A Reader’s Love Affair

It's kind of a funny story. Our whirlwind of a romance. I wouldn't even call it a romance, because both of us claim we aren't the romantic type.

Plus, romance sounds so mundane. Our relationship was more like two hearts created to be in each other's lives. Two puzzle pieces meant to be connected. Is that tacky? Okay, it might be a little tacky.

I wish we could have just been platonic. It sure would have made my life easier. It's hard to be in love when you have so little hope from past broken hearts. I used to believe that happy endings were just in fairytales.

It all started January 22, when you moved into the house beside mine. I can still see big moving trucks and your mom yelling at the movers because they kept breaking the china plates. I didn't have anything else to do, so I sat in my bedroom window for hours watching the snowfall as you unloaded boxes off the truck. I distinctly remember I was rereading "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee Finch. As I read the last word on the last page, I saw you through my window burst into your room, carrying a heavy box.

You were beautiful. I don't use that word to describe boys often, but you were like a watercolor painting I would see in the museum. Your skin was silky soft, with contrasting gray eyes harsh like the roaring clouds in the rain. I noticed your hair was dark and curly, with a halo of frizz surrounding each lock of hair. Your tired eyes were hidden behind circle rimmed glasses.

It was impossible not to stare at you. It felt like hours as I sat there gazing, but it was only a minute. When you looked out your window and saw me gawking, you did a little wave with a smirk on your face. I smiled back, sheepishly.

You looked back at the box and started to unpack again. Started taking out piles and piles of books. In that one box, there must have been at least thirty! I had a distinct feeling you had more downstairs ready to be unpacked.

I wondered what books you had in your expanse library, and if I might be able to borrow some. You see, one's personal library can tell a lot about them. You're basically looking into their soul, who shaped them into the person they are today. 

As I sat and pondered how I would get a peek at your book collection, I heard a voice from the kitchen holler, "Dinner's ready." It was my older brother Sam, also known as the black sheep of the family.

When I got downstairs, my family started eating dinner. I knew the first thing we'd talk about is our new neighbors.

"So we have some new neighbors on the right. That's exciting." Dad said casually, as I'd expected.

"Yeah, we should go over tomorrow. Say hi so they feel welcomed." Mom cut in.

"That's a good idea. We'll go over as a family. That means Sam and Angelita have to go." Dad stated. I know he said it because Sam would automatically start complaining.

"Why do I have to go? Can't Mom just say hi for all of us like usual? I have plans tomorrow." Sam argued.

"Smoking grass with your druggy friends is not “plans”, Sam. You're coming with us tomorrow." Mom said.

Sam complained for a couple more minutes but agreed reluctantly.

"Great. So the plan is we are heading over at six. Be home, Sam, or we are coming after you."

"Ugh! You guys treat me like a little kid! I'm almost a man, you know." He grunted.

"Just keep telling yourself that, Sammy." I chimed in. He looked at me with daggers.

The next day, at six o'clock on the dot, the Cress family headed over to meet our new neighbors. I'm not sure why we set a time, but I guess it's good to keep yourself accountable. As we made the trek from our front door to theirs, mom held a tray of homemade cookies in her gloved hands.

When we arrived at our destination, their front doorstep, Dad promptly knocked on the door. When no one answered, he knocked again.

The second after he knocked the second time, a lady ran into the entryway and opened the door warmly. I guessed that she was the mom. She was generically pretty, with long blonde curly hair and cakey liquid makeup that was applied in a hurry.

"Hello, My name is Jon, and this my family. We live in the house on the left, so we thought we'd come and introduce ourselves." Dad said.

"Hi, My name is Katie. Come in! We all just sat down in the living room." As we rounded the corner into a living room with a connected kitchen, I noticed that this house was very charming on the inside. I've always just seen it from the outside because the lady who lived here before wasn't friendly.

Sitting on the couches around a television was the Dad and a boy and two girls. The Dad was flipping through the channels as the girls sat on their phones texting. The boy was reading a book. It was the boy from the window yesterday.

"Honey, these are our next-door neighbors. The Dad is Jon… and I'm sorry I didn't get the rest of…"

"My name is Dena, and these are my kids Sam and Angelita." Mom interrupted politely. The Dad stood up to shake our hands. "Nice to meet you all. Of course, you already met Katie. My name is Bill. The girls over there are Hanna and Bailey. And this is my boy, Andy." As he introduced his family, we all smiled awkwardly as you do in these kinds of introductions.

Our families talked for about twenty minutes about things like the weather, current events, and why they moved here. Bill said they had to move because they had some trouble at their old house. I wanted to know what kind of trouble, but to my disappointment, they changed the subject to avoid going into further detail.

Ten minutes later, we walked back to our house, feeling accomplished. As we walked in the door out of the freezing cold, Mom said, "The boy seems nice, Sammy. You could ask him to play video games or see a movie sometime." Sam huffed and replied, "He's not my crowd. I'd rather watch paint dry."

She then turned to me and said, "Well, Angelita, he was cute. Maybe.." I cut her off by saying, "I'm good." I didn't want to have this conversation with my mother. 

That night as I laid in my bedroom, staring endlessly into my ceiling, I decided to look out my window and see what the boy next door, Andy, was doing. I got out of my bed and walked over the window. I sat in anticipation, hoping that he would be waiting for me. To my aggression, his lights were off. I decided to just go to bed instead.

The next morning, I was awoken to the sound of birds fighting outside my window. Scared that they were trying to worm their way in through the crack, I ran to assess the situation. When I looked out, I saw two ravens fighting in earnest to come out alive. I stared in horror, unsure of what to do. I opened my window to try to shoo them away in hopes that would break up the fight. "Get out of here," I screamed. When I looked to find help, I saw Andy in his window, staring in shock at what we were witnessing.

"What is going on? I've never seen anything like this!" He exclaimed. "Same, I can't get them to stop fighting," I said.

"I have an idea, one second," Andy called as he ran back into his room. Thirty seconds later, I heard gunshots ringing. It got the birds to stop fighting and fly away, but I wondered what kind of psychopath keeps a loaded gun in his room.

"Don't worry. That wasn't a real gun, it was a youtube video." Andy said as he ran back to the window. "I was worried for a second that my new neighbors were completely insane. Good idea." I replied.

"Thanks. Your name's Angelita, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, and you're Andy?"

"In the flesh. When I was moving in, I noticed you had a book in your hand. What were you reading?" Andy asked, with a warm smile on his face.

"Oh, umm... To Kill a Mockingbird. You know, by Harper Lee Finch." I replied. I hadn't noticed that he saw me reading as I looked in his windows.

"I love that one. Classic, I think I read it last summer."

And like that, we began talking and didn't stop for a long time. Who knew I could have this much chemistry with my next-door neighbor?

Andy said that they moved here from Washington because his sister Hanna got pregnant. His parents were ashamed of the pregnancy, almost kicking Hanna out.

"My grandma lives here, so Mom thought this would be a good place to raise the baby. She would have extra help. Mom tries to keep Hanna's baby this big secret, and I don't understand why. Like yes, it's looked down upon to get pregnant at 15, but she's not going to get executed if anyone finds out. You know?"

I liked the way that Andy talked. He was so open- like he owns his problems. That, or maybe I was the only person he could talk to.

"Yeah. My mom's younger sister got pregnant as a teen. She had my cousin around the same time my mom had me and we were really close. I can still remember how young my aunt was and how hard she had it. I'm glad that your parents are helping her. I just wish they wouldn't hide her away like a criminal." I didn't mean to add that last part. I hope I didn't offend him.

"I agree one hundred percent. It's nice to have someone that finally understands me. It's so easy to talk to you, Angelita."

I tried to contain my smile. "Well, I should probably get out of here. I have a couple errands today."

"I wish you the best on your errands, Angelita. Also, could I borrow your copy of To Kill a Mockingbird? You've convinced me to reread this literary masterpiece by Ms. Finch." 

"Of course, but it's going to cost you." I paused and said, "You have to give me something to read in the meantime."

He stroked his chin in thought. Suddenly, his eyes lit up like fireworks just went off in his mind. "I have the perfect book. Let me see if I didn't give it away." I wondered what he was going to bring me. As he retrieved my book, I took my copy of TKAM off the shelf.

A minute later, Andy returned with a worn red book. "This is one of my favorite books ever written. You ready?" He threw the book out the window and into my bedroom. "Nice throw. Here's Ms. Finch herself." Hoping not to miss the window and have my book land in a pile of snow, I tried to imitate the way Andy threw. To my embarrassment, I ended up smacking him square in the face. The book hit the floor with a "thud," and he picked it up gingerly.

I cringed and said, "Sorry about that, I was aiming for your hands, not your face. As you can tell, I'm not very coordinated, sorry." I smiled as my cheeks turned red.

"It's not every day a cute girl nails you in the face with a hardcopy. Thanks again." He grinned.

I said goodbye and walked out of my bedroom. My mind was only focused on one word that replayed over again in my head. Cute. He called me cute.

Regaining my trait of thought, I finally looked down at the book Andy gave me. The Book Thief by Mark Zusak. It was a random choice, but the synopsis seemed interesting, so I gave it a try.

Since I had nothing better to do, I spent the whole day reading it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Book Theif a story of a little girl who collects books with her foster family in Nazi Germany. Each page had me riveting for more; to hear about this girl's tragic life.

When I finished The Book Thief, I anticipated to discuss it with Andy as soon as possible. I hobbled up to my bedroom and looked out my window to see if he was there. To my dismay, his lights were off again. I knew he'd be back soon, so I took a piece of construction paper out of my desk drawer and wrote a note. I said, "Andy, I just finished The Book Thief. To discuss, call me when you can come to the window. -Angelita." Below that, I wrote out my phone number. 

I hoped that Andy would call me soon. I waited up until 10:30 for him but concluded that he already went to bed. I was disappointed; I really wanted to talk to him again. 

Two days later, I woke up to the sound of rocks being thrown at my window. "Oh great, the birds are back." I murmured. Turns out, it wasn't birds at my window, but a teenage boy with pebbles in his hand. 

"Are you trying to break my window? "I asked jokingly.

"I thought this was a more unique way to get your attention rather than calling you. A nice note, by the way."

"Just trying to keep it classy. Did you finish rereading "To Kill a Mockingbird?" 

"Yes, I was racing to finish because I didn't want to talk to you until we could discuss it. I see you finished The Book Thief" He gestured to my sign with a smile on his lips. 

For the next hour, we discussed the novels. What we didn't like about them, Who we wished would have lived and died. When Andy's mom called him down for breakfast, he ran to his nightstand and brought back another book. 

"Here I have another one for you. It'll blow your mind." Andy tossed the book at me, and it flew past my head and onto my bed. "Thanks. Wait before you go, I have something for you too." I hoped that Andy would want to keep exchanging books, so I picked one out last night. I didn't want to pick anything too out there, in case he didn't like it. After much consideration, I chose "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt. I ran back to the window and tossed it out.

Over the next few months, Andy and I started talking at our windows almost every day. He was so fun to be around, my light in this dark world. We discussed everything. Our favorite books, pop culture, how his sister Hanna was doing with her pregnancy. 

Andy said the pregnancy has put a lot of strain on his family. "It feels like all we ever do is talk about the fact that Hanna is pregnant. Me and Bailey have been pushed into the limelight. And Hanna doesn't want to be the center of attention because all they do is snap at her and figure out ways to hide her, so no one finds out. I stick up for her, but I can't be there all the time. That's why I spend all my time in my room. I swear, you are my only real friend here, Angelita. No one listens to me like you." 

I was honored that Andy thought so highly of me. "I feel the same way. My parents are always so focused on Sammy because he is constantly getting into trouble that they forget about me. I don't mind most of the time because I know they have a lot on their plate, but it would be nice for them to check up on me sometimes." As I talked, I played with the loose threads on my socks.

"Angelita, I want to see if I can do something. Step back." Andy said. Confused, I got off the floor and stood near my desk. "Okay, what are you… be careful, Andy!" I exclaimed as I watched him balance on his window frame. "I'm coming over!" He said with adventure in his eyes.

Suddenly, Andy lunged from his window to mine. I gasped in fear that he would miss, falling in the snow, but he landed feet first on the floor. "You scared me," I said.

"Sorry I just really wanted to-" He paused and looked at his feet. "Kiss you. If that's okay."

Taken aback from his words, I paused, trying to act cool and said, "Okay." 

Since I had never been kissed before, I wasn't sure how this was supposed to work. I decided to wing it and just close my eyes. Andy leaned in and kissed my lips. They were soft and warm like I’d imagined.

I never thought that Andy would kiss me like this, jumping through my window. But it was the perfect first kiss-unique to us in every way.