Falling

Chapter 3: Outside

This chapter is dedicated to a certain kitty kat...in more ways than one. You'll see what I mean soon...

Still November 2nd

Ding dong

The doorbell rang. Austin and I just stared at each other, neither of us moving, wondering what we should do. No one had rang that doorbell in a long time.  Especially not on the 2nd. Everyone knew to give the Chere's a day off on the 2nd.  

Ding dong

It rang again. We walked down the stairs in unison, looking out the peephole for who it might be. A lady with a big smile stood on the other side. 

We opened the door, a bit confused. Mom and dad soon joined us, wanting to know who had come to visit. 

"Hello!" She said, way too cheerful on the 2nd, of all days. "I'm your new neighbor. I live right across the street from you now!" Everyone turned to look at the house that had been on sale for 2 years, and sure enough, a moving van was parked outside. 

A teenaged boy was removing the FOR SALE sign. He was wearing a tank top, and I could tell he must've played some sport because his arms were pretty built.

"ANYWAY," she continued. "I just wanted to say hi. My name is Kathie, and my husband is Jack. Our son, Axel, will be going to y'all's school starting next week. I was hoping y'all could come over later so you could meet him. It'd be nice if he had some friends before the school year started."

"Of course!" Mom jumped in, a huge smile spread across her face. "In fact, they will head right over. I'm Beth, and my husband's name is Terrace." She jabbed him in the stomach, obviously wanting him to say something. I think she was glad to finally have someone to talk to. I don't blame her. Before Axel and his family moved in, the only interactions with other families we had was when their eyes drifted towards his during church, filled to bursting with pity. But Axel was different. Is different.

"Hi," said dad, caught off guard. When mom glared at him, he continued, "Tell Jack that I look forward to meeting him. Maybe we could have a grill out next Saturday?" He looked at mom for confirmation and smiled when he saw a pleased look on her face. 

"Yes! And then we gals could talk while our men were outside bonding over the barbecue," Mom said, looking into Kathie's eyes, hope obviously pouring out of her.

"Sounds like a plan!" answered our new neighbor. "I'll go tell Axel that your twins are coming over. I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught your names."

Austin and I blinked. We looked around, wondering who this strange lady was talking to. We thought that surely there was no way mom was making us interact with a stranger, especially if we were going to have to go outside. She knew our reserves of being out in the open alone. You'd think that was all that two 16-year-olds would want, but when they had a small case of agoraphobia it was a different story.

There was an awkward pause as we continued to search for another pair of twins that could be hiding in the house somewhere. 

"They're Austin and Autumn," mom replied. Austin and I continued our search. There must be another pair of twins with our same names. That was the only logical explanation. There was no way mom was going to put us up to this. Or so we thought.

An hour later we found ourselves being shoved out of our house and onto the front porch. We still had no idea what had happened. After Ms. Kathie left we had turned to our parents, begging them to not make us go talk to someone new. We survived with the friends we already had, we didn't need a new one.

"That's a great idea!" Mom had said after we had told her that point. "You can invite Olivia and Hunter over." Olivia Pattillo was my best friend since before I could remember, or better put since before you couldn't. Hunter was her twin brother that quickly became Austin's best friend. Growing up, it just made sense for the two pairs of twins to become fast friends. "Yes, that's what we'll do. That way you can invite Axel into your entire friend group."