Page 6 of Definitely Not a Thing

I braced myself, and let out a full volume, full throated scream, channeling every molecule of rage I was feeling into the sound. I half expected it to not even be satisfying, with the music drowning it out.

Except.

There was no music drowning it out.

It was deathly quiet, in fact, the perfect scenario for my insane rage-scream to echo through the empty apartment, repeating back to me with embarrassing clarity.

And then, moments later… a knock at my door.

Since I was still standing there, I simply turned around to unlock and open it.

My neighbor stood there, shirtless and smirking.

“Hey… you think you could maybe keep it down?”

2/

amelia

One of thegreatest poets of our time once posed a question, with options to decipher a worst case scenario.

Looking jealous.

Looking crazy.

Looking jealousandcrazy.

Being walked all over.

I was at risk of all four, and right on the verge of crashing out because of it.

I could’ve written the night before off as one-time-insanity, a cascade of unfortunate coincidences that just compounded on each other, never to be experienced again.

Until I was woken up at the exposed ass-crack of dawn to the sound ofsomethingheavy being dropped on the floor, rhythmless but constant – just enough space between to not tune it out as it vibrated my floors.

That wasoneof the issues with these older buildings, and part of why I’d wanted a single unit – there was very little protection from the noise pollution of your neighbors. I’d noticed it when I lived with Hunter, and it had been annoying then, but I was too in love for it to matter.

It was wild how one little“wait, I didn’t mean it like that”statement had so instantly dried me up – pussy, heart, common sense, all of it.

Cold fucking turkey.

Feelings Ireallyneeded to process, but couldn’t, when the guy next door kept dropping his weights – it finally clicked for me – on the ground.

Killing his floors, but whatever.

Wasn’t my apartment.

On the bathroom sink, my phone buzzed, and I grabbed it with the hand that wasn’t occupied navigating my toothbrush around my mouth to read the text.

“Hey my baby. How was the first night? – Kae”

I cringed at the text as immediate embarrassment flushed through me, heating my face. Kaelynn was one of my best, likebestfriends, known her since we were literal babies, and still… that scream situation was crazy, and still super fresh on my mind.

“Uh… no comment,” I typed back, already knowing that wasn’t actually going to work, but buying myself a couple of minutes before I had to explain.

Sure enough, the response I got back was the wide-eyed blush emoji, followed up immediately by the nosy eyes.

I sighed, finished brushing my teeth, then hit the button to connect a video call as I grabbed my cleanser from the toiletry bag on the counter.