Love Like This

2

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"What in the world happened?" Juliana's mom says, horrified by her daughter's cries.

"She fell off her scooter," Juliana replies, running upstairs. "I'll go get the first aid kit!"

The teenager digs through the small closet in the bathroom and pulls out a white box from behind a stack of towels. She also wets a washcloth for her mother before heading back downstairs.

"Did she hit her head?" Juliana's mom asks the stranger as Juliana hands her the supplies. Paige lies on the couch, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

"No," Juliana says, wiping her bloody knees with the towel. Paige hisses, but she continues to brush the rocks out from her cuts.

Juliana's mom nods, applying neosporn to the injuries. Paige let's out another cry as the substance bubbles on her skin. Then, Juliana's mom bandages up her knees and let's out a heavy sigh.

"That was pretty fast," the visitor comments, shyly smiling to Juliana's mom.

"I have four kids, sweetheart, and at one point in time, they all took a nasty fall. I've got the treatment part down pat," she replies, gathering the band-aid wrappers in her hands. "Juliana, would you like to introduce me to your wonderfully helpful friend?"

"Um, oh, yes," she replies, clearing her throat. "This is my friend--"

"Michael Anderson, but most people just call me Anders," he replies, reaching to shake her hand.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Lisa Parker, Juliana and Paige's mother. I assume you're new to the neighborhood?"

Anders nods.

"Fantastic! Well, then welcome! You're more than welcome to stop by anytime you want; a friend of Juliana's is a friend of mine as well." She smiles, rising from her seat as Anders thanks her. "Feel free to hang out here or outside. I'll be taking care of this munchkin for the rest of my day."

"Yeah, let's go outside." Juliana leads the visitor outside and onto the porch where they take a seat on the wooden porch swing. "I'm Juliana, if you haven't picked that up already."

"And I'm Anders, if you haven't picked that up already," he says back, letting out a laugh. Juliana chuckles to contain her swooning.

"So what brings you to Danville?"

"Well, my parents had to sell our ranch down in Texas to support my brother's college tuition bill, so we moved up here to live with my uncle and his wife."

"Oh, well, that stinks. Did you have horses?"

"Yeah, we had a barn with a few horses, but we mostly had cattle and sheep." Anders looks down, suddenly taking interest in an undetectable speck of dirt on his finger.

"I'm sorry," Juliana mumbles, not knowing what the adequate reply to his comment is.

"Don't be sorry; you didn't do anything wrong, and neither did my parents or even my brother." Anders rides from his seat, glancing across the street at his family, who are unpacking unboxes from the moving truck. "I think I better go give my family a hand. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, definitely," Juliana earnestly replies as he walks off the porch. "Take it easy."

"I will, miss," he replies, tipping his hat to her. A smile envelopes his face as he subtly winks at her.

Juliana watches Anders cross the street without even looking both ways. That boy looks out of place on this suburban street, but she's nevertheless overjoyed that he will be living across the street. With that unique cowboy swagger and those sculpted sets of shoulders and arms, the entire population of women in this town could easily have a crush on him. He'll surely be the talk of the town for a long time.

Juliana forces herself to go inside. She collapses on her bed and wonders what his lips would feel like against hers.

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"So why are you so giddy?" Mel asks Juliana as they sit down at their usual lunch table.

"Because I call dibs," Juliana replies, smiling to herself. Their friendship only ever contained one rule, and that is to never go after a boy the other calls dibs on. Juliana never exercised this rule before (mostly because she thought it was a bit elementary of Mel to insist on using it), but now, she feels certain that it's a necessary step to keep one less girl from taking the initiative of asking him out.

"You call dibs?" Mel asks in disbelief. "On who?"

"A boy named Michael Anderson. He goes by Anders, though. How hot is that?"

"Very, if only I could see the beautiful face that stole your heart. Point him out, where is he?" Mel insists, looking around the cafeteria for an unfamiliar face.

"Mel, I don't think he's attending school. He just finished moving in a couple days ago."

"So you live near him, too?" Mel replies, shocked.

Juliana tells her about their first meeting and doesn't leave out the part where he winks at her. Mel holds onto every single word she speaks with anticipation and zeal.

"Holy fuck, he sounds hot. I swear to God I will not even bat an eye at him. We need to get you a date for prom, and maybe even a boyfriend!"

Juliana rolls her eyes with a dopey smile. She's head over heels in love with the cowboy from Texas, and she doesn't even know much about him.

And in that moment, Juliana spots him entering the cafeteria. Although he seems to have left his iconic cowboy hat at home, he sports his typical outfit: a plaid shirt, blue jeans, and boots. Juliana likes the way his short brown hair falls to the left a bit.

Juliana doesn't need to point him out to Mel because he seems to have already spotted her. Smiling, she throws her backpack on the ground to make room for him.

"Hi, Anders," she greets as he sits down.

"Howdy, Juliana," he replies, grinning at her.

Mel raises her eyebrows, biting on her lip to contain her emotions. Juliana laughs. "Anders, this is my friend, Mel. Mel, this is my neighbor, Anders."

"Howdy, miss," he says, raising his hand to tip his hat at her. Only, he's not wearing a hat, and he realizes his miscalculation with a chuckle. "Can you tell I'm not used to this place yet?"

Juliana let's out a giggle. "It's okay, no one around here sees the point in banning hats from school."

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