Neighbor

Suspicions

Simi froze, her entire body turned white with fear. She couldn't even hear the rest of the conversation because an intense ringing began forming in her ears.

What was Basil's mom going on about? Who was that man she was talking to? Simi tried to identify the voice, it wasn't Raspy and deep enough to be Basil's and it definitely wasn't Basil's dad's voice, this voice was a bit deeper than his.

Simi sat behind the car and waited for the conversation to end, her legs felt like jelly from what she had just heard. She sat there, leaning against the car lifelessly.

Eventually she heard the sound of a car starting in the distance and the talking had stopped, she assumed it was the man that Janessa was talking to that was driving
him off.

Simi lugged herself back to her house, her limbs felt heavy and lifeless, she couldn't comprehend what she had just heard at all.

-

"Basil," his mom has called him from his room. Basil got out of bed to see what she had wanted when he noticed the pile of freshly blasted custard pastries that sat on the kitchen counter.

Basil licked his lips and rubbed his hands together before going over to pick up a pastry.

But his mom smacked his hand away from the tray before it could touch the flaky treat.

"What?" Basil rubbed his stinging hand.

"You can have some once you've gone over next door to give some to Angelina and Simi," Janessa explained.

Basil raised his eyebrow, his mom had never made him do that delivery tasks before. It was always her who would make her way to house 405.

Basil rolled his eyes and grabbed a separate tray from the cupboard and began to pile some flaky treats onto it. He wrapped cling foil over it and headed over.

Basil softly knocked at the door, his palms felt clammy under the tray. The door inched open and someone's eye peeked through the tiny gap, Basil immediately recognized the emerald color.

They seemed to recognize each other at the same time and the door slammed closed as fast as it had been opened. Basil knocked again.

He heard shuffling in coming from the house and a few muffled words.

"Don't... b... rude to... -asil!" He heard coming from inside.

The door swung open again and there stood Angelina, she wore a night gown and had a pleasant smile plastered on her face.

"Uh... hi Mrs Reddy," Basil greeted. "My mom made some custard pastries and told me to bring some over."

Simi, who was sitting in the living room, flinched when she heard Basil mention his mother.

How could she be bringing us these pastries not even an hour after her conversation with that man?

Simi furrowed her brows at the thought, she could feel her ears ringing again.

And then she felt the couch shift as someone dropped themself onto the couch next to her. She looked next to her to see Basil had taken a seat next to her, he had his arms thrown behind his head and he gave her a sly look. She shot him a glare.

"Why are you in my house?" She interrogated.

"Your mom just invited me in for some tea, I couldn't decline," he explained, sitting forward to get a better look at Simi.

Of course you couldn't, Simi rolled her eyes.

The two of them sat awkwardly on the couch, there was barely any space between the two of them because Basil had sat right next to her. She pushed him away from him and he moved to the edge of the couch.

Simi stole a glance at Basil and wondered if he had anything to do with all of this.

He was 4 years old, she reminded herself.

Basil sat there obliviously, his eyes wandered around the room, awkwardly looking away every time he made eye contact with Simi.

Simi contemplated telling him. She needed to tell someone about this, but honestly would anyone even believe her?