Chapter 2 Amelia
amelia
One of the greatest poets of our time once posed a question, with options to decipher a worst case scenario.
Looking jealous.
Looking crazy.
Looking jealous and crazy.
Being walked all over.
I was at risk of all four, and right on the verge of crashing out because of it.
I could’ve written the night before off as one-time-insanity, a cascade of unfortunate coincidences that just compounded on each other, never to be experienced again.
Until I was woken up at the exposed ass-crack of dawn to the sound of something heavy being dropped on the floor, rhythmless but constant – just enough space between to not tune it out as it vibrated my floors.
That was one of the issues with these older buildings, and part of why I’d wanted a single unit – there was very little protection from the noise pollution of your neighbors. I’d noticed it when I lived with Hunter, and it had been annoying then, but I was too in love for it to matter.
It was wild how one little “wait, I didn’t mean it like that” statement had so instantly dried me up – pussy, heart, common sense, all of it.
Cold fucking turkey.
Feelings I really needed to process, but couldn’t, when the guy next door kept dropping his weights – it finally clicked for me – on the ground.
Killing his floors, but whatever.
Wasn’t my apartment.
On the bathroom sink, my phone buzzed, and I grabbed it with the hand that wasn’t occupied navigating my toothbrush around my mouth to read the text.
“Hey my baby. How was the first night? – Kae”
I cringed at the text as immediate embarrassment flushed through me, heating my face. Kaelynn was one of my best, like best friends, known her since we were literal babies, and still… that scream situation was crazy, and still super fresh on my mind.
“Uh… no comment,” I typed back, already knowing that wasn’t actually going to work, but buying myself a couple of minutes before I had to explain.
Sure enough, the response I got back was the wide-eyed blush emoji, followed up immediately by the nosy eyes.
I sighed, finished brushing my teeth, then hit the button to connect a video call as I grabbed my cleanser from the toiletry bag on the counter.
“No comment is craaazy,” was the first thing out of Kae’s mouth when the call connected. She was clearly on a beach somewhere, and wearing shades, but they weren’t so tinted I couldn’t see the concern in her eyes.
“Nothing happened – not really,” I assured her to ease her mind. “Just… embarrassing shit.”
“You already ran into Hunter?” she guessed, sitting up to get closer to the screen, and I shook my head.
“No – thank God,” I mused. “I’ve actually been thinking… should I unblock him to tell him I’m in the building? So it’s not some weird surprise?”
“Hell no,” Kae immediately shot back. “I mean, will it be awkward, sure – but you’re at least expecting it to happen. He isn’t. he’s going to shit himself when he sees you there, it’ll be great.”
“Great?” I laughed, shaking my head as I massaged the cleanser into my skin. “We might have different definitions of that.”
“Great in a fuck you kinda way,” she explained.
“In a fuck me kinda way.”
“Fair enough – both of you, but him just a little more, which is good enough for me. Because… well… fuck him,” she shrugged, sitting back. “He better be glad I’m not in town. I see he waited for me to be gone to act up.”
I frowned as I flipped the water on to rinse my face. “I don’t know if act up is the correct term, so much as, finally got honest.”
Kae huffed. “Fine. Either way. I’m punching him in his shit next time I see – girl what is that noise? Is maintenance doing something in your apartment?”
I gave her a dry, wet smile. “Actually, that is my neighbor trying to set off the lunk alarm next door.”
“Wait, huh?” she asked. “Like lifting weights? And it’s loud like that?”
“Right. There’s zero noise insulation in these historic buildings, but… he might be making extra noise on purpose honestly.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Why would he be making noise on purpose?”
I blew out a sigh, grabbed the next step in my skin routine, and launched into the whole story from yesterday – from Arthur being annoying to my ill-fated scream. She listened without a single interruption – or reaction, at that.
And then…
She bursted out laughing.
Like… literal tears streaming down her face laughing.
“Kaelynn, it’s not that damn funny.”
“I’m so sorry Ames, but it very much is,” she countered, wiping her face. “Why are you in that building being an asshole?”
“Me?!” I asked, and she nodded.
“Yes, you,” she laughed. “Like he’s definitely being petty but what would you expect after being mean when he was trying to help you?!”
“Girl I’m about to hang up.”
“Nooo,” she cackled. “Don’t hang up!”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because you love me.”
“And it is clearly not reciprocated because why are you on his side and not mine?”
Kae gasped. “Why would you think that?!”
“You are literally cackling at my pain!”
“You delivered it very comedically!” she defended, still laughing, but then her expression shifted, and she blew out a deep sigh. “Okay. I’m done laughing, and ready to support you through this challenging transition.”
“You make me so sick,” I giggled. “It’s… it’s just a break up? Right? I’ll be fine.”
She nodded. “You will be fine, definitely. But… you ain’t gotta fake the funk with me – as a matter of fact, please don’t,” she amended.
“You’re hurt, and that’s okay. More than, in fact.
You were with Hunter for damn near three years – that nigga talked to me about rings, it wasn’t some shallow thing.
You don’t have to try to be over it in a week. ”
Kae was right.
Unquestionably.
But… I was stuck, mid-pat of moisturizer, on… “he talked to you about rings?”
Immediately, Kae’s face dropped. “Shit,” she muttered under her breath. “Ames, I—”
“It’s fine,” I interrupted, shaking my head as I finished with my face.
“I mean… why should that be surprising, that far into a relationship, you know? I just… I don’t understand how that falls in line with not being sure.
Like how the fuck are you not sure, but talking to—you know, whatever. Whatever.”
“Clearly he was all over the place,” Kae said, pulling her shades off. “And if it matters at all, I kinda told him that when he brought it up to me.”
“Told him what?”
“To not play in your face by giving you a ring if he wasn’t really there with it.”
I frowned. “So you knew he was iffy?”
“I didn’t know anything… but like… neither did he, if that makes sense,” she answered. “The conversation just had a little too much… maybe, and I think, versus… I know. And it was like a year ago – before you agreed to move in. It didn’t seem abnormal to me, just maybe too soon?”
“It’s been three years.”
She shrugged. “That’s not that long these days. And we’re still young.”
“I’m thirty-four. He’s thirty-six.”
“Do you think that’s old?”
“In general? Of course not,” I said. “But too old I think for age to be like… an excuse to not… to be… shit, I don’t know.”
Kae frowned. “Bitch me either – we’re in the same single ass streets.”
“Yeah, and there’s no one I’d rather start a fresh hoe-phase with, but damn… I was not anticipating ever taking another dip in the – famously – pissy dating pool. Not that I’m anywhere near ready for that,” I quickly added.
The idea of it made my stomach hurt, actually.
“The last thing I want to do is waste my time again,” I mused. “If I’d known… if I’d heeded the red flags, instead of just going with the flow… ugh.” I sighed. “There’s not a point in lingering on it, but like I said… I’m good on niggas for a little while, at least.”
“So we’re on the same page then,” Kae said. “You don’t have to be ready for anything – you just have to be real with yourself about what you’re feeling, and where you are.”
I raised an eyebrow. “An air mattress in an empty apartment in the same building as my ex, next door to a man who probably thinks I need a grippy sock vacation and is actively trying to drive me into a psychotic break?”
Kae laughed. “Day one of Amelia’s Healing Journey!”
“You’re an asshole.”
“An incredibly gorgeous, smooth one,” she crooned at the screen, making me laugh. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” I replied as we transitioned off the call.
As soon as there was silence in the apartment again… there was another loud clang.
And a grunt.
“You are way too pretty for jail,” I told myself in the mirror, then picked up my phone again, navigating to the Proxy app. I’d already used the app to schedule help getting the truck unloaded, but I needed to check just one more time to be sure.
Good.
I was confirmed, and my timeframe wasn’t until early afternoon, so I had time to get some things done. I got dressed, put the mattress and my other things away, then grabbed my laptop and bag to head to Urban Grind.
Usually, I worked from home, but an empty apartment wasn’t quite “home” yet.
Although… this one was already more home than I’d ever gotten to feel at Hunter’s place, having to field his input on every little thing – and conceding to his opinion nearly every time -- despite the place being supposedly ours.
But, whatever.
I spent a few minutes before stepping out the door on morning greetings via text with family and friends and then stepped out into the hall, ready to make it a great day – or, at least as good as possible.
So obviously the first thing I saw – nay, walked into – was bags of trash right next to my door.
The rage was so immediate it kinda scared me.
Walking around pissed off was simply not my default, and it was annoying at this point, actually.
I blew out a cleansing breath, letting logic prevail.
There was a party last night – of course there was trash to be taken out.
Multiple bags.
The dumpster for the building was a bit of a trek, so of course someone might stow them outside the door for a bit while they made sure they had them all, so they could try to make just one trip.
This was no big deal.
And had nothing to do with me.
This was not an issue, or my problem at all – I was leaving right now anyway, to go have a great day!
I plastered a smile on my face and started walking, glancing up as the door next to mine swung open while I was passing.
“Good morning,” I greeted, in the brightest tone I could fine as my neighbor stepped out of his door.
“Ah, Scream Queen – whassup?”
Immediately, the smile slid off my face, and all my faux-positive energy oozed out through my feet.
“Nothing much… mister… uh… Noise Violation,” I countered, the only thing I could bring to mind in enough time to not be awkward.
A little smirk spread over his lips as he stepped a bit closer – salty and sweaty from whatever workout he’d been doing earlier, glistening like a damn sports drink commercial. “Noise Violation, huh?”
“That’s what I said!” I shot back, indignant – which, really only seemed to be even more amusing to him. “Are you finished with the petty payback now?”
He chuckled as he turned to grab his trash bags, tatted muscles flexing ever-so-slightly from the effort. “You think I’m being petty?”
“That’s the generous read on your behavior thus far, yes,” I replied as he turned to face me again.
“What’s the not-so-generous one?”
I bit my lip, thinking about it for a second before I shrugged. “That you’re just an asshole, and it has nothing to do with me at all.”
“Oh, it’s got everything to do with you, neighbor.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, am I at least neighbor now? Not Scream Queen?”
“I’ll table that nickname unless you make it a habit.”
“Screaming is not a habit of mine,” I countered, and he raised an eyebrow at me.
“I can tell. Maybe that’s the problem,” he suggested with a wink, then started for the elevator while I stood there trying to figure out what the hell that me—
“Okay fuck you!” I called after him as the elevator closed.