EREN

When I was younger, I always saw my town as a magical place. The world was big to me, of course it was, I was small compared to everything else . There was so much to explore and back then I had a lot of time on my tiny hands.

The world I imagined quickly faded as I got older. I've lived here in Elkenville my whole life and I know every corner of this small town. I sometimes wish I was a kid again with all my big dreams, dreams that seemed to have disappeared overnight.

I spend my days mostly in my house now and only occasionally go out when it's absolutely necessary.

"Eren!" My little sister, Elizabeth, calls. "Can you help me with my costume?" She's upstairs trying to put on her sun costume for a play she's in at her summer camp and the costume is about twice her size.

"Yeah! Give me a sec!" I yell back. I finish eating the sandwich I made as a snack and run upstairs, and what I see is a complete disaster.

Eli is wearing a black leotard backward and her costume half way on which is covering her head. She seems to be struggling to see what's going on, likely do to the costume being over her eyes.

I walk over, snickering. "Eren! Don't laugh!" She shouts. I can't take her seriously when she looks like this. Apparently the costume is stuck because she seems to be tugging at it so I hold onto it and pull. Her head pops out after a few seconds.

"That hurt, you big dummy!" She shouts again. This little shrimp better be glad I came to help her. I'm about to give her a noogie when the doorbell rings.

Just before I go to see who it is, my mom runs past me, down the stairs, and opens the door. Oh God, it's HIM. Toby, to be precise.

"Evening, Mrs. Alcott!" Toby greets my mom. Let me take a second to give you some details on Toby Watts. He's annoying, he's nosy, he's always in my business, he's an absolute nuisance and not to mention he's a bit of a di-. Anyway, That's all you need to know about him, he just gets on my nerves. Look, it's not like I hate the guy but I've known Toby since 6th grade and he's been pestering me ever since.

Toby spots me at the top of the stairs and waves. I turn around and go back to helping Eli fix her costume.

"Eren, come downstairs and say hello to your friend!" My mom calls. "He walked all the way here, the least you can do is greet him!"

I groan before cursing underneath my breath and leave Eli to fend for herself in her gigantic mess of an outfit. I walk down the stairs and stop at the second step. "What do you want?"

My mom hits the back of my head with the paper in her hand. "That's not a hello, Eren." She crosses her arms, waiting for me to properly give a greeting.

After a few minutes of awkward silence and endless stares, mom gives up and walks back upstairs. I cross my arms, leaning against the wall as Toby invites himself into our living room. I soon follow after him and he falls onto the couch.

"Sooo..." Toby starts to say, but I cut him off. "Why are you here?" I ask, a bit ticked off.

"Wow! Snippy, are we?" He smirks, "Is it wrong for me to come and visit my best bud on a nice summer night?" We are NOT in any way "best buds". Never in a million lifetimes would I want to be your "best bud". He continues on. "I wanna talk about you know who..."

"Who?" I ask, even though I'm pretty sure I know.

This is about Charlie Davis, a boy who I recently started talking to online who I found out is transferring to my school this summer. Eli blurted it out that I had a online "boyfriend" (He's not my boyfriend) and now he won't leave me alone about it.

I think Charlie is pretty cool, whenever we talk, he tells me about his hobbies or what's going on in his life. He recently got a cat after begging his parents to let him have a pet.

I've seen pictures of the lil' guy and he's adorable. He's an black cat with a white tipped tail, green eyes, and according to Charlie, he's very energetic. While thinking about all this, I started to space out.

Toby pouts and continues the conversation. "You know who I'm talking about, dude. Charlie! The kid you've been texting for like four weeks.

"Three." I correct him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever! Point is, I want to know more about him!"

"What, why?"

"He seems interesting, plus I've never seen you take any interest in like, anyone!"

"You don't need to know anything about him other than what I told you."

"You told me he was a boy who has a cat."

"Exactly, that's all you need to know. I don't need you stalking him into a corner."

"You haven't even met him yet!" Toby protests.

"Which is why I don't want you to. I wanna meet him before you try and corrupt his mind or some shit."

He scoffs and is about to say something else but stops himself. I guess he realized there's no point in trying to argue with me.

I walk over to the kitchen, swing open the fridge door, and grab the pitcher of lemonade. Toby makes his way into the kitchen and puts his arm around my shoulder. I ignore him and pour the lemonade into a glass.

"Okay," Toby says,"I get you don't wanna talk about Charlie but I do." Seriously, take a hint. Why is he so persistent? "Pleasssssssseeeeeeeee?" He begs.

"UGH! Fine, we'll talk about Charlie but nothing too personal. Got it?" I say. He nods and we both sit at the island.

For an hour and half, I tell him more about Charlie. How he dyed his hair for the first time two days ago, how his cat is super cute and friendly, how he loves to write beautiful short stories, and a lot more. He's amazing, he's charming, he's....everything I could ever dream of...

Toby whistles and teases me about the way I talk on and on about him.

"If I weren't mistaken bud, I'd say you've got a crush!" He says, grinning from ear to ear.

Excuse me, did he say a crush?!