Girl's Love | Editing |

Chapter 1

I'm not sure what you're expecting from this story. Drinking, parties, and making out? At the time, I was a teenage writer with critically low self-esteem, so that kind of excitement was nowhere to be found. My typical weekend consisted of working on short stories- correction, working on Naruto fanfiction- that I published under a fake name.

And this story, the story of how my family came together again, took place on such a weekend.

Normally, I had the living room to myself. My uncle was usually in bed early. My younger brother hung out with his friends on weekends. And my older sister stayed in her room and pretended she didn't exist. I took advantage of the quiet to either write, watch TV, or play video games.

But on that Saturday night, my sister decided to invite her friends over. My plan was to hole myself up in my bedroom. It wasn't that I disliked said friends. They were always respectful, even nice, to me in the hallways. One of them even happened to be a mutual friend. There just was always that feeling of being out of place or in the way.

Plus, I didn't feel like talking to her.

I was in the middle of a romantic moment between two of my original ninja characters. The boy had been revealed just how down on himself he was, and just as I was thinking of the perfect thing for the girl to say in response-

Knock knock knock. "Reese, you there?"

It was Peter. He was my friend, too, so he was impossible to ignore. So much for my quiet night in.

I groaned, left my journal on my bed, and opened the door. Peter was about my height, which was a little short for a guy our age. He was broad, though. I noticed that he was wearing a band T-shirt and an awkward smile.

"So this is the famous room you barely come out of," he quipped.

"Yep," I replied. "You guys ok out there?"

"Yeah, thanks." He fixed his thin-rimmed glasses so that they didn't slide any further down his nose. "Listen, I was going to play some PS4 with Sarah. You can play too if you want."

I laughed softly. "You don't need to invite me to play on my system."

"Hey, I was just trying to be polite!"

"I know, I know." 

I still had my reservations about being in the way, but it was Peter who had asked me. Besides, my legs were still a little stiff from sitting cross-legged on my bed. A walk to the living room wouldn't hurt. "Sure. I'll come."

I closed the door behind me as quickly as possible. Even though Peter and I had been friends since the beginning of the year, I was always protective of my room. Whether it was a stranger, a friend, or even a relative, it was an invasion of personal space.

I followed Peter to my kitchen, which was literally the center of the house. If you were looking in from the front door, the living room and the hallway with my room and my sister's were to the left of the kitchen. To the right was the other hallway with my brother and uncle's rooms. We referred to them as the "girl's" and "boy's" halls.

We stopped at the fridge. "Want a soda?" he asked me.

Sugar and caffeine? It's the stuff authors run on. I nodded and thanked him. He handed me a Coke, and I followed him into the living room.

Everyone's eyes fell on me, even my sister's. I avoided her stare by focusing on her friend Sarah instead. This turned out to be a mistake on my part, as she took this as a sign that I wanted to talk.

"Look who finally decided to join us," she said, smiling. 

My eyes fell automatically to the floor. I knew she was joking, but I couldn't help but feel ashamed. It's a little-known fact that 100% of introverts have heard said "joke" at least once in their lives.