The Girl Next Door

First Encounters

3 January 2023
I wait for the elevator under the old and somewhat dilapidated 12 storey apartment building that was to be my new home in the almost scorching heat as usual after school wondering what was taking so long at the fourth floor. A better question would probably be: why the fuck couldn't they fix the second elevator

Soon, a girl who was probably around my age joins me waiting. She was listening to music on her earphones. She wore a short blue 1950s sundress embellished with sequins & glitter. My heart almost skipped a beat....She was beautiful

As the elevator finally arrived, a few construction workers exited with a wheelbarrow full of cement. Atleast they're trying to fix this place, can't really say they've gotten very far though. After the workmen wordlessly left and as we entered, I finally broke the awkward silence between us by trying to make conversation with this girl

"Hey, so since when's this thing goin' on ??", I enquired to make eye contact
"Since like early '21....I've never seen you around here. You new ??", she says pulling out the earphones from her ear
"Yeah, we just moved in two days ago. 702", I replied
"Ohh cool. I'm in 703....701's been empty for a while though", she declares. Wow, she's my neighbor
"Guess we could watch a movie at uh, my place this afternoon ??", I suggested
"Sure! I'll just drop my backpack & be right there", she said with a smile on her face

That was my first impression of Hanorah Sykes, my new neighbor. She was a year older than me and walked to the same school as I did every morning. We sometimes walked together to school and I soon observed she seemed almost relieved at going to school, which I found odd since I found school annoyingly boring. I soon found out why she felt relieved at being out of that house though

Although this wasn't necessarily a close friendship, I did get to know her pretty well and we exchanged pleasantries whenever we met. I yearned to get closer to her but she wouldn't let me. There was something mysteriously captivating about her that I just can't describe, but it definitely drew me towards her. Needless to say, I spend quite a lot of time checking her out but she either didn't care or remained oblivious

Our parents became good friends as well....so good that in fact, they invited us to one of their relatives' wedding, which was somewhat fun I guess

She played the piano and gave lessons to little kids to earn some extra cash. I once went skating with her, she wasn't so good at racing but she was great at artistic skating. Overall, she just seemed a cool person to hang out with

However her parents didn't seem to think so. Mr and Mrs Sykes, though seemingly picture perfect on the outside, man did they have problems on the inside. Almost every other evening I'd hear screaming from her unit, sometimes stretching into the wee hours of the next morning. Sometimes it was Mr and Mrs Sykes arguing, sometimes it was Hanorah & her younger brother screaming while other times 1 or both of the parents would be yelling at their kids

"Hey uh....so how're your parents ??", I once asked out of curiosity
"What d'you think Arlo, they're shit", she replied nonchalantly. "But it's not like I can do much about it"
"Oh....that sucks", I blurted
"Sorry if all the screaming & shouting disturb y'all though", she continued apologetically
"No it's all cool", I say trying to sound comforting. "Do they hit you ??", I ask as I noticed some weird scars on her right temple
"Yeah they sometimes do....but it's almost always well deserved though", she says
"You do stupid shit ??", I ask trying to lighten up the mood
"Yeah of course, which kid doesn't", she chuckled & I laughed with her

I silently felt grateful to my parents for not being toxic pieces of shit....don't get me wrong, they also have their fair share of problems and they disagree on shit time to time as well but it never got this extreme