Hey Neighbor

Chapter Eleven.

I got up from the couch and went to open the door.

“Hey,” Dana greeted me as soon as I was face to face with him.

“Can I help you?” I folded my arms over my chest.

“Stop it,” he frowned.

“Stop what?” I wasn’t trying in the least bit to hide my annoyance and anger with him. “What do you want?”

“To talk to you,” he brushed passed me, closing the door behind him.

He had a habit of coming into my home uninvited and, often times, unwanted.

“Jesus Christ!” he jumped at the sight of Macey. “Why isn’t she put away?”

“Because,” I smirked, enjoying watching him freak out over something so small.

“Put her away!” he demanded.

“No,” furrowed my eyebrows and looked at him as if putting Macey in her cage were the most ridiculous request I had ever heard.

“You’re so difficult!” he sat on one of the stools at the counter in my kitchen and brought his legs up so that Macey couldn’t reach him. Then he looked at me, practically begging me with his eyes. “Please?”

“Fine,” I rolled my eyes. I put Macey away and sat back down on my couch. “You’re pathetic.”

“Excuse me?” he stood from his seat as soon as Macey was in her cage and stood across the coffee table from me and in front of the TV, which he turned off. “I’m, what?”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“I thought you wanted me to come here so we could talk,” he let out an exasperated sigh, obviously trying to control his anger before this broke out into another screaming match.

“Fine,” I said again. “Talk.”

“What do you want me to say?” he asked, running a hand through his curls.

“Tell me what this whole afternoon was about.”

“You’re going to freak out.”

“No I won’t,” I told him, knowing that it was going to turn out to be a lie anyways.

Dana sighed, “I’m sure you’ve heard rumors about me and why I had to move here.”

I recalled everything I had heard about him.

I remembered people talking about him and all of the stories that had been passed around in the beginning of the second semester when he moved.

People said he moved out to Brooklyn, New York from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania because of “problems”.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“What have you heard?”

“That you were in a gang, gang fights, you got arrested, you put a cop in a comma,” I listed all that came to mind. “I’m sure there was more, but I can’t remember all of them off the top of my head.”

“Well... I never put a cop in a comma.”

My stomach dropped.

“I beg your pardon?” I stared at him.

Dana sighed again, “It’s just really, really complicated, okay, Jerin?”

“What is? That you’re in a gang?” my voice began rising.

“No, I’m not!” he defended.

“Then what the hell are you saying, Dana? Stop beating around the bush!”