The Neighbor

prologue

"It was bound to happen eventually." My father could be heard mumbling from his spot on the front porch, enjoying one of his very rare days off. I followed his gaze to the house next door, a moving truck was skillfully backing into the driveway, "new people?" I asked myself, there's never anyone new here, it's too bland for that. A minivan pulled up a minute later, and you could tell it was packed fairly full, two adults and what looked like two or three kids, they all piled out, one in particular standing out to me.

He didn't look like he could be much older than me, a year at most. I grimaced when I felt a smack on the back of my head, light yet still hard enough to make me rub the spot of impact. "What, Andrew?" I looked back at my older brother, a small year and a half being our age gap. "Stop staring, you'll creep them out." He snickered, I rolled my eyes, glancing back over to see the mystery boy gone, some grown man in his place, pulling bags out of their overstocked minivan. "Shut up."

"Alexandra, don't talk to your brother like that!" Our dad, Mark, shouted from the front porch, a phone glued to his ear, of course. Work always comes first, ever since mom died, he puts everything into work. "Excuse me." I looked up, standing on the other side of our "privacy" fence, was the man from the minivan. Dad pulled the phone away for a second, "do you think there's any chance we could borrow a-" "No, sorry. Kids, come inside." I furrowed my eyebrows at dad's behavior, he didn't even let the poor man finish.

Andrew practically dragged me inside, his bad habits starting to become more prominent, simply in his hand gestures, or actions. "I can walk myself." I mumbled, making him drop my arm, he moved his hands around over dramatically as he left me standing on the front lawn. "Alexandra!" I rushed inside at the sound of my fathers voice booming.

"Listen to me carefully, darling. I don't want you speaking to them." I nodded, looking up at dad with big eyes, even my ten year old self being curious. I searched his face for any signs of humor, nothing, just the look of seriousness.