The day had already felt like it was off to a weird start. I just felt really weary and paranoid. No specific reason, I just was. Then around 2:30, I was outside watering my garden when I saw the moving vans pull up in the driveway at the house right next to mine. I had no idea there was someone moving in. In fact, I don’t even remember seeing the sign advertise that it had been sold. Whatever.
I locked eyes with my new neighbor, Aaron. I immediately fell into a daze. He was incredibly charming, and just overall gave of the vibe of being a good person. He looked to be around my age, too. My neighborhood is mainly made up of senior citizens, and I was getting tired of it; really tired of it. It was going to be nice to finally have someone my age.
I decided that I was going to take the initiative of being the one to welcome him to the neighborhood. I whipped up a batch of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies, and was on my way to give them to him. It was around 8:00 now, and the moving vans had already unloaded everything. I was really excited to see him up close, and hopefully have a conversation with him.
As I walked up the steps leading to his porch, I was immediately hit with the most foul smell. I tried to ignore it as I crept up the stairs, and brushed it off as being the typical smell of damp cardboard being moved into the house. I knocked at his door. No answer. This time I tried ringing his doorbell— again, no answer. I stood at his door for another 2 minutes before resorting to leaving the cookies at his porch. Maybe he’d get them in the morning.
I woke up the next morning, eager to see if he had taken my welcome gift. I grabbed my watering can, just so that incase he saw me, he would think I was tending to my plants. I walked onto my front lawn, far out enough to see that the cookies had been brought inside his house. Phew. I know it seems creepy, but I tried knocking at his door one more time. Can you really blame me, though? I haven’t talked to anyone my age in forever.
This time, I was reluctantly greeted at the door by Aaron. He opened the door ever so slightly, and peered at me, hiding a little bit behind the door. Weird, I thought.
“Um, hey there! My name’s Kennedy. Sorry if my gift seemed weird, I just thought I’d bring over something to welcome you into the neighborhood. Where ya from?”
He stood there in complete silence. His eyes were wide open, looking at me up and down. I kept a smile on my face, desperately waiting for a response. I guess it fell into an awkward position though, because he creaked the door closed a little more.
“Okay, well, this has been fun. I’ll catch ya la-“. Next thing I knew, the door slammed in my face. I was taken aback by what had just happened. I decided I was going to give it another try tomorrow.
As I was getting ready for bed, I went to close my blinds when I saw something strange. Aaron was peeking out from his window behind a curtain. It couldn’t have been anymore obvious though, since it was the only window filled with light. Trying to break the awkwardness, I smiled and waved at him. He quickly closed the blinds, and the light flipped off. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. Did I really seem that uninteresting? Whatever. I was gonna try again tomorrow anyways. I turned off my lamp and went to sleep.
This was the day he was going to talk to me. I tried my best to model walk up to his house, but I kind of failed miserably. I rang his doorbell once and knocked three times. I was surprised when he opened his door about 30 seconds after me knocking. He opened it the same width as the previous day, except this time, he had the look of plain fear in his eyes. I stared back at him, not knowing what to do.
“Hi again! I know we get off to a pretty rocky start but I would like to-“. Just then, he swung the door open fully, and I was met with a knife just inches away from my throat. I immediately broke out in a cold sweat. I was about to say something, until he finally decided to speak.
“Listen, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, and I don’t know what you’re planning to do with me, but you need to stay far away from me.” He started shaking, his scared expression never looking as if it was going to fade.
My hands were kind of stuck positioned up, as if I was going to push him back. He then moved his glare to my hands. I then looked my hands as well. I was horrified.
Shit. Shit. Shit Shit Shit SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. HOW UNATTENTATIVE WAS I? I STILL HAD FRESH BLOOD ON MY HANDS.
I looked back up at him before I turned to sprint away. Did I seriously forget to wash my hands last night?
I ran into my bathroom, and looked in the mirror. Oh my god… you have go to be FUCKING KIDDING ME.
My cheeks were still smeared with blood from the previous night, and it was all over my hands. Oh my god. Maybe that foul smell from two days ago was me. Did he see me? Is that why he was looking at me from the window? How was he even awake? Those cookies were supposed to knock him out cold. Fuck.
Well, the police are outside my house now, questioning Aaron about what he saw. Damn it. The guy of my dreams moved in right next to me and I went and blew it. Man. So much for making a good first impression.