Neighbors

Hate was a strong word, and right now Kellin absolutely hated his neighbor.

It was two in the morning on a Wednesday and the brunette had an exam in exactly seven hours. The culprit was his hippie neighbor who felt the need to play Prince at full volume. He wouldn’t mind as much if his crappy apartment didn’t have paper thin walls.

The boy turned away from the wall, as if that would drown out the music, and thought about his options. He could; A, try to wait it out as it couldn’t possibly get any worse than this or B, tell said hippie to turn it down. With a sigh Kellin decided to wait it out. He removed the pillow from underneath his head and placed it over his face with a groan.

--

As expected, Kellin returned from his exam absolutely exhausted. The pale boy trudged through the small apartment in desperate need of sleep. He slowly made it to the bathroom where he took two Ambien tablets along with a gulp from the tap before making it to his bed.

It didn’t take long before he was snoring lightly against his pillow.

It also didn’t take long before his neighbor, who also had a long day, began blasting David Bowie. Vic liked his music loud whenever working on a painting. And he wouldn’t stop until it was complete. This one was a simple illustration of his Miniature Lop, Simon, who was now hopping around by the brunette’s bare feet.

Although it ruined most of his past relationships, Vic loved art more than anything in the world. It was just his thing, kind of like his slight obsession with flowers and music from the 80s. The short Mexican lifted Simon and shook his slender hips to the tune of ‘Too Dizzy’.

“Is this love or is it what? Who’s this guy I’m gonna blow away?”

He sat Simon back into his cage before he signed the painting with his name and date. The painting was pushed into the corner to dry along with the others he has yet to hang up. ‘New York’s In Love’ began to play through the speakers, causing Vic to squeal and turn it up louder.

“Do you see that thing? I’m sure it’s love.”

The next lyric was interrupted by the sound of knocking. The boy had ordered Chinese not too long ago, it was probably his not so healthy dinner. He sighed and turned down the music before opening the door.

“Oh, it’s you.”

Kellin smirked at his comment, “expecting someone else, princess?” The shorter of the two rolled his eyes, “what do you want?” Vic leaned against the door frame and waited for the other’s response.

“I just wanted to visit my neighbor, ‘tis all.”

Vic scoffed, “you expect me to believe that bullshit?” The two have had their little feud since Kellin had moved into the apartment complex. Kellin huffed and placed his fists against his hips, “just trying to be a nice neighbor.”

“You, nice? Hell must’ve frozen over.” Vic looked down from the boy’s face to his attire, a black band tee paired with flannel bottoms. His eyes were brought back to Kellin’s face when a pair of pale fingers snapped in front of them.

“Hey, princess, my eyes are up here.”

The Mexican rolled his eyes again, “I am not your princess.”

The taller of the two grinned and brought his hand up to play in Vic’s curls, “whatever you say, Rapunzel.” Vic mumbled a ‘shut up’ to the taller boy and slapped his hand away. Vic and Kellin fought like cats and dogs over the most trivial matters. Kellin smoking by Vic’s flowers? Argument. Vic calling Kellin a goth? Argument. For the two, it never seemed to stop.

What the two wouldn’t admit, though, was that those fights were just a reason to talk to one another.

“What do you really want?” Vic narrowed his eyes in an attempt to look intimidating, but to Kellin, Vic looked adorably harmless in his lavender sweater paired with tight black jeans.

“I want you to turn down the music.”

Vic smirked at his request, “and if I don’t?”

--

“Justin, I swear he does it just to piss me off,” Kellin grumbled to his friend. It’s been a week since he’d last spoken to Vic and a week since he’s gotten at most four hours of sleep. Currently the two were at a cafe by the college, sipping hot chocolate and gossiping mostly about Kellin’s neighbor.

“I thought he was ‘the cutest thing’ you’ve ever seen,” Justin pointed out.

Kellin rolled his eyes, “don’t get me wrong, he’s adorable as hell, but that isn’t the point, Jus. I need some sleep.” He didn’t know anything about this boy, but Kellin noticed his neighbor’s variety in music taste. He could go from Michael Jackson to Pantera in one night.

“Maybe if you’d just yell at the little shit he’ll stop.”

Kellin rolled his eyes again. “Justin,” he dragged out the brunettes name, “I don’t want him to hate me, all I want is for him just to shut up.”

Justin nodded in understanding. The two continued to sip their hot chocolate before parting ways. “Good luck with your neighbor, dude,” Justin waved at the pale boy before disappearing around the corner.

Kellin sighed, “thanks, I’m gonna need it.”

He rushed into the apartment building to avoid the cold air nipping at his cheeks. It didn’t take long for him to unlock the door to the lobby and begin walking towards the elevator.

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

Kellin raised an eyebrow at the person’s word choice. The blue eyed boy looked around to see his neighbor struggling to reach a package on the top of the building’s mailbox. Kellin watched as Vic jumped and stood on his toes to reach the box thats was placed out of his reach.

“Hey now, don’t say the lord’s name in vain,” Kellin sauntered over to the short boy and leaned his back against the cool metal. Vic looked at his pale neighbor and rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t think goth’s were Christian,” he teased.

Kellin’s mouth curved up at the corners as he shrugged, “I guess it’s just me.” His eyes trailed down Vic’s body. He wore tight black jeans with a long light pink coat that reached just above his knees. Kellin also noticed the silver hoop looped around Vic’s right nostril.

“Are you gonna stare or are you gonna help me?”

The taller of the two laughed, “I’m gonna watch you suffer.” Vic rolled his eyes at the comment, “asshole.”