- 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐄

#𝟎𝟏 -

— evelyn

             THE SMELL OF PANCAKES wafted into the room, the sizzling sound of bacon in the frying pan was like music to my ears. I sat down on the chair, getting myself a plate and looking up at my father through my still slightly matted hair.

A soft hum came from his lips as he read through the newspaper, not even acknowledging my presence. I watched as he occasionally reached down to grab his mug of coffee, bringing the hot liquid to his lips and sipping before setting it back down on it's saucer.

Moving boxes littered the floor of almost every room in the house, you had to contort to get past them - the kitchen and dining room were no exception.

The house was nice, though, I liked my room especially. I had a nice window seat with a gorgeous view of the forest behind our house, but I kept something over the window at night because I was afraid of seeing something come out of the woods. I kept it to myself though.

I was envying meeting our next door neighbors as I dug into my pancakes and bacon, I understood the fact that I needed to get used to meeting the new people in this town, but I didn't understand why it couldn't wait - I really just wanted to finish unpacking the things in my new room.

"Evelyn, darling, have you gotten everything out of those moving boxes?" My mothers voice broke my thoughts, I looked up as my mind went blank for a second before I nodded.

"Oh uhh - not yet. I was actually wondering if I could stay back from meeting the neighbors and finish up my room?" I asked, looking up at her hopefully. She just shook her head and put the dirty dishes in the sink.

"No, you need to meet some kids your age - I think our neighbors have two?" She replied as more of a question rather than a statement, causing my father to set down his newspaper and give my mom a skeptical look.

"How do you know?" He wasn't the most observant guy - even I had noticed the two teenagers who looked to be around my age while I was sitting on the window seat reading - it wasn't the best idea to be doing that when I needed to be cleaning, but I needed an excuse to stay home when they went to meet the neighbors.

"Because I saw them while we were carrying the boxes in, Mark." I always found it weird when my parents called each other by their first names. I shouldn't because - well - what are they doing to say? Call each other 'honey' and 'sweetheart' constantly?

But still, I remember when I was younger I heard my mother call my father 'Mark' for the first time. I stepped over to her and tugged on her sleeve, trying to get her attention. Eventually, she looked down at me and asked me what was wrong.

"Who's Mark? Is he in trouble?" My mom was an elementary school teacher, so I knew she often had to call the parents of the troublemaker kids. She seemed kind of weirded out and after she hung up with my dad we had a conversation about how their names weren't actually Mom and Dad, that that's just what I was supposed to call them and that they had first names like I did.

I remember crying, thinking that they weren't my parents anymore. Jeez, I guess I couldn't comprehend the fact that my dad's name wasn't actually 'Dad'.

"Shh don't call me that, you're going to make Eve cry." He shushed my mom jokingly, reaching over and covering my ears playfully. I suppose he remembered that day too, even if he wasn't there.

I rolled my eyes and pushed his hands away from my ears, causing him to chuckle and shake his head, sitting back down. My mom did that 'through the nose' laugh as she started cleaning up the table.

I carefully stood up as my mom had her back turned to me, trying my hardest to sneak out of the room without getting told to help her clean up. However, my advances were shot down as I got halfway to the living room and I heard my mom snap her fingers. "Nuh-uh, come help." I let out a groan and made my way back to the dining room, sighing and starting to help her clean up the table

After helping my mom with the dishes and putting stuff away, I made my way back to my new room - looking around it with a sigh at how many boxes I still had to put away. I surfed through a few of them before finding my bag of clothes that was hidden among them.

I slipped on my clothes, mentally cursing myself afterword as I noticed I had left my blinds open and just changed in front of my window. I peeked out of the window, trying to see if anyone caught a glimpse of me. With a sigh of relief after not seeing anyone around, not even in the house next door, I slipped on my shoes and began walking down the stairs.

I caught up with my parents after making a pitstop at the bathroom and combing my hair, rubbing my eyes and yawning as we stepped out the door to go to our neighbors.

"Mmm actually - I think I'm too tired to go see them -" My mother scoffed and shook her head, holding a tray of freshly baked cookies in her hands.

"You were fine this morning, besides, if you don't go with us it'll just be more awkward when you walk to school with their son." She replied, looking at me as I walked between her and my father.

My jaw visibly dropped and I stopped in my tracks before catching up with them and walking on the other side of my mother. "You expect me to walk to school with a stranger?"

"He's not going to be a stranger after you meet him. I already talked to his mother about this and Toby is a good kid - a little strange - but a good kid nonetheless." She hummed.

"You already talked to this woman? So we're not going to meet our neighbors for the first time - you just lied to me!" I mocked sounding betrayed, raising my tone slightly before she gave me a stern look and I dropped it back. "Sorry..."

"I suppose I did - but you haven't met them yet, so it'll be your first time." She rolled her eyes as we stepped up to the porch. I cuddled my jacket closer to my body against the cool September air, sighing as the door opened.