Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2016 03:49:40 +0000 From: Matt Brown <darthkitty22@gmail.com> Subject: My New Friend from America Chapter 3 Hi! This is my first attempt at a story for Nifty, so any feedback and comments are appreciated! You can send me an email at darthkitty22@gmail.com Also, please donate to Nifty if you can; The site may be free for all of us users, but is certainly not free to run! For anyone who was waiting for the next chapter, I'm really sorry for the long delay. I've been really super busy and I just never got around to finishing the chapter! The next chapter should be up quite soon though! If you wanted to me emailed about upcoming chapters, send me an email and let me know :) Hope you enjoy the story :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well... It was the best first week of school ever! But also the most nerve-wracking for me. Tyler isn't in all my lessons, but he's in half of them, and I get to sit next to him in all of those because it was my job to show him around! I must admit, being in such close contact with him all the time... Well, that's what made the week nerve-wracking for me. But also it was awesome! You can never have too much Tyler Gold, right? I mean, he improves everything around here. Even our fairly dull school uniform! Who would have thought grey trousers, a white shirt and dark blue jumper (hardly worn, it's still very warm weather) could look cute on somebody? Or hot? Well... The uniform is much more exciting when it comes with a Tyler; he looks hot and cute! I'm also really surprised, and kinda nervous; He hasn't abandoned me yet. I'm a bit confused by it, he's been getting a lot of attention both from girls who clearly fancy him, and from boys who just want to hang out with the cool new guy. I mean, he's hot and he's American and he's a surfer boy and he loves skateboarding and he plays the guitar and he's probably great at football and... Well, I'll stop now but you get the picture, right? Yet he still comes back to me and Phoebe and Charlie at break times and lunch times! And we all have a great time. He tells us all stories from his life in America, we explain English things that he doesn't understand (that PE lessons mean the same thing as gym class, the date being the "wrong way around", the difference between pants and trousers... which was a fun conversation). And he and Charlie really hit it off, they're always the jokers! And me... Well, I just kinda occasionally join in, and stare at Tyler, and get embarrassed, and wait for the day when he finds new and better friends... So, having said all of that, you can imagine how surprised I was on Friday lunch time when I ended up inviting him to my house. That's not quite what happened first of course, you know me by now haha... It started with our little group sat in our usual spot at the table outside, me eating my usual cheese and ham sandwich (cut into triangles... that's okay, right?) when Tyler suddenly turned to me and asked how my guitar playing was going. I had previously told him that I got an acoustic guitar last Christmas, when we were in a music class and I was playing around a little with a guitar. "ummm... it's okay, I guess. I mean I'm not very good or anything, not like you..." I answered him, somewhat reluctantly. "I'm sure you're better than you think you are! You seemed to know how to play quite a few chords the other morning in music!" "I guess, but... Well, I only have YouTube for a teacher, and I just haven't really done a whole lot of practise really" "well, if you need any help, I could maybe teach you some stuff? I'm not the best guitarist in the world obviously, but I'm sure I know enough to help get you started at least" Tyler offered "That would be... uhh... great!" I stammered out. "Cool!" exclaimed Tyler "where could we practise?" "hmm... Well I guess you could come to my house after school maybe...?" I said, and then stopped myself. Charlie and Phoebe had paused their conversation and were now looking at us, me in particular, with a look of slight confusion mixed with polite interest; I had, after all, just invited Tyler to my house. Kind of by accident. "well that sounds good to me! I'll go home and grab my guitar after school and then bike around to yours" Tyler said, giving me that signature smile. And then it was the end of lunch, so we went our separate ways to lessons. Tyler coming to my house was all I could think about for the rest of the afternoon. What if he didn't like my bedroom? Or my little cat? Or what if I was so bad at guitar that it would just be embarrassing and he wouldn't want to be my friend anymore? Or what if... Well, what if I got a boner in front of him and he noticed? It was with this mortifying thought that my last lesson of the day ended and I headed home with Charlie as usual. Charlie decided to broach the subject on the walk home. "so, Tyler's coming over to your house, eh?" "I guess so! I'm not sure why invited him. What if he just thinks I suck? What if he doesn't like..." Charlie saw I was starting to panic and he stopped me, turning me to face him. "Just chill out buddy! He obviously likes you, otherwise he wouldn't have offered to help you with your guitar playing and he wouldn't have accepted your invite to come to your house, right?" "I guess so" I replied "Well then, just have fun! Get to know him a bit better, maybe even actually talk to him instead of just looking at his face or the floor..." Charlie joked with a little wink. I did giggle a little "But... But what will I tell my mum?" "well, just tell her you've made friends with the new kid from America, and he's coming over for a bit to help you with your guitar playing. You know, the truth? It's not as though you're asking her to give you two permission to marry... Even if you want to" "well that's... Hey!" I exclaimed. I gave him a playful push when I realised what he said, and we carried on the journey home. -------- "Mum, I'm home!" I shouted when I got through the front door. "I'm in the kitchen!" came a yell, from the kitchen (obviously) I went in and told my mum that I invited Tyler over. "Tyler... Hmm, this is the kid from America that you've been telling us about all week, 24/7 right?" asked my mum, with a slight smile. I just blushed and confirmed "Well that's fine" she said "as long as you get any homework done before bed! I've got some cookies baking so I'll call you guys when they're ready! Well, you better go and get changed, he'll be here soon!" I stammered my thanks, and ran up the stairs to my room to get changed. I was greeted immediately by my other best friend (apart from Charlie), my cute little black and white cat. I picked him up from my bed and snuggled him "hey Oreo!" (yes, I called him Oreo). "Tyler's coming over today, to my bedroom!... Well, uh, the house anyway. He'll be here soon, so I have to get changed!" Oreo purred and licked my hand, and I giggled and put him back on my bed while I stripped off my uniform. What to wear? I held up a few t shirts in the mirror, but eventually decided on a pair of skinny black jeans and a turquoise coloured plain t shirt. I put back on my glasses and played a little with my hair in the mirror "do you think I look okay Oreo? Will he like me?" Oreo meowed excitedly, so I took that as a yes. Good job too, because at that moment the doorbell rang I dashed down the stairs, but felt nervous and stopped somewhere not quite at the bottom. My mum opened the door, and welcomed Tyler, and both of them spotted me half hiding on the stairs. "Hey Eric!" Tyler called, as he took off his shoes "umm... Hi" I nervously said back. He was also wearing black skinny jeans, and he had a lime green t shirt on, with little buttons at the top. And his hair was in its usual state of just being awesome, and he looked super cute I blushed, of course "something smells nice, Mrs Smith! Are you baking?" asked Tyler sweetly "I am indeed, there are chocolate cookies just about to finish in the oven right now!" "Oh wow! They smell delicious!" answered Tyler, flashing the now famous smile. It had a similar effect on my mum as it usually did on me "Oh, well... Well thank you, young man! Ill bring some up for you both when they're ready!" she replied, a little flustered "Eric, aren't you going to show Tyler up to your room?" she said, and then headed back to the kitchen "hey Tyler" I said coming out of a little trance. "umm, come on up!" He followed me upstairs to my room carrying his guitar in its case. It wasn't the biggest bedroom, but it was a decent size. The walls were all a neutral off-white colour, with the exception of one feature wall that was light blue. I also had a cream coloured carpet – the whole effect gave the impression (I thought) of a beach, and summer. I had my bed in one corner, my drawers and mirror on the wall opposite. And I had my desk and computer on the window wall. The walls were decorated a little; I had 3 decent sized Star Wars posters up on the walls. "Hey your room is nice! I like the posters! And... woah, how adorable is this little guy?!" Tyler had just spotted Oreo, who was on his way out of the room. He now stopped; he enjoys the attention "this is Oreo, he's pretty much my best friend" I said stroking him. Tyler bent down to give his fur a little ruffle as well, saying "aww, such a cute name for a cute cat!" As Oreo continued out of the room, I closed my door. And then realised, I had left my giant Minion teddy on my bed. He'll definitely think I'm a baby now. I started to panic as he saw it "woah, look at him! That's pretty big Minion teddy! I love the Minions!" he exclaimed with a grin, and I started to feel a little better "yeah, he's pretty big. I like to cuddle him" I said quietly, blushing "well he's a good size, he's nearly as big as you! So cute..." he said, and then blushed himself. Did he just say cute?! He doesn't think I'm a baby? In an attempt to move on, he looked at my guitar and said how nice it was! That was true I have to say, it was a very nice LAG model, which was black with matte black hardware. I wasn't a fan of the usual style of guitar, and this caught my eye one day when I was looking in a shop. It turns out Tyler wasn't a fan of the usual acoustic guitar style either – his guitar was a white Tanglewood with gold hardware. It was actually awesome! "wow your guitar is nice!" I said, offering him a seat on my big comfy computer chair; I sat down on my bed cross legged "thanks, it is really nice actually. So how much guitar playing experience have you had?" "hmmm... Well I can play a few chords and uhh... well, that's pretty much it" I answered. He asked what chords I could play, so I showed him A, C, D and E. "that's good, you play them well! And the strings aren't muted, so you're holding the strings right and that's good! Your E chord is slightly wrong though, your first finger should be here, not here..." he said, and came over to move my finger to where it should be. Well, it turned... interesting. He held my finger and moved it carefully to where it should be, and then looked up at me smiling and kinda stopped. We looked into each other's eyes, probably for about 10 seconds, but it seemed like forever to me. I could see every little speckle of light around my reflection in his sparkling blue eyes... And then there was a knock on the door; it was my mum with a plate of cookies and two glasses of milk on a tray for us. Tyler jumped back and I blushed. "How are you boys getting on? I've brought cookies, as promised! Don't eat too many though, we'll be having dinner soon! Oh Tyler, I meant to ask, do you want to stay over for dinner? We're having pasta, Eric's favourite!" "oh wow, I'd love to stay for dinner! Pasta is my favourite too!" answered Tyler, smiling at me. "I'll just call my mum and ask if it's okay, thanks for offering Mrs Smith!" "Oh please, call me Angie! How polite" exclaimed my mum, smiling at him He got on this phone to his mum and she said it was fine but wanted to talk to my mum. So Tyler handed her his phone and our mums talked. They seemed to really like each other! In the end it was decided that Tyler would stay for dinner, and then I would go back to his house with him on our bikes, just to see him home. After my mum left, we played on guitar for a little more, and Tyler started teaching me how to play a song. It was a song by Queen, called "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". It turned out we both had something else in common – our music taste! We loved pretty much all the same music! After that, we put the guitars down and I showed him one of my Sims games on the PlayStation 3 (It was hooked up to my computer monitor, which was quite big so I used it as a screen for everything). We started to make a cute little family together, but then it was time for dinner, so I showed him the bathroom so we could wash our hands and then we headed down the stairs for pasta time!