his brown eyes ➵ thomgelica

i.

when she's eight, he's thirteen, and-god, he's so stupid.

he's looking for the world of him like there's anywhere else he'd rather be in his scuffed grey converse and his faded oakland t-shirt, his bored expression and the sun too hot on his eyes, but really, she's feeling it, too, and she recognizes it just a little though she does want to be here -- she does, it's just this place is new, and she isn't quite used to it yet. isn't quite used to this part of the city where there are birds chirping instead of the sounds of the city and baby eliza's cries instead of silence. angelica loves her new sister, she really really does, it's just a little frightening here in this new neighborhood with mom's old friend and her strange husband and their even stranger son.

this is a nice neighborhood, and here she has her very own bathroom, her dad said she'd be happier with when she grew up a bit, grew up because they were here to stay in this nice neighborhood with baby eliza and their things and the moving truck mom complains is two days late already. but without any furniture in their new house, they've gotten to eat chinese food on the kitchen floor and cereal out of plastic cups because that's all they have.

it's been six months with them since the day mom and dad came to pick her up from school with her new sister and told her they were moving soon, and well, she thinks with all the smiling of a young girl, that she's never been closer to god 'cause she's prayed a lot for a sister. her stuffed kitty's prayed a lot with her, too.

but meeting new people like mister peter jefferson and miss jane randolph and the bold boy from a street down that introduced himself as gilbert de lafayette with his friends john laurens and hercules mulligan were a little too much too fast, too nervous for her.

all but this boy thomas who looked really distressed and annoyed when his mom made him introduce himself.

his name is thomas jefferson. he sarcastically hopes she likes it here, and mister peter laughs and puts his arm around his shoulders. "we're your neighbors," he says just in case she missed it, and when she realizes she hasn't been paying much attention to anything but the streets and all the houses and the few people she can see living life (one of them with a dog!), she becomes flustered just a bit.

"i'm very happy to meet you," she pipes up politely, and the way her parents smile at her makes her real happy.

miss randolph asks if she enjoys it here yet along with several other questions, and yes, strawberry ice cream, i love school, that'd be great! except when she asks what her favorite color is, she accidentally answers with purple instead of her preferred palette of red, and thomas finally looks at her with his brown eyes bright like he's just noticed she's there. that any of them are there. that he's outside.

he's so weird.

"can i go yet?" he asks, loud enough to be heard, quiet enough for her parents to pretend that's not rude and for her dad to smile at mister jefferson with a "what can you do?" look that smiles at the corner of their eyes.

"if you're back for dinner," miss  randolph relents, but it isn't a chore to let him go, and he hugs her before he starts off with mister jefferson realizing he'd nicked his sunglasses off of him four seconds too late.

the adults start to talk more grown-up things like.. she doesn't know, milk prices or the brand of diapers they buy for eliza or the possibility of superman actually being real or something, she isn't listening. miss randolph invites them over for dinner, though, in a couple hours that fly by super quick 'cause her parents take her with them shopping for things they have yet to get yet, like shower curtains and garbage bags and a package of oatmeal raisin cookies 'cause dad catches her staring at them and adds them to their cart with an indulgent smile on his face, and then he even lets her choose the color of their bathroom rugs.