The boy next door || a.i.

0.3

I was sitting in my room, reading my favourite book for about the hundredth time. It was paper towns, nothing bet John Green. I wanted to be as fantastically smart as him one day, but that won't happen. Anyway, back to my boring story, For once, my house was quiet, except for the faint sound of the radio playing in my brothers room next to mine. All of the sudden, I could hear the quiet sound of drumming, which I wasn't sure where it was coming from. I hadn't heard it before, but that doesn't necessarily mean this is the first time. I can't hear anything over the sound of yelling and screaming. The thought finally hit me that it was probably those people that moved next door. I walked past hours ago, so They'd probably settled in by now, and started going about there business.

I should go next door and introduce myself, 'make some new friends' like my mother would say.

I walked out of my house, and over to their house. Not that my parents noticed, they're always yelling and screaming. Half the time, they don't even realise that my brother, Marcus and I even exist.

When I arrived at there house, which only took a few seconds to walk over. I knocked on their door, and shortly after, a boy wearing a red bandana answered the door. "Hi. Can I help you?"

"hi, uh, I'm Emma, from next door. I just came to say hi" I said nervously.

"hi Emma, I'm Ashton. Nice to meet you"

"you too." I smiled.

"I like your accent Emma" Ashton said looking down.

"English, really?" I questioned, 'I thinks it's crap, I sound like the queen. It's too posh" I rambled.

"No way, its cool," Ashton said as he swatted his hand at me.

"Thank you"

Another guy walked over to the door "Ash, who is this? What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing's wrong.. this is Emma. She lives next door, she just came to say hi" he said.

"hey Emma, I'm Calum. Would you like to come inside? Have a drink? Food?"

Talking to this boy felt like he was tying to complete a marathon. The amount of questions, my god!

"oh, I don't want to be any trouble" I said, "I should get going now"

"its no trouble, come in" Ashton said, moving away from the door, so I could walk in.

"we can give you an exclusive, behind the scenes tour!" Calum cheered.

"Oh your in that band aren't you?" I questioned, walking through the house

"We are in a band called 5 seconds of summer, you know, from Sydney, touring with one direc-"

"Yes I know, I know. I'm a fan of them, So why did you move all the way to boring old England?" I said, looking around their house.

"I wouldn't call it boring" Ashton said.

"well it is if you have seen it every day for 18 years." I laughed.

"well, I like the change" Ashton said.

"yeah, and the neighbours" Calum muttered, as we walked into the kitchen.

"Anyway," Ashton said, glaring at Calum "this is Luke, and Michael, eating. Again"

"hi" they spoke through mouthfuls, which I found disgusting.

"hey, nice to meet you" I said "um, which one of you plays the drums? Because it's really good"

"oh, that was me" Ashton rose his hand. "thanks" he awkwardly coughed.

Suddenly, a lot of violent shouting and crashing noises came from next door. Oh no, Its started again. I thought to myself.

"whats that?" Luke questioned.

"oh..uh you may have some noisy neighbours, sorry" I said looking down, trying not to cry, not that I knew why exactly I was crying, but it always just made me upset. Like all the small things had piled up on top of eachother, and this just topped it off. "I'd better get going, thanks for letting me in"

"Emma, wait!" I heard someone call. But I just ran out of their door, straight past my house, or as I call it 'the war zone', and went to the park.

When I got there, I sat behind the old fence, and put my headphones in my ears. Music was my coping mechanism for everything. I don't know how it worked, but it always did. It was almost like music was like that one person who comforted you through everything. But what would I know, no one wanted to be friends with me anyway.

I'd been so focused on listening to music, that I didn't realise that someone had walked up behind me. They tapped me on the shoulder and I fearfully turned around, expecting the worst.

It was Ashton. "hey" he said, rocking back on his heels.

"you scared me"

"what are you doing out here all alone?" he asked, sitting beside me.

"listening to music" I said blankly.

"oh ok. What happened back at the house? One minute you were all chirpy, and the next minute, you were virtually in tears. Is something wrong?"

"no no, I'm fine" I could see that he saw straight through me, but didn't care for a second.

"are you sure?"

"look Ashton, I know you're trying to be all nice and that, but i've known you for half an hour, and I don't really feel like talking about this with you. I'm sorry" the minute I said that, I wanted to take it back in. It was so rude I couldn't believe, all he wanted to do was help me.

"ok. Well I'm sorry about that." He said getting up. I saw as he walked off, that the large bruise on my leg caught his eye. I shifted my weight so he couldn't see it.

"I'll see you soon" I smiled, As he walked away.

"I'm such a bitch" I spoke through sobs.

"That's what you think" I heard him whisper, for me obviously not to hear.

About an hour later, after listening to a handful more songs, I decided that it was getting later, and dark, so I began to head back home. On the very short walk home, I started thinking about everything that happened today, but most importantly my parents. I didn't understand anything that happened between them, and I had endless questions about everything that happened. Why did they fight constantly? If they aren't happy together, then why are they together? How do they find so many things to fight about? Why hasn't my dad gotten in trouble for abusing her so much?
My mind was always swirling with thoughts, with all of this. It all made me tired because my brain was always thinking about this. My life wasn't pretty, things like never wanting to do anything, always isolating myself in my room, waking up more tired than when I went to bed, having cold showers and not caring about anything. Yep that's what depression does to you.