Secret Affinity

Brilliant Cove felt like a dark treasure box within a sunlit chamber. The last time we moved was six years ago, the time Mom got a new job out of the city. I wish she was here today, telling us in anxiety and childish hurry where to go and what to do next. She'd definitely make it more fun and assure us this place was 'just right' apart from my apprehension. Our house was quite big for only Dad and me, but it was close to my new high school and his workplace. I didn't have friends to worry about, or an extravagant bedroom to leave behind. I could make it work. Or I hoped so. "Ari!" Dad called. He was fiddling with the house keys at the doorstep. "The moving truck's here. Please get the boxes out." Half of the boxes were from my room, things I kept for myself rather than stash in the attic. I picked up the one that read "Family Album" and crossed the patchy lawn into the house. I climbed the stairs to what was supposedly my new bedroom. It had two large windows with draped curtains, one pointing to the driveway and one to the bricks of our neighbouring house. Dad peeked into the room. "Hey, you like the house?" I nodded, opening one of the boxes. I had no repulsive feelings, just hope that I'd witness something exciting. I took out a photo frame, one of the pictures I kept from Mother's Day back at Sunnywind. "Mom would've liked this house." I brushed a finger across her colourful face. "Yeah, she would've." Dad crouched beside me, opening another box. "You should put some of these in the attic." He put a hand on my shoulder, giving me that familiar look. "Probably. Later," I mumbled. Dad went off to work after lunch, and I was left to explore the rest of the house. I wandered into the kitchen, randomly opening its few wooden cabinets. In one of them, my eyes stopped on a flat, rectangular card. It was a picture of three children. "What the?" I flipped the card. It was blank. A shout distracted me. I left the picture on the counter to follow the faint laughter from the driveway next to ours. I was immediately hit with the blazing sun when I stepped out. Two children ran around the lawn separating our houses, and an elderly lady was the last to leave a car escorted by a middle-aged woman. They must be the neighbours! When the women with blonde locks caught me staring, I walked over nervously. "Hi. I just moved in next door." "Ah, you must be Arial Cordell." She smiled broadly in recognition. "I'm Julianna McCoy. I talked to your father at the open house. This is my mother, Elise." Although Elise had dark, greying hair, I could still see their resemblance. "Kids! There's someone here to meet you." A girl with light brown pigtails holding the hand of a younger boy came to an abrupt halt. "Hello! My name is Liara and I'm nine and a half," she told me with a vigorous hand wave. "This is my little brother, Andy, and he's almost five." I mirrored her hand wave. "Hi Liara, hi Andy. I'm Arial." "Hi Arial!" Liara shot me a toothy grin and they sprinted to their porch. Julianna called after them and shook her head when they didn't return. "They're so cute," I said in amuse. "And a handful to take care of," Julianna huffed. A loud bang came from the house and she apologized before rushing inside. "Two's still a lot, huh?" I thought to myself, my gaze lingering at the porch. Liara and Andy must be incredible siblings. I wondered how it would've felt to have my hand held like that, too. "She's got three more," Elise whispered from the side. "You'll see them one day. They've all got their own issues." Issues? "Well, I better go inside. Good day, dear." After my meeting with the neighbours, I suddenly felt an emptiness sitting in my stomach. A family of two compared to a family of seven? For some time, all I could hear in the house was the occasional wind or neighbourhood chatter. It was too silent - if it wasn't me, it would've been intolerable. I caught sight of the photo I left behind earlier in the kitchen, with the girl sitting between two boys on grass. Just as I started to pick it up, the bell rang. I sighed and went to get the door. Two college-aged men stood on my porch, both tall and tan and wearing amiable smiles. From a stranger's point of view, it seemed as if they were twins, if not for the mohawk one of them had. "Hey, you must be Arial, right?" said the one missing the mohawk. I nodded slowly. "I'm Evin. Your father must've told you I'm coming over to help with the furniture." "Oh!" I recollected. "Sorry, I completely forgot." "That's fine. This is my friend, Spike." "Sup," Spike said. I let them in and guided them to my living room. Evin eyed the cluster of unpacked things laying around. "Just tell us where to move the stuff." Before I panicked with the sudden proposal, I devised a mental plan to organize the living room. Once I finished, I skipped back into the kitchen to grab drinks for the visitors. The living room was complete by sunset, and I prepared two twenty-dollar bills for the men. Evin laughed when I tried to give it to him. "Neighbours don't pay each other with money, so we're good," he said. "Neighbour?" I marvelled. Evin explained to me he was Julianna's eldest child. "Oh, so you must be one of the three missing children Elise was talking about." "Grandma?" Evin said, rubbing his chin. "Of course she'd tell you something like that. You met my family already?" I smiled. "Yeah, this afternoon." "Hey, do you think I'm dead or somethin'?" Spike interfered. "I'm not your neighbour, so pay me some." "Ok, Arial, we'll see you again sometime," Evin said, hooking his arm around Spike's neck. "Feel free to visit us." "Thank you. And just call me 'Ari'. Everyone does." "Right, Ari." He saluted playfully. "Say hello to your dad for me." I closed the door once they left and took another good look around the house. Today was just the first day but meeting such kind people made me elated. School will start in a month, and I'd be entering my last year of high school - maybe I can make a friend, increasing that elation twofold - in a new community, a new city. This whole world was new. A world void of Mom's memories and footsteps. I hope she'd visit sometimes and brighten it with her cheerful laughter and sunny smiles. Arian's POV I was the last person to ever be called a stalker, yet here I was acting like the creeper I shouldn't be. It hurt my dignity to be staring out my bedroom window at my new, soon-to-be deplored neighbours. Hatred welled in my chest as I watched a middle-aged man and a brunette girl step out of their car. I dreaded this day. A large moving truck was on their driveway, and about two thirds of it was filled with cardboard boxes. The girl hesitated, counting every box before looking at her house. Her house. It wasn't hers, and it would never be. But under the headache-worth of afternoon sunlight, I saw a flash of wariness cross her face. It was unusual for me to feel another person's emotion, especially a vague one, but it was oddly amusing. I pitied anyone who moved to Brilliant Cove, wondering why the hell they chose this city out of all the other places. There wasn't any hope for their survival in this city. I draped the lace curtains over my window. It was over. That house had been taken over. Rather than planting my fist into a wall, I'd pretend it didn't exist. It wasn't hard for me to ignore people, anyway. I was done with this. Anyone in that house would be a stranger to me, whether it was the richest man or the prettiest girl, the biggest popstar or the nicest human being. I did not give a f**k, and quite frankly, I didn't want to. I'm done. End of Arian's POV.