I Dare You to Kiss Me

1 year anniversary

A few months earlier...

I woke up to the sound of my doorbell ringing. I threw a big shirt on and ran down the stairs. Through the stained glass window I could see the outline of a tall girl with golden-like hair standing there.

"HAPPY ONE YEAR OF BEING MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR!" Maizy said excitedly as I opened the door.

"You came to my house at," I looked at the clock on the wall," 6:30 in the morning to tell me tHIS?"

"Hey Chicago and New Orleans is a big difference so we should celebrate and I should wake you up to start our...party??"

"Maizy, we are not having a party."

"Fine," she glared at me, "but I'm sleeping over."

"It's a school night." I said with a smirk.

"EMORY YOU'RE NO FUN." she said but I knew she'd somehow end up staying all night.

Maizy is kind of my only friend right now. My friend Jane has been grounded ever since I met her and outside of school we can never hang out. My old friends from Chicago are still my closest friends but it gets hard to talk to them all the time with everything that's going on.

Although Maizy has other friends, she's not close with them anymore after what happened with her sister Alana. But she won't tell me, or anyone else for that matter, what actually did happen to her. When Alana is mentioned Maizy, the girl who's all smiles all day, just looks so sad and miserable. I wish she would tell me why, but I get it we're not as close to each other as we have been with other friends. She's scared.  I'm scared too.

"Shall we go upstairs and do um ... i don't know." I'm so indecisive.

She raised one eyebrow for a few seconds and then broke our unspoken glaring contest with a laugh.

We raced up the stairs and turned on the TV my brother was gifted for getting straight A's. The Harry Potter marathon had just started. Perfect timing. Maizy grabbed a blanket and I popped some popcorn. She laid her head on my shoulder and we started our day

"GIRLS CAN YOU GO OUTSIDE AND DO SOMETHING USEFUL, DAD AND I WANT TO WATCH A MOVIE." My moms yelling filled the house.

"OKAYYYY" I yelled back at my mom. There was no point in arguing with my mom. Don't get me wrong, my mom is amazing but you argue and you're a goner. I looked at Maizy to ask what she wanted to do, but she seemed to already have an idea by the way her face lit up.

"Let's go walk around the forest!" Maizy suggested, very excitedly.

"Do you want to be killed by some Ax-murdering clown?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Yep. Let's go." Maizy smiled. In our neighborhood we have a little area with a pool, a playground, and  a grassy area. If you follow the fence along the grassy area you can find a hole in the fence behind a few trees. Which leads to some forest that goes who knows where. We discovered it a few months ago at Maizy's birthday party. Of course it was dark so no one had the guts to go through it. Except Maizy, but she didn't want to go alone.

"You will be the death of me Maizy Roe" I gave in and put my hand out.

"And you, Emory Ross, would not have an adventurous life without me" She took my hand and flew down the stairs with me.