Girl Next Door

iTunes war

I'd woken up to the sound of very familiar music coming through the right-hand wall of my bedroom. It's was surely Area 11, I was adamant. Maybe I could have a new friend here after all, but I can't exactly just go round and confess our mutual likeness to the band. I instead, decided to match my neighbour on the next song I knew would follow the current one being played. I turned on my laptop and opened up iTunes so fast, my heart started speeding up. I'm such the competitor, trust me to produce adrenaline when racing against a song. I still had about 20 seconds left of this one, so my mouse hung over 'The Strays' and I prayed that it would sync up with my neighbour and baffle the crap out of them. To my shock and delight, they synced up almost-perfectly, so I proceeded to get up and dance around my room for a bit, before jumping in the shower.

The album had almost ended by the time I had gotten dressed and hair dried. I tied my hair up in the worst bun I've ever made and then switched my iTunes to Taylor Swift on shuffle; the upbeat songs though; no one wants to feel sad when they have a billion-and-one things to do.

I started unpacking all of my clothes and dry-food from some of the suitcases and boxes, I couldn't have any food that could go off, due to me not having a fridge yet. God knows, I need to sort that out. Once that had all been done, my laptop was half way through 'You Belong With Me' when I noticed a now very prominent echo of the song coming through the same wall I heard Area 11 being played. They had got me back! Whoever this person is, I need to meet. My next door neighbour likes Area 11 AND Taylor Swift?!

I guessed it was time to start on the furniture and grabbed the toolkit I had borrowed from my dad, when there was a knock on my door. I definitely didn't order any Chinese food or was expecting anyone, so this could either be the man from yesterday, or my awesome new neighbour.

I got up from the toolkit and answered the door to a surprisingly tall man with ginger-brown hair and similar coloured stubble. He opened his mouth to speak but seemed to decide against it and backed away a little from me. It confused me at first but then realised I was holding the hammer from the toolkit with the head resting on my shoulder, so it probably looked a bit menacing. I quickly apologised and put it down on a nearby surface to the door.

"You're the girl who has just moved in, aren't you?" He asked while awkwardly stepping back towards me.

He was either the man from yesterday, or my landlord. Either way, I may as well invite him in.

We both stepped into my apartment and I started to shift a few boxes for us to sit down on. I didn't have a couch or any chairs built yet, so I pointed to a box for him to join me on.

"I would offer you a cup of tea or coffee, but I don't actually own any of that stuff right now." I explained.

I realised I still had my music still playing too loudly for conversation, so I quickly got up and closed my laptop, cutting off my music abruptly and came back to him looking around my living room with mild interest until he saw me coming back.

"You like Taylor Swift and Area 11 too, I gather? He asked while breaking into a smile most girls would fall to their knees for. He was attractive in a way that wasn't deliberate, but still managed to pull it off. Okay, so he was both the man from yesterday and my music neighbour. Great.

"Yeah." I laughed tentatively. "And I guess you do too, by the sounds of it!"

"The name's Alex, by the way, I moved here recently too, I know a few others who live in this building and we'd be happy to help you with a chair maybe.. Or two." He gestured to the flat furniture boxes with his eyebrows innocently raised in a sarcastic fashion.

Alex was getting harder and harder to look at. His smile with a hint of sarcasm were enough to make me lightly blush, but put our iTunes war on top of that, plus he's offering to help me 'with a chair or too' if I didn't move now, I was going to blush further and make a real embarrassment of myself.

"Yeah, maybe some other time though. I was actually on my way out to do some shopping." I said too quickly.

"Okay!" He said brightly. "Well I just thought I'd come round and introduce myself properly, seeing how you were all for riding solo in your box-moving!" He laughed again, which made my stomach turn weirdly, and strode towards the door.

I laughed too-hard at his joke and let him out before grabbing my own bag and heading out of the door too and into the elevator, then practically running out of the main entrance when I got there. The fresh air let me calm down and think about what just had happened. I definitely need to be less weird about it, if I see him again, but wow.. That smile.