“Addie!” Jane squealed and ran out to meet me at the trunk of the taxi as I pulled my suitcases out from the back. “I can’t believe you’re actually here! In the flesh!”

She jumped onto me, causing me to drop the bag I was holding. She latched onto my shoulders and pulled me tight against her. I laughed and returned the embrace. “I missed you sister pister,” I said as we continued to hug, our bodies slowly moving from side to side.

“I missed you, too. You have no idea. Oh my God, so much has changed, Addie, you don’t even know. I can’t wait for you to see my new apartment and meet my friends, and my boyfriend…oh man! I’m so glad you’re moving in with me.”

I released her and bent down to pick up the bag I had dropped. Jane immediately pulled the last suitcase from the trunk and handed the taxi driver two twenties to cover the ride. “Keep the change,” Jane said quietly, probably hoping that I wouldn’t hear. I hated it when she would pay for me – I was the older sister and I should be the one paying for her things, not the other way around.

I gave her a look once she turned around that told her that I was not happy with what she just did. She gave me a guilty smile and a shrug before picking up a suitcase in each one of her hands and carrying them up the few, short steps to her front porch. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re moving in!” Jane nearly shouted.

“Hey, thanks a lot for letting me stay here. I know you will probably get sick of me, so don’t hesitate to tell me when you want me out,” I said as she pushed open the door with her hip.

“Don’t be ridiculous! You’re my sister and you can stay here as long as you want. Plus, I haven’t seen you in a year. I don’t think I’ll be getting sick of you anytime soon,” Jane chuckled a bit as she led me down the hallway that was just to the right of the entry-way. She stopped at the first door on the left and pushed it open. “Here’s your room,” Jane said as she moved out of the way so I could enter first.

“Wow, Jane. This is really nice,” I commented as I stared around the room. The room was a lot larger than I had expected. Jane had texted me pictures of the house when she had moved in over half a year ago, but those pictures didn’t do the size any justice. There was a naked, queen-sized bed sitting in the center of the room, centered with the window on the wall behind it. Against the left side of the room was a desk and a wooden door. On the right side of the room was an open door-way with a curtain pulled back, and against that wall was a tall dresser with a decent-sized flat-screen TV sitting on top, slightly angled so it could be viewed from the bed.

“Where did you get this furniture? And the TV?” I asked as I tossed my bags onto the bed. Jane walked in behind me and set my suitcases down beside the dresser.

“Well, I bought the bed, desk, and dresser. Dad bought the TV for you.”

I groaned. “You told him I was coming home? Jaaannee…”

“He misses you, Addie. And he’s really sorry for the way things worked out. You need to talk to him.”

I sighed and turned my attention back to the room. I kicked my shoes off and allowed my toes to curl into the brown, shag carpet. It almost reminded me of the sand on the beaches in England. I was already missing it there – it had grown to be my home.

“Okay let’s not talk about that right now,” Jane said quickly. “Come on, let me show you the rest of the house.”

“Well, first of all, you have your own bathroom right behind that door,” Jane paused to point at the wooden door that was next to the desk on the left side of the room. “And that over there is your walk-in closet.” She pointed to the curtain that was on the right side of the room.

“Awesome,” I said with a smile. Jane grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my room and down the hallway a bit.

“Here’s the guest bathroom,” she said, pointing to one of the doors in the hallway. “And right across is the guest bedroom. And down here is my room!” She pulled my hand down to the very end of the hallway and pushed open her door. “It’s the master bedroom, obviously.”

I took a quick peek inside, but there wasn’t much to see beside a large, king-sized bed and a dresser with a TV on top. A few articles of clothing littered the ground, but other than that it was pretty plain. We walked back down the hallway and back toward the living room that was beside the front door. The kitchen was just beside it, and there was the sliding glass door to reveal the fairly plain backyard.

“The laundry room and garage door are back that way,” Jane said as she pointed to a small hallway in between the living room and the kitchen. “We don’t need to go over there right now though.”

“This is really nice, Jane. I like it a lot,” I said as I looked up to observe the ceilings and walls. This was my home now, and it was going to take a lot of getting used to before I would be able to feel like it was home. “It’s a change from England, but I’ll get used to it soon enough.”

“Yeah, I love it here. I know you will, too,” Jane paused and pulled her phone out of her pocket rather quickly. “Oh perfect! Go get your shoes, I’m taking you out to lunch and then we’re going shopping for your room.”

I did as I was told, even though I really just wanted to sit back and relax for a while. We hopped into her car, and arrived at a diner that was just a few blocks away from her house – our house.

The waitress sat us down at a booth toward the corner of the diner and I picked up the menu, immediately losing my appetite at the sight of the food. It was going to be harder to adjust than I thought.

I decided on just a plain burger and fries with a strawberry milkshake and water on the side. Jane ordered some fancy kind of burger with onion rings and a coke.

“Are you excited to be back home? Be honest,” Jane asked after we had gotten our drinks.

I took a long drink of my milkshake and shrugged. “It’s just different,” I said. “It’s going to be hard to get used to being here again.”

“You were only gone for a year,” Jane laughed.

I shrugged, a small smile playing on my lips as I thought about all of the memories I had in England, specifically a certain boy. “A lot can change in a year,” I said simply. I tried to bite back my smile, but I couldn’t hold onto my lip hard enough.

“Why are you so ha… Oh my god you met a boy, didn’t you?!” Jane nearly shouted.

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the ridiculous grin that must have been spread across my face. Thinking about him made me extremely happy. I didn’t feel bad about the way things ended, and I felt like I didn’t need to “get over him” or anything because it was really just a week-long fling. Something to help make my year in England much more memorable, even if he was only there for a miniscule section of it.

“You’ll have to tell me all about him later,” Jane scolded as she held a firm finger out in my direction. The waitress came back and placed our meals in front of us. Jane immediately started on her onion rings, mumbling something about how she couldn’t believe that I hadn’t told her about whoever the boy was that I was smiling about.

I didn’t want to tell her about him though, because she would just make a big deal out of nothing, so instead I picked up two French fries, shoving each one very loosely into each one of my nostrils. I lifted my head and just stared at Jane as she ate, waiting for her to notice me.

“What are you-“ her words stopped when she looked up to see what I was doing. “Ew! Adelina, you’re disgusting!”

I pushed my shoulders up and my head back quickly, giving myself the biggest double chin that I could muster up. “What? I’m beautiful.”

Jane erupted into a fit of childish laughter. “Stop! Gross!”

“I think we look a lot alike, Jane. You’re lucky to look like your older sister,” I said while holding my double chin in place. “Now let’s talk about all those boys drooling over me in England.”

“Oh my God,” Jane laughed. “What boy would want to get with that? Stop it! I think I’m going to puke.”

I finally broke my act and erupted into laugher right along with her. I pulled the french fries from my nose and threw that at her, causing her to sit up rather quickly and shake them off of her. She sat down when she noticed the rest of the diner staring at us.

“You’re so immature,” she said as she tried to quiet her laughter.

“Oh whatever. You love it,” I rolled my eyes and pushed a french fry into my mouth.

“Oh!” Jane bounced in her seat before reaching into her pocket. She let out a small squeal. “I have a surprise for you.”

“I don’t like surprises,” I said casually as I sipped on my milkshake some more.

“Ugh, you’re no fun,” Jane pouted. “I invited my boyfriend here so you can meet him!”

“Oh, cool,” I said with the best smile I could muster. Jane hadn’t told me too much about her boyfriend. In fact, I didn’t even know his name. All I knew was that they started seeing each other a couple of months ago and things got pretty serious really fast. I could tell that she really like him from the little times we’ve talked about him.

She answered her phone with the biggest smile on her lips. “Yeah, I’ll meet you out front,” Jane said. “Okay see you in second.” She hung up the phone and stood up.

“I’ll be right back,” she announced.

I nodded and shooed her away. I looked down at my food, debating on whether or not I actually wanted to eat it. I pulled the bun off the top of the burger and stared down at the straggly looking onions and shriveled lettuce. I pushed the bun back down and decided that I would just stick to the french fries and milkshake.

“Addie?”

I froze when I heard my name being spoken from beside the table in a gentle, low voice. I slowly looked up and saw him standing there. My heart was in my throat, and I swallowed hard to try and get it to calm down.

I opened my mouth, ready to say his name, but Jane appeared by his side.

“Addie, this is my boyfriend,” Jane said as her right hand slowly traveled down his arm. I watched as she laced their fingers together while her left hand gently squeezed onto his bicep. “Babe, this is my sister Addie.”

I didn’t move. I blinked once, hoping that this wasn’t actually happening.’

“Addie, this is my boyfriend,” she paused to give him a smile, “Alan.”

Notes

Addie's Outfit

Ta-da! Here's another chapter! Let me know what you think in the comments! :) Can you see where the drama is going to come in yet? ;)