That afternoon I still couldn’t shake the curiosity of the boy whose brief presence in my day had kept me fixated on who he was and why I couldn’t seem to remember him.

It was beyond frustrating. Concentrating on my homework was impossible. There was some noise from next door that drew my attention. I stood looking at the window at a moving truck.

New neighbors. I don’t think I have ever even met the previous neighbors. They had pretty much kept to themselves.

I watched a lady direct the movers to into the house and I studied her. It was a reminder of what I didn’t have anymore. A mother. I sighed, lost in the wistfulness of how different my life would be if I still have my family. I would never be lonely. My sister, as annoying as she had been would ensure someone who understood me like no one else.

Even though they had died years ago, I still missed their presence in my life daily. What advice would my mother give on my new relationship? Would she like Joey? I hated that I still allowed the sadness of their loss creep back into my present. I had to actively stop myself from wallowing in the grief.

A man who walked up the woman gave her a brief kiss. Any intention of looking away was lost. They were about the age my parents would be now. I was looking at a future I had lost and I missed it.

I forced myself away from the window. Allowing myself to think about them and feel the pain of what I was missing wouldn’t do me any good. I had lived without it for the last seven years and I had to figure out how I was going to live with the loss for the rest of my life. It was a depressing thought.

Resigned and struggling to surface from the grief I sat down and did my homework. Keeping my mind on something else was the only way I felt I could pull myself out of the past and into the present.

I managed to get my homework down when my grandmother got home.

“You going to help me bake some cookies?” she asked, already getting the ingredients from the cupboards.

“I would never turn down a chance for your cookies.” She made the best chocolate chip cookies I had ever had.

“These are for the new neighbors next door.”

“I hope they’re going to be as quiet as the last lot,” I muttered.

“I think it’s a family.”

A family. Everything I had lost.

“They have kids?” I asked.

My grandmother nodded. “Miss Turner said they have a son.”

I shrugged, not wanting to get pulled back into the emotions I had firmly shut out from earlier. I didn’t really want to be reminded of what I had lost but I knew I would be in for more questions if I refused to help my grandmother.

My grandmother chatted happily while we baked the cookies. I tuned her out, not wanting to hear all the details she had about the new family next door.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her how much it hurt to confronted with what I would never have. My grandmother had been devastated by the loss of my family and she had done everything she could to fill the void they had left in my life. So I kept my mouth shut and helped her with the cookies.

I sealed the food in a container.

“I’m going to go next door,” my grandmother said.

When I didn’t say anything she studied me.

“Come with. It will be a chance to meet them.”

It was the last thing I wanted to do but I could not deny my grandmother. If she wanted me to go over, I would without complaint.

This was drop in the ocean compared to all she had done for me.

“Let’s go,” I said, taking the container of food.

My grandmother smiled affectionately as she headed out and I followed behind her.

It was early evening, the sun was starting to set.

My grandmother knocked on the door. I just wanted this whole meeting over done with already but I dared not allow my grandmother to see anything other than a devoted granddaughter who would do anything she asked.

The door swung open. The woman from earlier smiled brightly.

“Hi,” she greeted. She was beautiful. Her flawless skin, and long brown hair with clear blue eyes.

“We are your neighbors and thought you would love some cookies.”

“That’s so sweet of you,” the woman ushered us inside her house.

There were still unpacked boxes in amongst the furniture.

I had never been inside the house but from what I could see it had the same layout as our house.

“I’m Emma,” the woman introduced.

“I’m Rose and this is my granddaughter Tessa.” My grandmother introduced.

I fixed a smile.

“It’s lovely to meet you.”

I gave her the cookies and she took them.

“Aaron, we have guest,” the woman yelled up the stairway.

“I’ll be down in a sec.” A male voice replied from the second floor.

It was probably the man I had seen her with in the garden earlier.

“Why don’t you come in and share these with us,” Emma invited.

This was dragging out but I smiled and sat down on the sofa beside my grandmother as Emma sat on the sofa opposite us.

“I’m sorry the house is still a mess. We have been unpacking all day but it doesn’t feel like we have made a dent at all.”

We had moved so many times but we had never had that much to unpack which had made it easier. Unpacking had been so much easier.

Emma offered us something to drink. I took the water she brought for me while my grandmother took a glass of lemonade.

She opened the container of cookies and offered them to us while my grandmother and her chatted happily about where they had moved from and their love for the neighborhood. I vaguely heard them mention something about my high school but the last thing I wanted to talk about was school.

I spent so much time there, when I wasn’t there I wanted to forget about it. Like most teenagers.

I nibbled on the cookie as I studied some of the pictures already adorning the shelf above the fire place.

The man from earlier dressed in a black suit and Emma in a white wedding dress, smiling loving into each others eyes. I swallowed hard, trying my best not to see my mother in Emma and my father in the man.

I wanted this whole get together over already, I couldn’t wait to get out of here and the warmth that filled the house. It was everything I would never have again. It was too much to experience without feeling the loss.

The man from earlier appeared in the doorway. “Sorry, I was busy putting the bed together.”

Emma introduced her husband Aaron. He was tall and handsome. They made a lovely couple.

“How old are you Tessa?” Aaron asked as he took a seat beside his wife.

“I’m nearly eighteen,” I replied.

In a couple of weeks I would be celebrating my birthday.

“You must meet our son. He is your age and he’ll be going to the same school.”

Just what I needed. I tried my best to seem genuinely interested in their revelation.

Aaron went to the bottom on the stairs. “Son we have guests.”

“I’ll be down in a minute,” their son replied.

I knew how this would play out. They would push us together in hopes we would connect but what if we didn’t. It would make things more awkward and the last thing I needed was some teen boy I had to try to be friends with. Just because we were the same age and would be going to the same school didn’t mean we would automatically click.

The sound of footsteps made me finish the last of my cookie and I swallowed the last of it when a tall dark haired boy appeared in the doorway of the living room.

He was handsome. There was no way other to describe the striking boy. The moment his eyes met mine, I felt my stomach drop out from under me. For a moment I held my breath, his brown eyes on me.

There was something about him, that tugged at me. In between being taken by his physical presence, I experienced a familiarity that I couldn’t shake.

I knew him. Somehow, which seemed impossible, he was familiar. He was the boy I had seen at school. The same one who had piqued my interest.

He smiled smugly as if he was aware of the affect he had on me.

“Meet our Damien.”