Love Next Door

Chapter One- New Neighbour

Playlist: https://goo.gl/EkCuyw

Gavin Edwards never liked his name. Even when his parents would coo it to him in his cot as a baby, he would cry mercilessly when they mentioned it. Gavin was a name for an elderly man born in the 1930s. Whereas this Gavin was born on the threshold of the 1990s, a detail he liked to put across when possible.

For most of his life, he had lived in a quiet suburban paradise, where good natured boys grew up and married good natured girls. They finished high school and studied for some wasteful amount of time, gained some fancy degree and had three kids. Done. Finished. No adventure, no excitement, no experimentation. This did not appeal to Gavin at all.

So once he finished high school- barely scraping above a pass- he moved to the city. He legally changed his name to Jay, lost all contact with his school friends and family, and got a job part-time at a fast food joint (which didn't last long). He let his dirty-blonde hair grow down to his shoulders -which did, in fact, suit him better than a bowl-cut- and proceeded to tie it into a messy ponytail most days of the week.

Life was pretty good for Jay. Most of his weekdays were spent at work. It didn't provide the best income but he didn't really need much. Weekends were spent at bars, nightclubs, or at home on the couch. Except along the way he had knocked up the only girl he had ever slept with.

Tahlia had become one of his only friends. They had both been drunk at the time, so there had never been any love there, just lust and stupidity. The previous year, the first year he had been living in the city, he had met Tahlia. She had been his co-worker at the fast food place before he eventually lost that job. That was the only night they spent together. Jay didn't even want to and he definitely wasn't supposed to, but he had wanted to prove something. Jay was, is, gay. He had never really liked girls the same way other guys seemed to, but he kept that fact to himself and repressed it in his younger days. He had known he was different even from middle school, when he refused to kiss a girl who had dragged him behind one of the school buildings. It started with simple teasing, then mocking, then threats. Perhaps even in his move to the city from the toxicity of his home town, the need to prove that he was normal prevailed. He didn't want to accept that he was not normal.

Tahlia -and enough people to count on one hand- knew his preference, he didn't really like to advertise it. Why? He didn't even know himself, he wasn't entirely afraid of what other people would think; he knew he had left most of the homophobes behind in his hometown. Maybe, he was afraid of what would happen to him if he lived as an open book.

Anyway, Tahlia was understandably ruffled by the fact he was gay since she had slept with him in the first place, but she was a reasonable, sensible woman. She knew that they had both made a mistake that night. She didn't expect him to marry her or somehow fall in love with her just because she was pregnant. To his relief she soon managed to find a steady boyfriend and his guilt was offset. She had even decided to keep the child, for reasons not quite known to Jay. Fortunately, she only expected the occasional cheque of money from him and a visit to see his daughter. This, Jay could deal with. Still, it would take a long time for him to finally realise the reality of the situation: that he had a child.

Jay had been living in the city for two years and had lived in various apartments and hovels. He now had a job at a music store on the corner of a busy intersection, in between a coffee shop and second-hand bookstore. Once again he had been kicked out of a place because most landlords didn't appreciate his 'sass' talk and sarcasm, as well as his frequently misplaced rent. Another reason why he couldn't keep a child was his frequent house moves, this was the second since his child had been born.