AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Have a good day,” Kim told me.
“But.” I was about to say something else when she hung up on me.
“Fuck,” I muttered. I looked out the window, watching as my newest neighbor dragged some things around her yard. She didn’t look like she knew what she was doing, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she was doing here. She looked like she was about college age. Perhaps close to graduating. But certainly, much younger than anyone I wanted to live next to.
I had dealt with enough young punks in the military to know they were all the same. Loud, partying, disrespectful assholes who only cared about themselves and getting the most clout online. It pissed me off, especially after all I had gone through for this country. I wished there was more pride shared among the younger people, and I had very little patience for the bullshit they did.
I wondered for a few minutes if I could get Andrew and Kim to sell the whole damn place to me. I’d part with millions to get rid of that young neighbor. Probably not a chance in hell. They loved this community and their job.
Annoyed, I called my best friend, Miles, to bitch about the latest development.
“You didn’t,” he said after I dumped the entire story on him.
“Didn’t what?” I asked.
“You didn’t call the landlord to bitch about your new neighbor before she was even done moving in yet,” he said. “You’re a dick, dude; you know that?”
“I don’t care if I have to be the biggest asshole on the planet to get some damn quiet around here. I’m telling you, when is the last time you lived next to some kid in their twenties who wasn’t a total shitshow? They’re loud, they have their dumb little dramas, and they like to party until all hours of the night. Of course, when I saw her out there prancing around with her stupid cell phone and taking pictures or whatever the fuck she was doing, I said something.”
“I don’t blame you on that front,” he said. “I mean, I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same. Put it out there in the beginning how you expect everyone to behave, and you don’t have shit to worry about, right?”
“I better not,” I said. “And I figured calling up Kim and telling her how I felt about this was probably the best way to do things, too. Now, when it turns into an issue, she doesn’t have to ask me why I didn’t say something before now.”
“I’m sorry, Buddy,” Miles said. “How the fuck does some kid even afford to live in those places, anyway? I thought they were meant for people who had their shit together and were looking for a nice place to just kind of get away from it all.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” I said. “I mean, you know how kids are these days. For all I know, this could be some chick living off her dad’s money. Whatever. All I really care about is that I don’t have to live among a bunch of tourists who are just here to take pictures and try to convince the world they are worth noticing. I just want to relax and chill out and forget the past few years of my life, you know? I will eventually buy or build a house when I find the right spot, but for now, I want to enjoy where I’m living right here.”
“Exactly, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Miles said. “I think you had every right to do what you did, and you know what? I’m glad you called the landlord, too. She’s going to have to learn that the kids these days aren’t the same as they were when we were that age. They’ve gone downhill if you ask me, and they only care about being famous or some shit.”
“She’s going to be famous for having the neighbor screaming at her in the background if she keeps that up,” I said. “Or she better find some way to make sure she can keep it all in her yard. We have our own spaces out back, as you know, so I might have to deal with looking at her, but if she happens to cross the line and come too close, you bet your ass I’m going to be shouting for her to get lost. I don’t care if she is putting it online for the entire world to see.”
“More power to you,” Miles replied. “You can get your message out for the whole world in just a few minutes that way.”
I chuckled. It wasn’t quite the angle I meant, but it would work. The more I could get it out that I wanted to be left alone, the better.
“Is she hot at least?” he asked.
“My neighbor?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “If you’re going to live next to some young chick, I’d hope she’s at least good for you to look at.”
“She’s not bad,” I said. “I didn’t spend much time looking at her, as I was too busy calling her out for being stupid with the phone.”
Of course, I was lying to him. I had checked her out immensely when I first saw her, and she was gorgeous. She had waist-length black hair and grey eyes that snapped when she was angry. She was slender with incredible hips, and her body was graceful, like that of a dancer.
But these weren’t things I was going to fill his head with. I was pissed off that this girl was next door, I didn’t want to sit and daydream about her. Or have my buddy come down to try his luck with her, either. Fuck, I didn’t know the first thing about her.
“Take a better look next time,” he said with a laugh. “And let me know.”
“Perv,” I told him with a shake of my head. “Anyway, I’m going to head outside where I can have some privacy, I hope, and play some tunes. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Sounds good; keep me in the loop,” he said. “And let me know if it’s worth me making a visit down there in the near future.”
I laughed at his joke and hung up the phone. I knew my best friend wasn’t going to see this the same way I did, but I was okay with that. He was good at pointing out the humor in a lot of situations, and that helped with some of my pissed-off attitude.
But, if there was one thing that always put me in a better mood, it was my guitar.
And, taking it out to my courtyard, I knew I’d be able to have some privacy to play a few chords. And with any luck, forget about what was going on in the bungalow next door.
