Boy Next Door ✔

chapter nine

C A L E B 

That morning, I was awoken at the godly hour of half past three to the sound of the playlist I had grown to despise. This time, I didn't attempt to fall back asleep like usual. Instead, I stormed out of bed with a glare on my face. I glanced over at the spare bed and saw Dustin, sleeping peacefully. He looked as if he was laying on a dozen cushions as soft as marshmallows while angels sang him lullabies. Which was funny because even if that were the case, right now I could only see red.

I stormed out of my apartment, making an unnecessary amount of noise in the process. But, in all honesty, I could care less. This bastard had had his fun making my life hell, and now I was going to make him face the consequences of my wrath. 

I made my way over to his room with a dark cloud looming over my head and banged on the door with my fists. How could the other tenants sleep with so much noise? Had they grown used to it? When no one answered, I repeated the action. This time, the music stopped. I could hear footsteps on the other side of the door making their way over to where I stood, and the door finally swung open. 

There stood the devil, looking unfairly handsome in just his loose grey sweatpants and a plain black t-shirt. He looked at me in confusion, raising his brow, getting ready to shut the door in my face. However, I held the door open with my foot. 

"What do you want?" he said bluntly with a deep, intimidating voice.

"Oh, now you're concerned about what I want?" I snorted. "I'll tell you what I want, you prick." It looked like I had caught his attention, so I continued mercilessly. "Can you stop blasting Chase Atlantic so damn loudly at 3am?"

He observed me for a moment before a taunting smirk made its way onto his face, he let out a chuckle under his breath before saying, "Depends. Can you stop crying so damn loudly at 3am?"

That rendered me speechless. I couldn't even come up with a decent response, and by the time, he had already slammed the door in my face, leading my jaw to drop impossibly further. When I registered the situation completely, I began banging on his door - but it was to no avail because the music had started again, and this time it was much louder than it had been before. 

"That's not funny, you asshole! It was once, one time. Some people are trying to get some sleep, you know? You selfish, egoistical bastard who only cares about himself!" 

That seemed to do the trick, because the door swung open once again after the music had stopped for the second time. This time, he had a look of anger on his face and took a step closer to me. He bent down to reach my level, making me feel like a garden gnome once again. Before I could inform him that he was invading my personal space, he grabbed my face with one of his hands and forced me to look up at him. My eyes widened at this action and I grabbed onto his wrist instinctively. However, I didn't push his hand away - I just held onto his wrist like an idiot. 

"Listen here," he began in a low and menacing tone. "It's my music so I'll do whatever I want. So why don't you fuck off if all you're going to do is complain? Because for all I know, the scene you're creating is bothering the rest of the tenants more than my music."

And with that, he stormed back into his room and slammed the door in my face for the second time. The music started up again and I simply stood there, tracing my fingers over my skin on the area which he had grabbed, my mouth agape and my heart running a thousand miles per minute. My cheeks had surely turned red from that simple action because I could feel the heat on them. Why was I feeling this way? Is it because it's so early in the morning and I haven't gotten a wink of sleep?

Yeah, that's definitely it.