valdez/lazaro

apartment

based on the prompt: ok but a 'your apartment is next to/above mine and i can hear you and your partner dancing and singing and the bed moving and you two laughing and talking in hussed tones and it won't let me sleep so i bitch about it to you 24/7 and one day it stops and one day turns to one week and then months and i haven't seen you smile in forever please let me in, i've been knocking for ten minutes' au.'

Alyssa grumpily looks at the the shaking table on the corner and think that this must be a new record.

The thing was literally vibrating,  and try as she might to cover her ears with her pillows, she still couldn't sleep. The sound of music and giggling could be heard every night, and every morning Alyssa would visit the girl from upstairs and tell her to keep it down, but, the following night, she would act like she forgot about what Alyssa had said. She had grown used to the sound, but that didn't mean she didn't find it annoying. The racket that Dennise Lazaro makes with her significant other upstairs (not in the way you're thinking), had caused her one too many undone research papers.

Alyssa eventully falls asleep, and before she goes to her first class in the morning, she makes sure to pay a daily visit to her delightful neighhbor.

"Den." Alyssa says in a way that she hopes was threatening, but fails because she only had a total of 3 hours of sleep that night, so it ends up sounding like a groan instead.

"Well good morning Alyssa! " She says cheerfully, holding on to her cup of what seemed like freshly brewed coffee. Alyssa resists the urge to roll her eyes.

"Seriously? Ang ingay niyo ni woever his name is, I could barely sleep, AGAIN!"

"talaga? Sorry hindi ko kasi namalayan, you want to come inside? I made pancakes." She smiles widely, making Alyssa's wonder how the girl could be so energetic in the morning despite sleeping so late almost every night.

"Wag na baka may lason pa yan. Can you please just keep it down?!!!"

"mamaya promise, you won't hear a sound." Dennise zips her lips. Alyssa nods even though she knows she won't be getting any sleep for as long as she lived downstairs.

"Nakita mo ba tong mga to?" she points to her eyebags. Dennise tilts her head and looks at it closely. "Dahil to sayo! Di ka ba naawa?"

"So kasalanan ko na makapal ang eyeliner mo?"

Alyssa pulls her already bedridden hair and groans. "UGHHHHHHH YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS, MALE-LATE NA AKO SA THEO KO." She leaves, stomping her feet loudly in the process. Dennise chuckles as she watches her from the doorway.

Just as Alyssa expected, she could once again hear loud music coming from Dennise's apartment, followed by the contant fits of laughter the couple would make. Alyssa grabs another pilow from her side and covers it against her face. She checks the time on her bedside table, 2:15 am. She curses under her breath, begging to god for the time when Dennise and whoever the hell she was dating would stop being so noisy.

Until the day that it did.

One day Alyssa went to bed and realized that it was quiet. Too quiet. 

At first she thought that they probably went out for a change instead of hanging out in Den's apartment all the time, But that soon changed when she saw her after a week of silence. Alyssa wasn't complaining though, she loved the fact that she was finally getting her schoolwork done without getting distracted by Den's loud music. She saw Den walking out of the elevator holding a plastic bag full of clothes. Nilapitan siya ni Alyssa, since she wanted to thank Den for finally heeding her petition to keep quiet.

"Someone's been awfully quiet lately."

"Too tired i guess." Ang matipid na sinabi ni Den before she went up the stairs. Alyssa thought nothing of it since baka pagod nga talaga si Den.

She saw her again after two weeks, but this time, she observed na Den was also developing the same  dark eyebags she had back when she couldn't sleep. This time Alyssa was slightly worried, she hasn't seen Den that tired in a long time, and the fact that she wasn't loud and smiling was also new to her. Dennise walks past her without acknowledging Alyssa's presence, which surprised the girl because usually, she was the one who usuall ignored Den and not the other way around.

Alyssa had to know what was going, so the follwing night, she walks over to Den's door at 1 in the morning and knocks.

Nothing.

She knocks a few more times, and after being ignored the fifth time, she decides that maybe natulog na siya. She was about to leave when she hears sniffling on the other side.

She was crying.

Alyssa knocks again, harder this time. She just couldn't leave knowing Dennise was crying. Masakit sa conscience niya if she did so.

"Den, alam kong gising ka. Please let me in."

She presses her ear against the door. After a few seconds of silence, she hears feet walking towards the door, the knob clicks and before her stands Dennise Lazaro in nothing but sweatpants and a tanktop. Her eyes were bloodshot red, so was her nose. Alyssa couldn't think of a word to say, because this was dennise and  dennise wasn't supposed to be sad. She was suppose to be noisy and always laughing and cheerful and annoying goddamnit somehow this version of Dennise just wasn't right. So she does the only she could think of, she opens her arms wide.

Den rubs her eyes before getting the message, she practically collides into Alyssa;  and good thing she was able to maintain her footing or else she and Den would have fallen. Den lays hear head on the crook of ly's neck and cries. Alyssa rubs her back before leading her inside Dennise's apartment. The pair lay on the couch, Den did not move from her position even once.

Alyssa rubs her back as the girl tucks her head deeper into her neck.

"What happened?"

Den finally looks at Alyssa. Her eyes turning puffy.

"He was cheating on me. The whole time we were together he was seeing another person," Den laughs bitterly before continuing, "-Nakakababa ng self-esteem. Was I not enough for him? Ano bang kinulang ko?! binigay ko naman lahat sa kanya!" Den cries into Alyssa's neck again, this time Alyssa holds her back and pushes den towards her. She didn't know what she was doing, basta all she knows was that she had to keep her safe at all times. She'd grown kind of attached to her from all the times she went to her apartment to sermon her from all the noise she was making. Ngayon lang niya nalaman that she had grown a soft spot for the smaller girl, even though she was a few years older than her.

Alyssa pulls away a little and lifts Den's chin so that the older one was looking directly at her. "Listen, if he cheated on you then he doesn't deserve you. You're a beautiful girl with a big heart, anyone would be lucky to have you."

"like who?"

Alyssa wants to say it so badly, she really did.

"someone. "

Den smiles, tucking her head back in the crook of Ly's neck. Alyssa hums a tune as she strokes her hair.

And for now, someone was enough.

Hihi hope you enjoyed :)