Rob Miller was what you might call mysterious, because of the way he carried himself. You could ask him all sorts of questions, but you'd only get these really vague answers out of him, and sometimes he seemed as though he was just being a sarcastic asshole with some of his responses.
He moved into the house next to me on a typically hot day in Cleveland, Ohio, and I didn't know what to think of him at first. All I knew was that I was excited because I had no real friends here, and I needed some desperately. But that didn't mean I'd just go find friendship in just anybody.
My parents thought the neighborly thing to do was to take a pie over there and give it to the Miller family. As typical as that sounded, that was my parents for you. In fact, it wasn't just them, it was like most people in the Whimes family to do something like that.
Rob's mother looked annoyed by our presence when we showed up at their front door with it, but she forced a smile onto her face because I guess she didn't want to hurt our feelings.
"Thank you. You really didn't have to do this." Mrs. Miller said. Then her attention fell on me, and her smile actually turned genuine. "And who are you young lady?" she asked.
"I'm Heather." I said excitedly. Mrs. Miller gave me a strange look, but it quickly faded when her son appeared in the doorway behind her. She guided him forward eager to let him see me in particular.
"This is my son Rob. I'm sure you two will get along just fine."
I studied Rob. He had long black hair that was past his shoulders, except he kept it in a ponytail. He was lean, yet muscular, and had a look of complete boredom on his face. Clearly, I was not that interesting to him. One thing I did know, was that he was totally hot. I was sure every girl in Cleveland was going to be going after him.
I didn't even see how he could wear the leather jacket he had on without passing out in this heat wave we were having, but hey, I wasn't going to question it.
"I'm sure we won't." he muttered in reply to what his mother had previously said.
"Rob!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry," she apologized to me. "He's just adjusting."
I nodded, but now I wanted to get the hell away from here. We had clearly overstayed our welcome.
"Well, nice meeting you." my father said just before we headed back over to our own house.
I didn't know what to think of Rob Miller at first, he seemed like the typical douchebag types that lived here, but I couldn't really make any real judgements in that moment.
As previously stated, I didn't have friends, but what I did have, were associates. Occasionally we would link up with each other and go hang out at the park, or go get food together. This was the usual stuff you would do with someone you're friends with, but the truth is, these associates only used me until their actual friends came back around.
They were Abigail Grace and Maddie Fuller. They were tolerable, but aggravating, and we all went to the same high school together. Abigail was known as a complete whore, which wasn't a lie. She had dated over 25 guys within a two week span, and I was starting to wonder if there would be any guy left here in Cleveland that she hadn't dated. The least she could do was save some for everyone else.
Maddie wasn't anything like that, and I was glad, but she was a huge bitch who thought she was better than everyone because her family had more money than most people in this town. She never had to lift a finger for anything she wanted, because her mother and father just simply bought it for her.
Abigail, Maddie, and I, had all made plans to hangout at the park, but when we arrived, the conversation topic was about Rob, and I discovered that they were so obsessed with it, that they refused to be interrupted.
I didn't even think I saw Rob come back out of his house after we left, so I had no idea how Abigail and Maddie knew about him, but word gets around fast here, and it did not surprise me. Everyone had been waiting to see who was moving into that house.
"He's so cute. I wonder if he has a girlfriend." Abigail was saying, twisting a strand of her dark brown hair, and smacking on a piece of bubblegum. I hated when she did that. It was one of the most irritating things in the world.
"I'm sure his mother wouldn't have introduced us if he did Abby." I said.
Abigail rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up too high. I doubt he'd consider making you his girlfriend."
Maddie snickered, and I snorted. "I honestly could care less about the guy."
But that was a lie, because I did. I wanted to know more about him even though he had seemed like a douche when we met. The fact that Abigail was saying I didn't stand a chance made me upset.
"Sure, anyways, me and Mark broke up." Abigail continued. "He wasn't a good enough kisser. You know I can't date anyone like that."
"Ew, you actually kissed him?" Maddie asked.
"Yeah, I know, don't judge me. It was a mistake."
The conversation had finally changed for once, but I wasn't really apart of it. They never included me in much of anything they talked about unless it was to put me down.
Their other friends were Samantha and Emilee Wilson, who were both sisters. Any time they ended up fighting with the two of them, I was their back up person to hang out with. I don't know why I let myself be used like that, but it's not like I had anything better to do around here.
It was summer, and the heat wave was really getting to everyone here. Five people had already had a heat stroke, and had been rushed to the hospital. It was dangerous to even be outside unless you were half naked, but you know Abigail Grace had no problem with that. She had left home today in a crop top and booty shorts.
I remembered Rob's long black hair, and predicted that it would be cut sometime soon. There was no way he'd survive this if he didn't do that, and ditch the leather jacket.
"Hey, have you guys noticed Rob's the only dumbass here wearing a leather jacket in the summer?" I asked, cutting off whatever their new conversation topic had been about.
"And? That just makes him even more mysterious." Abigail snapped. "In fact," she said, lowering her voice as though to be sure no one was listening to us, "We all should go over there and introduce ourselves."
"I've already done that." I snorted.
"Well you can at least come and have our backs if something goes wrong."
"Fine."
Maddie squealed excitedly, and I rolled my eyes. They were definitely boy crazy.
Going back to the Miller's wasn't something I really wanted to do. I didn't want to keep coming over, because eventually, I would start getting annoying. When we got there, Rob was outside. He had ditched the leather jacket, and was wearing a white tank top that showed off his muscles. His hair had been redone in what looked like sort of a man bun.
He was finally being smart about his clothing choices.
His head snapped up towards us, and he rolled his eyes when he saw me. I immediately felt unwelcome, and decided that now was a good time to make up some weak excuse to leave.
"Uh, guys?" I whispered, but they ignored me, completely gushing over Rob.
"Hey!" Abigail said, moving a little too close to him.
Rob just stared at her.
"I'm Abigail, but people around here call me Abby. This is Maddie, and from what I've been told, you've already met Heather."
Rob stared at me, a small smirk playing on his lips. "Yeah, I've already met Heather."
Abigail frowned, disappointed that he wasn't paying more attention to her. "Well, I really hope to see more of you."
"In what way." was Rob's response.
Me and Maddie snickered, expecting Abigail to punch him in the face, but we both knew there was no way she would do that.
So Abigail Grace did what only Abigail Grace would do.
"In every way." she replied, winking at him.
For some reason, Rob kept staring back over at me. "Is that so? You must be the slut here. Every town's got them."
I exploded with laughter, but no one else joined me. I looked back up to see Abigail and Maddie's angry faces staring at me, and Rob looking at me with a huge grin on his face.
Maybe I wasn't annoying to him after all.
"Come on Maddie, let's go!" Abigail snapped, pulling her poor friend away from the situation.
But I didn't follow this time.
When they were gone I turned back to Rob who was still staring at me. This time his expression had returned to the same bored and annoyed one.
"Sorry about that. Usually guys don't turn down Abigail Grace." I told him.
"I'm different. Don't compare me to anybody else." Rob said.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way."
"Sure."
"Where'd you move here from?" I asked him.
"A place." he said.
I rolled my eyes. "I figured that, but which place exactly?"
"Dayton." Rob said.
"Oh."
"Are you done questioning me?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
"I guess, I feel like I'm annoying you." I said.
He didn't say anything, so I just walked away from him, and back over to my house. I guess he didn't want to say yes and hurt my feelings, which surprised me, because he had no problem hurting Abigail's.
Our house was small, and it was a little beat up. We didn't even have much, but it was decent enough for me. One day I was going to get out of this place, because this couldn't be life forever. It sucked way too much.
My parents had taught me to actually work for what I wanted, unlike Maddie, who had everything handed to her, and that was why I was sure I could survive pretty well in the real world.
I had a job babysitting, because I didn't think I'd be good at much else around here, and I really liked babies. Everyone in the neighborhood trusted me with their babies, and sometimes even paid extra. That was how I made my money, and I was saving it in a jar for the day I planned to leave this place.
So far I had about $41, which wasn't enough to try to get away from here, but it was a start. I kept it in a huge jar.
Not much ever happened around here, but when it did, it was nothing but drama. Fights were the norm, and that's what people did to keep themselves occupied. No one had any real plans or big dreams to leave this place.
This town isn't for every one, but sometimes, it's just right for the people who aren't going anywhere in life.
I wondered where Abigail Grace and Maddie Fuller would go, and who they would become when they graduated high school. I knew for a fact they'd probably go about as far as this town, and then that would be it.
I also wondered where Rob would go, even though I didn't know much about him. I wondered if he was the type of guy who worked for the things he wanted, or did his mother and father simply just hand it to him, like Maddie's parents did.
The heat was even worse inside my house, and not having any air conditioning definitely made things worse. All we had were a few fans on high, and that was never enough.
"Where did you go off to?" my mother asked, bringing in a basket of clean clothes.
"I went and hung out with Abigail and Maddie again." I told her, knowing she wouldn't approve of it. My mother hated both of them even though she never really got to know them. She said they gave off a certain vibe that didn't sit very well with her.
"You've really got to find better friends Heather. You know Mrs. Grace stopped me at the grocery store last week and told me that she was absolutely beside herself because she had caught Abigail smoking pot. You better not get pulled into anything like that."
"Mom, don't worry, I'll never be anything like Abigail." I said, rolling my eyes. But I felt kind of bad, because I did use to smoke quite a bit of that stuff with her. I ended up stopping for a bit, but then I occasionally picked back up with it.
"Let's hope not. Have you talked to Rob anymore?"
"Yeah."
"That's good. Maybe he's better than the people here." my mother said.
I shrugged.
I hoped.