Chapter One: In-Sync

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 She was there again, sitting on the floor next to her apartment door with her legs pulled up towards her knees, a small radio playing a song she would lip sync too. Matt's next door neighbor was a strange mute girl that had a knack for misplacing her apartment's key, which meant she would have to wait for the owner of the building to come and open the door for her, but she was always extremely patient.

“Maybe you should wrap it around your neck,” he made a motion of placing something around his neck as she looked at him. He felt completely stupid, 'She's mute, not deaf, idiot.' he thought to himself as he walked into his apartment.

He took a deep breath as he placed the plastic bag he had been carrying on the table. Necessary ingredients for supper, and a couple of things needed around the apartment were pulled out before he started the stove. He had no doubts that the girl was still sitting out there, but what was he going to do? It was her fault for losing her key all the time. A complete space head, if you asked him.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?!”

He heard stomping noises from outside and he didn't have to guess what was going on. The security guard that made his last round before leaving always, and he meant always, chased the girl around thinking she was a visitor staking out at someone's front door. He would never take the time to actually read what she had written on her notebook.

A sweat drop formed on the back of his head as he heard a loud 'thud' sound hit the wall of his apartment. She had been fed up with him within a week and had actually started fighting him off so he wouldn't drag her out of the apartment building.

“Here we go again,” he groaned, as another 'thud' hit his door. He turned the fire on the stove down to low and turned towards the door. He was unsure if he should go out there, but fearing they would break down his wall, he had too.

“You might want to check the record,” he told the security guard, who was trying to get her cornered, but was having trouble, “She lives next door to me.”

“Is that so? Then tell me, why is she always sulking around outside the door instead of going in?! There's a 'no loitering' rule in this building that we have to keep.”

He sighed, “She loses it daily and has to wait for the owner of the building to come open the door,” he explained to the man, who refused to let the girl out of his sight, “She doesn't cause any trouble. . .until you start chasing her around like she's some dangerous animal.”

The man scoffed, retreating from her, but not before glaring. She met him with her own and, as Matt had noticed in that second, was even sharper than the older man's glare. It looks could kill, she would have killed him the second he had pissed her off and would have been on the floor squirming in pain as she continued to glare.

“If it's alright with you,” he blushed lightly, “You can leave a key to your apartment with me for when this happens, because I know it'll happen again.”

She thought about it for a couple of seconds before nodding a 'yes'. Of course, he wasn't sure when she was going to give him a key, or if the key was even going to make it to his hand before she lost it. He nodded and started to walk back inside his apartment as his father came out of the elevator and walked his way, untying the tie he was wearing, his blazer over his shoulder.

“Oh, a friend,” his father bowed to the girl, she bowed back with only her head and not completely, “Konbawa. . .huh?”

“Ishinaka,” Matt told him, as she wrote it down on her small notebook, “Ishinaka, Agita.”

It looked like his father was waiting for her to return his greeting, his face changing to that of saying how rude she was for not answering. He groaned at the thought of no one in this building knowing the girl was mute other than him. Were they blind or just playing stupid so they had a reason to actually dislike her and stay out of her way.

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