Meet Me By The Dock

Chapter 7

If your neighbor was becoming increasingly annoying and obviously trying to get your attention, you'd pointedly ignore them too, right?

Well that's what I did— or what I'm doing I guess.

Last night when I got home, I ran upstairs, grabbed a one dollar bill and walked across our yards to Matthew's door. He opened it at the second knock. He smirked at me as I handed him the bill, "Aw man, looks like I owe you 2 cents." he said. I rolled my eyes and told him not to worry about it because I knew what his real intentions were and it made my heart beat at a weird pace.

"No, no," He assured me, "I'm not a thief remember."

But now he was setting and bumping his volleyball off the back of his house for practice. Which would be fine by me— if he wasn't simultaneously singing Paper Rings.

Well, now I know his favorite song.

Meanwhile I was sitting under the only tree in my back yard attempting to tune out Matthew, and read my romance novel that I had just bought during our bookstore adventure yesterday.

Our yards were almost identical, I had a tree to the side of my yard Matthews house wasn't on. He had a tree on the side of his yard my house wasn't on. The only difference was, he had an elevated deck, while I had a patio close to the ground.

Same trees. Same yard. Same dock.

I kept my eyes purposefully pinned on my page. But suddenly the incessant bouncing of the volleyball on the wall stopped.

Finally, peace.

I didn't like it.

Now it was too quiet.

I looked up to see where he had gone and saw him opening the sliding door to his house and going inside.

Oh.

Well, okay I like it better this way anyway.

A few minutes passed and the waves rolled peacefully up the shore and the sun reflected off the crystal surface of the water.

"Hey, Trouble."

I let out a yelp, "Oh my god you scared me!"

He laughed and sat leaning on the tree right next to me. I was expecting him to say something, but I was also starting to realize that Matthew Remington never does what you expect him to.

Instead he got comfortable and pulled out a book. Pride and Prejudice, more specifically."What are you doing?" I asked dumbly.

He looked up and raised an eyebrow, "Reading?" he said hesitantly.

"Here?" I asked.

"Oh," He says, "Right sorry, I kind of just barged over here didn't I?" He actually sounded embarrassed.

He stands and brushes off his shorts and starts to walk over to his side of the yard. But then I remember, I remember how it felt when he had gone back inside and how the sudden quiet felt unsettling, "Wait," I called out and he turned, "Stay."

"You sure?"

"Please."

He grinned, "How could I say no to that?" I roll my eyes and he plops down next to me again.

"Do you have my 2 cents?" I asked.

He smiled to himself, "Not on me, no."

"Well can't you go get them." I pointed out.

"Oh, I'm saving my 2 cents card for a later date." He smirked, and again, I rolled my eyes.

And that's how we sat, for about 2 hours. I don't remember the exact time but I know it was about the same time the sun started to make long shadows out of the trees and the crickets and locusts start to chirp.