Growing Up Neighbors

by Frances Hoelsema

  As Nicholas drove down the road, his nerves grew. He knew that without a doubt he wanted to connect with Deborah again because he truly missed their friendship. He still couldn’t make himself believe he loved her yet, but at least knew that he wanted her to be a part of his life.

  However, that was how Nicholas felt. He had no idea what Deborah wanted. Having never answered the phone when he called or calling him back at her own convenience did not paint a pretty picture for him. Nicholas realized for the first time, as he made his last turn, that she might be angry that he stopped over, especially unannounced, and that she would want nothing to do with him.

  Having second thoughts about visiting her today, Nicholas drove slowly passed her house. As he went by he noticed that only Deborah and someone else were there. He thought he recognized the other car so he wasn’t worried or threatened by the extra vehicle in the driveway.

  Nicholas didn’t get much further down the road when he decided to turn around. As much as it would hurt to find out for sure if his own worst fears were true regarding the two of them, the truth was that he still wanted to know and he still wanted to see Deborah’s face again.

  This time, as Nicholas neared the Harringtons’ driveway, he didn’t pass by but turned into it. He sat in his car for a little while to calm his nerves, one of his favorite songs on the radio helping a little. When the song had ended, Nicholas took a deep breath and opened the car door.

  Well, here I go, Nicholas thought. It’s now or never.

  Nicholas walked the rest of the short walk up the driveway and to the front door. He rang the doorbell once, but no one seemed to be coming to the door. He then decided to knock, making sure it was loud and hard so that it could be heard through the front porch. Again, after waiting a while, no one came. Feeling a loss and sense of defeat, Nicholas turned to head back to his car.

  But then the door opened.

  ---------------

  Deborah awoke that Saturday morning facing her alarm clock. She rubbed her eyes to check what it said a second time just to make sure she saw it right. The alarm clock stated eight thirty five meaning Deborah had slept through her alarm.

  I can’t believe I slept this late, she thought, as she raced out of bed.

  Seeing that her best friend, Felicia, was due over any moment to hang out with her all day and help her paint her and Robyn’s room, she hurried to get dressed. She put on some older clothes in case she spilled paint later on. After all, she and Felicia weren't professionals. She dressed in black sweat pants and a green t-shirt that was at least one size too big for her. She then rushed to the bathroom to put her hair up in a ponytail and make her face look as presentable as possible.

  The doorbell rang just as Deborah took the first step down the stairs to get some breakfast. Felicia let herself in after ringing the doorbell, as she was custom to doing.

  “Hey, Felicia, I woke up late so I was just heading to the kitchen for some breakfast. Care to join me?”

  “Sure. Where is everyone?”

  As Deborah got herself a bowl of cereal and warmed up a cinnamon roll, she answered.

  “Let’s see. Robyn slept over at a friend’s house last night and won’t be back until sometime this afternoon. My mom left for work already this morning and Alex put in a double shift at work. He left sometime last night and so I’m not sure when he’ll be back, but I’d dare say we at least have the whole house to ourselves this morning.”

  “Cool!”

  Deborah saw Felicia basically drooling over the cinnamon roll she was eating so she offered one to her.

  “Would you like a cinnamon roll too? They’re like two days old, but if you heat them up they still taste pretty good.”

  “Yeah, I’d love one. I didn’t really eat breakfast so that sounds really good.”

  Deborah got up from the table to get another cinnamon roll out and as it warmed up in the microwave she poured two glasses of orange juice and set them on the table.

  The two of them enjoyed their light breakfast and small talk around the table. It wasn’t until about a half hour later that they got up to start the paint job.

  Both Deborah and Robyn had asked their mom for days if they could repaint their room. It was always a pinkish color, but seeing as they weren’t young kids anymore, they both wanted something more adult-like and sophisticated. The two sisters agreed on a light natural green tone and then presented their paint sample and reasons to repaint their room to their mom. It took quite a bit of convincing before they finally broke their mom down and she agreed to allow them to do it.

  When it came time to paint though, Robyn “accidentally” made other plans to get out of actually painting since she loathed the activity. Deborah just shrugged it off though because she loved to paint and it would be something that she and Felicia could do together.

  Deborah went into the laundry room to gather all the supplies that her mom stored there. She got some blue painter’s tape, the gallon of paint tinted to the color the sisters chose, some stir sticks, a tray, paint roller and two brushes. She also remembered to gather some old, raggedy towels and a step stool. When she got everything piled together, she called for Felicia to help her carry everything up to her room.

  With music on, windows opened, furniture out of the way and everything prepped, the two young women were ready to begin. Since there was only one roll of painter’s tape, Deborah was the one to go around the room taping off the ceiling and trim around the windows and floor. It didn’t take a terribly long time because her and Robyn’s room was basically a square. The walk-in closet that the girls shared was already a natural color so it wasn’t going to get painted at all, leaving all the taping off that much quicker.

  Felicia followed behind with a small brush, painting the corners and edges. Deborah then started rolling on the paint. Between the two of them, they were going to have the first coat of paint on in no time. Everything seemed to flow very nicely in Deborah’s opinion.

  The two friends had a lot of fun while painting too. They often caught each other dancing or singing to a song on the radio while painting the walls, invoking a giggle or joking comment from the one who caught the other. At one point the two girls swayed their hips in unison to one of their favorite songs bringing a huge smile across both of their faces.

  Not paying attention to where things were or how hard and wide she was swaying her hips, Felicia accidentally bumped into the step stool that held the tray of paint. The result was a stream of green liquid flying through the air, finding its destination on Deborah's right pant leg and some towels on the floor.

  “Oops. I’m so sorry, Debbie!” Felicia exclaimed with shock on her face and hand over her mouth.

  Even though the silliness was over, Deborah could sense Felicia was holding back a giggle at the mess she just created.

  “It’s okay. These were old clothes anyway.”

  The two of them quickly tried to clean up the best they could before paint got onto anything else. However, Deborah knew she would have to take a break and get out of the pants she was wearing.

  “I’ll have to start a load of laundry and change my clothes. Can you finish this last little bit while I do that? That way the first coat is done.”

  “Sure,” Felicia said.

  Deborah grabbed some fresh clothes and headed to the bathroom. She carefully removed the paint-stained pants and baggy t-shirt to put on something a little cooler. Even though it was newer than what she was just wearing, it would allow her skin to breathe and keep her cooler as it was starting to get warm in her room. It was a matching exercise outfit: the pants were black with a light-blue stripe down the side and the top was sleeveless and light blue with black around the edges.

  Hmm, this outfit even goes with my toenail color, Deborah thought to herself as she noticed her bare feet and the shade of blue she painted her toenails about a week ago.

  Feeling clean and good, Deborah took all the dirty clothing and towels and started a load of laundry. She chos
e a quick wash seeing as it shouldn’t take a whole lot to get paint out of the various objects that were in the machine. By the time that was all said and done, Felicia had come downstairs to join Deborah.

  “Time for a break I guess because the first coat is done,” Felicia informed Deborah.

  “Great! What should we do for about a half hour?”

  “I don’t know. Do you have any ideas?”

  Nothing stroked the girls’ fancy so they just sat around the kitchen table talking and drinking some water. Ten minutes into their topic of conversation Deborah had to put her wet laundry in the dryer. As she opened the dryer door, she noticed a bunch of items already in there that were never taken out.

  Way to go, Alex, Deborah assumed in her thoughts, seeing as a lot of the items were his.

  Deborah put the dried items in an empty basket so she could put her stuff in. Again, she ran the dryer for only a short time because if something wasn’t dry by the time the cycle was through, Deborah would just hang the item or items on the clothes line in the back yard. Once her stuff was dry, she would add it to the basket, bring it up the stairs and fold everything at the same time, even though a majority of it wasn’t hers.

  Felicia waited patiently at the kitchen table for her best friend to reappear. Once she did, the two of them decided to play a card game seeing as they still had some time for the first layer of paint to dry. The game they chose to play was War, which they ended up quitting when the dryer buzzed.

  “Can you put the cards away while I get the laundry?” Deborah asked Felicia. “Then I can just meet you upstairs to start painting again.”

  “Sure.”

  Felicia got up to do what was asked and Deborah headed to the laundry room again.

  The laundry wasn’t one hundred percent dry so Deborah took her items outside to hang them on the line. Just as she was putting the last few things on, the doorbell rang. Felicia had no idea that Deborah went outside so she continued to get ready to paint a second coat on the bedroom walls, assuming her friend would get the door.

  A couple of minutes had passed when Deborah finally made her way up to her bedroom, first having changed her mind about the filled clothes basket. She decided to bring it up to the living room after all seeing as her stuff would be a while yet.

  “It sure is getting warm outside,” Deborah stated upon entering her room.

  “So who was at the door?” Felicia questioned.

  “What?”

  Just then the two friends heard a knock at the door.

  “I thought you got the door when someone rang the bell,” Felicia said.

  “No. I was outside hanging up some laundry.”

  “Well, someone rang the bell and now they are knocking on the door. You might want to go see who it is.”

  “I wonder who because I’m not expecting anyone,” Deborah said her thoughts out loud.

  Both friends headed downstairs to get the door. Before Deborah wanted to answer it, she peeked out some windows to see if she could figure out who was there. All she saw was a red car.

  “Hmm, I don’t know anyone with a red car. Do you?” Deborah asked Felicia.

  “No.”

  Felicia stayed in the living room while Deborah ventured out into the screened-in front porch to get the door. The whole time she tried to figure out who could possibly be visiting at this time.

  When Deborah opened the door, she immediately recognized who it was even though his back was to her, walking away.

  It was him, the one person that she was trying to avoid.

  Nicholas.

  ---------------

  Nicholas started turning around once he heard the door open. The look he saw on Deborah’s face was priceless, but couldn’t be determined. She was definitely in shock to see him, but didn’t know if there were also some happy-to-see-him or upset-he’s-here angles to her expression. She also never said anything to acknowledge his presence, which sent his thoughts in a million different directions.

  But then he realized that it could have been because of what his facial structure appeared like. When Deborah had first opened the door and he had seen her for the first time in a long time, almost a year, she was even better looking than he recalled. The whole year she spent in college apparently agreed with her because she now seemed more womanly and extremely attractive. Her outfit definitely added fuel to the fire burning in Nicholas’ heart as it was form fitting and flattered her curves.

  All Nicholas did from the moment that door opened was stare at her with eyes bulging from their sockets. Nicholas was awestruck at the beautiful creature that stood before him, and it was that look that Nicholas realized he had on his face.

  When both Nicholas and Deborah had stood before each other for a few moments, both for different reasons, Nicholas finally cleared his throat and offered a greeting.

  “Hi, Debbie. Remember me?”

  He tried to break the ice between them by making that funny comment all the while thinking to himself how dumb he must have looked just seconds before.

  “Um, hi, Nick.” That was all her brain could come up with as it was still trying to recuperate from seeing him standing before her.

  “Sorry to come unannounced, but may I come in?”

  “Alex isn’t here if that’s who you’re trying to track down.”

  Deborah’s tone didn’t seem too pleased to see him so Nicholas tried to be as cautious with his words as he could.

  “No, I actually came to see you.”

  “Me? Why?”

  Ouch.

  Nicholas felt like someone punched him in the stomach after hearing that. Apparently she felt like he didn’t have a reason to see just her, which meant that she didn’t view the two of them as good friends anymore.

  Again, approaching everything carefully, Nicholas said in a more serious tone, “You’re my friend, Debbie. I’ve missed you. Can I come in so we can talk?”

  When Deborah hesitated for a while, Nicholas was afraid she would say no.

  “Sure. I guess so.”

  Deborah opened the door wider and held her arm out to her side in the direction of the living room.

  When they both got inside, Nicholas noticed that Felicia was there, which explained the extra vehicle that he thought he had recognized.

  “Hi, Felicia,” Nicholas greeted with a smile.

  Felicia was just about as stunned as Deborah when she saw him and didn’t know what to think because she knew Deborah was trying to avoid him. However, she at least responded quickly with a nice greeting in return.

  When Nicholas’ back had turned towards Felicia so he could look at Deborah, she secretly gave Deborah a look of concern. Her facial features conveyed a message of, “What are you going to do now?”

  In return, Deborah just smiled and explained to Felicia that Nicholas wanted to talk, which gave her the impression that everything was going to be just fine. So Felicia excused herself from the other two so that they could be alone. She told Deborah that she’d be upstairs painting. When she had left, Deborah kindly offered Nicholas a seat wherever he wanted.

  “Painting, huh?” was the first question that popped out of Nicholas’ mouth in hopes to lighten the mood.

  “Yeah, Robyn and I got sick of the girly pink color that we’ve had in our bedroom for years. We wanted something a little more grown up so we went with a green color.”

  “That’s cool.”

  Nicholas leaned in towards Deborah to wipe off a little smudge of paint that she had by her chin, the move startling Deborah so much so that she shifted on the couch that the two of them were sharing.

  “I just wanted to wipe off some paint,” Nicholas explained with a smile. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

  That touch was definitely unexpected, but Deborah didn’t move away because it scared her. Quite the opposite really. Nicholas gently caressing her chin just under her lips with his smooth, manly hands made her feel warm and tingly inside and brought up all the feelings again that she harbor
ed in her heart. Feelings she wished she didn’t feel anymore. Plus it didn’t help the way he was looking at her when he did that. His eyes showed Deborah that there might have been something more there than just a friendly gesture.

  Deborah blushed a little as she said, “Oh, that’s what happens when you paint I guess.” Then she tried to give a little giggle to make it appear as if it was no big deal.

  Before Nick could respond, she asked, "So what did you want to talk about?" She was glad she decided to bring up the laundry basket so that she could start folding its contents in order to keep her mind off of her affection for the man beside her.

  “It’s not just one thing, I guess,” Nicholas started, “But I just wanted to catch up with you. It’s been almost a year since we’ve last seen each other and I want to know how you’re doing, how was your first year of college, you know, all of that?”

  “That’s all you really wanted to stop by for, to catch up with me?”

  “Yeah, like I said, I’ve missed you and our talks.”

  “Well, you could have called to catch up with me instead of coming out this way,” Deborah answered briskly.

  “I know, but I never get a hold of you when I try to call.”

  Exactly, Deborah thought. That’s why I’d rather you call.

  “But anyway,” Nicholas continued, “I’m here now and was just hoping you’d talk with me.”

  “I don't know. It'll take some time,” Deborah stated, unsure if she wanted to.

  I don't know? Debbie, please don't turn me down.

  “I’ve got some time. I mean, I do have to work in a while here, but whatever we don’t get to today we can do another time really soon.”

  Nicholas felt as if he was almost begging Deborah to converse with him.

  Deborah put down the laundry and faced Nicholas. In a way she was excited to share her past year with him, but she kept her heart guarded, believing that his interest in her life was nothing more than because they were friends that grew up across the street from one another.