Six
He was a young boy
Chasing dreams through the starlight
Until one fateful night
He saw the girl with the blue eyes
‘A Night In Hollywood’ from Dreamers
After nodding politely along to one of Mum’s speeches about art, I head to the garden to sit in the sun and read. I’m meant to finish The Great Gatsby before term starts in a couple of days, and I have a few more chapters left.
As I get to the part where Gatsby is clearly never going to be called back by Daisy, a voice calls to me from over the fence. An American voice.
‘Hey.’
My new neighbours are American?
I get up and walk over, and see the younger brother on the other side.
‘Hi,’ I say, waving at him.
He’s small and young, with a temple fade and big eyes. He’s wearing a long-sleeved top and cargo shorts.
‘I saw you over the fence,’ he says. He looks at me curiously. ‘Do you live here?’
‘Well, I didn’t break into a random garden,’ I say, smiling. ‘Yeah, we’re neighbours. My name is Selena.’
‘I’m Daze,’ he says. ‘I wanted to say hello, since we’ve moved here and all.’
‘Paul!’ shouts out a voice from the house. ‘Dinner is up in ten minutes!’
‘Thanks!’ he yells back. He looks back at me, abashed. ‘Okay, my real name is Paul.’
‘That was poor timing for you.’ I laugh.
‘I’m really trying to get Daze to stick,’ he says, waving his arm around. ‘It feels, y’know, cooler. Like a stage name. And as we’ve moved here, it feels like a good time to, what’s it called . . .’ he pauses, scrunching his face up in concentration, ‘reinvent myself.’
I hold back a laugh. ‘Okay, I’ll call you Daze,’ I promise, although I can’t help thinking this kid is going to get caught out on his first day of school at registration.
But there’s a confidence to him. I’m sure if he told everyone that’s what he wanted to be called, they would do it.
‘Have you always lived here?’ he says.
‘Yes,’ I say. ‘I’ve lived in this yellow house my whole life. And before you moved here, my best friend lived in your house his whole life.’
‘Where did he move?’
‘Manchester.’ I sigh.
‘Like the soccer team?’
‘Kid, you’re going to need to start calling it football here. You use your feet to kick the ball, it’s football.’
‘I’m not a kid.’ He winces. ‘I’m eleven now. How old are you, anyway?’
‘Seventeen,’ I say. ‘Literally nearly an adult.’
‘My brother, Ty, is seventeen,’ he muses. ‘But the point, is I’m not a kid. I’m going to high school this year. Do you know how cool that is? Back home we don’t go to high school until fourteen.’
‘Talking about me?’ says the older brother, appearing from behind Daze. Like Daze, he has a lazy grin and sparkling eyes. And he’s handsome. Really handsome. Broad shoulders, tall, and he is, as Kira sussed out from my window, hot.
‘You must be Ty,’ I say.
‘I am. And who are you?’ he says, his grin getting tighter. He puts a hand on Daze’s shoulder.
‘This is Selena,’ says Daze. ‘She lives next door.’
‘Do you normally talk to eleven-year-olds over the fence?’ says Ty. His voice is still light, but I get the vibe he does not like this.
‘Your brother called me over!’ I say. ‘We’re neighbours, after all.’ No point taking offence, I’m going to live next to him. Although I miss Ollie, it’s not a betrayal to be friends with his replacement. His very hot replacement.
‘Daze, I told you,’ says Ty, putting his hands on Daze’s shoulders and turning him around. ‘You can’t talk to strangers here. This isn’t suburban San Francisco. This part of suburban London is full of drug dealers and people who have knives.’
‘Woah!’ I say. ‘I am neither of those things. And also, Croydon isn’t that bad.’
‘Really?’ says Ty. ‘Yesterday on the way downtown, we saw a woman throw a trash can at another woman.’
‘I’m sure she had a good reason,’ I say, feeling strangely defensive about it.
‘For minor assault?’ says Ty.
Who is this guy? It’s not like I agree with what he’s describing, but this is my hometown. ‘Well, I don’t think San Francisco has the best reputation,’ I say. ‘I saw a TikTok on it.’
‘There’s one shitty area,’ says Ty, rolling his eyes as if I should have known that. ‘The rest is pretty great. Much better than this place, which seems to be entirely shitty.’
‘You know what,’ says Daze, edging away, ‘I’m going to head inside and leave you guys to it.’
‘Then why did your family move here?’ I say.
‘Because my dad got transferred to a company head-quartered here and thought this was a good idea. Good for his career. Thought we should live in the suburbs so we can still have a normal life. But what’s the point of moving to London when we’re too far out to even experience it?
I actually like the main part of the city: the sights, the restaurants.
But . . . this whole thing has been a bunch of arbitrary decisions, with him deciding what to do with our lives. ’
I blink at him. Wow, that was certainly a speech.
Ty raises an eyebrow. ‘Nothing to say?’ he says.
I feel taken aback, unable to say anything to a person who just used ‘arbitrary’ in casual conversation.
‘My best friend used to live here,’ I say finally, gesturing to his house.
‘What’s that got to do with anything?’ says Ty, looking confused.
‘You’re not the only person who’s going through this,’ I tell him.
‘Well, it still sucks,’ he says.
‘Yeah, but you might make some new friends, see a new city.’ I don’t know why I’m hyping this guy up, all he’s done is shit on my hometown.
‘I wasn’t good at making friends in San Francisco,’ he says. ‘It’s not going to be any different here.’
‘I’m getting that vibe,’ I say, dryly.
He shakes his head. ‘You don’t get it. My dad made us move to the other side of the world, away from the life I had. Then to top it off, he wants me to apply for colleges on the side we left. Which means there’s no point making friends, as I’ll have to go back anyway.’’
If there’s one topic I don’t want to get sucked into with a stranger, it is university applications. Especially with someone who is as unreasonably angry as this guy.
‘I think I’ll go now,’ I say. I pause. ‘I would say it’s been nice meeting you, but you know what, it hasn’t.’
And with that, I turn around and head back into the house, thinking about what a downgrade my new next-door neighbour is.