the boy next door - a luke dunphy fanfiction

two

Eight o'clock was just around the corner as I laid on my bed, waiting to go to the Dunphy's. My mind kept thinking of that boy. I recalled what my mom said earlier, about dating again. What was I doing? I've never spoken to him before and I'm already thinking of dating.

"Alice, are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm coming mom."

I went downstairs and I saw my parents were wearing different clothes, nicer ones.

"Great, now I'm going to look like a hobo next to you guys", I said, sighing.

"You look great sweetie, just the way you are."

"You've been listening to Bruno Mars again, haven't you", I asked while laughing.

"Come on girls, lets go", my dad said, taking the bottle of red wine we bought for our neighbors.

We knocked on the door and a smiling Phil opened the door.

"Hello neighbors, welcome to our crib."

"Dad don't do that. Hi, welcome", Haley said nicely.

"Thank you again, this is really nice", my mom said as Phil took her coat.

"Our pleasure! We're really excited to get to know you better. Just follow me into the dining room, please", Phil said in a gentlemen's voice. He's quite the guy, isn't he?

"It smells really good in here, Mrs. Dunphy", I said as soon as we entered the kitchen/dining room.

"Thank you, but please, just call me Claire", she said, smiling at me.

I looked around the house, as I believe it says a lot about the family living in it. By just looking around you may think it's quite organized. But if you look better, you can see the little flaws. An old receipt on a table, dust in a little corner...

My thoughts disappeared when I heard someone coming down the stairs. It was him. Him in a very nice shirt. My 17-year-old brain thinks of certain things, but let's not get into that.

"Alright, I'm done", Claire said as we sat down. I sat next to my mom and Haley. He was sitting diagonally across me. Claire prepared some chicken with some veggies and rice. We all helped ourselves and the conversation started.

"So, you have restaurants you say. Tell us more about it", Claire said.

"Just before my wife got pregnant, we opened our first diner. We met at a 50's party years before that and that's all we ever talked about. So, we decided we should take the risk and do it. Then Alice was born, and we weren't sure if we could continue. But then a miracle happened, and we could open a second location. From then on, we knew we did it. We have over 30 diners in the UK. That was already huge for us. But then we got some news that they wanted our chain in the US. Since it's way bigger than the UK, we decided to move. And that brings us here. We'll be on the road a lot, but Alice is used to that. She has learned to live alone for some time. All of this wouldn't be possible without her support", my dad explained.

"Wasn't it hard to leave everything behind, Alice", Alex asked me.

"Well, yeah it was, but I'm always up for an adventure! I love traveling and meeting new people, so I'm not scared. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends, but it feels good to have a change, you know."

After my explanation, I could still feel one pair of eyes lingering.

"So Claire, Phil, what do you guys do", my mom asked.

"Im a Realtor."

"And I work in the closets industry."

The rest of the night went really well. There was laughter, long conversations and friendships being made. I talked a lot with the three kids and got along with each of them. Haley loves fashion and partying. We exchanged some of our wildest stories. Alex and I talked about poetry and classic literature. We quoted parts of poems by Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman... And then there was Luke. We talked about goofy stuff, movies, school experiences... He quickly knew how to make me laugh and understood my humor completely. Besides his amazingly good looks, he had an amazing personality. And thank whatever gods there are for that.

It was soon midnight, without anyone noticing.

"Oh Lord, it's already past midnight", my mom said.

"Oh wow! Well, you know what they say: time goes fast when you're having fun", Phil said while laughing.

"We had indeed a very good time. We should do it again! But at our house then", my dad suggested.

"That would be amazing", Claire said, very enthusiastically.

We all prayed our goodbyes and parted ways.

"I love having nice neighbors", my mom exclaimed once we were home.

"Hahah, me too mom. They're really nice."

At the Dunphy's.

"Those are some lovely people", Claire said, once we left. Everyone agreed.

"That Alice, she's amazing! I don't know how she does it, but she gets along with all of us", Haley said.

"Plus, they have an amazing accent", Luke said, laughing.