Stay Away From My Side

Prologue: I’m Staying

“We’re what?” I yelled against the abrupt crackle of thunder. We all turned towards the window. It was the dead of the night and outside was pitched black. The only source of light was the sporadic flashes of lightning that illuminated the sky for a few seconds. Heavy ice was pelting against the window. It was hailing a storm. That wasn’t unusual�"it was the first week of January.

The weather made the entire atmosphere with my parents colder than it should be. I internally shuddered. I hated thunder. The only reason I wasn’t tangled in my blanket right now trying to cover my ears was because the news my parents broke to me was much scarier than the thunderstorm.

“Moving honey, we’re moving,” my mom calmly replied. “Your father got promoted and his work got transferred. We’re moving.”

There was silence. I stared looking dumbfounded at my parents. They were on the sofa across the armchair I was sitting on. Were they freaking serious right now?

“I’m not going,” I finally declared. My mother was about to speak up but I repeated my verdict. “I’m not going,” I stated firmly again. Without waiting for a response, I got up from the chair and headed upstairs to my room.

I slowly shut my door, not wanting to bang it like some childish teenager that just got told she wasn’t allowed to go out on her date at night. I sat on the side of my bed slowly taking in the news. Moving. Now of all times, I thought. My mom was telling me how it was only a four hour drive down south. I scoffed at how my mom said only. The bus didn’t even go that far. I mean, I could drive so the bus wasn’t really my problem but that was beside the point.

There were two important things that were happening at the moment: 1) I only had one more semester until graduation. Just one. My parents had the crazy idea that I would actually be alright with moving in the middle of my senior year. And 2) After six months of training, despite not graduating high school yet, I was able to become a projectionist for my job at the theatre.

I got nearly thirteen bucks an hour. No way was I going to let that go.

If I moved, I would have to start over. Both my job and my social life. It was my last semester of my senior year. I was about to graduate. I was not going to waste my last year of high school trying to make new friends.

No way was I conceding to my parents.

I glanced at my alarm clock on my nightstand.

1:04AM

I groaned. Of course it would be this late at night. Only my parents would break the news at such an untimely moment. Shaking my head, I laid myself down and drifted off to sleep.

***

I heard a loud beep and my eyes groggily opened. The thin ray of light streaming through the windows attacked my vision and I pulled my blanket over my face. Sometime later the obnoxious beep was heard again. Groaning, I turned to my side looking for the source of the noise. I opened my eyes, blinking a few times to let my sight adjust.

6:45AM

I jumped up with a start.

Holy s**t I woke up late. How many times did I press the snooze button, I don’t know, but I had to get ready soon. I clocked in at 7.

After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I quickly changed into my work clothes and tied my hair up into a ponytail. I sprinted downstairs with my bag, grabbed a quick toast and yelled bye to my parents before I left the door.

I was running late. I decided against riding the bus for work and just drive.

I swiftly parked my black Mazda and got my bag from the passenger’s seat. I stepped out of my car shivering when the minty winter air touched my skin. I scurried through the automatic sliding doors of the theatre and greeted some of the workers down at concessions. I headed upstairs into a back room and sat behind a window that oversaw an entire theatre room. In the morning I usually checked for physical damage on the projector and lined up all the advertisements and trailers that were supposed to be played before the actual movie. If there were any new movie releases, I would have to complete some paper works that ensured we received the film prints.

After finishing my morning preparations, I had half an hour before the first movie played. I headed downstairs to kill time and saw my coworker slash schoolmate slash best friend at the concession stand. Her dark brown bangs fell nicely on her heart-shaped face while her ponytail was pushed to the side. She was leaning against the table near the popcorn machine, her slender fingers fiddling on her phone and her eyes fixated on the screen.

“You’re using your phone during work hours?”

Surprised, Melissa nearly dropped her precious gadget when her reflexes immediately caught it. “S**t Diana you scared me,” she cursed at me as her hand went up to her chest breathing heavily.

I laughed. “Seriously though, you know how irked Mr. Howard gets when he sees people on their phone.”

Melly rolled her eyes. “Whatever. But hey are you seriously moving?” Her expression turned somber.

“How’d you know about that?” I asked confused. I only heard the news last night and I was just going to tell her about it.

“Dad,” she responded taking her phone back out. “He told me about yours.”

That made sense. Our fathers work together in IT security for the same company. They were pretty close too.

“Oh okay. But nah, I’m not going,” I said, telling Melly the same thing I decided on last night.

She looked up from whoever she was texting. Confusion filled her face. “You’re just not going to go?”

“Yeah, I’m telling my folks that today after work.”

“Wait what? So you’re going to live alone then?”

I nodded.

“How’s that going to work out? You’re only seventeen.”

“I’ll manage,” I shrugged, “I’ll work the details later.”

“If anything, you can crash at my place,” she beamed.

“I wouldn’t want to bother your parents.”

“Nah, they wouldn’t mind. Trust me.” Her phone vibrated. After responding to the text, she continued, “And you know my parents would love having you.”

 “Fine,” I agreed, “Only if it becomes necessary.”

Melissa smiled in return.

“But oh yeah,” I said changing topics, “You’ve been plastering yourself on that phone for weeks. Who is it?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Logan.”

I made a face, taken aback. “That Logan? Melly you know--”

“Yeah yeah I know. King of jackasses and ruler of players. But hey, in my defense, he at least knows my name.”

I shook my head. “Are you calling that making progress?”

She nodded. “And,” she continued, “It’s been three weeks since we started talking and he had not asked to f**k me yet,” she stated proudly.

I stared at her in disbelief. “Wow. Good job,” I told her. And I was being serious. My best friend just might be taming a player right now. “You should still be careful though.”

“Yeah I know but�"”

“Diana!” a voice broke Melly midsentence. She and I turned to the sound that called me.

Mr. Howard, oh crap. I saw my manager point at the top of his wrist.

The time? I was confused.

I looked at my watch.

9:34AM

My eyes widened. Crap, one more minute. “I am so sorry sir,” I quickly apologized.

I immediately headed upstairs and reeled in the advertisements and trailers. I sighed in relief. I was on time�"barely. When that was done, I played an announcement asking the members to switch off their mobile phones and then played the movie.

***

I finally got home after a long day at work. I trudged towards the fridge and took out a pint of cookie dough ice cream, grabbed a spoon, and plopped myself onto the armchair in the living room turning the TV on.

My dad was still at work and my mom probably went shopping or something�"none of the cars were home. I decided to wait in the living room until my parents returned so I can seriously tell them about my thoughts on moving.

To my surprise�"and my luck�"they entered the house at the same time.

“Hey mom, dad,” I greeted after shutting off the TV. My parents noticed my unusual formality and sat down across on the sofa like the night before.

“Honey, listen, I know you don’t--” I interrupted my mother.

“Mom, I don’t want to go.”

“Where are you going to live? This house is on rent…you can’t afford to live here.”

“I’ll get a small apartment or something. I can get a roommate. And if anything, I have permission to crash at Melly’s.”

I glanced at my father knowing he would be on my side.

“Sweetie,” he turned to my mother, “our daughter is responsible. She can--”

“She’s only seventeen for goodness sake! She can’t live on her own!”

“I can. And I will. I’m not going. I don’t want to transfer. I don’t want to get a new job. I’m staying.”

“Anyways,” my father added, “In six months she’s going off to college. Being free half a year early isn’t so bad, right sweetie?” he coaxed to my mother.

I was not exactly sure what else we said to try and convince my mother, but after a while, after giving off a dramatic sigh, she agreed. “Fine. But if anything happens, you call me right away.”

“Alright mommy,” I said hugging her. “Thank you.”

“I will text you every night and if you don’t respond, I will assume something bad happened and will come straight away.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, ma’am.” I agreed. I should at least do that much. She is my mother. She had a right to worry. I kissed them both on the cheeks, said goodnight, and headed to my room.

Now the hard part. The problem was not asking my parents for permission, no of course it wasn’t that. The hard part was the “living alone” part.

Yep. Somehow, I, Diana Washington, a 17-year-old girl was now on my own for my last semester of high school.

This would either go really good or really bad.

I hoped more of the former than the latter.

Chapter One: Apples-My Fellow Flat Tenant

“Bye mom, bye dad!” I said out loud waving at my parents as they drove away. All their necessary belongings were in the van with them and anything else was shipped. I headed back inside. Now it was my turn to pack up. The house was going to be put up for rent again after next week and before then, I had to move out.

It was a week after my parents broke the news of moving�"a Saturday morning�"and school started the following Monday. The doorbell unexpectedly rang. Confused, I looked through the peeping hole to see who it was. I didn’t invite anyone since I wanted to focus on packing today. I grinned when I saw Melly in her shorts and casual tank with her hair tied to the side. She was carrying a pizza box in her hand.

I opened the door and smiled as she walked in. “What are you doing here?”

“Making sure you don’t starve yourself while packing everything,” she said placing the pizza box on a pile of already taped up moving boxes. “You eat while I take all your clothes out from the closet kay?” And before I was able to tell her otherwise, she invited herself into my room and into my closet.

The entire Saturday was dedicated to packing. Thankfully, I already knew exactly where I would be moving to. There was a mini flat filled with undergrad students attending the college relatively near my high school. It was a commuter school so the flat never got full. Although the drive to school would take a little longer, it was still convenient.

The next day, I pulled up into the parking lot of the flat alone. Melly’s friend who promised to take her shift cancelled so she had to work. I looked around the parking lot seeing only a few cars. I expected that since most college students were still out for winter break (curse them for having a month off while high school kids only had two weeks). Then again, I doubted the lot would be full even when class starts again since the flat was really small. It had two stories with only six rooms on each floor (total of twelve rooms). Every floor had three hallways so each hallway consisted of two rooms.

I exited my car in search of the landlady. Mrs. Meyers was a friendly forty-two year old. Scratch that, she was very friendly. She chatters a lot. Nevertheless, she was a really sweet and cute landlady who cares for her tenants very much. Her face looked young, always makeup free, and the only thing that revealed her age was the few strands of white hair in the midst of her auburn colored head.

My landlady got married a few years ago to her husband and the two were blessed with their currently six-year-old son. The family lived in a small house right next to the flat. Throughout the day, Mrs. Meyers was always seen gardening in the small plot of land between the flat and her house while she waited for her husband at work and son at school. Since it was winter, I found her shoveling snow.

Mrs. Meyers dropped her shovel and greeted me. “Diana!”

“Thank you so much Mrs. Meyers for letting me stay here on a short notice.”

“Nonsense, I’m delighted to have you here,” she beamed, “And please, call me Lily.”

I smiled in return.

“Oh yeah,” Lily said, “let me show you to your room.” After putting away the shovel in a nearby shed, I followed her lead.

There was an elevator that took us to the second floor. I passed by a hallway labeled A, and then B, and then Lily took me through Hallway C. She walked all the way to the end and led me to a door labeled 2C-2. Second floor, Hallway C, Second room.

“Here it is,” Lily announced as she unlocked the door.

“Wow,” I said under my breath as I entered. The room wasn’t extravagant or anything (it was actually pretty small), but the simplicity excited me. Starting on the right from four o’clock going counter clockwise was a small twin bed with a sliding closet door near the foot. The size was decent, good enough for the amount of clothes I had (which weren’t that much). A little island at twelve o’clock separated the kitchen from the rest of the house. The bathroom was further down on the back wall.

And on the left, there was a balcony. It was beautiful. I opened the sliding glass doors and entered it. A small round table with an umbrella attached to it, surrounded by four chairs stood on the side. The balcony oversaw the streets near the flat. The view wasn’t majestic, but it was still nice.

“Like it?” Lily grinned handing me the keys.

“Love it. Thank you.”

“Alrighty then,” Lily said as she clasped her hands together, “Let’s help you get settled. Most of your housemates aren’t here right now, but I think Aaron is still here. I can get him to help you carry your things.”

“Who?”

“Aaron? He’s the only one here who graduated in this area. Everyone else came out of state. I think you might know him from somewhere.”

“Really? I don’t remember any Aaron…”

“Hmm, I don’t know…I think you only finished sophomore year when he graduated. Oh well, I can still ask him for help.”

“No, no, it’s alright. I can get the stuff up myself,” I said as I went out of the room, down the hall for the stairs. “Thank you though, Lily.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”  Lily followed me outside to my car and watched as I opened the trunk.

“Oh my, those boxes look heavy,” Lily said looking in from the side. Before I could insist to her that I was alright, she already called for help. “Aaron! Come down here and help carry these boxes!” she yelled out loud.

I saw one of the balcony doors open from the first floor. It was from the same hallway as mine but not right under. Room 1C-1, I thought.

“What?” was the response I heard. A figure stepped out into the balcony. I couldn’t see his appearance quite well from the distance. All I saw was that his hair was jet-black and he wore a white tee.

“Come out and help!” Lily said with her hands around her mouth like a megaphone.

“Alright, wait up,” the guy said as he walked back into his room.

A few moments later his figure was coming towards us. When I could make him out clearly, I almost did a double take. The familiar hazel eyes and the messy, dark as the night hair was semi-hidden by the grey hood from the jacket he wore, but I knew it reached halfway down his neck on the back. His paled lips and chiseled jaw. A perfect muscular outline showed through the white tee. This handsome man that stood a staggering 6’3”…I knew him.

~~~~~

A/N: Hey guys, hoped you liked it. This may start off slow like all stories, but check out my wattpad link in the description to read the rest of chapter one. I promise that I will try posting a chapter every Mondays and Thursdays on wattpad. If I ever miss one, expect a double post next time.