"I can't believe you're leaving us here all alone!" My friend, Kendra, complained for around the fifth time. I rolled my eyes as my blond haired friend slumped against the doorframe carrying one of the last boxes from my room to place in her car.
"I don't really have a choice, Kendra." I groaned, pulling the box from her arms and heading over to her small burgundy ford contour.
I was moving. And it wasn't just some tiny, moving-to-the-next-town move, either. It was a real move. Across the world. Into another country. To be completely honest, I wasn't super thrilled with the move. I had lived in this one town my whole life. I knew this place really well. And now, at seventeen, I was about to pick up all of my belongings and move. Well, we weren't even doing that. With the exception of our clothes and some small things, my family wasn't bringing anything else. Which is why Kendra was here. I'd offered to give her some of my bigger books and things I wasn't able to bring to the new house.
"Is Kendy complaining again?" I heard a voice ask seconds before arms reached around me and plucked the box from my grasp.
"I'm only voicing my thoughts, Wyatt!" Kendra called from her spot in the doorway as my other best friend stacked the box in her trunk and pulled it closed. He gave a quick shake of his sandy brown hair and looked at me, his eyes asking the question he wouldn't speak out loud. 'Are you okay?' I nodded curtly.
But, the truth is, I wasn't okay. I didn't want to leave in a few hours. I had absolutely no desire to board that plane and fly off to an unknown place where everything would be different. I wouldn't have my best friends. And my parents weren't exactly the comforting type. They had their own marital problems to worry about.
"Liar." Wyatt whispered quietly. I felt tears well up in my eyes and tried desperately to blink them away before they spilled out. Too late. I let out a quiet hiccup as the first tears made their paths down my cheeks. Wyatt stepped forward instantly and pulled me into a tight hug, resting his chin on top of my head. I heard the sound of flip flops smacking the pavement, and soon a second pair of arms was wrapped around us.
"Dae-bird, you can't cry!" Kendra demanded weakly, her voice wavering slightly. "Because if you cry, I'm gonna cry." She finished, burying her face in my dark brown hair. After a few more moments of hugging, I pulled away from the two of them.
"Can we go get ice cream?" I asked, my voice coming out a lot weaker than I had expected it to. Wyatt and Kendra nodded instantly, and the three of us bundled into the small car and sped off.
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Australian accents. Australian accents everywhere. I cringed at the sound as my mom, dad, and I rolled our luggage through the airport. I sighed loudly for about the thousandth time, and my mom spun around to face me, her face set in an annoyed frown.
"Daeyna Jane Larksen, you stop with that attitude this instant." My mother's shrill voice was loud enough to attract the attention of multiple people around us, and I sent a glower her way. The act doesn't fool anyone, mom. Everyone knows you don't want to be here any more than me. Of course, I wouldn't actually say that out loud. Unless, that is, if I had a desire to be slapped across the face in public. Which I didn't.
None the less, it is true that my mom didn't want to move any more than I did. However, my dad got a good job offer from a small accounting firm in Sydney, so here we were. That, paired with the fact that my parents hoped the move would help the marital problems they were having, and you have three plane tickets and a new house. Never mind the fact that I had friends back home or a dream job at the local photography shop. Who cares about a teenager's dreams and such when you had a failing marriage to save? Note the sarcasm.
I love my parents, I really do. Don't ever doubt that. But I can see what they can't. And that is the fact that, no matter what they try to do to fix their relationship, it just won't work. They may have been perfect for each other nineteen years ago when they got married, but that was definitely not the case now. And it bothered me that they couldn't see it. They both felt it- I know they did. But neither of them was willing to acknowledge that feeling.
In some ways, I was relieved they hadn't split up. I would be forced to choose between the two of them, and I wasn't sure I would be able to do that. However, in other ways, it pissed me off. Like now, for instance. The frustration my parents felt with each other was taken out on the one person who hadn't done anything to deserve it; me.
The car ride up to the new house was silent. I had been told that some of the larger items we had sent ahead of us had arrived already and were in the house. The house itself was actually rather cute. I did have to give it that. I had google mapped the whole town with Kendra and Wyatt a few weeks prior to the actual move. The house was cute, but it didn't lessen the amount of loneliness I knew I would feel without Kendra and Wyatt only a few streets away.
I was the first to enter the new house. As soon as the car was parked in the driveway, I hopped out and made my way to the front door. Along with the master bedroom, there were three bedrooms total. The house was two floors, and had a finished basement. One of the bedrooms was in the basement, and the other two were on the second floor. I ended up choosing the one in the basement. It was cooler, and I would have my own bathroom. Not to mention the privacy I would have being separated from my parents by a whole floor.
The good thing about the house was that it came with furniture already in it. The bed in the room downstairs was large and very comfortable. The room was painted a light cream color and had a dark wooden floor. A large baby blue colored rug took up most of the floor space in the room, and I smiled, knowing it would match the similarly colored bed spread I had packed away in one of the many boxes on the main level. Whoever owned this room before me must have liked blue just as much as I do. I heard the house creaking above me as my parents walked about. Even though the mattress had no sheets on it, and could have very well been a host for all kinds of nasty bugs and such, I flopped down on it and pulled out my iPhone.
The first thing I did was send out a request on Skype to chat with Kendra. Her face appeared almost instantly, her eyes droopy and tired looking, but none the less looking excited.
"Jesus, Kendra. Have you gotten any sleep?" I questioned, taking in my best friend's ragged appearance.
With a stifled yawn, Kendra shook her head, replying, "No, not really. I wanted to be awake when you got there, seeing as how this one fell asleep at nine tonight." She sent an indignant look off-screen at what I assumed was a sleeping Wyatt.
I chuckled lightly. She knew the flights totaled around nineteen hours long. She could have slept at least a little bit- I sure did. That was probably the only reason I was awake right now. Almost seven hours of sleep on the flight from LAX had given me a bit of energy. I smiled at Kendra through my phone once more.
"Well, I've only just arrived, so I'll call you later on tonight. Okay? You get some sleep." I kept my tone light and happy, though on the inside I felt like I had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Either Kendra didn't notice, or she chose not to acknowledge it. Whatever the case, I was thankful. I wasn't really in the mood for that discussion right now. With one last smile goodbye, I exited out of the Skype app and set my phone down. I let out a sigh and let my head fall onto the mattress below me.
A few minutes later, I heard my father call me upstairs. I groaned quietly and slid off the bed, heading towards the staircase. As I neared the main floor of the house, I could hear the rumble of a large car in the driveway. My dad was standing near the top of the stairs.
"The last moving truck is here with the rest of our things. Your mother and I are going to go out and get groceries." I suppressed a groan. That meant he wanted me to get the boxes out of the truck by myself. Fun.
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The rumbling sound of a large bus echoed through the neighborhood as I was pulling boxes from the moving truck. I paused and looked up towards the sound. My eyes landed on a vehicle I knew well- a school bus. I was confused for a moment before I realized it was Monday. I watched as three teenagers and a few younger kids hopped off the bus. The three teenagers looked about my age. There were two boys and a girl, and they were all laughing. I felt a ping of sadness as I thought of the times when Kendra, Wyatt, and I rode the bus.
The girl glanced over in my direction and froze. The blond haired boy behind her ran into her, and complained loud enough for me to hear exactly what he said.
"Megan, you can't just stop like that!" He exclaimed. I stood frozen to the spot, staring at the girl who had now focused her attention on me. The group wasn't too far away- only a few houses down and across the road- and I could make out general appearances. The girl-Megan-was short and petite, looking about my height, and had short light brown hair. The blond haired boy was the tallest, and he was wearing what looked to be some sort of band t-shirt. The other boy was a few inches shorter than the first, and had black hair and a bit of a darker complexion. He was the second to notice me. He and the girl turned to the third member of their group at the same time. Even being as far away as I was, I could tell they were nervous, and I frowned while I tried to figure out why.
The blond haired boy glanced at them, confused, for a second, then up at me. He froze-only for a moment-then continued down the path as if nothing had happened. I frowned at the group as they continued down the sidewalk. The blond haired boy never once glanced back at me, but the other two kept sending looks my way. Weird.
With a shake of my head, I resumed my work, pulling more boxes out of the truck and carrying them into their respective rooms in the house. Once the truck was emptied, I began the long and horribly boring task of emptying the boxes in my room and putting things where they belonged.
I hadn't even been here twenty four hours, and already, I disliked the place. Great.
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Hello there, ladies and gents! This is my first fic here on Wattpad, so please be nice to me. I know this first chapter was a bit boring, but I promise it will get more exciting in the future! For these first few chapters, I'll probably be updating every other day or so, so be on the lookout for chapter two! Please let me know if you like the story by commenting and/or voting! It would be much appreciated! Have a fantastic day!