Chapter One - New Neighbor

Brielle's POV

My day always begins with Cristina Yang's voice in my head saying 'shut up. Dance it out.' 

Yes, I'm a Grey's Anatomy fan. 

I finally finished editing my last report for tomorrow. In just a few days I'm finally done with college. 

I can smell freedom! 

To celebrate, I stood up and let my hair down from being in a bun. I turned on my speaker and a song instantly started playing, you can hear the music blasting from my room across the street. 

Dancing it out made my body feel alive. 

This may be the night that my dreams might let me know~

All the stars are closer, all the stars are closer, all the stars are closer~

I danced around my room with the loud music blasting. Holding a hairbrush as my microphone as I sing along with the music. 

Obviously, out of tune. 

"This may be the night that my dreams might let me know~" 

I jumped up and down on my bed. Swinging my head side to side, arms up in the air, I started to sing my heart out, not caring if someone could see or hear me.

"All the stars are closer, all the stars are closer, all the stars are clos-"

"Brielle!"

I sighed and stopped the music when I heard someone calling me. I hopped off my bed and opened the door. "What?"

"Brielle, mom's calling you downstairs." my 16-year-old sister, Lexie said, texting on her phone, she didn't even bother to look at me and walked back downstairs.

I rolled my eyes at her and shut the door. I quickly changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants. I frowned as I heard a commotion outside. I looked out the window and saw that someone already bought Mr. Jenkins' house. 

A man is standing in front of a car, the tree in front of Mr. Jenkins' old house is covering his face. Mr. Jenkins never bothers me whenever I go out to my roof and play some music and I hope that whoever bought his house is the same as him or this isn't going to be fun.

"Come on, take a step forward so I can see your face." I groaned as I heard the blender's sound downstairs, indicating that mom is almost done preparing breakfast. 

I hurriedly ran downstairs. "Morning, mom." I greeted and gave my mom a peck on her cheek. "Morning, Elle." Mom smiled at me and I gave her an eye roll at the nickname as I grabbed some plates and utensils to set up the table. 

"Why can't you leave your phone even just for a minute?" I glared at my sister who's sitting at the counter texting her so called boyfriend.

"It's because I have a boyfriend and you don't. Poor, Brielle doesn't have a boyfriend. Are you jealous?" She glanced at me and I scoffed at her. Does she really have to rub it on my face that I don't have a boyfriend and she does?

I can see my mom trying to hold her laugh.

Lexie shook her head at me. "You should start finding someone to be with, Brielle." Lexie gave me a sad pout and I gave her a mocking face. 

"I hate you so much," I muttered and threw a table napkin at her. "Mom, why did you even let her have a boyfriend at sixteen?"

"Elle, you know your sister." Mom said, while Lexie sticks out her tongue at me.

Sometimes I just want to smack the truth to my sister that the boyfriend that she has won't last that long. I'll give it about one to two months or maybe even two weeks. Just wait for it. It'll happen eventually.

"I heard that someone already bought Mr. Jenkins' house." Mom said, handing out pancakes. I nodded at her. "Yeah, I saw them moving in earlier." I got up from my seat to grab the pancake syrup from Lexie. "This isn't going to be fun."

"You don't know what. Maybe they're nice, just like Mr. Jenkins." Mom glared at me and I gave her an innocent smile.

"And Mom, why can't you and Dad let me get my apartment?" I looked at my Mom as I ate my pancakes. Mom chuckled. "Honey, I think you forgot that I'm half Filipino and for me, you're staying at my house until you get married." 

I scoffed. "Well, I'm going to talk to Dad about it." 

"How I wish that our new neighbor is a handsome guy so you can get a boyfriend," Lexie said out of nowhere. A devilish grin forming to her lips. 

I huffed. "Uhm.. no, thank you." Lexie looked at me from head to toe. "You're getting older, Brielle. Don't you think you should find a boyfriend?" 

Wow, she's getting into my skin.

"Hey, I'm not that old. Plus, Boys are dumb and stupid." I rolled my eyes at her. 

I don't need a boy. I need a man.

"No, they're not!"

Does she even know what she's talking about? For god's sake!

"Yes, they are." I stick my tongue at her.

"Mom!!" Lexie whines.

Victory.

I smirked to myself as mom chuckled. "Okay, girls. Enough and eat your breakfast."

-----

The doorbell rings as we're done eating breakfast.

"I got it!" Lexie ran to the front door to open it. Despite of Lexie being a 16 years old and have a boyfriend, sometimes she still acts like a kid.

"Xyne!" Lexie exclaimed and gave him their special high five. "Brielle! Xyne's here!" She grabbed Xyne's hand and dragged him into our living room. "Be there in a minute." I sighed and looked at mom.

Mom looked at me as she drank her morning coffee. "Give him a chance, Elle."

"Mom, I don't want to." I groaned. "As the saying goes, friends can be lovers but lovers can't be friends. I don't want to ruin our friendship, mom. Plus, Xyne's like a brother to me and Lexie." I got up from the table, grabbing the plates at the same time and putting them into the sink. "Xyne's an all-around great guy and handsome but I don't feel it." I sighed.

"Feel what?" Mom frowned and turned to me. "The spark."

I sighed again and put on a smile as I walked to the living room to meet Xyne.

There he is. My best friend, Xyne, a tall lacrosse player with his perfect hair and beautiful blue eyes.

"Hey, Elle." Xyne smiled sweetly at me. Whoever my best friend is going to marry someday is a lucky one. Imagine waking up and seeing his charming face first thing in the morning? His future wife would flip just looking at his face and blue eyes.

I groaned. "It's 9 am. Isn't it too early?"

"Are you guys going out on a date?" Lexie peaked her head to the living room.

"Yes."

"No. We're just going to fetch Gia at the airport." I glared at Xyne as he smirked at me. "Now, off you go." I shooed Lexie back to the kitchen to help my mom. "Really, Xyne?" I rolled my eyes at him. Xyne chuckled and pats my head.

"Gia texted me. She said that the plane will land before 10 am. The drive to the airport is 40 minutes and traffic is not included. So, hurry up and get changed or do you want Gia to wait for us?"

I laughed. "She'll kill us both if we're late. I'll change real quick." I went upstairs to my room to change quickly. I threw on a sweater and didn't change my sweatpants. I like comfortable clothes. I just grabbed my wallet and my phone on my nightstand, and made my way downstairs.

-----

When I went down and I saw no one in the living room or the kitchen. I went outside and saw Xyne, Lexie, and my Mom talking to a lady, which I assume is the new owner of Mr. Jenkins' house.

"It was nice talking to you, Lori." Mom hugged her. "You too, Lillian." I assume Lori said to my mom.

"Xyne, let's go!" I walked to Xyne's car that's parked in front of our house. "Coming!" Xyne gestured goodbye to Lori and jogged his way to his car. 

The man standing next to Lori, who's talking to my mom caught my eye. I think he's the one that I saw earlier. It's definitely him but I'm not a hundred percent sure. I still can't see his face from here. Which made me think about getting my eye checked soon. My vision's kinda blurry these past couple of months.

Xyne opened the car door for me, before I hopped in his car, I waved goodbye to my mom. Xyne got in the car and drove off to the airport.

"Is that the new owner of the house?" I looked at Xyne. "No, it's her son who bought the house. She's just helping him to settle." Xyne gave me a soft smile, taking glances at me and looking back at the road again. "Is he nice? Oh, god. I hope he's not going to host parties in his house." 

Xyne laughed and shook his head at me. "I don't think he's a party person. He barely spoke to us. You'll be fine."

"I hope so." I giggled, looking at him.

I connected my phone to the Bluetooth of Xyne's car and played my favorite playlist.

I was scared of dentists and the dark~

I sighed contentedly and looked out the window. Humming to the song that's playing.

 I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations~

I didn't see that Xyne's taking a glance at me while I'm staring outside.

Oh, all my friends are turning green~

You're the magician's assistant in their dream~

Ah-ooh-ooh-ooh, ah-ahh-ah-ah~

And they come unstuck~

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