"Let's go, Leyla! The truck is packed!" I heard my best friend yell to me from downstairs.

"I'm coming!" I replied and quickly went down the stairs and out the front door.

"You two be safe, call me when you get there and finish unpacking." My mom told us.

"Yes ma'am!" we replied simultaneously.

We hopped in the moving truck and buckled our seatbelts while waving my mom goodbye.

"Did you tell your parents we're on our way to the house?" I asked.

"Yea, my mom is on the phone with your mom as we speak." she laughed.

"How much do you wanna bet they'll start crying to each other?"

"Oh, you mean like last night? And this morning? And while packing up the truck?" We laughed.

"I don't understand why. We're just twenty minutes away." Kendall stated.

Kendall might be my most favorite person in the world next to my mother. She'd been my best friend since eighth grade, she's twenty and I'm nineteen now and she's still the closest friend I have. I was ecstatic for us to live together.

"God, I wish we were moving even farther." I claimed and she snickered.

____________________________________

We finally arrived to the house and pulled into the driveway.

"Now to haul ten pieces of large furniture into the house and hope we don't snap our spines in the process. FUN!" Kendall joked.

I scoffed at her joke and we hopped out of the truck.

We walked to the back and slid up the door that hid all of our things.

"Get up there. You got this." Kendall said to me.

"What?! Why me?!" I shouted.

"Well you workout everyday, I've seen your abs, this is nothing." she claimed and gestured at the furniture.

"Or...I can call my brother and he and Cameron can help us." I offered.

"Even better." she shrugged.

Kendall has had a crush on my brother since we were freshmen in highschool. It's not a surprise that she liked that idea.

...

Jessie and Cameron finally arrived after almost an hour.

"Took you two long enough." I sassed as they got out of the car.

"I was busy," Jesse claimed.

"Doing what?"

"Eating." he said and I rolled my eyes.

"What do you need?" Cameron asked.

I pointed at the inside of the moving truck. "It's heavy," I replied.

"Don't you workout everyday?" Jesse asked.

"That's what I said!" Kendall shouted.

"So do the both of you! You both bench like 300 pounds individually, you can't lift a couch?!" I asked.

"If I do it will you give me a kiss?" Cam asked with a smirk.

"If you do it, I won't hit you even though you just asked that very stupid question." I promised and he rolled his eyes.

"Just move out of the way," he commanded and he and Jesse hopped into the truck.

Kendall and I went inside and sat on the kitchen counter as the boys brought everything in.

"You're lucky as hell." Jesse stated.

"How?" I asked.

"Mom didn't give me any free furniture when I moved out."

"Probably because she was still using it."

"Whatever," he said and went back outside to the truck.

"He's so cute." Kendall stated.

"Raise your standards."

She laughed.

____________________________________

After everything had been moved inside, we began organizing them to their proper places.

"So I've helped you bring in all of your furniture, hung some pictures on the wall, and even folded a few towels. Can I get that kiss?" Cameron asked as I fixed one of the very slanted pictures he placed on the wall.

"Give it a rest, Cameron." Jesse commanded.

"Bro, what happened to being my wingman?"

"I'd be your wingman if it wasn't my sister." Jesse claimed.

"I just wanna be compensated for my hard work is all."

"Is making me happy not compensation enough?" I asked him with a pout.

"What? No! Of course it is! I love making you happy."

"Then there you go." I stated and walked off to the kitchen where Kendall and Jesse stood.

"To change the subject, this seems like a pretty rough neighborhood you're living in, Ley." Jess stated as he took a water bottle out of our fridge.

"We'll be fine." I promised.

"If anyone gives you any problems-..."

"Call you. I know. But I'm telling you, we'll be fine."

I've never had a reason to call him. People always knew who my brother was and didn't do any harm to me. Especially since when I was a freshman, he was a senior and a star player on the football team. Most siblings avoid each other in school, I had a personal bodyguard walk me to class.

Looking back at it, he's probably why I've never had a boyfriend. If I didn't know him and saw him and his best friend, I probably wouldn't want to bother his sister either.

"Maybe we should make friends with the neighbors?" Kendall suggested.

"What-?" Jesse asked.

"You know...just to introduce ourselves and become friendly well known faces," she explained.

"You can introduce yourselves only if we come, too." Jesse dealt.

"Don't you get tired of being overprotective?" I asked.

"Not if it's working." he answered.

"I guess it doesn't hurt to say hello." I agreed.

"Fun!" Kendall smiled.

Cameron and I hopped off of the kitchen counter and we all headed out the door.

"Which houses are we going to? Because you're out of your fucking mind if you think I'm walking this entire street." Cam stated.

"The two next door and the one across the street from us." I replied.

We walked to the house on our left and a kind old couple greeted us at the door. They were the Medlocks and the woman even offered us cookies as a welcoming gift.

We left their home and went to the one on our right. There lived a small family with two kids and a husband and wife. Both parents looked exhausted while the dad held a crying baby but they managed to stay kind to us during our introduction. We left quickly to give them peace.

I really hope they don't try to get us to babysit.

Finally, it was time to walk to the house across the street.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Cam asked Jesse who was still holding onto his cookie.

We got to the house and something about the energy was off. It wasn't terrifying but it was different from the last two we'd been to. I knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

"Maybe they're not home." Kendall offered.

"Car's in the driveway." Cam pointed out while he chewed the cookie Jesse gave him.

Suddenly, the door opened.

"Can I help you?"

There stood, leaning against the door frame on one arm, a tall man, even taller than Cam and Jesse who were around 6'2, he had messy dark hair that he ran his fingers through to get out of his face, when that was done I could finally see his eyes and noticed they were a pretty hazel. He held a cigarette between his lips and on the end corner of those lips was a scar that went through them both. He was wearing a tight tank top and I saw every muscle hidden under it. He paired it with grey sweatpants. His gaze was a bit harsh like he didn't want us on his property but he decided to be welcoming anyway.

Looking at him, I didn't want to be on his property just as much as he didn't want me to be.

"Hi. We were just going around and meeting our neighbors, we're new here. The house across the street," said Kendall.

She was always so great at meeting new people while I just kind of hid and let her speak for us.

"Uh huh." The man said as he looked across the street at our house then back to us.

"I'm Kendall and this is Leyla."

He looked at me and his stare sent a chill down my spine.

"You okay?" he asked then took a puff of his cigarette.

"Me?" I asked.

"Yea, you." he responded after exhaling his cigarette smoke. His voice was so deep and gravelly, it felt like it massaged my eardrums.

"I'm fine." I answered and he nodded.

"This is Jesse and Cameron. Her brother and his best friend." Kendall continued to introduce.

"Nice to meet you." he replied.

"Cool scar, dude." Cameron stated enthusiastically.

"Cameron!" Kendall called but the man just chuckled.

"It's fine. Thank you." he replied.

"How'd you get it?" Cam continued to intrude.

"Work related incident." The man slowly nodded and said. I felt like he was lying for whatever reason.

"Sorry, I don't think we caught your name." Jesse said.

"I didn't throw it." he replied.

Yea, he doesn't like us.

"It's Elijah." he finally answered and took another puff. "Eli is fine."

"It's nice to meet you, Eli." I replied.

He exhaled his smoke again through his nose and had a slight grin on his face. "I like when you say it."

"No." Jesse interrupted.

Eli turned his gaze from me to him and chuckled a little.

"Well if that's all, I was kind of busy, I'd like to get back to my work." Eli claimed.

"Yea, you do that." Jess instructed.

"Yea. You four have a good evening." Eli stated.

He and Jesse held threatening gazes before we walked off and headed back in the direction of our house.