Neighbors(.)

Chapter 3

<< I'm so sorry! I forgot about posting on Wednesday. I'm at a genetics camp (tomorrow is the last day ;-;) and I totally forgot because it's so exciting! I love you guys and this story and I hope you understand. ~ Luma >>

Scott blinked at the man standing in front of him. In just a few seconds of befuddled staring, he gathered as much information as he possibly could. The first thing he managed to force out of his mouth was, "Well, I'm glad I'm not the only person on a Sunday with my pyjamas on."

The man blinked equally as dumbfoundedly back, "Yeah, I guess so."

Scott let a smile crawl across his face. If this was his new neighbour, he had no objection. "So, you're moving in next door? I'm Scott." He held out his hand. His neighbour took it and shook his hand back.

"I'm Vincent," he said, letting go of Scott's hand. "I'm sorry for barging in on you like this, but as you can probably tell, I'm having... a bit of trouble moving things," He shrugged apologetically. "This isn't exactly the ideal way to meet your new neighbor, but I really need some help... "

"So that's what the banging was, huh?" Scott raised an amused eyebrow. "Yeah, I... I certainly heard it."

"Oh..." Vincent winced, "It didn't annoy you, did it?"

"No, not at all," Scott lied through his teeth with a smile. "I was the same when I moved in. Okay, how can I help you out?" He clasped his hands together. So much for sitting on the couch and doing nothing all day.

"If you could just help me move some boxes in, the rest of the room is already furnished... well, mostly." Vincent gestured to his apartment and Scott stepped out beside him, being careful to close the door before Alphy could slip outside.

Together, they made their way to Vincent's apartment. It looked about the same as Scott's, if not even smaller. At least it was clean and tidy.

Well.

At the current point in time the floor of the apartment was littered with boxes, bric-a-brac and other odds and ends. Vincent sure had a lot of stuff. Scott could see a large avalanche of broken records and valuable items, with a lamp stacked on top like a cherry on top of an ice-cream. Obviously that was where the majority of the crashes had come from.

"Uh," Scott looked around. "There is a lot of stuff here. What do you want me to move first?"

Vincent shrugged, pointing to a box across the room, "That can go in my bedroom, thanks."

"Sure thing..." Scott walked over and grabbed the corners of the removalist box, hauling it up. He swore under the weight, stumbling backwards and almost crashing into the wall (which was so thin it surely would have broken had he fallen). What is in this thing?!

He peered down at the top of the box. A record player, a whole lot of clothes, some- were those... suspenders?

He shook his head. I'm next door to a nerd. This is going to be interesting.

Getting a better hold on the box, he teetered forwards and started towards Vincent's bedroom. Concentrating on keeping his feet moving forwards - but not too forwards, else he'd overbalance - he wobbled into the room and set (more like dropped) the box down on the bed. The springs creaked in protest.

He walked back out into the living room, hands in his pockets, "Alright. What's next?"

"Um..." Vincent walked around, peering into each of the boxes until he stopped in front of one. "My toaster and stuff is in here. Take it to the kitchen?"

"No problem," Scott walked over to Vincent, picking up the box. This one was substantially lighter. He could see from Vincent's appearance that he might not have been so strong, but surely he could have carried this...

For the sake of being polite, he said nothing, and took the box of utensils into the kitchen. "You want me to set it up or just leave it here?"

"Nah, you can do that later," Vincent called out. "Let's just move the boxes for now."

Scott had a feeling he'd be here for a while.

He wasn't complaining. While moving the boxes, he learnt a lot of things about his new neighbour. For one thing, Scott was quite a bit taller than him. Well, Scott was 6 ft 3", so he was quite a bit taller than a lot of people, but still. The second thing was that Vincent loved records. After moving at least three boxes of them, and finding yet a fourth box (the one that had fallen), it became apparent that he was definitely a music lover. Scott never had a record player, save for the one they used to have in college. He made a mental note to ask Vincent to show him a few of his favourite tracks once he finished.

The third thing Scott learnt about his new neighbour: he was lazy.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping?" He finally asked, after about twenty minutes of calmly doing all Vincent's work for him.

"I am helping," Vincent replied, his feet kicked up on the couch. "I'm telling you where to put stuff."

"Is that so...?" Scott sighed, but smiled good-naturedly. "Well then can you tell me where I'm supposed to put this big box of books, please?"

It was another half an hour until Scott had finished moving every single box in Vincent's apartment to its respective place. It was a lot of hard work. He wiped his forehead and stretched, "Thank goodness that's over."

"Yep. Good effort. Thanks for the help," Vincent said.

Scott had to resist rolling his eyes as he grinned. Yeah. 'Help'.