Desolation Buried In Regret

Someone new to bother me

I look out of my window, intrigued, as the warm hue of the evening sun gently glows against my face. I see a rusty moving van slowly rolling onto the driveway next door.

"Great, someone new must've bought the house. Someone new to bother me." I think to myself with a slight eye roll.

The neighbours moved out months ago now and the old house has been left mainly empty... Apart from the occasional annoyingly positive real-estate agent trying to sell it to some random family, who never seemed very interested.

I'm snapped out of my train of thought as a black, beaten-up Honda-Civic pulls up next to the parked moving van while blasting 'Scarecrow Man' by The Misfits. A grin lightly pulls on my lips as I remember my father playing me that song as he drove me to high school on my first day. I quickly dismiss my expression as i put my attention back to my new neighbour.

I watch a pair of worn, checked vans lightly thud against the gravel flooring of the driveway, belonging to a short-looking man who must be my new neighbour. His brown, overgrown hair gently ruffles in the warm breeze of the summer's evening. He roughly slams the door of his car shut and takes in his new surroundings, he looks over to my house and we make brief eye contact through the small gap I've made in the curtains for a split second before I quickly fold them shut. After waiting for a few moments I decide to peer back out from the crack again and I watch as he begins unloading boxes from the moving van into what I can only assume is his new house.

The house that is connected right next to mine.

Once I finally get bored of watching him unloading the boxes, I step away from the window and return to my dark living room to finish reading my comic. I take a sip of my now room-temperature coffee before putting it back down onto the overused coaster.

About half an hour goes by before I hear a knocking on my door...

thud thud thud...

I sigh before reluctantly shutting my comic and slowly making my way down the stairs and towards the front door. I hesitate as I wonder who it is before slowly pulling the door open and I'm greeted by the short, brown haired man that I saw through the window earlier this evening.

"Hey! I'm Frank, I just moved in next door."

"...uh...hello..."

"I don't think I know your name?"

Why does he want to know my name?

"...Gerard."

"Well Gerard, I was just wondering if you had any milk that I could borrow. I'm tryna make some tea but I don't have a whole lot of stuff considering I just got here" He chuckles awkwardly and I think over his question before trying to push my thoughts aside

"oh...okay, one second..."

I shut the door to be sure he won't come in while I'm not watching, or put cameras in my house or anything like that.

I quickly enter the kitchen and grab my nearly full milk carton and I slowly walk back to the door before opening it again

"Haha, I thought you weren't coming back for a moment," Frank says with a slight chuckle despite my straight face.

I hold the carton out to him which he takes and says his thanks before leaving with it and I shut the door behind him.

Not even 15 minutes later he's back at my front door with the slightly less full carton. he has a big dumb smile on his face

"Thanks! Here's your milk back"

He holds out the carton to me. I take it from his hand and walk past him to the trash can outside of my front door. I drop the half-full carton into it before going back into my house, only to be stopped by Frank's voice again

"Uh...That was still full?"

"Just being cautious..."

Frank stands there, slightly dumbfounded for a moment before slowly retreating to his house.

I'm not risking getting poisoned by my neighbour... but he does seem like a nice guy... or that could all be an act to get me to trust him and then he will poison me! no. I'm not taking any chances. Throwing out that milk was the right thing to do.