Chapter Eleven

I hear stones and pebbles raining on my bedroom window beside my bed. It kept on rumbling and rumbling as if there's hailstorm on going outside. The time on my phone says I still have thirty minutes before my alarm goes off and it feels like a drag to leave my soft yellow bed. I rubbed the sleep off of my eyes and walked over to that specific window to see what's happening.

I pulled the curtains open with half eyes open. I couldn't make up what's  going on on the other side, but I see a bright light pointing towards me.

"Hey can you hear me!?" I heard a blurry voice calling out to me. "Are you sleep walking!? Heh that's cute!"

She still talked while my windows are closed and I just nodded at her confused. I think I misheard a few words. Does she wants to fight me? I don't think I could throw punches. But we were fine days ago. I mean, I did kind of insulted her way back to school but still...

"Open up!" She brought up more pebbles on a jar container and threw it on my window. So no hailstorm, just Karlene Miller doing her thing.

I sat back on my bed hugging a pillow and watched her as she threw the last pebble available on her jar then I stood up to slide open the glass window. Surprisingly, it's not scratched, just stained with a white pigment that can easily be erased by  a finger.

"I hate you. Worst neighbor, -1000 over 10," I rated her. Mom and Dad said this neighborhood is peaceful. What the heck is this?

Karlene laughed and she's moving around in a heavily, suspicious way. She might be a bit tipsy.  "Let's hang out!" She shouted.

I shook my head. "Are you drunk?"

"Uhm... Maybee...?"

"Yeah, you are. Good night." I tried to close my window but she protested.

"Don't leave me alone! Nooooo!!" She cried out loud not having control on her voice. "Ellie!!!"

"SHHH! people are going to think I'm assaulting you or something."

"Sorry," She straightened her body then tapped her face. "Okay..." She breathed out. "I'm sober, I'm sober, I'm sober..."

She kept on repeating that phrase over and over. I could serve a life sentence and she still won't be done reciting, I could give birth to seven generations, go around jupiter 5 times, witness the artificial intelligent supremacy rising, and still, she's still convincing herself that she's sober.

"You done yet?" I yawned getting bored.

"I'm sober Ellie. Can I come over?" She said seriously.

She's persistent as ever.

"Sure."

---

I asked her why she's here and she said she was so lonely in her house that she started having conversations with her reflection on a mirror. That lead her to drink a bit of alcohol while she's making powerpoint presentations for next week's class. She unconsciously managed to get a hand of her box of mini chalks and that's when she started throwing it at my window to get my attention.

I made coffee for both of us. Karlene was too embarrassed to talk when she had came to her senses and realized what she had done.

"I thought there was a hailstorm outside."

"Don't even," She shook her head refusing to believe that was all her.

"And you were yelling so loud too, you said, Don't leave me aloneee!" I mocked.

"I did not say that," She slapped my arm.

I shrugged, "If I were you I will also pretend like it didn't happen."

She let her head drop on the dining table grunting as she did. I think she's trying to remember and recollect what's left of her dignity.

Meanwhile, my alarm goes off on my cellphone that I left upstairs on my room. The house was quiet and so the sound of my "Memories" ringtone echoed through out. Karlene glanced at me as she picked up the sound as well and she raised a brow. I excused myself and quickly ran upstairs to turn it off.

.

When I got down stairs, I saw Karlene still on the same position as I had left her. God please, I hope she's not sleeping.

"Am I bothering you?" She suddenly said, still sitting and her face is down resting on the table.

That caught me off guard and made me froze behind her. I don't know what to say. I tried to open my mouth but no words dare to escape.

Sure, I was annoyed I got woken up too early. I haven't had much sleep since yesterday because I stayed up all night helping my girlfriend review for her up coming exams. I had to ask her over a hundred questions about chem, some I can't even properly pronounce. So is Karlene bothering me by showing up? Yes, she ruined my sleep, but I kind of get her. I know what it feels to be so out of place, and unwelcomed. I've been there before, and it's the worst. But I don't know how to tell her that she's not bothering me, without telling her that she's not bothering me. I don't want to seem like I'm too soft.

"Nevermind. By the way, where are your parents?" She finally lifted her head to face me.

"They're not home."

"What about your brother, Ryan..?"

"It's Evan, and no he's not here. He's sleeping over at his friend's house."

Now that Evan's been mentioned. I got to feed the spider or I might miss the scheduled feeding time. The worms are stored at the lowest drawer of his closet. It says at the paper I have to cut it into pieces first. Ew.

Karlene saw me looking at the paper and she peeked her head to read it too. She tilted her head. "You have a tarantula?"

...

She watched me dramatically, her face showing absolute disgust as I pulled a brown worm up in the air using mini tongs that I also found on my brother's closet. It was still alive and wiggling it's body. Get it Miss girl show us the moves. Something about this is going to make me a psychopath.

"Not even an ounce of remorse for the worm? You're better than this."

"This is normal, it's food chain." I said and was surprised I remembered the term. "And what's the difference between a normal pet food and this worm? It's just that this one's alive and the other is dead and all grind up. Have you ever had a pet before?"

"No, I dislike responsibilities."

I had a hard time grabbing the scissors from Karlene's hand as she had trouble even handing it over to me. This is going to be very quick. Just snap snap.

"I can't watch this."

"I think I remember seeing a Mcdonald's delivery guy just outside your door the other day."

"Oh shut up. You know what? Just do it."

Sergei happily ate dismembered worms in his glass cage. I got rid of my stained gloves like I just did a crime. I wonder how can my brother do this on a daily basis. Just nonchalantly chopping off living worms. It's a weird hobby.

When the feeding was done, Karlene wandered off on her own in our house. Her hand touching everything she goes by and her eyes taking everything in carefully. There's a lot of things in our house that you can't process it all in one glance. She said she likes our chill modern interior and how there's a balcony upstairs and when you look down you have a full view of the living room. How every furniture compliments one another and she envies it how no wall is left blank and always have a picture frame hanging on it. She adored every photograph she passed by asking who is it that's in there, and what's happening in it.

A particular photograph caught her attention and it was my parent's wedding/family picture at the altar. This is the first object that they brought when we moved in. It's a special one. My mom, she has on a bright fresh smile wearing a white mermaid type gown, the one that bulged at the very end of the gown, her flower only consisted of white and purple orchids, which is the theme of the wedding. Dad just looks like he's about to cry because mom's hair was pushing on the side of his face, but he's quite a man in his black and white suit and his brown hair slicked back. I was also in the picture but I was still a toddler on my grandpa's arms and don't remember much of that day happening.

I stood behind Karlene leaning on the railings of the second floor balcony. Her lips parted as she looked up at the biggest picture in our house. She's intimidating when she doesn't talk. You won't know if she admires what she looks at, or she judges them.

"Your parents likes those certain flowers?" She asked.

"Yup. They met at an orchid garden at a photoshoot, if I remember correctly. That's why they thought of it and made it their wedding's main design... Something like that."

"Wow, that's really thoughtful."

"I think so too," Then I added something to ask. "What about you? Do you also like a certain flower?" I wonder because that's the first thing she noticed.

"Uhmm... No, I have a bad relationship with flowers. But this, it reminds me of how it could also be nice."

She joined me leaning on the railings too and she pointed up to a man beside my dad. "Hey that one's a hottie," She said changing the subject.

"That one is my uncle," I said as she pointed at my dad's best man. He had his arms over at Dad's shoulder, he looks very proud.

"Is he single?"

"Karlene, he's forty five."

"Okay, so?"

"So???"

"Aged like fine wine in that picture." She pointed at another picture frame that was taken last last Christmas.

I laughed. Uncle Ray has four kids, his eldest probably older than she is. But still, even if I were to say age doesn't matter, his wife is amazing and they have been in love longer than I have lived. That's hard to match.

We moved over downstairs again and into our living room where more pictures lay open at a wooden rack for her eyes to see. It's mostly pictures of me and Evan in school activities.

"You look like a depressed, randomized sims character in this one," She joked as she picked up a picture frame of me. That was when I attended a Halloween costume party in elementary school and I showed up in an alien/beast costume. My classmates were afraid to even approach me so I just sat alone at a table watching other kids with dainty costumes praise each other.

"They said I don't fit their fairy aesthetic, mine is too boyish for them. Tsk tsk. Big talk for someone who looks like a troll with wings." I said.

"Oh not trolls," She grinned. "Troll dolls scare me."

"Right? And the scariest thing on that event wasn't even their costumes, it was their personalities."

"I know how that is."

Karlene missed no pictures at my house. I like how she took interest in knowing me, even asking more questions. It's new to me to see a person who's all ears and seemingly intrigued everytime I open my mouth. And when I don't, asks me to speak and talk more. It made me realize that I had been longing for this. Longing for someone to hear me out. I'm starting to get comfortable around her and I don't know if that's a good thing or not. Maybe I should let my walls down for her, because it's been such a long time since I did that for someone.

"You're not that intimidating..." I blurted out and she seems surprised. I don't know... Each day I get to meet  her, the pressure and the tension slowly fades. Maybe it's because I also see her flaws and at that...

I think I want to be her friend.

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