Prologue:
There I sat. Tears ran down my face in streams. My head rested on my knees and every sob built in my chest resembled the pain of a thousand needles. I was so devastated that the sorrow lasted for days. It would last for years to come. It was his entire fault. At least I would love to blame it all on him. But it was me who fell for him. I fell so hard that love was never there in the first place. I had never realized it. But this was how it happened.
Chapter 1:
It was late August. My family and I had just moved to Portland, Oregon. I was so enraged when my parents told me we were moving. Though Seattle, Washington isn’t that far from Portland, I missed my hometown. I left all my friends and have to start all over. Knowing no one, I didn’t think making friends was going to be easy. It’d be the hard part of moving.
Once my family and I arrived to our new house we were greeted by some people, a family from around the neighborhood, I guessed. There were three of them: a dad, a mom, and a boy who looked close to my age. I noticed my older sister glancing up and down the boy with a smile from ear to ear. She was totally checking him out. ‘Maybe she’ll want to be a sugar-mommy,’ I thought.
“Hello,” said the boy’s father. “You must be the new neighbors. We’re the Johnson family. Nice to meet you.”
“Oh, hello,” my father replied. “We’re the Hamilton’s. My name is Rob. My wife Judy, and my kids: Kanoah, Janic, and Kenya,” father said, pointing to each of us.
“I’m Matt,” said the neighbor in a pleasing manner. “This is my wife Rebecca and my son Desean.”
“It’s great to meet you, and especially on our first day,” said dad. “Introduce yourselves,” dad said to us. We did, but subtly. Only Janic acted enthusiastic, as if to get the new boy’s attention.
“Well, I see you guys need to unpack. Please excuse us for bothering you.”
“No, it’s quite alright. Thank you,” dad replied.
“When you are done,” said Rebecca, “why don’t you come over for dinner?”
My mother and father hesitated for a brief moment, but then replied with a confirmation. I felt scared, cautious, and weird all at once. But I wasn’t sure what it meant.
Chapter 2:
Three hours had passed without my noticing. In that time, I had managed to unpack everything and organize it all. We all took a break from our cleaning and met downstairs in the living room.
“Well, aren’t our neighbors nice?” mother asked us.
“Yes they were!” Janic eagerly shouted into my ear. I glared at her. Being older didn’t mean she was nice or mature.
“I like them a lot,” my father said.
“They’re alright,” replied Kanoah, uninterested.
I nodded trying to please mother. Personally, I didn’t trust them yet. I mean look at this scene. We just moved here today and already there are people being nice to us. Well, it didn’t mean they were bad, but, still. Just because I didn’t trust them didn’t mean I hated them. I was just being cautious. In the midst of my thought process, mother interrupted.
“Kenya,” she said. “Kenya! Did you hear me?”
“Huh?” I asked her, surprised. “What?”
“Are you ready to go?”
“Go where?” I asked.
“To the Johnson’s for dinner, duh!” Janic said annoyingly.
“Oh,” I replied without wanting to start a fight. I hated being the youngest. My sister always picked on me. My brother always made fun of me and my parents don’t believe me because I should listen to the elders. At 15, I hate even more.
I got up from the couch and trudged back up the stairs to my new room. I jumped on my bed and lay there. I didn’t want to go to some weird people’s house for dinner. I just wanted to go back home. I wanted to see my friends, my old teachers. Reminiscing of home brought a tear to my eye and down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away when daddy called from downstairs.
“Kenya, let’s go!”
“Yeah, I’m coming!” I yelled back, but took my time heading out the door. Before catching up to my family at the neighbor’s door, I stood in the middle of the street and glanced down the road. The houses were all aligned so jagged. I sighed. ‘I’ll miss the linear pattern of Seattle,’ I thought.
