This was the fifth time I was visiting his house since the birthday party, I can still remember every detail of that party. I had always had the luck of never seing him, but I don’t think my luck would save me today. it is late evening and here I am, walking to his house with a note in my hand. i haven’t had the chance to read the note because I was thinking about what to do if i see him today, its always been the one thing on my mind every single time I find myself walking up to his house. It’s too late to take a peek at the note now, I’ve already knocked at the door, waiting for anyone to answer, anyone but Dennis.
   Ohh noo!! Yep it was Dennis, standing on the other side of the door, looking me straight in the eye and smiling like there was nothing awkward about the situation. “hey Emerald, you ok?” he asked. I couldn’t say a thing, all I did was nod and smile, my mind was spining and a voice kept nagging me to do something, anything, so I used my calming routing, which was just saying the words calm down, calm down, calm down… a couple of times in my mind. I hopped my calming routine was subtle enough to go unnoticed. then finally I asked “Is your mum home? I’ve got something for her.” “Ahh yes, come in, she’s just in the living room, I’ll take you to her” was his reply. I smiled and he moved to the side to open the door wider and make space for me to pass, I walked in still smiling, but not at him, in fact I tried to avoid his gaze as much as I could. My efforts were futile, my curiosity led me to grab a side glance at him, to know if he was staring at me, he was.
     I looked away quickly and finally stepped into the living room, where I found his mum, sitting on her favourite chair, her defined legs propped up on the leg support of the chair, well tanned lean arms on both arm rests. His mum was a lean tall woman, in her mid thirties, although she was beginning to develope a few gray hairs, but they made her look even younger, like silver highlights in a wavy grab of rich Hazel hair, she had a defined face, lined perfectly by her age, she was almost my height and I’m 5”7. I’ve got to say, for a mother of two, she’s really kept her shape.
     She looked up with her blue/green eyes and said “Hello Emerald, how are you doing today, you haven’t come to visit in a long time” Oh yeah, I used to visit them almost everyday to look after Dennis’ little sister and just hang out with them mostly, it was fun, until that birthday party. “Hello mam, I’m doing fine, and you? sorry I’ve been really busy lately, but I would make sure to visit you tomorrow” I regretted that promise as soon as I made it, it’s not something I wanted to do. “Well, I’m doing alright, and you should try more to visit us, Meryl misses you. Well you have something me right?” she said, I was glad for the change in topic, “yes mam, my brother asked me to give you this note” I handed her the note and waited for her to read the content, after a few seconds she looked up from the note and at me, then smiled and stood up, saying “Ok, I’ll give Dennis the card and you’ll go with him to withdraw the money” then she turned to Dennis “and you’ll show her where to get the bulb she needs…” Dennis cut her off saying “how would I know what bulbs she wants” her reply “that’s why you need to wait for me to finish what I’m trying to say, it’s the kitchen buIb” she turned to me “right?” I nodded, she turned around, heading for the corridor that led to the stairs “’ll be back in a few minutes”
       And with that, she left, I didn’t know what to do then and that was when I noticed his little sister, sleeping peacefully on the sofa been occupied by Dennis. It was just I, Dennis and his little sister Meryl. Meryl had very curly hair, she also has a lean frame like her mother, with big brown eyes that were closed, I think she grew an inch more, everyone always talked about how she was too tall for her age.

     Dennis was watching something on the TV, and I decided to, bravely, more like stupidly ask him what he was watching, I realised after ain a second what it was, but decided to let him answer the question, instead he turned around, looking startled “huh?”
he asked, I repeated myself “what are you watching?”, “ohh, Hollyoaks” was his reply. I squeezed my face in disgust, I never liked that show, I still don’t. He must have noticed the look because at that moment he turned back to look and me smiling and said “you don’t like it either, do you?” all I could do was shake my head as a confirmation, I was trying to capture every little detail of his smile and how it made him look even better, I thought that was impossible. He smiled again and I smiled back, because I couldn’t help it, also because I realised I was beginning to stare. He let out a short laugh then, and said “I don’t like it either, but my mum does, we can’t find the remote, so pausing it is almost impossible, and now I’m stuck having to watch this part for when she gets back, you know? so I could tell her everything that happened in her absence” he said it in an accent that was used in the show, it made me snigger, and I used my palm to cover my lips as a way to hold back the laughter.

      The next moment after that was quite, and it made me feel uncomfortable, and just like a wish come true, I heard his mum descending down the stairs. “why are you standing? you are no stranger in our home” she asked smiling “Dennis?” she said again cocking her head to the side without looking at him in a way to imply that Dennis was not a good host, I decided to join in and said “yes, Dennis?” I was always on his mum’s side, agreeing with whatever she said just to get a reaction off him. It all seemed so familiar, the banter, and me taking his mum’s side just to see his reaction. We all laughed for a short while, his mum turned to face me “you should come visit more often, we’ve all missed you” she said wiping a tear off her face. She turned back around and walked over to Dennis, handing him something and saying “here, go with her, withdraw forty pounds, give her thirty and use the rest to buy a few things for the house, but no junks, alright?”  “something for my hard work? Anything?” was his reply
     She turned around, walking back to her chair, then let out an abrupt loud laughter that made me laugh, Dennis also joined in, but his was more of a sarcastic laughter. He got up from the sofa, walked to the bottom of the stair, paused, then turned  “I’m going to get changed, you can wait here for me, I won’t be long, I promise”  he said with a sincere smile, I smiled back saying “that’s okay, take your time, I’m also going home to get changed anyway” “ohh cool, I’ll be waiting outside then” he replied, walking off. “yeah, right, if you’re dressed before then, that is”  I replied with a snigger opening the front door, it made a noise as if was mocking my poor attempt to make myself appear comfortable, I gave it a dirty look and walked through, closing it behind me before collapsing slightly on it. I walked home and went straight to my room to get changed, my brothers did not notice my entrance as they were busy with their game, not my favourite by-the-way. I tried looking for the girliest looking clothing, but couldn’t find any that I wanted. So I went with my casual look, which was a pair of black jean trouser, a fitted long sleeved turtle neck top, and a black hooded coat, and a black suede converse I always loved to wear.
     I ran down and out the door hoping I would be out before Dennis. I stopped immediately once I was out the door, yeah, Dennis was standing in the corridor, he had moved away from his house front and was waiting for me at mine, and I hoped he hadn’t heard the sound of my footsteps on the stairs. I went to him, put my hand on the rail and looked out into the darkness made bright only by the street lights, just like he was. We stayed that way for a while, we were not touching, but I could still feel him close to me, he was soo close, it made my heart beat so hard, but I wasn’t nervous, in fact I felt really comfortable standing there with him, it felt right, and that scared me.
      “Hey, Emerald, did you hear me?” Dennis was looking at me, trying to confirm if I was listening to him, I hadn’t heard a word he had said and felt stupid for spacing out. I shook my head in a way to clear it, “huh?”  I muttered very quietly, embarrassed by how stupid I might have looked. He smiled and said “I said, lets get going before it gets too dark” I looked out again and turned back to face him, putting on an obviously feined confused look and said pointing towards the darkness of the night “is that even possible?” “apparently it is” he replied while nodding and smiling, I smiled back and we both looked out for the last time before moving away from the rail. We walked to the elevator and waited a couple of seconds, it stopped and opened and we stepped in, after a second, he said “nice weather we have today, huh?” I looked over at him and smiled, he was smiling but still looking forward, both hands in his pocket, then he turned to face me, I realised I was also smiling, then I faced forward again “yes, lovely weather, the beaches must be flowing with people”  I said, this time his smile was wider, and I couldn’t help looking over at him, I was staring again, watching his perfect smile. “yeah, too bad none of us have our swimming gear on” he paused then continued “ I’m a shark by-the-way” “what?” I replied with a smile “my swimming rank” he said “ohh, good for you, mines a huge scared rock”  replied with a sarcastic smile. He laughed and I joined in, and we kept laughing for a couple of seconds before the elevator door opened, someone was standing there, waiting patiently for the elevator, we immediately stopped laughing once we saw him and Dennis cleared his throat, He moved to the side to let us pass and smiled at us, I smiled back, Dennis however, ended up laughing in his attempt to smile too. We waited for the elevator door to close before bursting out laughing again, we had no idea why we were laughing, but it seemed to release the tension a little bit.