More to Montgomery

CHAPTER TWO

"You smell like smoke,"

"Do I? Maybe someone had a barbeque," I tapped my foot on the corny welcome mat placed by the front door. I patiently waited for Lana to open the door so I could come in. "Are you going to let me in?" She stepped outside and closed the door behind her

"Maya why are you doing this?" I could see the annoyance in her eyes.

"Doing what?"

"You left the house without telling me, I called you a billion times, and then you come here and you smell like cigarettes,"

"Sorry," my apology didn't sound the least bit sympathetic but Lana's harsh face toned down so I guess it worked. "Can I go inside now?"

"Wash off that smell and then come downstairs for dinner. I need to introduce you to somebody," She opened the door and we both walked inside. As I approached the staircase I could see Lana go towards the living room. The TV was on what looked like ESPN, there was a man sitting on the couch, who I could assume is the fiance she was yapping about the entire car ride down here. I could care less who the hell he was and I was dreading the encounter that was soon to come.

Going into my room the clothes I had thrown on the floor were now cleaned up. I looked around to find where the pile could be and saw my bags were in the corner. I rustled through them only to find nothing. My blood boiled at the thought of Lana touching my stuff, but I shrugged it off and went to the dresser where my clothes were neatly folded inside. I grabbed a giant Guns N Roses T-shirt and black cotton shorts. It took me a while to locate the bathroom with the billion doors Lana had upstairs but I eventually found it. I twisted the doorknob and before I could fully open the door I heard a screech.

"Wait! Shut the door!" I slammed the door back shut dropping my clothes to the floor. I propped my ear to the side of the door.

"Who's in there?"

The toilet flushed and the door opened from the other end. From the tone of the high pitched scream, I assumed it was a little girl but opposed to my judgements it was what looked to be Lana's son. He wore this blue and white baseball uniform with a cute baseball cap to match. From my encounters earlier with Grey, it seemed baseball over here was a popular sport. His eyes were a deep blue, pretty opposite from my bland brown. Other than that, his flat brown hair matched the rest of the members in our family. 

"Are you Maya?" he wiped his hands on his dirty pants even though there was towels hanging on the bathroom rack.

"The one and only," I picked up the pile of clothes I dropped on the floor and turned to face him. I didn't remember his name as many times as Lana bellowed it into my ear. "Is it Hayden?"

"Holden."

"Holden. Right. I'm not good with names," there was a long awkward silence and Holden didn't make any effort to speak or move. "So is baseball a popular sport in Louisiana?"

"I don't know about all of Louisiana but in Armelle it is. The fall baseball season is about to start and everyone gets excited about it. Mom said your going to Armelle High School, the Armelle Angels are like one of the coolest teams here," Armelle Angels was the same thing written across Grey's hat.

"Armelle Angels? Does there happen to be a Grey on that team?" Holden's face lit up.

"Oh god he's the best!" He walked up closer to me and began to whisper. "Last year a bunch of the school staff and some ladies at my moms church tried to get him kicked off the team because he did some really bad stuff. No one'll tell me what he did but it almost worked. Only baseball is too much of a valuable thing here so I mean baseball always wins," he stopped whispering and looked at me with a face of concern. "How do you know Grey?"

"I met him in the parking lot today,"

"He talked to you?! Man! If you start dating him put in a good word for me and you probably shouldn't tell mom about him either she'll freak," I laughed, I'm beginning to like this kid.

"Probably not gonna date him but thanks for the tip kid. Um.. I got to take a shower so I'll see you downstairs for dinner I guess,"

"Oh ok... Do you want me to call you Aunt Maya or--

"God no. You'll make me sound old or something. Maya's fine," he laughed and made his way to what I assume was his room. Unlike his mother, I actually liked him.

*      *     *

I spent my entire time in the shower wasting Lana's hot water thinking about Grey and baseball and all the aspects of this town that were so different from New York. I never even once watched or played baseball. The only thing I can even recall about baseball is when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009 and all of New York pissed themselves. The closest sport to it that I played was kickball which is kind of like baseball if you think about it. I did ballet 80% of the time and the other 20% revolved around my mom and her dumb ass issues. Maybe I should go to his party. I never actually hung out with anyone besides my ballet friends.

After I was done I made my way to the room. I had jolted a little when I noticed Lana was inside. "Is there a reason you're in here?" She pulled her hands from behind her back showing my packet of cigarettes.

"I found this in your purse," I ran over and tried to snatch away the packet as she maneuvered it away.

"You went through my purse!"

"Since you're living under my roof I felt obliged to do this,"

"Get the hell out!"

"I'm taking this with me too," Lana shook her head as in disappointment and walked out as I slammed and locked the door. She was ridiculous. It's been one day and she couldn't even respect my privacy. "I expect you to be down for dinner in a few minutes," I ignored her remark and grabbed my phone. Attached to the back was a receipt and on the back Grey's address. Lana wanted to be a bitch. Two can play that game.