The Mom Next Door

1-Next Door

*jens pov*

"Oh my god mom- Jesus! I'm not 10 anymore stop nagging me-." I say before my mom cuts me off. "Exactly, you're not 10, you're 20 years old. You're an adult Jennifer, you need a job." She says.

"I'm looking ma! Just- stop. You reminding me every damn day isn't gonna speed up the process." I say. She sighs and just looks at me, leaning against the frame of the door to my room. She turns around and shuts my door.

"Fuck." I sigh and lay down on my bed. I pull out my phone and facetime my friend, Sage.

"Yeah...but I mean she's not wrong. I need to get it together, she just doesn't see that I'm trying." I sigh. "That really sucks, I'm sorry Jen. You know I could ask my manager to give you a chance, we've got some openings." Sage suggests.

"Fuck no. I'm going no where near the food industry." I shake my head 'no'. "Well that's where most people start. You have to start somewhere." She says and I go to say something before my mom walks back in.

"If you're not gonna get a job, then go rake the front yard at least." My mom says and shuts my door. "Ugh. I gotta go Sage. I'll talk to you later." I tell her. "Ok love youuu." She says. "Love you too, bye." I say before hanging up.

I get up then I change into some jean shorts and a tank top. I put my hair up then I go outside. I walk to the shed in our backyard and get the rake out.

I lazily start to rake up all the leaves in the front yard while I listen to music. "See you tonight baby!" I hear someone call out and I look over.

I watch as a little girl gets into a mans car next door. A lady stands on the front porch of the house and waves as the man drives away. She sighs then goes to turn around but she spots me. I just smile, being a friendly neighbor.

She smiles back and waves mainly with her fingers. Ya know that little wave that adult women do sweetly. She goes back inside and I continue to work away.

2 huge leaf piles later, and I'm finally done. I put the rake back up then I go inside and take a shower.

"Did you finish?" My mom asks as she comes downstairs. "Mhm. You're welcome." I say and take another bite of my cereal. 

I move my damp hair off my shoulders and listen to what she has to say. "Did you see the neighbors?" She asks. "Duh-. They are our neighbors who have lived there for like 4 years." I say being smart. "Well Sofia's really growing up." She says. "Who-?" I ask and put down my bowl.

"The little girl that lives over there, Sofia." She says. "Oh, I didn't know that. How do you know her name?" I ask. "Me and her mom have talked a little bit throughout the years." She says.

"Was that before or after her douchey husband left them?" I ask. "Ok, you don't know anything about her ex husband. Don't call him douchey." She says.

"Well, I've heard some stuff." I shrug. "From who?" She asks. "Sage." I say. "How the hell does Sage know?" She asks. "Sage mom works with the mom, plus Sage lives in this neighborhood too-." I say. "Like 3 blocks away." She shoots back. "Whatever. I heard what I heard." I shrug and get up to clean my bowl.

"Mmm. Well clean the rest of the dishes while you're at that." She says and walks away. I roll my eyes and do what she says.

-
*The next day*

"Stop-. I'm trying to get this done." I tell Sage since she won't stop bothering me. "He's looking at you!" She's whispers loudly and I look up. "Who?" I ask. "That guy. He's hot too. You should go get his number." She smirks. "Shutup. Do you wanna fail this class?" I ask her. "No." She shrugs. "Then you should probably do the work. Just a suggestion." I shrug.

We're in the student center right now on our college campus. It's basically just a place to study or if you need some quietness. I don't actually live on campus since I do college from home, but all students are welcome to use the campus and what it has to their advantage.

Now trust me, if I could stay in a dorm and live on campus, I would. But this is my second year of college, and I was a little late to signing up for housing. So all the dorms are filled, leaving me to live at home...which sucks.

"Which one are you on?" Sage asks me. "Number 7." I say, trying to focus. We're both majors in Phycology, and we have the same classes so we help eachother a lot.

The only difference is that Sage wants to work in the medicine branch, and I want to work with people. So technically I would be like a therapist, talking to people, then I'd report to someone in the medicine department like Sage, then she'd observe and prescribe the patient something for whatever they have going on.

Her job obviously would be a lot more advanced than mine. I just want to be able to work with people and help them. I could never work a job where I'm always alone with no benefit.

I'm actually doing really good in college. For how much shit my mom gives me about getting a job, at least I'm smart and have a steady education so far.

"You ready to go?" I ask and close my notebook. "Yeah, you wanna get food on the way back?" She asks. "Sure." I say and we start to walk out.

Once we stop and get food, I drive her home then I go back to my house. It's really convenient that we live in the same neighborhood since we're best friends.

"I'm back!" I call out. "Dinners on the table!" My mom calls out from upstairs. "I already ate." I say once she comes down the stairs. "Oh, okay." She says.

"Dad isn't back yet?" I ask and take off my shoes. "No he had to work late." She says. "Oh. Well I'm gonna take a shower." I tell her. "Ok, I'm going to sleep, goodnight, love you." She says and starts to walk back upstairs. "Love you too." I say.

A/N

So likeeee here's the introduction to my new book. And I know I always say this but I know this chapter is a lil slow moving, but it's just the beginning, I gotta get the plot and stuff out of the way before I actually get into it. But I can promise you that this book is gonna be spicy ASF. Like steamy secretive spicy. Sooo stay tuned and make sure to comment and voteee💕

PS: this book isn't really inspired by The Boy Next Door. the plot is the same, but it's not like there's some crazy physco dude in this book, and jen isn't a teacher with a kid or anything. the name of this book is just similar to the boy next door because i couldn't think of a better title so yeahhhh. just wanted to clear that up