Under Grey Skies

ᴛᴡᴏ

"Nice to meet you guys, my name is Larry Ruess, my wife and I are hosting this party." He says exchanging hands with us.

"Adalia Juárez." I say.

"Timothy Juárez, her father." My dad says. Just had to throw that in there, huh dad?

"How old are you?" He asks, great second question.

"Seventeen."

"I have a son the same age, is it okay if they hang out?" He asks my dad.

"Oh, it's fine."

"Okay, wait here, I'll get him." He bolts upstairs. We give him a nod and I turn to my dad.

"I hate being early." He says. I just shake my head and chuckle.

"Don't start dating him right away." He says.

"Dad.." I playfully hit him.

A few minutes later he came back downstairs with someone else following him. Oh my gosh, he is attractive. His son, not him.

"Nate, this is Adalia, Adalia, this is Nate. You have permission to go outside." His father says literally forcing us out the house. My dad was literally standing there. Would he do the same if it was at our house?

It was a few minutes of silence before I decided to play with a large stick that was in the middle of the sidewalk. He comes to me and finally says something.

"Hi." He says. That was it?

"Hey." I say.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Nothing really, just playing with a stick." I say waving it around.

"I'll swordfight you." He says.

"Okay." I'll allow it only because I have nothing better to do. We fought each other for a few minutes until I tripped and fell on a broken piece of concrete. He's laughing, I'm laughing, we're both dying.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry for laughing." He puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah I'm good and it's fine. I was laughing at myself too." I reply.

(...)

There was a lot of people, but not any people that were my and Nate's age. This was a nice neighborhood. At least Jimothy's kids made a lot of new friends. I've only made one friend and I'm not regretting it so far.

Speaking of Jimothy, he came with his kids and more and more people came. Dinner is in a few hours. Nate and I were outside alone because the younger kids have to stay in. Grayson's not that young. Whatever.

"Don't you have friends from like school, or something?" I ask.

"Yeah, but I can't invite them."

"Why?"

"I'm grounded."

"Oh."

Something must've fallen out of my mini bag because Nate had it in his hand.

"Why do you have glue?" He asks.

I don't even know.

"Are you gonna glue me to my own house and leave me?" He jokes and laughs.

"I'm not mean." I say smiling.

"But I have glue to make slime, ya know, when I get bored."

"That's cool, maybe later, you can teach me." He says.

"How about now?" I say.

"Sure. What materials do you need?" He asks.

"Just a bowl and spoon."

"Lets go inside and get it. You can come up to my room." I nod.

He grabs the materials from the kitchen and make our way upstairs. I saw Grayson in his room playing video games. Nate didn't expect this so he jumped letting the bowl and spoon hit the floor sending us into fear.

"Grayson!!" I yell.

"Lia!!" He yells back.

We hug each other. Nate stands in his own doorway awkwardly before picking up the bowl and spoon.

"Nate this is my cousin Grayson. Grayson this is my friend Nate." I introduce them.

They handshake and I teach them how to make slime. Gray is like my best friend, we're there for each other. Jimothy taught him well.

The boys played video games as I made a little more slime. I went to the bathroom and washed all of the food coloring and glue off of my hands. I dry my hands with the hand towel that was next to the sink.

I go back in the room and finish. Grayson went downstairs to go play with the other kids and left us alone.

"He's a fun kid." Nate says.

"He is."

Nate helps me put the materials back in my bag. I put the slime in a plastic bag,and set it on his dresser. Don't ask me why I have that in my bag.

"So, did you just move here?" He asks.

"Yep, moved in Friday."

"Cool."

"Where else have you lived?" He asks.

"I was born in Melbourne, but I'm half Canadian and one-forth Spanish and American. I moved to Canada when I was about two. I've moved from Australia to Canada, to California, back to Canada. Then I moved to Brooklyn and then here, NYC." I say.

"Oh wow. That's a lot of traveling." Nate says.

"I know, what about you?" I ask.

"I was born in Iowa, then in the winter when I was about four, we moved to Glendale, then New York."

"Oh, Glendale is beautiful." I say.

He nods in agreement.

Soon we decided to go outside in his backyard to eat dinner since the smell filled our noses. Our families sat by each other and they looked like they were getting ready to be best friends, so Nate and I could be close.

Aubree sat in my lap as I shared half of my plate with her. Nate sat next to me on my right and Grayson sat on my left. Oh Lord, this felt like this was our child.

He loves Grayson a lot, or that's what my eyes and thoughts say.

We had karaoke in a few minutes and I was going first, after my dad and uncle screamed my name to be called up. I can probably sing but I don't like singing in front of people. With the amount of voice cracks I be having? Gosh!

I sang (insert random song) and everyone clapped and cheered. Nate looked at me with wide eyes. I think I embarrassed myself.

"This young lady has a fabulous voice! Maybe you should go on Broadway!" Some lady joked and everybody laugh, including me, but awkwardly.

I went back and sat by Nate who won't stop staring at me.

"Yes Nate?" I ask.

"That's a nice singing voice you have there." He says.

"Thanks."

"No, I really mean it."