No, I was too tired and angry to be hungry.” Anna crossed her arms around her waist.
I laughed and jumped up, a little hungry myself, and lead the way down the stairs and into the kitchen.
When I walked through the doors I saw my father sitting in the breakfast nook with my mother. My dad was forty nine, with black hair that was graying, blue eyes, big nose. He fit in with the lawyer bunch perfectly he was handsome and before you got to know him utterly terrifying, but actually quite silly like the rest of my family. He was a lawyer in fact for a large firm called Jones Walker. My mom had shoulder length brown hair, blue eyes and a full face that was always smiling with a pixie like nose. She was an interior decorator for whoever called her. My dad looked up and saw me and Anna in the doorway.
“Hey girls, have you seen the truck outside? Anna, you’re up early.” My dad smiled, and chuckled softly. My mom looked up when he spoke.
“Well hello there,” she beamed as she stood gracefully and floated to us. She hugged me then Anna, “you are up early Miss Anna. Did you spend the night last night?” My mom looked between the two of us, smiling. It wasn’t an unusual thing for Anna to spend the night without them knowing.
“No ma-am, that stupid truck woke me up, so I called Shelby and came over.” Anna smiled impishly.
“Ahhh,” my parents sighed in unison.
“That explains why you awake in time for breakfast.” My father mused from behind the morning paper.
I laughed loudly at Anna’s expense and she socked me in the arm, which made me laugh harder.
After we had made some toaster waffles and cut up some cantaloupe, we sat down with my parents. Anna and my mom talked about Anna’s room. My mom was redecorating it, again. My dad read his paper quietly, throwing the Funnies at me when he had finished them. My parents eventually excused themselves, my mom to meet a client, and my dad had some things he had to finish up at the office.
“Oh Shelby,” My mom called as she was walking out the door. “Wake Ryan up before noon please, he has to clean his room, it’s disgraceful.”
“Yes ma-am.” I called as she closed the door behind her. I had the perfect way to wake up my twin brother. Like Anna, Ryan thought that summer mornings were best spent unconscious.
“So do you think this new family has kids?” Anna jerked me away from my devious plan.
“Probably they got a pretty good sized house, and besides the people with out kids usually live towards the front, because of all us reckless teenagers towards the back.” I laughed. It was true though almost all the families with kids lived in the back half of the neighborhood; the houses had more rooms and bigger yards.
“Well I hope they have a boy our age, I’m tired off all these snooty teenage girls.” Anna flipped her long red hair behind her shoulder and took a sip of her orange juice. I laughed.
“Oh and you aren’t one, are you?” I joked, she stuck her tongue out at me. I looked around the kitchen. The walls were the soft green they had been for about a year, the cabinets were the same red oak as the floors throughout the first floor as well as the front door. The counter tops were a grey granite, then the rest of the kitchen was stainless steal. The island, had a large stove and a string of appliances. I looked back at Anna suddenly rembering my plan.
“Do you want to help me wake up Ryan?” I asked raising my eyebrows.
I pushed open his door with some difficulty. When I finally got it open I realized that a skateboard and a large pile of clothes had made it so hard to open the door. His red walls were covered in posters, his large closet- smaller than mine- had almost all of the clothes on the floor, and the one large window had thick black curtains pulled over it. I held my nose and signaled to Anna. She walked in slowly, her eyes bulging at the mess.
“You walk to the other side.” I whispered quietly, taking one of the glasses of ice water from her.
We tiptoed toward his bed that was pushed against the wall opposite his door.
“1…2…3…” Anna counted silently
Then I yelled “FOUR!” We both lifted our glasses and began to poor. Ryan’s deep breathing caught and his eyes shot open. He started thrashing in a puddle of frigid water, and Anna and I turned and ran followed by a string of profanities. We slammed his door and fell onto the ground laughing hysterically.
Several minutes later Ryan stalked into my room without knocking and glared at us. We were still laughing as we read me with my Jane Austin lost again in Pride and Prejudice and Anna with one of her magazines, both curled up on my chair. He shook his head and showered us in water. Anna squealed and leaped off the chair. I hid under my book and screamed:
“Stop it, Ryan! Mom told me too wake you up!” I shrieked and jumped away from the water.
“Oh really!” Ryan yelled matching my pitch. “Did she tell you to drown me in my sleep?”
Anna fell onto my bed and started laughing. I laughed a little too but stoped when he focused his piercing light blue eyes on me.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to drown you.” I shrugged, Anna laughed harder and did nothing to silence herself.
Ryan just glared at me, the water from his hair had left little dark spots all over my chair.
“you messed up my room.” He mumbled
“Oh ok.” I laughed sarcastically. “I’m sure two glasses of water caused all your clothes to fall on the floor.”
“it was cold water.” He said, narrowing his eyes at me. I took a step closer to him and balled my hands into fists at my side.
“So, what are you going to do about it?” I challenged glaring up at him. I hated being the shorter one, especially by six inches.
“Hey now,” Anna said trying to control her laughter. She pushed herself between us and turned to Ryan.
“Your mom said you need to clean your room.” She smiled brightly, and his face softened.
“Ok,” he sighed then looked past her and glowered at me. “But you’re cleaning the water up.”
With that he turned and stomped out of my room, slamming the door behind him.
“Anna,” I hissed, once my door was closed, “you are so mean!”
She shrugged and sat back down in my chair. I shook my head again. Ryan had liked Anna for almost a year now, and she knew it. When she was over here we usually stayed in my room, or we were outside by the pool, so she never really saw Ryan. But when we did Anna would smile wildly, just to tease him. It bugged normally bugged me, but lately it had gotten me out of trouble a lot. I wondered if Ryan and I would have fought fo a long time if Anna hadn’t of interjected. I guessed we would have, we were close but we were constantly competing against one another. It might have even turned into a physical fight. I planned the fight out mentally weighing my odds. Ryan was taller, he was skinny but muscular. I was small though, and I could slip out of his hold most likely, I wasn’t as muscular as he was, but I wasn’t a total wimp- tennis and dance had me in pretty good shape. He was a faster, but then again if he won he would get grounded for who knows how long. If I won my mom would be upset that we fought, but my dad would be proud that I bet Ryan. That would only help if Ryan remembered our multiple fray’s from our younger years. He won three, but had gotten into so much trouble with our parents that he just let me win the rest.
The doorbell made me look up. Anna looked at me confused.
“Who is that?” She asked
I shrugged and walked down stairs to find out, Anna on my heels. When I reached the foot of the stairs I saw someone in a grey sweat shirt and a orange hat with their back to the door. They were hunched over awkwardly with their left arm extended down. I followed their arm and shrieked. It was holding the red color of my seven month old German Sheppard, Zack.
“I’m gonna kill Ryan.” I swore silently as I opened the door. This wasn’t the first time he had let Zack out.
The person straightened slightly and turned. I stared this person was a very handsome boy who looked to be my age or even a few years older. He had eyes that were the deepest green I’ve ever seen. His face was tan and well defined with high cheek bones and full lips. His curly black hair dangled out form under his Auburn hat. He was taller than me even when he was bent over the way his was.
“Hi,” his voice was soft and rich.
“Hey, uh” I glanced back at Anna confused “um why do you have my dog?” I asked whipping my head back towards him.
“Oh well uh, he wandered into my yard and stole a Frisbee from my little sister.” He laughed softly rubbing Zack between his ears, Zack wagged his tail gratefully. “So I played Frisbee with him for a minute, then noticed his collar. And I realized he lived next door. So basically that’s why I have you dog.” He nodded his head slightly as he finished. He released Zack’s collar and Zack ran the few feet to me wagging his tail so hard it moved his hips and made me look like his was waddling. The handsome stranger laughed deep and sweet.
“Thanks for bringing him back.” I said smiling, as I squatted and rubbed Zack’s side. “Tell your sister that I’m sorry he slobbered on her Frisbee.”
The stranger laughed again and held out his hand. I stood slowly and shook it. His hand was warm and firm.
“I’m Jason White. I just moved in next door.” He smiled and let go off my hand, I smiled and tried not to laugh at the exasperated sight that came from around the corner. Anna
“I’m Shelby Robinson.” I smiled again. “Where did you move from?”
“California.” He shrugged, as if it was no big deal that he had just moved across the country. “Alabama’s…uh”, he struggled for a moment looking for the right word “different.” He shrugged again and smiled.
“I bet.” I laughed. “Don’t worry you get used to it. It might even grow on you.”
He opened his mouth to answer as a small girl walked into my yard, saw Jason and ran toward him. Zack’s ears perked up and he stood and began to wag his tail again. The little girl slowed to a walk. Her black braid and tan skin told me she was Jason’s little sister.
“Abbey,” he cautioned. “I told you to wait at home.” Abbey beamed, showing her white smile with a small gap in the middle. She ran the rest of the way to Jason and wrapped her arms around his leg. Her brown eyes looked at Zack then lifted to me. Her brow furrowed.
“Your dog bit my Frisbee, he got it all slobbery.” Her little voice was so sweet, I could hardly tell if she was mad, or just stating a fact.
“I am sorry.” I chocked out struggling to keep a straight face. “Zack’s sorry too. Aren’t you Zack.” Zack cocked his head at the sound of his name then wagged his tail harder again so that it shook his hips. I held out my hand to the little girl. “Hi I’m Shelby, what’s your name?” She took my hand timidly then swayed it from side to side.
“Abbey Marrie White.” she sang swinging my arm faster.
Jason laughed behind her. I glanced into his eyes again, half-way expecting to see the rim of contacts, his eyes were just so green.
“Well we’d better be heading home.” He said patting Abbey on the back. “Lots of unpacking to do.” He smiled widely, his green eyes crinkling. “it was nice to meet you Shelby.”
“You too Jason.” I returned his smile. He waved once and turned, taking Abbey’s hand as he did and set off towards his house.

“Oh. My. God.” Anna sighed when I closed the door. She was leaning against the wall fanning herself dramatically. “He was so incredibly gorgeous.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes.
“What? Did you not just see the same beautiful face I did? Maybe you need to get your eyes checked!” She stammered as she followed me up the stairs. I laughed again and shrugged.
“He was cute but…” I let y sentence fall knowing she’d know where I was headed with it.
“But Brian is so much cuter, blah blah blah blah.” She cooed in a voice much too similar to mine.
I walked into my room just in time to hear my phone ringing. I ran to it and snatched it up when I saw who it was.
“Hey Brian.” I chirped.
“Hey.” He laughed, “so are you up to helping me today?”
“Umm. It depends on what it is.” I lied, I would help him no matter what.
“ I need help making the final deciosion for the tennis team.”
I sighed heavely and said nothing letting him think that I was indecisive about helping.
“Please Shelby?” he begged.
“What time.” I said with mock exasperation.
I hung up minute later and walked over to sit on my bed. Anna sat in my chair starring at me.
“What?” I asked innocently. “He needed help.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “So does that mean I can have Jason?”
I replied by beaming her in the head with a pillow that had been sitting innocently on my bed.