Chapter 3- An awkward meeting...

It was about 8 'o’clock by the time I got done with my bubble bath, and let me tell you, I was ready for bed. After a nice day of relaxing, hitting the hay sounded real nice.

I ran upstairs wrapped up in my towel, hair still wet, looking for my favorite pair of pajama bottoms.

"Hey mom," I said loudly, hoping she could hear me wherever she was. I began looking for her while I finished talking, "Do you know where my fleece pajamas-"

I found her in the living room with the rest of the family, and a few guests I had never seen before. Everyone turned their heads in my direction. Great... What a first impression I must have made... Drenched, walking around only covered by a towel.

'Real classy Ari...' I said to myself in my head.

"are...?" I finished my sentence meekly. I am sure I turned a few shades of red by then. Especially since I saw a boy, about my age sitting directly across from me. Maybe if I was lucky they were here for a one time visit, I would never have to see them again. But, knowing my luck, that was highly improbable.

"Ari, these are the new next door neighbors. I invited them over for dinner tonight."

Yup, I was right. I told you, highly improbable.

She started to name them off from my right to left. "This is Cheryl, Alex, their son Beau, and their daughters Dani and Erin. Beau is 16, so he will be going to your school. We thought it would be great if you two got to know each other."

Not only would he be my neighbor, but he would go to my school. It was predicable, yes, but now he would always remember me as the girl in the towel looking for her pajamas. What a great way to be remembered!

"Hi everyone... I'm just gonna go and uh... get dressed real quick." I said while I avoided eye contact with everyone.

I found my clothes warm in the dryer, just like my mom had promised. I pulled them out and got dressed quickly, so I wouldn't keep the company waiting.

I returned in the middle of a conversation about how different the climate was here compared to Nevada. I figured this was the time for me to get a good look at everybody.

Cheryl seemed to be a very pleasant person; rosy cheeks, olive skin, brown hair, a wide smile, and dark brown eyes that seemed to show genuine happiness. I was guessing she was of Native American decent by her face shape and structure. Her figure was lean and she was around my height, maybe five foot four. She seemed shy when I first saw her, but she was well adjusted now and engaged in conversation.

Alex, Cheryl's husband, was a bit more on the open side, and easily spoke his mind. He was almost the exact opposite of his wife when it came to appearance, besides the ear to ear smile. He seemed to be of European blood, maybe Danish. He was broad and tall, blond haired and blue eye. But you know what they say, opposites attract.

I looked over to see Tony playing with the girls. They looked about seven or eight years old. My guess was they were twins, but definitely fraternal.

Dani had blue eyes like her father's, but the brown hair of her mother. She had a tan skin tone, but not naturally, it seemed more of a sun kissed look than a natural born skin color. Her personality seemed very outgoing, very confident, but still humble. She wore sports shorts, a loose t-shirt, and her hair was up in a pony tail, so I figured she was more of a sporty girl.

Erin was more pale, but still healthy looking. Her big brown eyes and straight, light blond hair were sure to melt anyone's heart when they looked at her. She kept to herself and seemed very shy, but she only needed to be spoken to first. Her shorts were pink and she wore a plain white shirt with a ribbon in her hair. I thought she seemed more like the stay-inside-and-draw type of girl.

I looked at Beau last, most likely due to embarrassment. He had shaggy brown hair, and deep brown eyes like his mom's and paler skin like his dad. He seemed pretty tall, maybe around five foot nine or ten, and had very broad shoulders. He wore a dark pair of jeans and jacket with some band designs printed on the front and back. When I looked up to get a closer look at his face, our eyes met. Awkward… But for some reason I couldn’t look away. When I finally got a hold of myself, I turned my gaze quickly to Cheryl, pretending I was listening to the conversation.

Later we sat down to a late dinner of chicken alfredo with a side of light salad. I was seated right next to Beau, to encourage conversation between us I'm sure.

While the adults talked about the economy and other things and Tony teased the girls, there was a slightly disturbing silence between Beau and I. I couldn't stand it much longer, so I tried to break the ice.

"So you moved from Nevada huh?"

He slurped up a noodle before answering. "Yup"

He was giving me a whole lot to run on... Maybe I just had to give him something more broad to answer.

"Did you like it there?"

"It was alright."

I began to nod my head, out of habbit rather than agreement.

'Well, I guess he's not realy in the mood to talk' I said to myself. So I continued to eat.

"So what kind of music are you into?" He asked after a long pause. Finally, now I'm not the only putting effort into this.

"I love almost anything, but right now I have mostly been listening to the oldies and alternative music. What about you?"

"Oh I agree, oldies are definately the way to go. You can never go wrong with The Beatles, and Boston is really good too."

This amazed me, I thought almost everyone my age had never even heard of these bands. The night continued on without any more awkward moments between us, besides momentary eye contact. We got along great and had quite a bit in common. I kind of had a funny feeling around him, maybe I was just nervous. I always got that way around guys.