One
We turn off the main road onto a street with a couple of rundown homes, and ultimately into a gravel parking lot at the end of the street. Penny throws the car in park, sitting in front of what looks like an old motel. Our new apartment building is two floors with open hallways, and set back from the road surrounded by tall trees. The sun is just starting to set, which casts eerie shadows across the front of the building. It’s giving off a sorta Bates Motel vibe, but seems to be an upgrade from the cabins Penny tried to sell me on as the ‘tiny home experience’ we left behind in Vermont. The Vermont cabin community had been full of a bunch of weird doomsdayers, people Ralph had connections to. But, with Ralph’s wife finally leaving him, he could now finally have Penny fully in his life. So that brought us from a tiny remote cabin to what looks like a tinier motel room turned apartment in Rhode Island. “James, I know it’s hard bouncing around all the time,” I jump, startled as they are the first words either of us have uttered in the past few hours, “but things are getting good with Ralph now and Beacon is our new home. You’ll make new friends, maybe even a nice girlfriend.” I’ve actively tried to avoid meaningful friendships for the past few years. We’ve lived somewhere new every year since I was in the third grade. After middle school I just stopped putting myself out there. Well, except for earlier this summer with Andy. I open the car door and stand to stretch, taking in the immediate area. There isn’t really much right around the apartment, but the main road we turned off of looked more promising. Penny heads into the leasing office, so I decide to walk around the back of the building. The majority of the yard behind the building is taken up by a swimming pool, which looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in a few weeks. I drop into a lounger and pull out my phone, opening Instagram. I open my messages with Andy, reading over the last three weeks of unreturned conversation. The last one, I’m sorry, was sent this morning when I couldn’t find him in town. I think of sending something to let him know where we ended up, but decide against it. “There you are.” Penny is standing at the edge of the pool fence. “The apartment’s ready. We should unpack a bit before it gets too late.” We didn’t travel with much, as we typically end up in furnished apartments. It takes only twenty minutes to unload the car and the small trailer we pulled here. Once everything is inside, I bring my bags and boxes into my bedroom. The room has a twin bed, a dresser, and a desk. I start by unpacking my clothes, which fill up two of the four drawers. I stack my books on my desk, along with my laptop, and make the bed. There’s a knock at the front door. I hear Penny open it and some muffled conversation. “James, come out here and meet one of our new neighbors.” I pop out of my room and walk over to the kitchen. “James, this is Mrs. Weddle. She lives a few doors down and brought us some homemade cookies. What flavor did you say they were?” “Coconut chocolate chip! I always keep some cookies in the freezer in case an occasion’s sprung on me! I hope you enjoy them. I don’t think any of the Beacon High kids live in the building. A few in middle school and some a bit younger than that. There used to be a couple of older kids who lived on the first floor but they moved out when the mother got remarried. Oh, here I am boring you when you are trying to unpack. I’ll leave you to it. Please come down and knock if you need anything!” Once the neighbor is gone, I turn to head back to my bedroom. “James, can you help me unpack the rest of the kitchen?” “Actually Penny, I’m pretty beat. Want to get some good sleep before school tomorrow. I’ll finish whatever’s left in the morning.” “For the last time stop calling me P–” I shut the bedroom door and let out a deep sigh, before flopping down on the bed. I lay down in the dark, staring at the ceiling thinking about school in Vermont and school here. How they will likely be much different. The whole junior class in Vermont was only twenty-seven kids. I hadn’t looked too much into Beacon High, but the town
