i was sitting down on my bed criss cross applesauce with my stuffed animal giraffe sitting down in front of me.
we were having our nightly therapy session as he was listening to all my life problems.
"like why is he a pedophile?" i ask him as his black marble eyes stare back at me.
that's when hartley barges into my room mid session.
"tatum!"
i didn't live with hartley, i loved with my aunt and little cousin since my parents died in a car accident seven years ago.
hartley just had a key to my locked house
"you can't just do that i was in an intense therapy sesh" i say to the girl rolling my eyes.
hartley was a really good friend to me and we were basically inseparable even though she was a few years older than me.
though, she could be a lot sometimes
"well stop talking to your stuffed animal" she says sitting down on my desk chair.
"first of all" i started "his name is jeremiah and you will not speak about him like that"
i've had jeremiah ever since i was little and was very clingy towards him.
"okay well can you stop therapy with jeremiah for one second?"
"what could be so important?" i ask crossing my arms as she stands up.
"grandma you and me are going to see the new neighbors!" hartley says smiling brightly
"but i don't want some rando out my window able to come in my bedroom at any given moment" i say to her and she looks out my window.
there was a little tree that connected my bedroom window to another bedroom window in an upstairs bedroom in that house.
it was basically like the tree in the show alexa and katie
that was what me and hartley agreed on
"well you'll never know who it is if you don't come with us" hartley says making me roll my eyes.
i carefully picked up jeremiah and set him down by my pillow and patted his head.
i then stood up
"well let's get going then" i say as hartley leads me downstairs where anna, my aunt, was feeding my little cousin ollie
"anne i'm going to see the new neighbors!" i called out as ollie spit out a bunch of spaghetti on her shirt
she was five but acted like a baby
"okay have fun!" she called back
we walked to the house next door and rang the doorbell.
well celia rang the doorbell
many times
then finally someone answered the door and i saw the big family that was going to be our new neighbors.
"oh look everybody" said the woman i'm assuming was the mother of the house started.
"it's our landlady celia and her granddaughter hartley and other neighbor tatum" she speaks in a kind of robotic way.
"hello landlady celia and her granddaughter hartley and other neighbor tatum" the rest of the family speaks at the same time and in the same robotic tone.
me and hartley slightly glance at each other
"your first months rent is ten dollars short" celia says to the family, walking inside the house.
my eyes started to wander over everyone in that family when they stopped on a boy about my age wearing a beanie.
"oh sorry about that can you break a twenty?" the man asks as he hands celia a twenty dollar bill as she snatches it
"no"
"you look really familiar" hartley says to the older girl as she walks in pointing at her
"do i know you from somewhere?" she asks as the girls eyes widen.
"no i don't think so" she answered
"well we were just about to start family movie night so-" the mom starts talking as she tries to push celia out but she pushes herself back inside making me mentally facepalm
"ooh what are we watching i love a good war movie" she says sitting herself down on their couch. hartley soon following her as i just stood in the doorway awkwardly not wanting to barge into their home.
the boy that seemed to be the youngest walked over to me
"hi" he said smiling
i smiled back
"hey"
"i'm colby" he said to me as his family tried to get celia out of their house
"i'm tatum" i say to him as he nods
"so what's texas like?" he asks and i take a deep breath in
"we really should get some rest we're still adjusting to the time in texas" the dad says to hartley and celia
"it's something alright" i reply to him making the boy laugh which causes me to smile
the rest of his family pretends to yawn
"my family is something" he says as we both are looking over at them pretending to yawn
"yeah sorry about them" i say talking about hartley and celia
"remind me where your from again" celia says standing up and the family replies with a bunch of different states.
hartleys brow furrowed
"we never really stay in the same place too long" his mom answers
gosh i loved her accent
"well that's a red flag" celia replies to the woman
"i'll take nexts months rent too"
colby's dad then blows air out of his mouth and walks over to celia with more money and hands it to her
"you're gonna love texas everyone is so nice here" hartley says to the family
"oh i can tell" his dad says fake laughing
"what brought you guys here anyway?" hartley asks them
"oh we just needed a change" the older sister answered smiling
"we'll have to get together another night" the woman says finally able to push celia and hartley out the door.
i stayed back though
"i'm sorry about them. it was nice meeting you guys" i say making the woman smile
"it was nice meeting you too" she says
"bye tatum" colby waves as i wave back to him.
...
