Neighbours From Hell

Chapter 2

"Why are you so quiet?"

Amelia's voice shook Dagon out of his small reverie about what happened with him and Rosalind earlier.

They were both seated in Amelia's car in the school parking lot, waiting for their other friend to come. Amelia noticed that Dagon had been unnaturally silent since he entered the car and his eyes were focused on a distant invisible spot in the air. Dagon wasn't the talkative one but neither was he the silent one. He usually always keep up a decent conversation when they were together. After all, she was his best friend. She was the only girl to whom Dagon could talk properly without any stutterings.

Amelia Hart and him became best friends since pre-primary school. Since she stood up for him against other children bullying him. Although if Dagon sometimes was embarrassed to admit it, Amelia was indeed his protector. She was always here for him and he did owe her much.

"Me quiet? No way." He just shrugged it off as if he was clueless to his odd behaviour, but Amelia knew her best mate well.

She frowned deeply at him, raised her arm and gave Dagon a not-so-light punch on his shoulder to which the latter responded with a barely audible 'ouch'.

"Either you tell me what's going on with that small mind of yours, or the next punch you'll receive won't be that light"

Dagon closed his mouth preventing himself from snapping back to her saying that was a hard punch ealier but reconsidered it. He really didn't want to be abused.

"Um... Nothing for you to worry about. It's just about... um. About that girl thing-"

"By that girl. Do you mean Rosalind ?"

He was cut off from Amelia who was giving him an almost glare. He knew very well that she wasn't fond of Rosalind at all, but he couldn't help the pathetic feelings he has for her.

"Duude! What's up my homies?"

And there came Dean Canan. The party-goer, the only one who always get average marks, the loud, obnoxious one, the one that get always drunk,the one who always says 'Dude' in every sentence he says, the popular one in the little group of nerds. But it was last summer when the guys met him when he was badly in need of some tutor since he was failing his classes. Dagon volunteered and gradually found out other hidden personalities in Dean. Like how he was a huge bookworm and also a writer. How he secretly have a stack of Yu-Gi-Oh's cards well hidden. And how he was a big fan of online adventure and fantasy games, and the 'nerdiest' of all, how he was a die-hard fan of Star Wars and Harry Potter.

That's when the three of them found common traits with him and even after the lessons, they used to hang out until Dean became part of their little group, never leaving his new best friends.

Amelia turned her body to face Dean with her face scrunched up in confusion, 

"Homies? "

"Yeah Amy! You know... homies... mates... friends? Seriously dude!"

"Call me dude one more time and you'll end up walking home" Amelia was now sending her obnoxious friend death glares. She turned back in her seat, started the car and brought up the conversation of Dagon being quiet again.

"Ugh. I'm just tired that's all!"

"Bullshit, you had two free periods,  you can't be tired!"

"Dean! Can you control your mouth?!"

"What, Amy? Whatever that guy is saying doesn't make any damn sense! He's hiding something from us I tell you!"

"And that's why you have to swear?!"

And those two were off again in another round of bickerings. Dagon was getting irritated at his friends' useless fight and decided to shut them off by saying,

"Stop! What happened is that I asked Rosalind to be my date for the prom, got rejected and I'm now in a very bad mood since you two kept fighting like an old couple during the whole ride!"

That, indeed, shut both of them up and true to his words, they already arrived at Dagon's house.

Both Amelia and Dean had their eyes wide opened and mouth agape. They couldn't believe their ears of what they just heard. Never would they have believed that Dagon Lockhood would ever have the courage to talk to a girl, let alone to ask her to prom.

And of course the only thing Dean found to say was,

"That's some serious shit, dude"

And Amelia and him got into another round of fights forcing Dagon to sigh and leave the car, frustrated,  without forgetting to slam the car door shut with force.

He ignored their shouts to him and dove straight into his house. It felt odd when he was greeted with an unnatural silence.

"Mom? Mom I'm home"

Silence

Dagon walked into the kitchen and was not surprised to see his mother spread across the kitchen table in a deep slumber, with several stack of papers around her. It pained him to see her like this, to see her this tired.

He went to fetch a blanket in the nearby room and covered her mum. It couldn't be helped but to stare at her peaceful face and noticing the slight wrinkles that were forming in the corner of her eyes. His mom was still pretty young but looked much older due to all the endless shift she worked. Ever since his dad left them, Dagon's mother has been working her butt's off to be able to support him and his younger brother. This in turn came about to have a negative impact on her health which is deteriorating rapidly. One of Dagon's worst fear is that he is unsure to what extent her mum would be able to continue like this. And that's a main reason why Dagon as well is trying his best at school, being a straight A's student and an almost perfect record. He's hoping to bring a better future for his family and be able to help in the current financial situation they are in.

"Dagon? You are already here. Have you eaten yet? There's some leftovers in the fridge i think,"

Dagon quickly turned around to see her trying to get up and tried reassuring her the best he could,
"Mum i'm okay. Don't worry about me, i can take care of myself. You should go to sleep,"

"No i still have some work to do and have to fill out these stuffs and all," she persisted.

"Mum please. In the state you're in, you'd be wasting your effort. You won't be able to get anything done. Go to sleep and you'll continue tomorrow morning. I'll try to fill some of the documents"

Arina stared at his son and wondered since when his son grew up and became that independent and started taking care of her. She still remember her doing everything for her children and the joyful times they spent together. But now because she had to work for a living, she hardly even saw
her children. However  looking at how Dagon's turned out made her proud. He succeeded into supporting himself and grew into a young intelligent  man that has a successful future in front of him.

She finally gave in and accepted to be led to her room.

Dagon came across the table again and decided to try do the best he could to decrease the amount of work her mum had.

'I guess there won't be time for homework tonight,' thought Dagon as he continued scribbling across the papers all the while trying not to think about the disappointment with Rosalind earlier.