Let me know what you think.
The Neighbor
“While you guys are out of town do you think Megan can stay with me, so I’m not alone,” Rachel asks her parents as they load up their car to leave.
“I guess that would be ok, but absolutely no boys or parties. I mean it Rachel, we will find out,” her mom warns.
“Of course not Mom, you can trust me. Have a fun trip, I love you guys!”
“I know you wouldn’t, but Megan… oh well, never mind. We love you too! See you on Sunday,” her mom yells out of the window.
After watching her parents drive off into the fading sun light, Rachel turns to go back in the house and sees her neighbor John standing in his driveway watching her. He has always made Rachel feel uncomfortable and today was no different. John was a single man in his mid 40’s, Rachel has never seen him with a woman despite the fact that he was a mildly attractive older man. Honestly, she has never seen anyone come to visit him. To be polite Rachel waves to John and smiles as she opens her door to go inside and call Megan.
“Good morning, Rachel. Did I hear that your parents are going out of town for the weekend?”
“Yeah, umm they’ll be back on Sunday, night,” Rachel tells John, surprised that he heard what she was saying to her parents.
“Well, you know I’ll be here if you need anything. Don’t be afraid to knock on my door at anytime if you need something. A young girl staying home by herself isn’t safe, you know.”
“I’ll be fine. Thank you, John. I gotta get going though, have a good day,” Rachel says as she quickly goes inside and shuts the door, making sure to lock it behind her.
Rachel picks up her phone to call her best friend, Megan and starts checking all of the doors and windows to be sure they are locked, also. She doesn’t like staying home alone, it makes her very nervous.
“Hey Megan, it’s me. Guess what, my mom said you can come and stay while they are out of town for the weekend,” she blurts out as soon as her friend answers the phone. The two girls have been best friends since they were three years old, even though they have some very obvious differences. Rachel is a very quiet and polite girl, while Megan is loud and extremely flirtatious. They differ in looks as well; Rachel is plain with long chestnut brown hair and doesn’t need to ever wear make-up. Rachel has shorter multi colored hair that is always changing and wears lots of eye make-up.
“Really? That’s so awesome! Oh my God, party at your house this weekend! Rachel, it will be epic, the best party ever. We could invite Josh, Brad-“
“Megan, stop. We can’t have a party, and… no boys. I promised my mom.”
“WHAT? Are you serious? Then what are we going to do?”
“Umm, what we always do. Hang out and watch scary movies, or do our nails. We could go to the mall too, my mom left her car here.”
“But… ugh, ok. We are watching what I want to watch then. I hope you are ready to be so scared you pee your pants.”
Rachel wasn’t hearing a word her friend was saying. She was standing in the kitchen, which her mother overly decorated in apples, watching as her neighbor John was staring at her from his kitchen.
“Hello? Earth to Rachel, are you listening to me?”
“Huh? Oh yeah sorry. So, are you coming over or not?”
“Yeah, if you had been listening to me when I was talking, you would know this.”
“Good. Hurry up. You know I hate being alone.”
“Yeah, I know you’re a wimp. I’ll be there in an hour.”
Rachel hangs up her phone and goes back to the window to close the blinds, but John was gone. I’m just over reacting, she thinks.
I know, I will go and watch the episode of One Tree Hill on the DVR, Megan will be here by the time it’s over.
Rachel settles into the overstuffed beige sofa and starts to watch her show. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a shadow in the hallway. Rachel presses pause on the remote and watches the hallway.
It’s just my imagination; I’m the only one here. Stop freaking out, she reassures herself.
She turns her show on and lies down so she can’t see the dimly lit hallway anymore.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
“Rachel! HELLO??” Megan yells into the living room window.
Rachel sits up from the couch groggily and looks around. It is now dark outside and the tv is set to the DVR guide.
“Oh my gosh, Megan I’m sorry, I must have fallen asleep watching One Tree Hill. How long have you been out here?” Rachel asks as she opens the front door.
“I don’t know like 5 minutes. Well, at least now you will be able to stay awake when we watch movies.”
Megan comes inside and throws her stuff on the freshly mopped tile and heads straight to the refrigerator.
“Do you have snacks? If not we can go to the store first, my mom gave us money for the weekend.”
“Yeah, my mom bought some food for before she left,” Rachel says as she walks into the kitchen.
“Uh, hey Megan, why’d you open the back door?”
“I didn’t it was like that. I thought maybe you wanted some fresh air,” Megan shrugs and closes the refrigerator door to move to the pantry.
“What? It was like that when you came in? I locked that while I was on the phone with you earlier. I remember because my creepy neighbor was staring at me while I did it."
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“Maybe he opened it then,” Megan said looking wide eyed down the hallway at the man staring back at them.
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