The jerk next door

Chapter 1

*** Mia’s POV ***

*

I woke up to the annoying sound of my alarm at 7 am.

“Hmmm... shut the hell up.” I groaned as I turned it off.

“Mia, wake up, breakfast is ready, we need to start packing after that, so hurry up.” My mother shouted from downstairs.

“I’m up...” I shouted back “don’t need to scream like that.” I murmured to myself and got out of my comfy bed. I was not a morning person, as you can see, and the fact that we needed to pack our whole house right after breakfast wasn’t helping either. We were moving today to Los Angeles, the city of Angels, and I had mixed feelings about it. We lived in New York my entire life and we loved it, me and my parents, but since the accident I hated everything about this city, so I couldn’t wait to leave this hell hole and the selfish people who live in it behind. I hoped everything would be better once we settled down in LA.

My father died in a car accident a year ago caused by a drunken man and since then everything has changed. I hated people who drink, I hated parties where my friends wanted to drag me away all the time and most definitely I hated New York. Which was why my mom decided to change the environment , hoping it would do good for both of us.

“Good morning. Come, sweetheart, and eat your breakfast. We need to leave after lunch.” She said with a forced smile when I walked into the dining room, but I could see through it. My mom loved dad and loved this place as well, but we need to keep going with our life. Dad won’t come back and since everything reminded us of him here, we needed to move. We had no family left here anyway.

“Good morning mom, I will start with my room, then I will come to help you.” I said as I sat down by the table to eat something.

“Thank you Mia, I know it will be hard, but you will like it there, you will see.” She said and smiled at me. She had a lot on her plate already, so I didn’t want to make her more miserable with my negativity.

“I know mom, don’t worry about me. Anyway, I don’t really have friends here who I will cry after, so don’t worry about me.” I said and drank my juice. It’s true...since my father died I haven’t really hung out with my friends anymore and stayed at home mostly. I didn’t want them to pity me or change their mood with my own. I just wanted to be left alone. They wanted to drag me out of the house at first, but they gave up after a few weeks of trying.

I had a boyfriend before dad died. We loved each other and we were together through high school, but he cheated on me with Carly, my best friend, just a few days before the accident. I caught them in his room. His name was Josh and that was the worst week of my life. He tried to tell me it was a mistake and he loved me, but I couldn’t forgive him. When I saw them in their underwear sucking each other’s faces while she was sitting on him, that picture burned in my mind forever. At that moment, something died inside of me and I am not sure if it can be fixed. I haven’t talked to Carly since then and she didn’t try to explain herself either, I should have kicked her ass back then.

I finished my breakfast and went straight up to my room.

“Let’s get over with this ...” I sighed and started to pack my belongings. I was a bit lazy and I didn’t like cleaning, but I liked my room clean so I had to make an effort and do it. I put my clothes in my golden suit case and everything else that fitted in it and the rest of my stuff I packed in cardboard boxes. I have a lot of good memories in this room with my parents, but after the accident they weren’t so good anymore. They became hurtful and I just wanted to pack them in boxes and not take them out till I was ready to remember if I would ever be ready...

“Mom, I am done. I will just go and pack everything from the bathroom.” I shouted to my mom who was now in the kitchen.

“Okay darling, you can find more boxes in the living room.” She shouted back.

I went to the living room for the boxes and headed back upstairs to finish packing. We were done with everything at 11 am. Mom said we would leave after lunch, so she just ordered pizza since she didn’t have time to cook and we packed everything already anyway, so it was easier and faster.

After eating, I walked around one more time to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind. I will miss this house, but it will be for the best.

“Come on Mia, let’s go. We need to catch our plane.” Mom said, and we took our suitcases. The rest of our things will be delivered in two days.

When we got off the plane, I was excited about seeing our new home. Mom said it was nice and the neighbourhood was quiet. We took a taxi and left the airport to start our new life.

“The school starts in a week, are you excited?” She asked when we were sitting in the taxi and I looked at her, frowning. Was I excited? I didn’t know how to feel about it. I would start my last year in high school with a lot of strangers. I would prefer to spend my time in the garden with a good book.

“Yeah, I guess.” I answered in a monotone tone.

“Do you need me to go with you on the first day to talk to the princip...?” before she could finish her sentence, I cut her off.

“No...no mom, that’s not necessary.” I said with my eyes widened. What would everyone think if I showed up with my mother on the first day of school? That was a big NO.

“Okay, but you know you can call me anytime and I will come and pick you up if something happens.” She said worriedly.

“I know mom, don’t worry about me. The school won’t start for another week anyway.” I rolled my eyes at her, she was worrying too much.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, young lady. I just want to make sure that everything will be okay with my baby girl.” Mom said playfully.

“I know mom, sorry. I’ll be fine.” I had a really good relationship with her and we always shared everything. There wasn't so much to tell though in the last year, but we had each other’s shoulders to cry on. She used to say ‘Mia and mom against the world’ to cheer me up and it worked every time.

“What about you, when you need to start in the hospital?” Mom was a doctor and she was going to work in the hospital here in Los Angeles.

“Since they are short on people, I need to start after tomorrow.” She said with a sigh. Mom worked a lot to make sure that I had everything that I needed. We couldn’t spend time with each other as much as we wanted to, but I didn’t blame her for that. She was a great mother and I loved her more than anything. She was my best friend and my only family left.

“It’s okay mom, but don’t work too hard please and I am sure you are gonna make friends easily just like I will.” I smiled, I tried to encourage her just like she always does to me.

“You’re right, to be honest I am a bit nervous, but it’s okay to be.” She said, mom was a positive person, people just liked to be around her.

We finally pulled up in the front of a house. It looked nice and homey, not too big but also not small with a garden behind it. Perfect. I looked at mom with a broad smile on my face.

“It seems you like it.” She said teasingly. “Let’s go and check it inside.” She grabbed her suitcase and we walked into the house. It had a huge living room with a nice kitchen and dining room, there were three bedrooms upstairs and two bathrooms. What caught my attention first was the garden where there were flower beds, a middle-sized swimming pool and a hammock swings above the grass . I love to be outside, so I think the garden will be my favourite place.

“It’s perfect mom.” We weren’t rich but mom and dad saved a lot of money so we could afford this house easily.

“I know, right? I was in love with it the first time I saw it. I knew that you would love it as well. Let’s go upstairs, you can choose your room” she said excitedly. We ran upstairs like excited teenagers to look around on the first floor. There was a room on the left side of the house that caught my interest. You could see the whole garden from here, even the neighbour’s, and we could climb out onto the roof if we wanted to to watch the stars with mom. We used to do that a lot back in New York. To make the room perfect, it had a walk-in closet as well. The room had two huge windows that made it bright. One was looking at the garden and the other towards the neighbour’s house.

“I want this room mom, definitely,” I said with a huge smile on my face.

“I thought so.” She said, laughing. There was one more floor above this, but mom said that was the attic, so maybe I will go up there later.

I started to put my clothes into the walk-in closet. It was huge, so I had a lot of space. I wanted to buy new clothes anyway. New city, new house, new school, it was only fair if I bought new clothes and shoes as well, right? Maybe I should dye my hair too... no, that would be too much. I had dark long blonde hair with blue-grey eyes that I got after my father and I liked it so it would stay.