by Stella Noir
“Now just what do you do the whole time I’m under this infernal thing, Colin. You must be bored out of your mind.”
“Not in the slightest,” I said with a smile as I sat her back down in the stylist’s chair and started to remove the curlers.
2
AVERY
“You’re really lucky, this is the only room left. Usually everything’s already taken this close to the beginning of the semester. So, it’s seven-hundred a month, including utilities, and you share the bathroom down the hall with three other people on this floor. You’ve got an awesome balcony that looks out on the street and extends across the house; you share it with the person in the room next door. Any questions?”
“No, this looks really fab. I really like these old buildings. The wood trim around the windows and doors is amazing, and the window seat,” I said as I walked over to the big bay window, “I love it.”
I sat down on the bench seat in the window and looked around the room.
“The green walls are fabulous, too.”
“Yeah, the paint job came with the last tenant. The landlord wasn’t too happy about it, but he’s too cheap to paint over it so I guess it’s good that you dig the colors,” she said with a smile. Barbara was the apartment manager and looked like she might have been a few years older than me. Not a lot older, but definitely out of college.
“I do,” I said as I got up and walked over to the double French doors and looked out onto the street below.
“Yeah, most of the buildings in this neighborhood are old Victorians like this one. A few were demolished because they were left to deteriorate past the point of being fixed up but this one is still in decent shape. In fact, most of the houses on this street have been taken really good care of. It’s like the Victorian street of dreams. People tour through here all the time just to see them from the outside, but thank God this isn’t one of the houses that has walking tours. That would drive me nuts.”
I was already starting to like Barbara. She wasn’t overly cutesy like some of girls my age, and she seemed like she would be a cool person to hang out with. I hoped that maybe she would become my first friend in this town because I had never been very good at making new friends.
“I’m pretty sure that house next door over there has been in the same family for like a hundred years. So, did you just move here?”
“Yeah, I’m starting at the University next week.”
“Where from?”
“Well, I grew up on the coast in a pretty small town but I used to come into the city every once in a while with my family, so I know my way around … kinda,” I said with a sheepish smile.
“Cool. Well, let me know if you have any questions. I can tell you where to get all the cheapest food around here. Dollar slices of pizza and things like that, so you’re not just eating ramen for every meal. So, now that you officially live here and I know where to find you I have a huge favor to ask.”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Well, I got called into work this afternoon, in fact, I gotta leave in about a half hour. And I have a dog, Joey, that needs to go out later. See, he’s still kind of a puppy and I’m worried that …”
“Sure! Of course, don’t worry about a thing. I love dogs.”
“Oh, fabulous! Ok, well if you don’t mind coming down in a half hour I’ll hand him over to you then. And you can drop off your first and last at the same time,” she said with a smile as she walked out the door. “And thanks again…uh…Ok, I feel like a total asshole, but I forgot your name. Sorry, it’s nothing personal. I forget everyone’s name the second they tell me.”
“Avery Davenport. And sure, it’s no problem at all. I’ll see you in a bit,” I said as I closed the door behind her.
This new life thing is already going really well, I thought as I turned around and leaned against the door. I just stood there for a few minutes and looked at my new-to-me room. It was so exciting to finally be on my own and all alone in my very first apartment.
I set my bag down on the bed and walked over to the doors that led out to the balcony. When I stepped out into the cool afternoon air, I cringed as I felt ice cold drops of rain hit my skin.
Lucky I got my stuff moved in when I did
I went back inside to get out of the rain and shivered as I shut the door behind me. I noticed an old metal radiator that stood against the wall behind the closed door and I walked over to it and turned the knob on the top. A far away clunking sound started, then got louder and louder until it filled the room. I worried for a minute or two that the whole thing was going to explode, but as soon as the clunking stopped a soft hiss came out and the space right next to the radiator started to warm up.
I walked back across the room to the bay window that looked out at the house next door. It looked exactly the same as the one I was standing in and I wondered if it was also divided up into dorm-style apartments. From where I was standing I could see an old sign above the front door that hung out over the sidewalk and read McNab’s Market but the windows on the ground floor looked completely blacked out.
I made a mental note to check out the store when I took Barbara’s dog for a walk, then started to turn and head back to unpacking my boxes but just before I did my eyes moved up to the window on the floor directly across from me. I froze when I saw a man standing there looking right at me.
He startled me and I think I startled him because all of the sudden he disappeared. I guess he was as curious about his new neighbor as I was but he must have let some heavy drapes fall in front of him because the window was completely black now.
I turned and headed over to the pile of boxes against one of the walls and start opening them up. I was glad this room was furnished because I barely owned anything. My mom had bought me a microwave for my room before I left and I had a few dishes and some silverware but the rest was just clothing and music. I was going to have to get another set of sheets and more towels at some point, and some curtains would probably be a good idea, but I had time to figure out how I was going to decorate.
After I got all my clothes into the closet I stepped backwards to close the door and I looked across the room towards the window that I had been at earlier. I was all the way on the other side of the room but I could have sworn that just as I glanced over, the neighbor had been looking in my window again before immediately disappearing.
Oh my God, was it that same guy? What a creep, I thought as I walked back over to the window. I wondered if I stood there long enough if he’d show up again but I had to get down to Barbara’s apartment before she left for work. I threw the rest of my jeans and t-shirts into a set of built-in drawers then grabbed the empty boxes and took them out the door with me.
Barbara told me that the recycling was in the basement, so I figured I’d run down there really quick and get rid of the boxes, then meet her back in the hallway at her apartment. I opened the door that said BASEMENT and switched on the light from the top of the stairs. I could barely make out the stairs on the way down and when I got to the bottom I could only see what looked like piles of junk.
After my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I realized that some of the piles were recycling and some were furniture that still looked like junk … and that the basement was just as creepy from down there as it had been from the top of the stairs. Even with the overhead bulb on it was still incredibly dark, damp and musty. Plus, it smelled really weird. Like a pile of old, moldy books.
There were two washers and two dryers down there, and I even though it seemed convenient to have them in my building, I immediately decided that I wanted to spend as little time down there as was humanly possible.
I walked over to the corner of the room that had a pile of cardboard and noticed a dark corridor that hadn’t been visible from the stairs. It was a sort of hallway that was lined with chain link fence cages on either side and at the very end stood an old metal door that was locked with a huge old, rusty padlock, and I wondered what was behind it. For a moment I
thought it was probably more storage, but then I realized that, from what I could tell, the door must have opened up to the back of the building. But this level was underground so I didn’t understand where it could lead to. I jumped when I heard a scratching noise that sounded like it was coming from somewhere along the corridor, so I dropped my boxes in the corner with the other recycling and ran up the stairs.
When I got to the top of the stairs I slammed the basement door shut just as Barbara was coming out of her apartment.
“Pretty damn creepy down there, isn’t it?” she laughed as she turned and locked her apartment door.
“Yeah, man. I don’t know if I ever want to go down there again. I heard a weird scratching noise by that door that’s all the way in the back.”
“Oh yeah, that door goes out to the tunnels. I’m sure there’s tons of rats running around down there. I wouldn’t go in those tunnels for a million bucks,” she said with a shiver.
“Tunnels?”
“Yea, I’ve never been through that door or gone in them myself, but I have friends who’ve been crazy enough to. You’ll have to come over some night soon and I’ll tell you all about them.”
“Sure that sounds great!” I knew I was geeking out a little too hard on becoming friends with Barbara, but I also thought that whole tunnel thing sounded really interesting.
Barbara walked over to me and handed me her dog’s leash and held a key up in front of me.
“Ok, I want you to know that I wouldn’t do this for just anyone, but you seem like a really nice person and I have a good feeling about you. Here’s the key to my place. I just need you to take Joey out for about fifteen minutes and let him do his business, oh and here’s a bag for that,” she said as she handed me a wadded up bag along with a leash with a furry, medium-sized mutt attached to it.
“Then, if you don’t mind, give him some food when you bring him back in. It’s on the counter in the kitchen, you can’t miss it. You can give him the whole can. He’s been a good dog today,” she said as she scratched Joey’s head. “But, you’re always a good dog, aren’t you?”
“Of course I don’t mind. Oh and here’s the check.”
“Ok, thanks a million, seriously. I’ve gotta run. I probably won’t be back till late so I’ll talk to you tomorrow, ok?”
“Yeah totally! And, don’t worry about a thing. I love dogs, and this guy looks like a real sweetie. We’re gonna have fun, aren’t we, Joey? Joey-Jo-Jo,” I said as I bent down and ruffled the fur on his head with both hands.
I watched Barbara walk out the front door and disappear down the stairs, then stood up and headed out as well.
“You ready to go for a walk, buddy? Let’s go!”
The rain had let up by then so when Joey and I walked through the doorway and out into the cool night air all I felt was a slight mist cover my cheeks. We walked down the stairs to the sidewalk and turned to the left. I figured this was a good way to explore the neighborhood and get my bearings so I decided to take Joey in a big circle around quite a few of the surrounding city blocks.
This was a very old part of town and, like Barbara had said, the majority of the blocks were still lined with old Victorian and early nineteen hundreds era houses. There were some houses that looked like they were split up into living quarters on top and business below, like the one next door, but a lot of them looked totally original.
It was starting to get dark by the time I made my way back around to my block, coming from the other direction past the house next door with the market sign out front. I was disappointed to see that the convenience store on the ground floor didn’t have any lights on at all and didn’t look like it was open. In fact, it didn’t look like it had been open for a long time. There were pieces of cardboard in the windows and I couldn’t see inside at all.
I turned to head back to my building but was stopped in my tracks when I smacked right into something. I thought maybe I had walked into a tree or a pole, but then let out a small yelp as I felt two hands grab my arms. But then I gasped as my eyes moved up a tall body with very broad shoulders and I found myself looking up at the most intense eyes I had ever seen in my life.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going at all,” I said as I stood there completely dumbfounded by this tall man who was practically holding me up in the air by my arms. He released his grip for a moment, but then grabbed my arms again to prevent me from falling backwards. I looked down to see why I couldn’t move my legs and realized that Joey had somehow wrapped his leash around both of us multiple times.
We were held together in this position, our bodies completely pressed up against each other, as I tried to unwind Joey’s leash. But no matter how hard I tried to get him to go back in the other direction, Joey kept pulling the leash tighter around the two of us. I could feel every muscle in the man’s legs and chest flex and press against me as he held me upright and I wavered around trying to regain my balance.
“No, no! Joey, stop it! I’m so sorry! He’s not my dog,” I tried to explain as I yanked on the leash with one hand and on the poor stranger’s leather jacket with the other. After what seemed like ten full minutes of a very embarrassing struggle, I finally got the leash unwound and stepped away from the man in front of me. He wasn’t as old as I had first thought. He looked like he might be about ten years older than me and had a dark red shirt on underneath his black leather jacket. I couldn’t help but think that they both complimented his dark hair and eyes very well.
“That’s ok, no harm done,” he said with a funny look on his face. It was the kind of look you see people give you when they think they might know you from somewhere. Like his brain was trying to place where he had seen me before, but I knew we had never met. I would definitely have remembered him.
I suddenly felt very shy and tongue tied. I didn’t have the vaguest idea what to say to this gorgeous guy, and I was starting to feel really awkward because he wasn’t saying anything either, but he also wasn’t leaving. He was just standing there staring at me intently with the darkest, most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen in my life. He wasn’t even smiling at me; he was just staring.
“Hi, I’m Avery. I live right over here,” I said as I gestured to house next door, then cringed immediately. I was pretty sure he didn’t care where I lived, but I had no idea what else to say.
“Do you know if this store is ever open? I thought it would be nice to have one next door. I just moved here for school from the coast so I don’t know the area very well.”
Oh God, shut up, Avery! He doesn’t need to hear your life story.
I bit my lip to try to get myself to chill the fuck out. I was rambling about a stupid store to this hot guy who clearly had no interest in anything I was saying.
But why is he staring like that?
“No, it’s closed permanently,” he said as his focus narrowed in on my lips. I didn’t know if I was imagining it but it almost seemed like he was moving towards me a little bit while his eyes moved slowly back and forth between my lips and my eyes. Almost as if he were leaning in for a kiss. I was so mesmerized by the slow movements of his dark eyes and by the sharp edges of his jawline and lips, that I jumped about a foot in the air when Joey suddenly barked at me.
The man straightened up and cleared his throat then looked down at his hands. When he looked back up at me a few seconds later the hypnotic stare that had drawn me in was gone.
“Goodnight.”
His voice was deep and soft and it sent a sensation down my spine that I hadn’t ever felt in my life. Like his voice was connected to the space between my legs by an invisible thread that pulled at me with each syllable that came out of his mouth. I wanted so badly for him to say something else but he didn’t. But he didn’t leave either; he just stood there and looked at me like he was waiting for me to leave.
“Sorry again,” I said as I held Joey’s leash tight and walked backwards toward my house, then turned and ran up the stairs and into the door of my bu
ilding. I immediately shut the door and leaned up against it, trying to catch my breath.
“Oh, Jesus Christ Avery! You’re such a dweeb.”
I looked out the window in the top half of the door, but the guy in the leather jacket was gone.
“He couldn’t get away from us fast enough, could he Joey-Jo-Jo,” I said with a sigh as I walked the dog down the hall and took him into Barbara’s apartment.
When I got back up to my place I flopped down on the bed and looked around the drab room, deciding that I really needed to go out and get some things to spruce it up a bit. It really was kind of sad and lonely in there, and even though I had a tendency to sit alone in a dark room, I had decided when I left home that I was going to turn over a new leaf in my new apartment and my new city. I promised myself I would try and surround myself with things that made me happy.
I suddenly felt a vibration coming from my back pocket and I fished out my phone. It was a text from my mom asking how I was settling in and it made me smile. I was glad that she was finally getting the hang of texting and after I responded to it I got up and walked over to the window and looked down at some people walking by the convenience store sign on the house next door. But then when I looked back up at the window directly across from me I saw that guy again. Only this time I recognized the shirt he was wearing. It was the same dark red button up shirt that the guy on the street had on.
Why didn’t he tell me that he was my neighbor, I thought as I continued to stare at the dark window. And why does he keep looking over here?
I thought about how earlier, before I had run into him on the street, I had called him a creep. But now that I’d had that moment with him, with our bodies pressed up against each other, he was so much more interesting.
I guess he’s not a creep anymore. He’s my hot neighbor who looks in my window, I thought as I laughed at how ridiculous that sounded. But the thing was, it was true.
3
COLIN
I heard a voice coming from somewhere but didn’t register what it was saying. I was still lost in the colors and swirls and depth of the eyes I had spent the last half hour applying makeup to.
