Love Thy Neighbour

I hate my life.

No really, I do. I hate my life. At first, I thought moving in with no clothes to a whole new place was bad. I thought crashing my car – my pride and joy – was bad. I thought meeting my weird neighbours was bad. I thought finding out that one of my neighbours used to be my ‘sweetheart’ was bad. I thought going to school with that said ‘sweetheart’ was bad.

But nothing, and I mean nothing could top this. I mean, how do you get caught in an electric door that won’t open? What? It’s broken? What were the chances of it closing and shutting down right when I was walking through it?

Like I said, I hated my life.



“Hey, hey. That’s why I told you to run. Geez, why didn’t you move, like I told you to?” Khristiano was shaking his head at me. “Now you’re stuck.”

“What are you doing, just watching me? Help me!” I hissed, “Or get someone to help, then!” Really, could anyone be so infuriating?!

“What? Do you really want me to leave you looking like this?” Khristiano gestured at me. I was stuck in the door. Well, to be precise, it was my uniform that was stuck. My uniform was caught between the doors. He smirked as he turned to leave. “Fine, I’ll go. But I don’t know how long I’ll be… ”

I panicked as I watch Khristiano leave. “No, stop! I was kidding, I was kidding! Don’t leave me! Please, don’t!”

Khristiano looked at me smugly as he made his way back to me. “See? Then don’t move so much.” He sighed as he bent down and looked at my caught uniform. “You know, your skirt is caught.” He shook his head and mumbled some curses as he began tugging my skirt.

I shivered. “H-hey!” I frowned at him. “Watch where you’re touching!”

“If you stop moving, then maybe I can – ”

RIP.

“…Fuck.”

“What was that? What was that noise? What happened?” I shifted, trying to look at what just happened behind me.

“N-n-nothing h-happened! S-s-stop m-moving! H-hey, stop moving, you’ll make it worse!”

RIIIIIP.

I panicked. Whatever it was, it was loud and I felt it. “O-okay, I definitely know something happened. What happened…” I turned around and saw…

“AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!”

I screamed in horror at what I saw.

Oh. My. Gosh.

My school skirt was ripped right from the bottom to the top and was revealing my Hello Kitty panties to the whole world!

“Oh… fuck. I-I’m so sorry.” Khristiano immediately looked away and stood up. His face was red. “Shit, shit, shit…”

I was mortified. “Y-you!”

“Sh-shit. D-don’t move so much! This is why I told you in the first place! Are you an idiot?” This jerk had the audacity to start laughing in this situation! Jerk! Do you think that would ‘lighten’ the situation? I hate him! I hate him! “Hahahaha – oh wait. Sh-shit! Y-you’re crying. A-are you okay?”

“DOES IT LOOK LIKE I’M OKAY?!” I cried in frustration, “HELP ME, YOU STUPID HEAD.” This isn’t happening to me! But it is! I could feel my tears of frustration on the verge of brimming… I hated this guy! Why oh, why was this happening to me?!

“Well stop moving! Oh my god,” Khristiano groaned, “this is so awkward.”

“You think this is awkward?!” The nerve of this guy! I just might kill him in his sleep. ‘Awkward’ was hardly the word for this situation! My skirt was stuck and my panties were – oh my gosh. Suddenly, a realization hit to me. “Oh my gosh! You saw my panties, didn’t you?!”

“…”

“Oh my gosh! You pervert! PERVERT! Stop touching me, you pervert! Stop touching me!”

“I can’t help it!” Khristiano almost yelled in frustration. He crouched down and his face went redder. I hate him. “I’m helping you, dammit! Don’t call me a freaking pervert! This is harder for me, than it is for you, okay?!”

Silence and more pathetic tugging.

“Shit.”

“What is it?! What are you doing?!” Another sudden realization hit me. “Oh my gosh, what happens if people see?! Hey, cover me! Cover me, you idiot!”

“H-how?!” Khristiano asked as he stood up. “With what?! What, do you think I like, bring a spare skirt with me or something?!”

What a jerk. “You pig! Stand closer or something!”

Khristiano only blinked at me. What an idiot! I groaned. “Here,” I pulled him closer towards me so our bodies were nearly touching. “And… yeah. Put your both of your legs over there – no around me, so no one can see me. Yeah, stand in the way, so no one can see.”

I was feeling slightly claustrophobic since Khristiano was practically boxing into me, but that was nothing compared to the shame I had for my parading panties. Khristiano only stared at me.

“This isn’t really… You do know how suss this looks?” He sighed, “Why do I even bother?”

I don’t like this either, dumb bum. “Hey!” I glared at him, “Stop perving and unhook me already!”

“What is up with you?!” He blinked in defence, but his face was red. That pervert. “I didn’t see your pretty little Hello Kitty panties! Geez!”

“Y-you liar!” I gasped, “How do you know I’m wearing Hello Kitty panties?!”

“C-crap…” He looked away and bit his lip. “I-I can’t help it…” He mumbled.

Yeah, right. What a pervert.

“Stop looking at me like that!” Khristiano scowled, as if he read my thoughts. “I’m not a pervert! It’s not like I’m perving on you purpose!”

So that means you’re still perving. What a pervert.

Khristiano blushed and mumbled some incoherent curses to himself.

Silence and more pathetic tugging. I mentally groaned to myself. Why oh, why was this taking a long time?!

“Hey, can you please hurry?” I urged, “What happens if people see me? I’ll never live this down!”

“D-don’t worry… no one is here. They’re all at class. Geez calm down, crazy woman.”

“Hurry up, will you? Hurry up! If someone sees me… Hey, you’re taking your time, aren’t you?! And stop looking!”

Khristiano immediately looked away. “It’s harder now, because you wanted me to cover you at the same time. Do you know how hard it is to bend down and tug on your skirt while standing like this? Do you know how uncomfortable and suss this looks like? What happens if people see me? Do you know what they would say?! Do you know what would happen to my reputation?! Do you – ?!”

“Whoo! I can see you getting it on, Valentino.” A passerby catcalled, interrupting Khristiano’s rant. “Way to go, man!”

Khristiano immediately froze and I turned to the guy, horrified.

“S-someone saw…”

“Lyzelle… j-just k-keep calm… Forget about that. I’ve… I’ve almost managed to… uh, untangle y-your… ”

“What are you two doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?!” Khristiano snarled as he turned around. “Leave me alone…” But his voice trailed off and I felt him freeze. “Shit…”

It was a teacher.



“How could you ever accuse me of something like that?!” Khristiano had exasperatedly asked, “You know me sir, I’m not like that! I mean, I’ve never even had a girlfriend!”

Hearing his pathetic pleas, I couldn’t help but snort, which only earned me an icy glare from him.

“Anyway,” he went on, “don’t you think we’re the victims? That door closed right on us as we were leaving the building! We’ve missed our first class and now we’re late for our second class! And Lyzelle is out of uniform, too!”

After an hour hearing Khristiano’s frustrated cries and pleas of innocence, the teacher’s began to pity him and finally see some truth in what he was saying. After one look of my face and skirt, they understood the situation and let us go.

Even though we were let off, I decided I really hated this guy. Ever since moving here and meeting him, my life has somehow been sucking. Did he secretly put a curse on me or something? Did he secretly hate me? I glared at him as we made our way to second period.



“Lyzelle… you’re still pissed at me, aren’t you.”

I ignored him and continued walking ahead. I hated this! My first day of school was a disaster and I haven’t even started school. Well, technically.

“Lyzelle. You’re going the wrong way.” Khristiano called. I blushed and followed him into the other corridor. Really! Why was this school as big as… as… as a castle?!

“Geez,” Khristiano sighed, “it wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t even anyone’s fault. We were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. So I don’t get why you’re pissed. At least, you’re not in trouble right? Right?”

Even if we didn’t get in trouble, I was still pissed off. My pride has never been so… so…

“Lyzelle, it’s all in the past. At least – ”

“They think I’m some shameless woman! And with you!” I shrieked. Khristiano looked deeply offended. How could he not get it?! “On my first day of school, my skirt got caught in a door, my panties decided to parade themselves to the whole school, you had to help me, we get caught and are accused of doing some shameless act in public, I miss my first class, I’m late for my second class and-and… I’m wearing your sports uniform!”

Khristiano shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pocket, “Well… at least it’s over, right?”

“I’m wearing a stinky boys uniform that was in your locker for a month and it’s ten sizes too big for me!”

“You’re still angry, aren’t you?”

“I actually like the girls uniform! My cute new, expensive uniform…” I slowly shook my head in dismay and sniffed, “In shreds…”

“I-I… I think you look…” Khristiano cleared his throat and looked away, “I mean, you don’t look half bad in my jersey, I mean, my jersey doesn’t look too bad on you…”

“That’s not the problem, you pervert!”

“I don’t get why you’re pissed at me…” Khristiano muttered, “And I’m not a pervert.”

“What? Do you think I’m holding something petty like a grudge on you? What makes you think that?”

“Oh okay.” Khristiano sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, “I just thought… you know, you were pissed off at me for some reason…”

I couldn’t believe it. Of course I was pissed at him! It’s all his fault! Stupid pervert. His uniform stinks! I’ll strangle him in his sleep

“S-sorry…” Khristiano mumbled, “That your day sucked…” He ran a hand through his hair.

I mentally kicked him in the shin, but said nothing. As if the word ‘sorry’ could make everything good and happy. I was still pissed at him.

“Hey Lyzelle…” Khristiano coughed awkwardly as if trying to break the silence.

“What.” I managed to grunt out. Honestly, I was getting tired from all this stress.

“What’s my surname?”

I stared at him. “Did you forget it?”

Khristiano looked at me. “No,” he replied, sounding a little bit offended, “I want to know if you know it.”

I lifted my head proudly. “Of course.” I’ve always been proud of the fact that I had never forgotten a person’s name (although remembering their face was a different story). “I even know your full name. It’s Khristiano Renzo Valentino.”

Khristiano didn’t look impressed as I thought he should be. Instead, he looked a bit… well, a bit worried.

“Do… do you know about our families?”

“You mean like how we’re neigh – ”

“No, not that. I mean, as in how our family members – ”

Oh my gosh! “We’re related?!”

Khristiano flinched. “What? No!”

“Then what are you mumbling-fumbling about then?” I was tired of him not getting to the point.

Khristiano stared at me. “Oh. So you really don’t know. Um, forget it. It doesn’t matter.”

I frowned as Khristiano began walking ahead, running his hand through his hair and sighing – as if in frustration.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked him as I caught up with him.

“Your parents will tell you.”

“Why can’t you just tell me? You seem to know it all.” Barnacles. He was good at being evasive.

Khristiano just shook his head, “Your parents will tell you. They probably will only tell you later, when you’re ready.”

I stared at him in horror. Last time I heard that sentence was when… “They’re going to give me the sex talk?!”

This time, Khristiano tripped over his own feet, “What?!” His face was red. “N-no! This has nothing to do with… with that!”

“Oh okay – ”

Khristiano sighed, “Anyway, so here’s the story…”

“Huh?”

“The reason why you’re wearing my sports uniform.”

“Can they tell? Can’t I just say I’m wearing some random old stinky uniform?”

Khristiano looked at me and I felt stupid. “W-what?” I defended.

“Are you serious? You’re wearing my jersey. You didn’t see the ‘Valentino’ written on the back of my jersey?”

I decided to ignore his patronizing. “So what’s the story?”

“You’re too poor to afford one – ”

I hit his arm. “You want to die?”

He shrugged and nodded to a classroom, “There’s our class, and we seriously need a story.”

“I fell into a pond and you saved me from drowning.”

Khristiano smiled, “Deal.”

Man, this guy… “Can’t we pretend we don’t know each other?” I whined.

Khristiano hesitated. “If… if anyone asks…”

“Huh?”

“Just… I mean, you don’t have to answer every question people ask. In fact, it’d be better to ignore them…”

I frowned at him. “Why?”

Khristiano just mumbled something and grabbed my hand and led me to the classroom.

I hate being the new kid sometimes.