“How about if I buy us some beer while we’re here, and we’ll have a drink and watch a movie at your place. I’ll have my Dad pick us up there.”
“Lame, but okay. You owe me, though. We’re having a housewarming party at your place, and you’re going to let me invite as many people as I want.”
“You’re not going to ask Ryder, are you?” I’m not sure why I asked that, but even the mention of his name made me sick to my stomach.
“Of course not, Sam. That jerkwad can get bent as far as I’m concerned.”
While I was looking at the microwaves, Riley got bored and wandered off towards the make-up. I chose a small, white microwave that had a bit of retro look. After I had placed it in the cart, I went looking for Riley. She’d said she was going to make up, but I checked all of those aisles plus the ones with hair stuff too.
I figured she’d probably gone to look at the fish, but I didn’t want to play hide n seek in the Walmart, so I decided to stay put for a few minutes and wait for her to wander back. I pushed the cart back into one of the makeup aisles and started to peruse the eyeliner.
After a few minutes, someone rounded the corner and joined me in the aisle. I didn’t look up, but just assumed it was Riley. I was reading the ingredients list on the back of a package of organic mascara.
“Hey, girl. Where did you go?”
The sound of a man’s voice startled me so much that I dropped the mascara package. I turned to face him and took a few steps backward as he spoke. The man was scruffy and smelled of whiskey sweat and stale cigarettes. His dirty red flannel shirt and ripped jeans looked like they were about three sizes too big for him. The guy had to be a drunk and probably a meth head too because he looked like a walking skeleton with sores all over his skin.
“Wasn’t that cool? Can you believe how much she looked like you?” He said with a sinister smile that revealed severely decayed teeth.
“Sammy.” Riley appeared behind me. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
I don’t know if she heard what he said, and she was probably just freaked out because of how raunchy the man looked. I turned and pushed the cart up to the front cash registers as fast as I could. Going through the self-checkout would have gotten us out of there faster, but we had the beer and had to wait in a line. My eyes kept darting around the store. I expected the man to appear from one of the aisles and start towards me, but we didn’t see him again.
Once we got back to Riley’s apartment, I opened a beer and sat down. She didn’t know anything about my night with Ryder, but I needed to tell her. I had to fill her in on the uncanny thing the gross guy in Walmart had said to me. It was almost the exact thing Ryder had said after he showed me that horrible movie.
“That’s messed up, Sammy.” She said and opened her own beer. “Who knew that Ryder was such a weirdo. I wonder if he drugged you or something…”
“I don’t think so. I think I was just buzzed, and a little scared. It kept me from thinking straight. But, don’t you think it’s weird what the tweaker in Walmart said?”
“Are you sure? I mean, maybe you misheard.” She said and chugged half her beer.
“It’s possible,” I said and followed her lead.
By the time we went to bed that night, I’d convinced myself that I heard things. The guy probably asked me for spare change or something, and I assumed he was creepy because he was dirty. Somehow, I twisted the whole thing around until I felt guilty for running away from the guy.
Chapter Two
I woke up the next morning and didn’t feel too bad. Riley and I had managed to keep it to two beers a piece while we watched the movie, and we’d turned in for the night by ten.
My Dad wasn’t going to pick us up for another forty-five minutes, and I knew Riley would get up at the last minute. I figured I’d take a shower and make some toast while I waited.
Twenty minutes before it was time to go, I heard Riley’s bedroom door open. There was a faint sound of shuffling down the hall, and then the shower started.
“You’d better hurry. My Dad’s going to be here soon.” I called from the kitchen.
“Coffee. Now.” Was her only response.
I’d been watching videos on my phone, so I set it down and got up from the table to make the coffee. I set up the coffee pot and went to the cabinet to get two mugs out. I’m not a huge fan of coffee, but I was feeling a little bit more drained than usual even though I’d woken up refreshed.
“Hey, girl. The coffee’s almost done.” I said when I heard the kitchen floor creak behind me. “Do you have any creamer?”
When I turned around, I was alone in the kitchen. I figured I must have made the floor creak myself, so I went about setting the mugs out and filling them with coffee. As soon as the coffee was ready, I heard the bathroom door open. Riley joined me at the table.
“Who were you talking too?” She asked. “Did your Dad call? Is he running behind?”
“No, I was talking to you. I thought I heard you come into the kitchen. I was wondering where you kept the creamer.”
“Ah. Yeah, this place gets a little creaky sometimes. Especially when the weather is changing. The floorboards tend to expand and contract. Scares me to death sometimes.” Riley said with a chuckle. “Creamer is in the fridge, by the way. I only have that fancy liquid stuff.
We were able to down a couple of cups of coffee each before my Dad picked us up. I still felt tired, but moving around and going outside helped lift some of my fatigue. Two huge mugs of coffee with a ton of sugar didn’t hurt either.
Mom and Dad had picked up the truck as soon as the rental place had opened that morning. Dad had driven it back to his house, and now Riley and I were going to fill it with the furniture I chose from storage.
I couldn’t believe how much stuff was in their carriage house. My mom had kept a variety of different styles of furniture, but I happily choose the antique stuff.
“You sure it’s okay if I take these things, Mom?” I asked as Riley, and I struggled to load the hefty wooden fixtures into the truck. “You could make a fortune selling these pieces.”
“I don’t need money, although I might donate whatever you don’t take. It would be nice to turn this carriage house into a painting studio or something. Your Dad could start painting his lighthouses again. So, make sure you take everything you want today.”
“I think I’ve got just about everything I want to take. The only other thing I saw was that china cabinet. Can I take it?”
“Yeah, Sweetie. Like I said, if you don’t take it, I’m giving it away. Have your dad help you, though. That thing is a beast.”
Unfortunately, during the course of loading the old china cabinet into the truck, my Dad tripped and twisted his ankle. We had two choices. Either we could keep the moving van for another night and hope that my Dad’s ankle was better in the morning, or Riley and I could make a go of it on our own.
“What do you want to do?” Riley asked as my Mom helped my Dad hobble back into the house.
“I don’t want to wait. I think we can handle it. If not, you can call some of Tanner’s friends to come help.”
“You know that Tanner’s boys are going to want beer and pizza if they help,” Riley said.
“Yeah, that’s fine. We can all have beer and pizza when we’re done.” I responded. “By the way, when is Tanner going to be back?”
“Something like ten days. There’s a lot of civil unrest where he’s at right now so it will depend on when he can get a flight out.”
“Doesn’t that worry you?”
I was amazed at how relaxed she was about Tanner’s volunteer work. He spent his summers going over to places like Africa and Southeast Asia to do things like building wells so villages would have clean water or help the locals build or repair houses.
“It makes him feel happy and fulfilled. It made it hard for me to sleep last year, but now I’m just proud of him.” She said as closed up the back of the truck. “But, get this. Now he’s ta
lking about joining the Peace Corp after graduation.”
“Wow, how are you going to handle that?”
“I told him he’d better marry me before he left.” She answered with a laugh, but I noticed that her cheeks turned pink.
“What did he say when you told him that?”
“Okay, you have to promise to not get mad.”
“Oh, gawd. What is it?”
“It’s nothing bad. I swear. We were going to tell you when he got back. I just didn’t want to make a big thing about it until Tanner got home.”
“Riley, just spit it out.”
“He took me to the store that day and let me pick out a ring. We’re engaged, Sammy. I haven’t told anybody yet, and I don’t want to wear the ring until he’s here with me.”
“Shut up,” I said, but I rushed over to give her a hug.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. I just liked having it as my little secret for a while. I take the ring out and stare at it every day for at least twenty minutes.”
“It’s cool that you’ve been engaged for, like, three months and didn’t tell your best friend. I totally understand.” I said and playfully poked her in the arm.
“If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t even told my parents yet. You’re the first to know. Tanner and I seriously meant to keep it a complete secret until we could tell everyone together.”
Riley agreed to show me the ring the next time I was at her place. It was still pretty early, so we decided to wait until later to call Tanner’s friends for help. We’d unload what we could on our own.
We pulled up in front of my new place, and Becky was waiting in her car in front of the house. She had the new keys for me as I’d requested that the locks be changed before I moved in. I told Becky I could handle it on my own now that I had signed the lease, but she’d said that it was her job to take care of things like that.
Keys in hand, I stepped triumphantly through the doorway of my new home while Riley opened up the back of the truck. This was it. 707 Overwatch was my first apartment, and it was huge.
“Hey, Becky?” I called down to the street when I saw her still standing outside of her car.
I waited a few moments while she made her way up the sidewalk to the door. She stopped short on the porch, and for a second, I could swear it looked like she didn’t want to come in. I brushed it off as her being in a hurry.
“What’s up?” She asked from her spot on the porch. “Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing like that. The place is just as I remembered it, but I forgot to ask you something the other day.”
“Oh, okay.” She visibly relaxed.
“Who lives next door? I mean, there is another apartment over there, right?”
“Actually, no one lives over there. From what I understand, only one person ever rented the place. After that, the owner started letting some friend of his who owns a music shop in town use it for storage. I’m not sure if he pays for it or what. All I know is that I don’t have to deal with the other side. The owner told me that his friend rarely has reason to go into the other apartment, so you shouldn’t see or hear from him much. As you can probably tell, the only entrance to the other side of the house is in the back. The owner never had a second front door put in when he split the place in half.”
“Thanks, Becky. No neighbors got it.”
“Call me if you need anything. I’ve got a showing in fifteen minutes, so I’m off.”
I went inside and took a look around. Dad had told me to survey the place thoroughly before I moved furniture in, and it occurred to me that I probably should have done that before Becky left. I turned all three of the apartment’s sinks on and off several times. The upstairs bathroom had a claw foot tub with a shower coming from the wall, so I tested it too.
Riley joined me inside, and together we examined all of the lights. They all worked just fine. With confirmation that the water and electricity were in working order, we decided to start moving furniture in.
“So, there’s no neighbor,” I said nonchalantly as we carried my dresser into the house.
“Get outta here.” Riley squealed with delight and almost dropped her end.
“Nope, the other side of the house is used for storage. Becky, the real estate agent, said something about a guy who owns a music shop in town stores stuff in there. She also said he rarely comes here.”
“Oh, my God, Sammy. I can just imagine the epic parties we can throw in this place.”
“Calm yourself, Riley. I said we could have a housewarming get together. This is our senior year, and you know I’m hoping to start working soon. We’ve got to be adults this year.”
“Ugh, you are such a grandma.”
It took about an hour for us to move in everything we could carry before we were completely exhausted and our arms felt like spaghetti. We made the decision to call in some of Tanner’s friends, and Riley promised them all the beer and pizza they could stomach when the job was done.
Three people showed up within a half hour. The only one of them I knew well was a man named John. He and I had a few classes together. The other two were Lance and Kenny. I’d met them before when I hung out with Tanner and Riley, but they were practically strangers.
John had arrived in a pickup truck, so he told Riley and me to go back to my dorm and get my television, computer, and boxes of personal stuff while the men “handled the heavy lifting.” I rolled my eyes but was still thankful.
Collecting my things from the dorm didn’t take long, and we arrived back at my apartment to find everything, but the bedroom furniture moved in. The men had made quick work of moving the rest in.
“We weren’t sure which bedroom was which, and we didn’t want to have to move everything again.”
I had two full bedroom groups in the truck. One was for me, and the other was a complete set for a guest bedroom. At the top of the stairs was a hallway with three bedrooms and a bathroom on one side and the wall that divided the house on the other. At the end of the hall towards the back of the house, there was an attic entrance in the ceiling. It was one of those pull-down staircases.
I’d chosen the bedroom at the front of the house for my room. It had a large floor to ceiling window that opened onto a small balcony. The second room was the guest room, and I’d leave the third empty until I could figure out what to do with it. I probably didn’t need a second guest bedroom, so I’d thought about putting a treadmill and some weights in there if I got the job at the mental health center. At least that way I’d be able to tell myself that I’d workout.
The guys carried the bedroom furniture up the stairs. They kept grunting and flexing their biceps like a bunch of hairless gorillas.
“Get back to work, slaves.” Riley would yell at them while we carried in and opened my few boxes.
A few minutes later my phone rang. It was my Mom.
“Sammy dear, I’ve deposited a few hundred dollars into your account. It just occurred to me that you’ve got nothing for your kitchen except that microwave you bought at that place.” It was evident that my Mom didn’t approve of me shopping at Walmart.
“Walmart, Mom. I got a microwave at Walmart. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Don’t be silly, Sam. You might not do much cooking, but you’ll still need cups, plates, silverware, and such. Oh, and it’s enough to cover beer and pizza for your helpers. I’m assuming Riley had to call her man friend’s acquaintances in?”
“Yes, Mom. They’re finishing up now.” I said, and then realized I had been a bit of a jerk. “Thank you, Mom. I really appreciate it.”
“You're welcome, Sammy. Call us if you need anything.”
As soon as I disconnected the call, I heard a rapping at the back door. I made my way through the kitchen wondering if it was John or Kenny. I could hear Lance in the living room talking to Riley. I had no idea why they might have been in the back yard, but you never knew with guys. There was a large shed back there. Maybe they had been poking around
in that or in the garage and were too lazy or tired to walk back around to the front door.
The door had a brand-new deadbolt that looked out of place on the old wooden door. Before I turned the lock, I pushed the faded yellow curtain covering the door’s window to the side to see who was out there. The glass was so old and etched that I could barely make out the silhouette of someone standing on the back steps.
“Who's there?” I had asked before I unlocked the door.
“Who are you talking to?” Riley asked from behind me.
She chuckled when she asked. It was most likely because this was the second time today that she’d had to ask me who the heck I was talking to, and I hoped I wasn’t losing my marbles completely. All three guys walked into the kitchen behind her.
“There’s someone at the back door. I thought it might have been one of you guys, but here you are. Perhaps it’s the man who rents the apartment next door.”
“Didn’t the real estate lady say he hardly comes here? It would be a pretty big coincidence that he’s here on the day you move in.” Riley said and took a step back for some reason.
“God, you guys are such girls,” John said and stepped towards the door. “You find out who is at the door by opening it.”
“Lay off, John.” Kenny piped up. “I’m sure that Sammy is more worried about nosey neighbors than she is psycho killers. Right, Sammy?”
“Open the door or move so I can,” I said and tried to sound brave.
The truth was that I’d felt a sense of dread creeping up on me as soon as I’d heard the knocking on the door. I had no idea why. There was no reason to be afraid of someone at the door, but the look on Riley’s face caught me off guard. She looked a little scared too.
I took a step back so that John could open the door. The guys immediately burst into raucous laughter. There was no one there. I must have imagined the knocking at the door and had gotten myself all worked up over nothing, but it still bothered me a little that Riley looked frightened too.
“I swear I saw the silhouette of someone standing out there,” I said when the boys quieted down.
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