“Sorry, but I kind of have your ticket. I figured if you were going to share your popcorn with me the least I could do was buy the tickets,” he gives me an award-winning smile.
I try to calm down from being put in this predicament. Why am I getting upset? He’s gorgeous. He’s sweet. He’s new, foreign. I try to hide a deep breath by breathing in slow.
“Thank you, Ollie. I guess old habits are hard to kill,” I say referring to Alex always buying my ticket. Well, technically it’s not Alex buying; it’s both of our money, our parent’s money. Our parents don’t want us to get jobs because Alex has a 4.9 GPA, is the student body council president, President of the Astronomy club, Physics club, Latin club, FBLA (even though he doesn’t even care for business, he’s an astronomy and physics geek), founder of the community service initiative, plays the cello like a professional and will most likely receive a full academic scholarship.
I do not have a 4.9 GPA but its close at 4.5, because Alex tutors me, a lot. I’m in the Latin club with Alex, the history club, I help with the community service, I try to attend all the astronomy meetings, I play the piano, paint, but I am focusing on getting my scholarship towards swimming and volleyball. That’s where I excel. I would rather save our college savings for an epic summer vacation before school starts next year, like touring Europe! I think Alex agrees.
I stand next to Ollie as we wait our turn at the concession stand. When we get up to order Ollie doesn’t let me pay for my diet coke or our popcorn. I have to take another deep breath and shoot the gang a dirty look as they all snicker at the predicament of me being on a quasi-group date for the first time. Ollie acts oblivious to their snickers. Gratefully. I’m sure the guys have filled him in on my independence and lack of dating. It’s not like I don’t date. I do. I just date on the premise that it’s as friends.
We all go into the movies and sit near the top and center of the theater seats. I sit next to Kaitlyn and surprise, Ollie sits on my other side and next to Nathaniel. Hope gives me a ‘sorry’ smile as she sits on the other side of Nathaniel. We start to tell Ollie about the school and discuss the differences between schools in America and schools in Italy. I love listening to Ollie talk, he has a little Italian accent but overall he speaks English very well.
“How did you learn to speak English so well?” I ask him
“Oh, well, growing up I just learnt it. I can speak many languages. I guess the answer to your question is because of my brother, travelling so much and needing to learn different languages, he took advantage of it and taught me. He raised me speaking in different languages, so I’ve always known.” He shrugs his shoulders like it’s no big deal.
“What other languages do you speak?” Kaitlyn asks.
“Name some,” he answers.
“Really?” I inquire. “French?” He nods his head. “German,” I add.
“Ja.”
“Spanish,” Hope adds.
“Si,” Ollie says. “Spanish is similar to Italian, that one is easy for me. I also speak Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Russian, Arabic and a few others.”
“That’s really impressive. We’ll need you next summer when we tour Europe,” I exclaim, enraptured with this marvelous creature.
“If we get scholarships,” Alex says deflating my hopeful mood.
I’m about to scold him for ruining my dreams but the lights start to dim and the movie comes to life. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a long time. I read the books and loved them. The imagination of the author is amazing.
About halfway through the movie I fold my legs under me and lean towards the side to make myself more comfortable. I want to sit cross legged but can’t do that in a short dress. If I knew we were going to see a movie I would have worn pants and brought a sweater. I hate being cold in the movies. Ollie shifts his body to accommodate for the nearness I presented upon him. I guess I forgot who I was sitting near.
I run my hands up and down my bare arms to cause friction to warm them up. Ollie notices. “Are you cold,” he whispers.
“A little,” I admit.
He reaches down into his bag and comes up with a sweater he must have bought. “Here, you can put this on.”
“Thank you,” I whisper to him as I slip the sweater on. It is way too big for me. I let the sleeves hang way past down my hands and settle back to finish the movie. One of the sleeves drape over the arm of the chair between us and I notice out of the corner of my eye that Ollie moves his hand over it. I don’t know but I think he might have thought it had been my hand, but if he’s surprised, it doesn’t show since he keeps his hand there.
Chapter 2
When Alex and I get home, we go into the living room to show our parents everything we got. Our mom swoons and coos at all our clothes while dad nods his head in approval. My mom has taught us how not to be tasteless. I learned at a young age the limits of how high skirts should go and how low the shirts should sit. I mean, who wants to dress like a sleaze? I see the girls whose boyfriends go too far, groping in public, because “hello” their dress tells the boys that it’s okay. And with me, it’s not okay. It’s my body not yours, grope your own.
Mom asks us, “Who did you go shopping with, just Kaitlyn?” Mom gives us a knowing smile and Alex shakes his head at her.
“No, Mom. Kaitlyn isn’t the only one in our lives,” he smiles and plays along with her game. “Hope, Nathaniel and a new kid, Ollie, were with us. We went to the see ‘The Hunger Games’ afterwards. It was a good time. Grabbed some lunch and told Ollie all about our school. He’s from Rome so things are a lot different here.”
Mom’s eyes widen in surprise, “Oh, I wonder if he is the kid that moved across the street.”
“No, Ollie lives a couple of neighborhoods over, in Nathaniel’s neighborhood,” I inform her. “I wonder who moved in across the street.”
“I haven’t been over there yet to introduce the family into the neighborhood. I thought I would give them a week to settle in. Haven’t seen any parents. Just the movers and a kid that looks about your age. Why don’t you guys go over there and invite him swimming tomorrow? Invite the gang over.”
“Alex you’re a guy, why don’t you do it?” I instruct him.
“What? You have your hands full with one new guy already?” he teases me.
“Mom! Do you know what this jerk of a brother put me through today?” I blast at my mother.
“Lexi, don’t call your brother a jerk,” dad warns me.
“I’m sorry Dad but if you knew that your son was trying to play matchmaker here and embarrass me by putting me on the spot, you would think he was one too,” I stomp my foot childishly.
“What happened?” he asks with a raised eyebrow. Uh oh. I just incited his psychiatric side. My parents are so cute and lovable. My mom is a divorce lawyer and met my dad through several of the same clientele. After my dad was able to patch up many, many marriages, which provoked my mother to find out just who was causing her to lose clients, she stormed into his office and immediately fell victim to his “couch”. After countless “sessions,” they married. Then, a few years later and no pregnancy scares they found out my mom couldn’t have children. That’s when me and Alex came into their lives. We were only two months old.
“Lexi is exaggerating of course. She told Ollie she would share popcorn with him so he bought her a movie ticket,” he shrugs his shoulders like it was that simple and he played no part in it.
“That is NOT how it happened,” I pronounce every word singularly. “He set me up. I know the guys discussed it while I was shopping with the girls. They threw us together and it was embarrassing because I didn’t ask for it. He kept laughing at me, which made it worse.” I start pouting.
“Who laughed? The boy?” dad asks.
“No,” I whine out. “Alex.”
Everybody starts laughing at me. “This is so not funny.”
“Lexi, sweetie. I’m sure everyone was having fun. It’s not nice to tease but did you have a good ti
me otherwise?” Mom asks.
I fold my arms defensively over my chest. “That’s not the point.”
Mom sighs, about to say something else but then the doorbell rings.
“I’ll get it,” Alex says, wanting to escape my cold eyes blaming him for interfering with my love life.
Mom turns back to me and reaches for some of the shopping bags. “Let’s get these upstairs.” She tells me and then raises her voice to address Alex, “Alex, I’m putting your bags in your room.”
“Okay,” he says, still talking to whoever is at the door.
I follow mom upstairs with all our stuff and go into my room to start put everything away. After several minutes, Alex knocks on my door and peeks in. “Will you come downstairs? The guy at the door is our new neighbor from across the street.” He comes in and shuts the door, talking in a whisper he confides to me, “He’s nineteen and lives all alone in that big house. Can you believe that?”
“That’s weird,” I say, more interested in folding my new shirts.
“Come on. He’s waiting at the door, stuck with mom and dad. I told him that he should meet you too,” Alex tugs at my hand.
I plop my shirt on the bed and follow Alex downstairs. When the front door comes into view, I almost lose my composure. What are the odds that two incredible hotties will come into my life in one day? But this one is the total opposite from the last one. This one can only be described as dark, while Ollie can only be described as light.
The new neighbor has olive skin, dark hair that curls at the tips and eyes so dark they could be black, with really full lashes that make him look like he is wearing eyeliner and dark stubble along his chin and upper lip. He is dressed in all black attire; a black, body-hugging tee, dark jeans and black boots.
When I come into view, his eyes lift up to meet mine and a much more genuine smile creeps across his face than the one he had been using on my parents. I can tell my parents were asking with concern about his parents. I don’t doubt they are worried about a teenager living alone, across the street from their teenagers.
“This must be Alexis,” the dark hottie asks no one in particular as I finish walking down the stairs into the foyer.
“Yep. Lexi, this is Cole Astaroth. He happens to be a musician and is going to be working alongside Mrs. Senett at our school. He’s been touring with the Virginia Symphony for the past year but is taking time off to teach and will be playing regularly at the Chrysler Museum,” Alex tells me as he steps back up to the new neighbor. He sure has gathered a lot of intel in a short amount of time. I hope the new guy doesn’t like to boast his exploits. That is a turn off.
“Isn’t that impressive,” my mom gushes. Warming up to him quickly now that she knows he isn’t some delinquent.
“That is wonderful,” I respond. We haven’t taken our eyes off each other yet. My heart is beating a mile a minute and I can’t think of anything to say. He is making me speechless.
“Alex and Lexi are musical,” my dad tells Cole. “You guys should get together and practice sometime.”
I finally turn away from Cole’s eyes to look wide-eyed at my dad. “Dad, no. I hardly doubt someone as accomplished as him would want to play with us. He would put us to shame.”
“Nonsense.” My dad looks back at Cole and boasts, “Both the kids are superb.”
“I look forward to hearing them,” Cole holds my eyes once again and smiles broadly.
“Lexi,” Alex directs my attention to him. “Cole wants us to come over for awhile and hang out. Do you guys mind?” he asks mom and dad.
Both our parents shake their head enthusiastically with, “No, go ahead,” and, “don’t stay out too late.” I guess Cole has extremely won them over.
*
The interior of Cole’s house is impressive to say the least. I’ve been in this house numerous times since I was a baby when old Mrs. Kitch used to babysit us from time to time. She passed away about a year ago and the house remained empty until now.
Cole has already had the house entirely remodeled. Most of the walls have been torn down, creating a huge open floor plan on the first floor. From the front door you can see the kitchen to the left and back of the house, a music room on the opposite side, in front of that is a living room and in front of the kitchen is a dining area. The only characteristics that divide each room are pillars instead of door frames and a step down into the kitchen and music room. The floors are all mahogany hardwood with beautiful oriental rugs. And the furniture is elegant. There are no family pictures or anything resembling mementos lying around. And the walls are all bare, painted in wine red and gold.
“Your home is beautiful.” I don’t point out my curiosity on the lack of family photos. I don’t need to find out his parents are dead too and having reminders of them are too much to endure.
“Thank you. It’s been awhile since I’ve lived in one place long enough to actually buy a house,” he answers while directing us to the kitchen.
I laugh at his comment. “You’re only nineteen, how long must you have waited.”
There is a couple seconds of awkward silence before he laughs too and says, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Sorry, I’ve been on my own since I was seventeen.” He turns toward the refrigerator. “Do you guys want a drink? I have cokes, water, juice, beer, wine…”
“We don’t drink,” Alex responds. Cole gives him a sly grin. “I’ll have a coke.”
Cole directs his attention to me. “Coke is good. Thanks.” I grab one of the cans he hands me and Alex grabs the other. We move to sit on the bar stools while Cole pours himself a glass of red wine.
“How did you get that if you are only nineteen?” I ask him before taking a chug of the soda.
“Fake I.D,” he responds.
I want to say that will come in use when we want to throw a party but Alex will just chastise me for saying that. On occasion I will drink at a friend’s party but I don’t get belligerent. The room has never spun on me and I don’t want it to.
“So what am I in for with the students?”
Alex answers since I can’t think of anything not stupid to say. I feel very shy around him. Like I want to be impressive and sound mature but don’t know how to do it. I zone out while the guys talk and start to wander around the first floor, wondering how he can afford this place if he is just going to be a teacher’s assistant. Not to mention how he is only nineteen and living in one of the upper scale neighborhoods in the area. Our parents are a lawyer and a psychiatrist and all the other neighbors have their own law or medical practice, some own their own business or are CPAs. All Cole supposedly does is tour with the symphony and he can’t make that much money at it because I have never heard of him.
“My parents were wealthy and left me their estate,” Cole whispers into my ear. I jump at his closeness and throw my hand over my chest as I try to catch my breath. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he tells me sincerely. “I could read the questions on your face.” I look at him confusedly. “Were you not just wondering how I could afford this at the ripe young age of nineteen?”
I feel blood rush to my face and I know that I am blushing. I turn away from him and toward the massive grand piano, hoping I can hide behind it, embarrassed that he knew what I was thinking. How many more young people out there don’t have parents?
It seems like a funny coincidence that two people I meet today had parents pass away when they were young. I don’t want to mention my curiosity of his departed parents. I already hurt Ollie’s feelings today by mentioning how I’m looking for my second set of parents.
I run my fingers over the keys of the piano and strike a few to hear that it’s in tune. I love the feel of ivory against my fingers. So silky, yet strong, like glass.
“Do you play?” Cole smiles, his question shows in his eyes.
“Maybe,” I flirt with him. “My dad did say I was superb.” I laugh at my own joke and Cole’s smile widens, reaching his eyes.
“What do you play?”
I don’t answer him. I sit down at the piano and start playing ‘Chopsticks’. He laughs at me and comes over to help play. I feel more comfortable around him when I play the flirting game. It gives me a sense of control. When I first saw him at the door of my house I didn’t feel in control and it made me nervous. But now that I’ve hit the switch that turns on the flirtatious side of me, I can feel more relaxed with him.
Alex walks into the room then, reminding me that he was here. I stop playing abruptly and ask, “Where were you?”
His face is lit up like a Christmas tree. He talks in an excited rush, “Cole has an awesome telescope. The magnification on it is like five times better than mine. You got to check it out. You can see the moons of Jupiter so clearly.” I’m a little impressed, Alex has a really good telescope, and we use it all the time for our astronomy club. “Come on, you got to see it.” He waves his hand for me to follow him.
I look at Cole a little embarrassed for my brother who is acting like a kid in a candy store. “I’ll show it to you,” Cole says. He stands up and holds his hand out to me to help me up. I feel smitten towards him. No guys our age would hold their hand out to help a girl. I always wanted someone to, but most guys are just in a rush to go, go, go and they don’t wait for the girls.
I give Cole my hand and he leads me to the backdoor. Alex is already ahead of us and back at the telescope.
“Do you like astronomy too?” Cole asks.
“We are twins,” I tell him as an answer.
“I think you will really enjoy this,” Alex says as he steps away from the eyepiece. I come to a stop in front of a huge telescope with more gears and switches than I have ever seen on one before. I look into the eyepiece and see the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. They are much clearer than I have seen before. In Alex’s telescope they’re only fuzzy lights. I can also make out the eye storm on Jupiter, almost as clear as a picture.
Lunangelique (The Lunangelique Series) Page 2
