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I shut my mouth with a snap. Someone was pounding hard on my door, pounding and yelling. I froze. Held my breath.
“I know you’re in there. Come on, open up.”
I slunk back through my bedroom, down the wide, airy hall, and across my huge living room. My neck had gone hot. I wasn’t this person, this nightmare neighbor. Except Iwas, thanks to stupid Eric. He’d got under my skin, and I’d just— I’d—
“Hello?”
I hunched over, hangdog, and opened the door. “Sorry,” I said.
“So, turn it off.” A woman around my mom’s age got up in my face. “That’s your TV, isn’t it?”
“No. That’s next door. I was the one making all the pig noises.”
“Herbert, honey? The TV’s next door.”
A man in pajamas stormed down the hall. He banged on Eric’s door and started to shout. I heard Eric’s TV quit, then a bright, cheerfulding. The elevator stopped and a tall man popped out, a Seaview Tower name tag on his neat-pressed lapel. He scowled at me, then at Herbert, then back at me.
“What’s going on up here? We’ve had nine noise complaints.”
Another door swung open at the end of the hall, and Berg strode out with a towel on his head. He caught sight of the manager and let out a bellow.
“Is this how you run this place, like some kind of zoo? I’m having a shower, andboom-boom-boom-boom. I’m paying for paradise, not Pearl Harbor.”
The manager held up his hands. “Of course not. I’m sorry. The guests making the noise, uh—”
Eric’s door flew open. “I did it,” he said. “You can blame me. I was watching some war movies, trying to get in the mood, and I guess I must’ve lost track of the volume.”
“And who was that screaming?” Berg narrowed his eyes. I shrank into my doorway, but Herbert ratted me out.
“It was her.” He pointed. “She was making pig noises.”
“Pig noises…?” Berg gaped at me. “What’s the matter with you?”
I had no excuse, or at least not a good one, so I just stood there and stewed in my shame.
“I’m sorry,” said Berg. “These two work for me. But I can replace them likethat, so they’re going to behave.” He snapped his fingers and glowered at us, shaking his wet head. “Honestly, actors. It’s like working with toddlers. Do you two need nannies? A nurse? A nice daycare?”
I stood there, cheeks blazing, and said nothing at all.
“Well? I can’t hear you.”
I coughed. “No, sir.”
“Eric?”
“No, sir.”
Berg made apshnoise and vanished into his suite. The manager’s lips quirked up, and he stifled a snicker. Herbertwaslaughing, noisy hee-haws. I prayed for the floor to swallow me whole, but my footing stayed solid, my humiliation complete.
“Well,” said the manager. “I think we’re done here.”
“Sorry,” I said again. I couldn’t meet his eye. I watched his feet, and Herbert’s feet, and Herbert’s wife’s feet, as they got on the elevator and the big doors slid shut. Eric hadn’t gone in, but I couldn’t look at him either. He’d started this nonsense, but I’d made it worse. I’d stooped to his level and almost gotten us both fired, and I didn’t know about Eric, but I couldn’t afford that. Couldn’t picture explaining my sacking to Mom.
You did what? Made pig noises? What are you, five?
I swallowed. “Hey, Eric?”
“Yeah?”
