Chapter Three

Chapter III

“Nerice! Wash the dishes!” Gena shouted from downstairs as I was supposed to enter my room. I ran downstairs, rolling my eyes.

As I started washing the dishes, Gena merrily watched television and Gerald just went up to his room, obviously facing the computer. I just did my job, washing the dishes. Thank goodness it’s not too much.

After the dishes, I went to the living room and looked at Gena questioningly; obviously asking her what else there is to do. With raised eyebrows, she said, “Just get out of my sight.” So I left the house. I had no idea where I’d be going. I just wanted to get out of the house now that I’ve got a chance when Gena couldn’t possibly blame me for going out of the house.

“Hi.”

“Oh sh�"” I literally jumped around when someone touched my shoulder. When I pulled myself together, I realized it was the guy who just moved in in front of our house. “Oh my goodness, sorry, I tend to be…” I tried to explain breathlessly. He just giggled.

“It’s okay. I should’ve tried a different approach.”

“No, really. I just �" uh �" tend to be…you know, always surprised…yeah.” Why the hell couldn’t I say the right words? It’s like my mind suddenly went blank. I swear he looks familiar. Those blue eyes, pointed nose…he doesn’t look like a Filipino at all. He looks foreign. I swear I’ve seen him somewhere.

“Okay. I just wanted to make friends since I’m new here,” he said. “I’m Darnell.” Darnell. He obviously has a foreign name. He offered me his hand for me to shake. I shook it saying, “Nice to meet you, Darnell. I’m Nerice Lopez.”

“You have a nice name.” he said, smiling.

“Thank you, you have a nice one, too, but… are you foreign? American? Or something?” I asked. I was curious. I was curious about him. Something about him made me curious. I wanted to know a lot about him and I have no idea why, I just do.

“Me? Well, I-I-uh… yeah, yeah, I’m American. I’m-uh-Darnell-uh…White.” Why was he stuttering?

“Oh, I see, that explains the name and the eyes. People from the Philippines always have dark eye color and we… you know, black hair, not brunette,” I thought I was saying too much already. He just smiled at me and nodded. This is getting awkward. “Uh… how old are you, by the way? I’m sixteen.”

“I’m currently eighteen years old,” I knew it; he was older than me by two years. “So, how is it here, you know?”

“This neighborhood is extreme. Some of the best people are here. It’s impossible that you’d be unhappy with these people, trust me.” I explained and I was telling nothing but the truth. I couldn’t imagine my life without my friends in this neighborhood. I’ve been here since I was born.

“I see, well, it looks like�"” he was cut off by Blaze calling me, “Nerice! Nerice!” I turned around and there I saw him, running towards me. “Oh, hi. Who’s your friend?” he looked at Darnell in a weird way.

“Right. Darnell, here’s Blaze, my best friend. Blaze, Darnell, he just moved in, in front of our house,” They shook hands and said “nice meeting you” to each other, although there was something weird in the way they did that. I don’t know what, I just felt it. “We were just getting to know each other, you know, he’s new in the neighborhood.” I explained to Blaze.

“I see. I was just thinking we’d hang out since you got out of the house,” He said, still looking suspiciously at Darnell. Why was he doing that? There was an awkward silence between the three of us and then Blaze just said, “So?”

“Darnell, is it okay if we leave you for now? Or do you want to�"” I was supposed to ask him if he wants to go with us but Blaze hit me quite hard.

“Uh, it’s okay, you guys can go hang out by yourselves.” He said as he looked at Blaze in a weird king of way, smiling. Now I know I can’t have these two in the same room. Why were they like that to each other? Do boys have this power that can make them understand what the other was thinking by just looking at each other? That’s not good; I need that ability, too.

Darnell went back to his house and I walked, not knowing where we are going, with Blaze.

“What just happened back there?” I asked.

“What?”

“You know, you two seemed to know what each other were thinking.”

“Did we?”

“Can you answer properly?”

“Were you asking, in your last statement, before that? I didn’t think so.”

“No, but I asked you what just happened back there.”

“Well, he happened. I didn’t like him. Is that good?” he stopped walking and we were now near the playground.

“No. Why didn’t you like him? I mean, it’s not like you’ve known him for a long time already.”

“What? I just don’t like him. I didn’t like the way he looked at me… or you,” he explained while he started to walk again. “Let’s go to the playground.” I didn’t talk about Darnell after that. He really seemed like he had a problem with him. I just gave him time to calm down by letting him sit on the swing for 15 minutes or so. After that, we had our normal conversation. I did my best not to talk about Darnell. We had quality time together; it was fun.

“Come on, I’ll take you home already.” He said as we finished our ice cream.

“Yeah, I still have to cook dinner for the two.” With that, we started walking towards our house, which wasn’t far from the playground. I got home, said goodbye to Blaze and started cooking dinner for us two. Yes, us two because Gena wasn’t home and Gerald told me she had no plan of coming home for the night. She’s probably cheating on my father again.

Gerald and I had dinner together which was pretty silent, we had a few talks about Darnell and some random stuff, though, but that was just about it.

After that, I went to my room, read a chapter from the book I was currently reading and tried my best to sleep, but I couldn’t. There was something bugging me, something about Blaze and Darnell. There was just something about their encounter earlier that bugged me, and it’s not good. At all.