Next Door

Fifteen

Sienne POV

           I should've felt weird walking into this random lady's house, but I didn't. Her home had a sense of "hominess" that I hadn't felt in a long time. She had been gone for about five minutes now. After she said "I knew your grandmother" she disappeared into the kitchen to do something.

I sit on the comfy couch looking around. She had pictures of what looked like maybe grandkids, a big family. It smelled like warm vanilla too.

Little by little I relax my shoulders and start to get even more comfortable.

"Those are my grand babies" the older lady comes back into the room motioning toward the .

I smile and look at the photo she's referencing. "They're so cute" I say with a big smile.

The older lady comes in with a tray with a tea pot in the middle and two cups along with it. She carefully sets it down on the coffee table and takes a seat in one of the arm chairs across from the couch.

She sits in with a thump and sighs.

"Thank you for the tea" I say with a smile and I sit up pouring some in my cup and some in the other for her.

I bring the warm cup up to my face smelling the tea it smells like black tea, one of my favorites.

"So you and my grandmother were close?" I ask her. Surely I would have remembered her but I couldn't.

"Yes me and Eleanor were very close, I didn't always live in this neighborhood but we knew each since our early 30s. Your mother went to school with my son and that's how we met" she says smiling.

"I'm sorry for your loss child, I took it very bad" she says staring at her hands now.

My heart sinks thinking about my late grandmother. The elderly lady leans over and picks up up the cup of tea.

"I know my grandmother thought very highly of you, she wasn't close to a lot of people, and the people she was close to she believed to be very valuable in her life" I say smiling to her.

We talk about my grandmother for almost a half an hour, all great memories that leaves us smiling with tears of her memory in our eyes.

"Yeah she was something" I say thinking about her.

"You know you've grown up so much since the last time I seen you out in that front yard playing around" the older lady who's name I learned is Maria says pointing towards the direction of my house.

"Yeah I stopped coming when I was around 13" I say to her taking another slow sip of the black tea.

I watch as Maria sets her tea cup down carefully. The mood seems to change just enough for me to pick up on and I look at her.

Maria now has a serious look on her face as she looks up at me through her long graying eyelashes.

"Did you grandmother ever give you the reason as to why she started to not want you to play outside as much?" Maria now says still looking at me seriously.

"What do you mean?" I ask starting to think back to deep memories I haven't thought of in so many years.

Thinking now, I do remember how my grandma started not letting me go outside as much. She would make up excuses and always have me going on play dates with my childhood friend. Now that I remember I do recall always hanging out with my friend and playing at her house.

I remember begging my grandmother to allow Ali to come over to our place but she'd say the house wasn't presentable.

Deep in thought I look back up to Maria and she can see the wheels turning in my head.

"No... I guess I never thought twice about it" I say cocking my head to the side.

"I can't help but to watch over you, I know Eleanor would want me too" Maria says.

"I've seen you with those men that live to the right of you" she says fidgeting with something on the armchair she's in.

My blood runs cold. I knew I shouldn't have been so open and careless with that whole situation. I shakily put a strand of hair behind my ear and clear my throat.

"You're an adult, I know, if they were anybody else I would've kept my mouth shut" she says seriously.

"What do you mean if they were anybody else?" I ask furrowing my eyebrows.

"Your grandmother said there was something off about them. She didn't trust them. She was actually fearful of them but she wouldn't ever tell me why" Maria says, her voice shaking as she whispers the last part which sends chills down my spine.

"There were a couple break ins to the home the last summer you spent here, and you know Eleanor was very particular about everything in that house" she says looking over in the direction of it.

I swallow and my eyes start to water a little.

"She said she had a feeling that the man's son was off,  she said she would see him stare at you for hours and not move one inch, she would tell me how you'd complain about losing your art supplies and your things, she thought it was the little boy next door" Maria says.

My chest becomes tight.

"She even said she would catch both of them staring at you while you were in the front yard" Maria says pointing off in the distance.

"She said the only time she felt watched in her home was when you were there in the summers, that's when she knew it was you they were fixated on." Maria says raising her eyebrows at me.

"I told her that she was being overprotective of you, picking up on things that weren't there. That the boy simply had a childhood crush on you. That his father probably was telling him not to stare at you, and that's when she would see both of them in the window...But her mind would not be changed. She said she got a cold vibe from them" Maria says shaking her head enrapt in telling me this information.

My blood runs cold and I feel so uncomfortable all of a sudden.

They told me they had never seen me before...