Out of four other stories that I am working on, this one came in and demanded to be written as fast as humanly possible. Hope you all enjoy it as it has a little bit of everything for everyone. As always, please leave some comments!
XOXO SkylerLuv
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The moans are aggravating.
Probably not as bad as the banging of the bed frame against the wall directly across from me but definitely in the running. I put on some noise—canceling headphones and scroll through my phone desperately trying to ignore the very noisy sex coming from the bedroom next door. It is nothing new or even remotely surprising after a year of living with Hunter.
Hunter, who was my next—door neighbor from the age of 7 and way beyond. The same guy who I watched grow from a shy, quiet kid, to a rebellious and angry teen, and then all of a sudden a grown man after taking over his dad's construction business. What was meant to be him helping his dad right after high school, turned into him slowly becoming a valuable part of the business. After his dad's death halfway through my junior year of college, while I was cramming for exams and spending endless hours in a library, the weight of the world was thrusted on his shoulders along with his mother's unreasonable expectations.
Yeah, that same guy is now pounding a hole through his wall.
But who am I to judge?
The frame on my wall starts to shake out of place and I want to walk over and bang on their door to give them a taste of their own medicine. I know I won't, though. This is the price I have to pay for living with Hunter. Trust me, if I could rent a one-bedroom apartment—heck even a studio—I would! But as my luck would have it, I am neck deep in student loan debt, work at a shitty restaurant as a waitress, and do not have the luxury of moving back in with my parents to save money. According to them, I am in that stage of my life where I have to figure things out on my own and put on my big girl panties. In reality, they are just glad to have sold their house and travel the world like they always planned. I can't fault them for that.
It was actually through all of my whining, and yes, maybe even begging, that Hunter offered to become my roommate. All because the girl I used to live with moved halfway across the continent. The same Hunter who moved out of his parent's house right after high school and had never had to share a space with another person. He really went out of his way to help me out in my time of need. The least I can do is ignore the revolving door in his bedroom and the annoying moans drifting through the walls.
The frame finally falls on the carpet, no longer putting up a fight to stay up.
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Our friendship came to be because of proximity.
Both in age and in living spaces. I remember my excitement when I saw the moving truck parked next to our house, while a nice-looking couple and a young boy hopped out of it. I knew we were close in age because he was almost as tall as me. It took everything in my power not to run out and bombard him with questions. We were the only two younger kids on the block and I really wanted someone to play with since I was on summer break.
Hunter, not so much.
The first time I tried to get him to come out and play, he pretended to have chores or something else to do. The second time, his mom encouraged him to ride his bike along mine and he did so, begrudgingly. I'm sure I talked his ear off and I barely got more than a few words out of him. A few more forced interactions and he finally started getting more comfortable around my presence. Not enough to initiate conversation or even take the initiative to come over and ask to play, but he was more open to playing in his front yard when I would show up.
And then once school started and we were in the same class, I showed him around. I ate with him at lunch and he started to come over to study. Every new school year we would hang out after school and spent so much time together that our parents became friends, more or less for the same reasons Hunter and I did.
High school was a bit of a new learning curve for me. I started to notice how different I was from most of the girls I had classes with. They had this ease when it came to talking with guys. It was like they each got some pamphlet or online class on how to interact with the opposite sex without being awkward or uncool. I would see them twirl their hair, giggle in a very girly way, and even make out behind the bleachers. The only guys I was ever comfortable talking to were Hunter, who at that point had turned a new leaf and his bad boy era was doing wonders to the girls, and some guys from the debate club I decided to join.
Very early on I noticed that the way they interacted with other girls was very different from the way they talked to me. I didn't receive any lingering looks or witty teasing. I was seen as the chill friend that they could talk to about those girls that kept running through their heads. It's not as if I even attempted flirting with any of them, but I'm sure if they had ever tried my brain would have probably short-circuited. I was all about school and didn't have time for silly crushes.
Hunter and I still hung out some but we didn't fall into that same easy pattern we had in the past based on the years of knowing each other. With puberty, there was a certain unspoken rule about ignoring the changes our bodies were going through. I no longer felt comfortable going to the pool with Hunter and wearing a two-piece. He grew several feet taller and played for the basketball team. We didn't have sleepovers anymore, he rarely came over to study, and then the girls started appearing. With each new girlfriend, I was placed further and further down his list of important people.
Don't get me wrong, he was still there for me. He still answered my texts and picked up my calls. He just now had a new fascination with the opposite sex and I had to understand that I could not feed into that. Our parents still hung out so we saw each other outside of school but it wasn't as often or as effortless as it used to be.
What placed even more space between us was when I moved a few states over for university. He stayed back, helping his dad run his construction business. We now had distance between us that made it hard to keep the same type of relationship. I sometimes wonder if his dad was still alive, if we would have ever found our way back to each other.
It wasn't until I got the call from my mom one cloudy afternoon that I realized I had gone a long time without talking to Hunter. I had made new friends and been so worked up about classes that I didn't even notice the change in our routine. Usually once or twice a month one of us would check in and we would pretend to make plans to see each other soon, knowing it would only happen when I went back home during some school break. Hearing about his dad's passing from my mom made me feel guilty in the worst possible way.
I went home without a second thought and rushed next door after dropping my bags in my room. That whole week I helped Hunter's mom plan a funeral, provided emotional support to my best friend, and promised myself I would never allow something like distance to get in the way of our friendship. I saw the change in him, in the way he took charge of things and how he no longer had the chip on his shoulder. Now he would have the stress of being a provider. Even though he didn't move back in with his mom, he made sure to keep tabs on her and give her anything she asked for.
I went back to school after the funeral and we talked more than we had in years. Sometimes I feel overbearing with the number of texts I would send to make sure he was okay. But he never made me feel like I was overstepping or being a pest. I made more of an effort to see him and he in return did the same for me. We were falling back into our old ways and I loved it.
Just when I thought I was ready to take on the world with my freshly printed degree, I was plunged into the cruel realm of adulthood. With school no longer being a top priority, I now had to find a job and a place to stay. My parents weren't total monsters, they gave me just enough money to move back into town but no more than that. They had all their flights and living arrangements situated for the next few months and I had to find a roommate.
I was lucky the way I did. She was also a recent college grad and had been a pretty thoughtful roommate. I expected us to live together for years before we each went our separate ways but she had a job lined up a lot sooner than either of us expected and then I was left on my own. Since talking to Hunter was a regular thing again, I kept him up to date on my situation. I think he started to take pity on me when I one day broke down over coffee because I didn't have enough money to break my lease but I also couldn't afford a two-bedroom apartment. Never being a fan of a crying girl in his presence, Hunter said he would move in with me and that was that.
Now, had I known I was signing up for endless sleep, sometimes hours of noisy sex, or even having random girls come in and out of my living space I would have probably been a bit more hesitant to agree. I thought Hunter would keep his sexual conquests away from our place but I guess that was too much to ask for. All I could do was search for a better-paying job and a cheaper living situation. Both of which have been a pain and time has just flown by.
But not all of it has been bad.
Although living with Hunter took some getting used to, I cannot complain too much.
He's very tidy, at least in the common area. There's never any trash left out or any dishes left in the sink. I've never been in his room and he usually sticks to the edge of my door if we are ever catching up but I can imagine it is clean. Otherwise, I doubt a lot of girls would be okay with being locked in there for too long. The bathroom is also never an issue when it comes to cleanliness and he usually buys enough groceries for the both of us without accepting money from me.
Overall, he is the ideal roommate.
What are a few moaning girls compared to free food and a reasonably priced place to stay?
