A few days had passed and frustrating enough, Mariam hadn't seen or heard from her neighbor. The lack of rambunctious noise in her apartment was ironically an impellent to her sanity. Admittedly, she couldn't get the tune of the second song he would constantly play out of her head.
Mariam must be crack-brained if she's suddenly taken a fondness to his taste in music.
She carried a basket of clothes to the laundry room. Ah, the joys of Tuesday! It was no doubt the best day to wash clothes because hardly anyone ever appeared.
Mariam hummed a little tune while sorting the whites from the colors in her basket. She smiled to herself, unaware of a certain young man standing in the entrance of the doorway.
Only when she heard footsteps did Mariam turn around. "Luke!" She half greeted, half whispered; completely surprised. He carried a large and rather suspicious bag over his shoulder.
Luke gave her a curt nod before walking over to an unoccupied machine, two down from her. Mariam couldn't help but notice as he shoved his pullover into the machine.
But she washed it! How rude.
"Those aren't very sexy," he motioned to the article of clothing in her hand. Mariam blinked at him and then looked down at the pair of bright pink Hello Kitty panties.
Mariam quickly threw them into the washing machine in mortification and had half a mind to jump in herself. Her face was blazing and she took deep breathes to settle her nerves. Why did he always catch her in such peculiar situations? She hurriedly finished putting in her clothes and started the wash.
Luke seemed placid, leaning against the wall opposite of the line of machines. Their eyes met and his lips quirked up in amusement. She hastily avoided his gaze.
It became quiet, aside from the murmurs of the working machines and the heavy metal blasting from his earphones. Mariam perked up at the incomprehensible sound, suddenly recalling something. She raised her hand and faced him.
He arched a pierced brow, pulling out one of his earphones. "Can I help you?"
Mariam swallowed, carefully constructing a sentence in her head before speaking. "There's a song that you played. I... I c-couldn't understand the words but-"
"What does it sound like?" He asked becoming annoyed with her stumbling discourse.
"There was um... A lot of screaming?" His eyes narrowed and she averted her gaze.
"You're going to have to be specific."
Mariam sighed. He probably had multiple cacophonous songs. "It goes like..." She tried to sing the song, attempting to harshly scream only to choke on her own spit and cough throatily in the process.
Luke laughed under his breath. Her cheeks flamed, again. She wasn't a very good singer anyway.
"I-it was the second song," Mariam said breathily. "The second song."
"Mm." He scrolled through his phone for several moments before pushing himself off the wall and striding up to her. Mariam flinched as his hand reach out toward her and she clenched her eyes shut. Suddenly the familiar string of music began to play in her ear. She opened her eyes and saw him holding the earphone to her ear.
"This it?" He asked.
Mariam nodded. "Y-yes." He pushed the earphone comfortably in her ear. She stood stiff as a board as he remained there with her. She still wasn't accustomed to close proximity.
She couldn't help her eyes from wandering and caught the brief moment when he used his phone. She saw the sleeve of tattoos he had ended at his knuckles. "Big wiggly style," he said. She blinked, looking up at him confused. "That's the name of the song." He showed her the album cover. "By the band The Devil Wears Prada."
"That's a weird title for a song," she mused. "But I - I like it," she smiled as the song ended and pulled out the earphone.
"It's a good song." He moved to return to his former position on the wall.
"You can play your music again if you want," Mariam explained. "I mean-"
"Fine." He confirmed.
She nodded quickly. The rest of the time in the laundry room was spent trying not to make a bigger fool of herself.
Later that night, Luke's discordant music came through her walls. The song she had grown fond of was on and Mariam tried to sing along to the parts she could understand. An idiotic grin was on her face.
Her neighbor, Luke, wasn't such a bad guy.
