The Neighbor Next Door

Break the cycle

MePhone was eighteen years old again. He had been for about a week at this point when it happened. He couldn't tell what the time was when he woke up, but he knew it was still dark. The sound of his dad's car starting always tended to wake him up, even from the deepest sleeps. This was... Immediately odd. His dad never left the house-- or even ever woke up this early, unless he was still up from the night prior doing all of his tinkering work. MePhone didn't want to get pulled into another argument if he rushed out just to find his dad in a sour mood, or leaving for a, for some reason, really early day of work.

But he was still so curious, and there was still a bit of dread in his systems that urged him to find out what was going on. So he got up, slowly and quietly making his way out of his room, through the hallway. When he heard the telltale sound of the car starting to move, the sounds of tire on asphalt-- a sound ingrained in his head, he rushed over to the window to peek out of the curtains. His dads car was leaving.

MePhone, at the time, assumed he just had an early day of work, going back to sleep. He assumed his dad would unfortunately be back later that evening, and he wouldn't ask about it, but he'd just know that this happened, even if it was uncommon. His dad would come home, and everything was still normal.

But Cobs never came back to that house. Only the next day, when MePhone realized his dad still wasn't back, that the car wasn't parked in its usual spot, was when he really looked, and noticed his dads room was completely cleared out. It was so empty when MePhone checked it.

It was a week into all this, when MePhone realized he was so truly alone now. That Cobs wasn't coming back, and that he'd never be able to hope that things could be okay again.

...

It was Sunday now, and OJ was sitting at his desk, picking up a hobby he hadn't touched since the move, his writing.

He usually wrote when he needed a distraction, and his stories were always good for that. He wasn't a serious writer, but he did enjoy the occasional short writing with characters he made up in his head, or sometimes the ones his children made. Today, he had decided to write a short story about those characters Cher and Ry had been talking about a while ago, the knight, and the prince. Something about those two was interesting to him, and well, he was too dense to get it at the time, but it wasn't a big deal. The point was, the characters and idea was interesting.

Writing was always a good way to not think about certain things.

OJ was giving MePhone time to recover after what happened yesterday, because he just didn't know what to say at this point to the other. The decline had happened so suddenly that it had honestly caught OJ so off guard. One moment everything had been fine, and then he was sitting at the table, looking like he was on the verge of tears before rushing off to the restroom.

OJ was just... Worried again. He really wanted to be able to help his friend, and be there for him, and be patient, but what was he supposed to do if he didn't know anything?

Sure, MePhone didn't owe him anything, but... OJ felt like he was a trustworthy guy, and maybe it was selfish, but he really wished this guy trusted him more than he seemed to. OJ had been so open about a lot of things to the other through their texts, but he still knew nothing about MePhone, beyond what the other older neighbor had told him, which OJ still felt guilty about going behind his back to learn things, but... What he was told, after changing his approach while talking to this guy, it helped.

It just didn't seem to be working more than that though. Barely anything had changed beyond OJ being more understanding, and their conversations usually lasting longer.

OJ sighed, setting his pencil down. This was definitely not helping distract him. If anything, he was just thinking about it more now. He couldn't just put his life on pause to help this guy, as much as he wanted to, just out of basic compassion. He just ended up getting to his feet, deciding to go check on the Cherries. He still had yet to hear how yesterday went, with Fan looking after them, and he was kind of curious. Of course, he didn't worry about it, the kids seeming fine, Fan seeming his usual nervous self, and the house not being burnt down or ruined somehow, but he still wanted to hear about anything interesting that might have happened. He would've asked last night during family dinner, but it had slipped his mind. He was thinking about a lot of other things last night.