He Was... •cecilos•

The Next Door Neighbor

The light from the window went away as soon as it had appeared.
Carlos frowned, but didn't bother questioning it. So far, nothing really made sense in the little desert town.
And he'd only been here for half an hour.
"Hijo, can you come help me carry this?"
Carlos turned his attention away from the window. "Uh, yes mama!" He ran into the house and saw his mother struggling to lift their couch off the floor. It was an ugly old thing with faded print that belonged in the 70's, but she had insisted on bringing it with them to their new home, anyways. "You shouldn't be trying to move this by yourself, mama," Carlos sighed, picking up the other side of the couch.
"I'm the mother here," she scolded jokingly. They smiled at each other and carried the couch into their living room.
There was a knock on their door. Carlos looked over at his mother, who was tying her hair back into a ponytail. "Can you get that?" she asked, looking at him pleadingly. The teen shrugged and nodded, trudging over to the front door. He pushed his hair out of his face-it really needed a trim, if he were to be completely honest- and turned the doorknob.
He immediately felt paralysed.
The boy from the window was sitting on his doorstep, a goofy smile plastered on his face. "Hello!"
"Uhhh, hi?" Carlos sputtered, not really sure how to react. There wasn't exactly any tips to greeting some kid that had been staring at you from his window. "You're the kid from the window," he said stupidly. Carlos mentally kicked himself. Stupid, stupid!
"Ahh, yes," the boy said, not seeming to notice how flustered the former was. "That would be me! So sorry if I scared you. There just aren't many people moving onto this street, nowadays. In fact, I had no idea that there were any more vacant houses here at all! Funny, right?" He laughed nervously. Carlos frowned.
"I, uh, yeah I guess so.. How do you not know if you have neighbors or not?"
"I don't even know if these houses are real. Or if anything is real, actually. Have you ever considered how feeble the human mind is? The government already tricked us into believing the moon is a thing. What's next? Dogs actually being spies sent to track out every move? Well, actually.."
Carlos stared at him silently.
This kid had to be on some kind of drugs.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh! You're right, how rude of me!" The boy extended a hand out. "I'm Cecil! Cecil G. Palmer. The 'G' stands for Gershwin, of course. Because that's my middle name."
Carlos slowly shook his hand. "Right.. Well, I'm.. Carlos. Just Carlos. No G anywhere in there."
"Of course!" Cecil said cheerfully, shaking his hand with way too much enthusiasm. Carlos rubbed his hand as soon as the other boy let go of it. "I'm glad you live across from me, Just Carlos Without the G! No one has ever lived across from me, as far as I remember."
"Right, okay. Seriously, please just call me Carlos. Do you take everything so literally?"
"Yes!" Cecil said, tilting his head. Carlos swallowed uncomfortably. The kid practically stared through him. "Life is so short and fleeting that there's no time to sit around and make things up. And that's illegal, anyways. No one should be making things up. That's why books are outlawed, after all. All a bunch of fairy tales!"
Carlos' head hurt from listening to him talk. "Books aren't.. Have you even read a textbook?"
Cecil blinked. "A what?"
"A textbook," Carlos repeated. Cecil looked vaguely confused. The other boy sighed and walked outside. His neighbor followed behind him like a baby duck. "Your town is really weird you know."
"It's actually quite normal," Cecil countered. "It's just us that are strange. We all perceive the world in different ways, so there's no weird or normal. Just us. What I see as weird is normal to you, and vice versa."
Carlos went to the back of the second van and climbed into it, searching for his box of things. Cecil was really weird, sure, but Carlos couldn't help but feel somewhat interested in him. "You say a lot of weird things," he said.
"Do I?" Cecil frowned.
"Yeah." Carlos found a box and looked around for a box opener. "But it's okay. Your voice is nice to listen to."
"Oh." He wasn't sure if maybe the lighting was weird, but Carlos could've sworn Cecil was blushing. "Thank you."
"Sure." He finally found the knife and cut open his box. Carlos shuffled through it until he found a textbook. "Here."
Cecil frowned. "I'm not really sure if I should-"
"Just take it, okay?" Carlos jumped out of the van and held out the book to his neighbor. Cecil took it from him hesitantly. His fingers brushed against Carlos', and both boys felt a tingle down their spines.
Weird, Carlos thought.
Oh, is all Cecil could manage.
Cecil looked down at the cover. "'Principles of Biochemistry?' What's that?"
Carlos immediately perked up. This was a question he could actually answer! "Biochemistry is the study of chemical compounds and processes in an organism. It's cool, trust me. I've read that book twice, and I know everything in it!"
Cecil looked in awe. "That's.. really neat."
Carlos was on top of the world. No one ever actually listened to when he explained science! But Cecil..
"Thanks! I think so, too!"
"Carlos! Where are you?" His mother called from inside the house. Carlos flinched. She sounded a little mad.
"I'm coming, mama!" He shouted back. Carlos turned to Cecil. "I'll see you around, right?"
Cecil smiled brightly and nodded. "Yes of course! We're going to the same school! Well, there's only one school in Night Vale anyway, so unless you're going to be homeschooled or travel all the way to some other place to go to-"
"Yeah, I'm going to your school," Carlos interrupted before Cecil could go into another rant. The boy beamed up at him.
"Great! I'll see you then!"
They stared at each other for a few seconds, then Cecil stood on his tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek before running across the street to his own home. Carlos stood dumbfounded, reaching up to touch his face. "What was that?" He yelled.
Cecil turned when he reached his door and smiled. "A proper Night Vale greeting! Bye Carlos!"
Carlos sat in the same spot for a few moments before his mother shouted at him again, more irritated this time, and he went back into his house, still very confused.