Honestly, I love having my own place. Yes, I’ve missed my parents and getting everything figured out was a bit rough to start with but in the end, by day four of me living on my own I had fully gotten into a routine. Get up by nine, go for a walk or swim, then make some breakfast while talking to either my mom or one of my friends on the phone. Then get to work. I’m usually done with work between five thirty and seven depending on the night, do some unpacking. (Though it only took like a week to unpack.) Then do my bedtime routine, which is usually taking a shower, telling everyone goodnight, doing some chores and watching some television. Even throwing in some grocery shopping and self-care time too. Granted that routine changed a bit when I brought the cats and Ghaston home, though not too much.
I really feel like a success. Like the first twenty-four years of my life weren’t a waste. They were worth it. They led me to this. Still, I couldn’t get my thoughts away from my neighbor. Such amazing eyes… They say the eyes are the window to the soul and I’ve always been fascinated by eyes. Drawn to them. And if I’m being honest I’ve been trying to avoid running into him again because I’m terrified of making a fool of myself again. But Connor is so sweet and kind…
His eyes tell a story. One that I crave to know. To learn, inside and out. Cover to cover, infinitely. I want to know his story and I want him to know mine… My thoughts are interrupted by the knock on the door.
“Are you ready to come and be my girl for the night again, so I can actually have fun?” Drew asks leaning in the doorway trying to imitate the “cool” kid pose.
“Remind me again why I’m doing this?” I ask moving out of the doorway so he could come in.
“Because my sister believes that if I’m no longer with you than I have to be with a girl she deems worthy? And you’re the best. You know how to handle them and still be fun, you’re beautiful and you aren’t making me marry you.” He pauses looking around. “Where’s Ghaston? Also, that sounded rude if I were to marry anyone it would be you but I don’t want to get married. I like living on the road and being free ya know?”
“He’s out back playing.” I smile. “I know. We’ve been over this plenty of times. I don’t take offense to it.”
“Also, when you have a boyfriend, I’m just telling her we’re in a poly relationship.”
“You’re lying to her?”
“Yes. She’s crazy and she only visits occasionally so I need you to help me on occasion and we’ve discussed this you’re perfect.”
“I’m literally the opposite of what they want for you, but okay. What’s our back story?”
“Same one we have now. We met hiking and we’re best friends. Now we’re dating but only like pretend. Though she can’t know that…”
“So basically, to them we never broke up?”
“Yes? Fuck, I sound so mean today.” He stops me in the door way, pulling me into his arms. “You know I love you. I just know that marriage is never gonna happen for me. I’m not turning into my parents. But I’ll happily walk you down the aisle, so you know you won’t get embarrassed by your dad. You know?”
“I know. I love you too. Alright which one?” I ask laying the two dresses down on the bed. One a pink floral spaghetti strap and the other a black and white dress with horizontal stripes on the top and it was long-sleeved.
“The long sleeve and your platforms. Then we can match.”
After getting ready for the night and a few selfies with my best friend (we had to, if I went out with Drew and Lorren didn’t get pictures or my grandparents didn’t get pictures they would all be extremely disappointed) we headed out to meet his family at Dave and Busters. The drive was filled with karaoke and good vibes as per usual. We hadn’t seen each other in a few months because we’ve both been working so much and Drew’s work tends to take him out of state a bit, which was another reason we didn’t pursue a traditional relationship.
“AH! Le, are you ready for this?” He huffs as he sets the car in gear.
“I am, but are you?”
“I don’t know! My sister is so annoying. And her and dad together oh god. I’m telling you it’s worse than just my parents these days.”
Drew comes from a slightly overbearing family, they have good money, and they are kind of where that stereotype of “here’s your money stay away from my kid” comes from. It’s a bit radicicolous but they aren’t too bad? They’re definitely a lot though.
“It’s okay. Breathe. I’m sure we can handle it.”
“If I were you, I’d order a straight shot of whiskey before you meet her.”
“Oh my god, I’ll be fine. If you need to drink, give me the keys.” I say putting my hand out and giving him the look as he reluctantly hands over the keys to his Challenger. “Thank you. Now let’s go.”
He for sure wasn’t joking or exaggerating his sister and his father in the same vicinity was pretty bad. We both snuck away to play some of the games with Lanny (his brother) and Glen (his cousin) while everyone else stayed at the table and talked. And that’s when I noticed Connor…
After a brief (and slightly flirtatious) encounter with Connor, I ran back to Drew.
“I need to talk to you pronto.” I say grabbing his wrist and yanking him away from his brother making him jump.
“Jesus you scared me!” he laughs. “Does this have to do with the “Cowboy” smooth one!”
“Shh! Yes. I’m dumb! I need you to like punch me or something?”
“Uh no. That’s abuse and-
“Red alert, red alert, code red oh, oh….oh my god. Save me Drew.” I whisper cutting him off as I see the handsome man approaching with a devious smile on his face. I swear I nearly died again, I wasn’t just holding onto Drew for shits and giggles this was serious I was weak in the knees for this man! This doesn’t happen to me!
“What is your prob- Oh hello there.” Drew goes from confused to amused in a split second.
“Hi… sorry to interrupt. I guess it’s my turn to have the awkward…” He runs his hands through his hair. “Shit… are you two like? On a date or something?”
“Not-” Drew clamps his hand over my mouth really quick with a smile on his face.
“If she tells you, you have to swear on your life not to tell anyone! ANYONE HERE! I am dead serious!” He exclaims his bright blue eyes wide in fear. This was why he’s my best friend. “Sick! Why the fuck’d you lick me?” He yanks his hand away and wipes it on my arm.
“Because, you’re being dramatic. It’s not that bad.” I laugh.
“I can’t risk the boys finding out you know Lanny won’t let me live it down and he’ll tell Rayla just to make it weird! Then they’re going to try to set me up with some “real house wife” or WORSE Mel! I don’t want that!”
“I’m his date and “girlfriend” for the night so he doesn’t have to be set up by his sister, who thinks that he should be married by thirty.” I smile awkwardly rolling my eyes surprised that Connor was still standing there.
“I’d say he couldn’t’ve picked a better date. Well then, I guess I should probably wait until you guys break up huh?” He smiles.
“Who’s breaking up? Trouble in paradise?” Rayla says with an evil grin.
“Kill me now.” Drew mutters into my hair. “No one’s breaking up. I told you. I’m fine. We aren’t planning a wedding either. I do not believe in it! And our children are not up for discussion! We have cats and Ghaston!”
“Animals are not children. And you two have been together for too long to not be at the very least engaged by now.” Rayla says glaring at us.
“I should probably go…” Connor says awkwardly. Shit. “See you around, Huntleigh. Enjoy your date.” He tips his hat turning and walking away and taking a piece of my heart with him.
The rest of the night was pretty tense. The argument of us being together only boiled over as his sister insisted that we should be married and with kids by now. Or at the very least engaged and his parents fully agreed especially since he was crashing on my couch all the time when he was home. The classic arguments of their shacking up. Which wasn’t entirely off base.
Drew and I were close. He knew about a lot of things, and he stepped up to take care of things that nobody else really could. Or would. Or knew how to? Part of that comes from us having such similar backgrounds. At least in the sense of our family lives are complicated as ever and despite our family’s not being the worst of them, they definitely did numbers on who we are and were growing up. And at the point in our lives that we met, I really needed someone who got that I didn’t hate them, but I didn’t love them either. And he really needed the same thing. Which led us into a really tight nit friendship.
“Do you want to get out of here?” Drew asks sitting down next to me.
“Are they leaving?”
“No, but I’m kind of sick of you and me being the butt of the joke.”
“I’m good to leave if you want to.” I smile as he rests his head on my shoulder.
“Sorry that they fucked up the conversation with him.”
“It’s okay. He lives next door, I’m sure I’ll have other chances. Are you okay though?”
“Yeah, I just want to go to a bar or something. This place sucks.” He sighs. “You good to drive?”
“Yes. Come on, let’s go.” I smile pushing him up as he lays on me further.
We got to the car and drove an hour to the next spot. A common little bar not far from home. An old person’s bar if you asked my brother but it was my favorite place. I loved it. It wasn’t too loud and it has some good food. Plus, I knew the owners.
“I haven’t seen you two in here in a while.” Alice smiles as we take a seat in our usual spot at the end of the bar, pretty close to the juke box. “The usuals?”
“And some nachos please?”
“Make it a double.” He says laying his head back down on the bar. “Open a tab on my card please, you still, have it?”
“Yes.” I sigh, handing her the card.
“Rough night?” She asks setting our drinks down.
“His family is in town.”
“Oh, gotcha.” She smiles, walking back to put our order in.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made you go.” He says taking a sip of his jack and coke.
“You didn’t make me. I wanted to.” I smile, pushing his hair off to the side. How did he manage to look like Jake Webber and Troy Bolton at the same time? “I’m not going to make you deal with them alone when you don’t make me deal with mine alone.”
“Sometimes I want to hold up a mirror to them and show them their marriage and tell them that’s why I’m never committing. She cheats on him all the fuckin time and he beats on her. That’s what I grew up with…”
“I’m sorry, I wish your parents were better.”
“I wish yours were too. Mine just hate each other, yours well we both know that story.” He shrugs. “Change of subject to save us both from crying. Tell me about this neighbor? What do you know? Surely if he gave you his name, you’ve done some internet ‘research’?” He winks.
“I did…” I smile a bit, taking a bite of my chip.
“And?” He smiles. “What’d you find? You have to share?”
“Well,” I grab my phone and unlock it as Drew slides over closer to me.
“Le! He’s your top search? Oh, my lord how much are you looking at this man?”
“I only looked at his page once. I swear! I just didn’t clear my history.”
“How far did you scroll?”
“Pretty far…” I bite my lip feeling the butterflies again.
“How far is pretty far?” He smirks, taking my phone.
“To when he first made the Facebook?” I smile, looking at him as he scrolls, taking another bite of the nachos.
“This is for sure the right guy?”
“Yes…” I lean on his shoulder. “Look, see?”
“Shit, that definitely is him.” He says staring at him. “Now why the hell didn’t you date guys like this growing up? I’d go for that. Shit, he’s a dog trainer? This one might actually have a shot with Ghaston.”
“I know right? He’s so cool. And look at this.” I find the photo that really showed off his eye color. Nearly extraterrestrial in beauty. Emeralds laced in honey. How was that even possible they just screamed soulful. “Doesn’t he have the prettiest eyes?” I smile.
“I mean, I was admiring the chicken leg in his hand and his very clear sense of humor. But sure, his eyes are pretty great. Personally, I think yours are way better. What’s your obsession with eyes anyway? That’s the first thing you notice, then it’s hair, then it’s someone’s smile, and their voice?” He laughs, pushing my bangs out of my eyes.
“Your eyes are the deepest blue I’ve ever seen, like the darkest part of the ocean… I love them.”
“You didn’t answer the question, Le.”
“I don’t know, I just do. Eyes will tell you a lot about a person.”
“And what do you see when you look at his eyes?” He asks sliding my phone over towards me with a slight smile.
“Well, the obvious thing is that he has really beautiful eyes.”
“I’ll tell you what I see. A kid whose, high as fuck and wants to eat a chicken leg in peace and his friends are killing his eyes with a camera flash.” Drew laughs. “Let him eat the chicken leg!” He says grabbing my shoulders and shaking me.
“Drew!” I laugh.
“Oh shit, Le?” He stops laughing for a minute showing me my phone again. “Did you realize that he tagged Kinnley in this?!?”
“What?” I grab his hand, pulling my phone closer. Looking at the tagged name a bit closer. “No way?”
Mckinnley Frawley. Better known as Micky for me, my other brother. A rather long story but to sum it up, my mom and dad were on and off a lot especially while my mom was pregnant with me. Which led to my dad being with his old friend. Subsequently, I have another brother who is literally about a month older than me. And he was adopted by an older family, they moved to Florida from West Virginia (his home state) when he was fourteen, that’s how we met. Not many people know we’re related, mostly because it’s none of their business and but also because well, it’s kind of just unspoken that we don’t talk about it around my parents? Which makes things a bit tense on occasion… but yeah, apparently Connor knows Micky? Cool or maybe not so much because Micky is notorious for hating every guy (with good reason) that I have ever liked, save for Drew. Though he and Drew did hit it off almost instantly over transformers? Yeah, I hadn’t watched that since I was a kid then all of a sudden, these two were binge watching them and I honestly was just along for the ride.
“He’s friends with Micky.” Drew laughs. “This oughta be fun to see, especially if they’re good friends. Your brother will kill him.”
“Don’t say that!” I laugh. “You know that I have two brothers and both of them are assholes.”
“Yeah, I know first hand what dealing with both of them is like. Or did you forget that Jake hated me for the first year or two because of our age difference?”
“I swear he’s so annoying, it’s only two years. I mean I definitely understand where age can be and is problematic. But still, the double standard. Why can’t I just want a good time?” I smile.
“Ah, so now you admit it, that’s why you let me help you on that hike? Because you had a masterful plan to get a good time out of it?”
“Are you seriously insinuating that I sprained my ankle a mile into the fuckin woods so a hot guy and his weird friends would swoop in and save the day? In FLORIDA!?! The Florida heat?”
“Why not? Pretty great plan?”
“I didn’t even know y’all were out there!” I laugh. “I was sitting there taking a break because I was trying to get back to my truck, and I dropped my phone remember? Milo found it?”
“Don’t forget about the bottle of shine you were drinkin’. He did, you were crying too.”
“Yes, if it was some masterful plan I would not have been ugly crying there, bud.”
“I mean, it worked. I laughed at you then you laughed, and I knew you were my best friend for life.”
Stormy Ville 
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