A Neighborhood Romance [Arjayoh & Amaranthine]

[Arjayoh]

Humid air almost attacked Ryan as he opened the door to his deck that looked out across the town. It had been too warm by his standards for weeks now, with no indication of getting a respite. His curly hair was fluffier than usual with the added moisture in the air, and he'd resorted to wearing tank tops and shorts as opposed to his usual attire of jeans and a sweater.

Pulling out a cigarette from the half empty pack which he closed and placed on the wooden deck, he contemplated putting it away. The air was almost too much, but drinks the night before that left a headache behind were the catalyst to him lighting the cigarette and leaning on his elbows as he looked out across the town he'd grown up in and recently moved back to.

He'd found an apartment relatively easily, now living in the third floor of a modern building that housed the higher end of the suburbs population. Rent was competitively priced but not competitive enough to attract bad clientele. It had been a massive surprise on his first day in his new apartment when his former high school and college best friend had stepped foot out on to her own deck.

Since then, things seemed to go right back to how they were. They didn't skip a beat and were as close as ever. Ryan had been dating when he returned to town, initially having moved in to the one bedroom apartment with his girlfriend who'd moved with him, but it soon ended and she left to return home.

Ryan didn't think his relationship with his next door neighbor had anything to do with it, but he was probably kidding himself thinking that. To anybody that didn't know them, you'd think they were dating, so it probably wasn't a surprise that Lydia had left after one too many texts saying Ryan would be home late because he was drinking with the woman next door.

Shaking his head as he thought back to that, he dragged on his cigarette and heard the sliding door open from the next deck over.

 

[Amaranthine]

Somewhere down the line, Paisley Channing's life had stopped being the miracle that she'd thought it was at twenty two. Back then she had been young and happy and engaged - to the best man she had ever known, at that. She'd finished school, got a job, and started spending life doing what she had always loved: nursing the sick. The next step in her life would have then been to have that wedding and have that boy's babies but instead...

Well, here she was - twenty eight and in a small third floor apartment, drinking alone as the place cooled down after a long, hot day. She'd spend most of it at the hospital, luckily. That place had air conditioning, something she hadn't realized was blessing until she lived somewhere without it. She never had that wedding (she'd caught him cheating on her just a week before it was due to happen) and she never had any babies (because any man she had dated since either was either dumb or a dud, until she had given up even trying) and it just wasn't how she had pictured her life going. Nursing was fun - it was still her passion but... Well, Paisley had never been meant to be alone.

She was utterly terrible at it.

Perhaps that was why she was having such a fondness for Ryan, an old friend returned. He was a piece of her past, the youth she had lived when she was still young and naive and not jaded, when she didn't nurse a bottle of beer and then two and then three every time she had a night off.

With a sigh she slid the door to her balcony open and walked out, a beer in one hand and a cigarette of her own perched precariously between her fingers. "You over there?" She asked in to the void, figuring that if Ryan himself was outside he would know she was referring to him.

 

[Arjayoh]

Ryan's head continued to throb with each drag of the cigarette, but he knew that without the nicotine, it'd probably be a lot worse. The previous night had been a blast, another evening spent with Paisley while they drank and thought about how life may be different if their relationships hadn't broken down. Would it have been for the better? That's usually how their conversations went.

Hearing the sliding door close and then her voice from around the wooden separator, he called back, smiling softly to himself as he quickly thought about how her voice had the uncanny ability to calm but excite him at the exact same time.

"Yeah I'm over here, did you light up yet?" He asked leaning his head around to smile across at her, his curly black hair falling in front of his eyes before he swept it away.

"You should come over, I don't think I'm in any state to be leaning my neck so far around this wall," he laughed. "I wonder what the apartment building would say if I suggested locking a window through this," he said jokingly as he knocked on the wood that kept them apart.

"The door's open if you wanna run over," he suggested.

 

[Amaranthine]

He wanted her to go over? Then of course she was. Her nights spent drinking and chain smoking with Ryan had been what kept her feeling some semblance of genuine alive rather than just surviving over the last few weeks. He was a piece of her even though they had faded away, and she hoped that she wasn't the only one to find their bond to still be natural - easy. So little in this world was easy that when you found something that made you feel almost at peace, you had to hold on to it hard and pray it never goes away. Was it wrong to think like that? To want him to stay for good?

"See you in a flash," she said before she'd even had a chance to light her smoke, caring little that her body was half-bared by nothing but a tank top and her sleep shorts. She'd already changed but he would have to just deal with that - she wasn't dressing up just so that they could get drunk and complain again. Within twenty seconds she'd gone through her apartment and in to his, knocking twice on the door before opening it even though she knew that she was allowed in and that he was out on the balcony.

"You should ask them, though," she said with a laugh as she pushed his sliding door open and stepped out on to the deck to join him. "Hey guys put a little door between these balconies please? I really wanna visit my neighbour without having to knock on their door." To some degree, that would come off terribly. Paisley, however, had a sense of humor and found it at least a little bit of it funny.

"Fuck man, some of the ideas you have." She laughed again, perched her cigarette between her lips and lit it up. After exhaling she spoke up again. "How was your day anyways?"

 

[Arjayoh]

Still groggy from the previous night, he rubbed his eyes and then stepped back firmly in to his own deck as she retreated inside to come around. Since he'd broken up with Lydia, all of their days off seemed to be spent together either in his apartment or hers. He even had a dedicated shelf now in her fridge for all of his beer so he didn't have to keep bringing it over every time they decided to watch Netflix at her house. He kept a pack of her cigarettes on his nightstand just in case she forget them. They were basically a married couple living in separate rooms, and it was amazing that he was oblivious to his ex-girlfriend's reasoning for leaving.

As Paisley stepped out on to the deck he turned and leaned his back against the wood, smiling and quickly running his eyes over her body. It was honestly quite hard not too, even when she was wearing regular clothes or her hospital scrubs, but in just a tank top and sleeping shorts it was almost a challenge to keep eyes averted.

Shrugging, he laughed a little and gave her arm a soft punch, taking another drag on his cigarette with the other.

"You never know, if they saw how much of my shit was in your apartment maybe they'd agree to it. Or they'd just tell us to move in together already," he laughed, turning now that she had lot her cigarette so they were both looking out across the town.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he felt it against his leg. It was the familiar vibration of a text message, but four in quick succession.

Pulling his phone from his pocket he saw it was Lydia and quickly returned the buzzing phone to his shorts. He didn't need that drama right now.

Exhaling emphatically and then flicking the cigarette in to the bucket on the ground, he turned his head to face her and smiled.

"So far, so good," he said softly. "I keep thinking maybe we should have two less beers next time, but I just know it's not going to happen," he laughed, brushing his hair out from in front of his eyes again. "You?" He asked politely.

 

[Amaranthine]

It was cute - he was still feeling out of it. Paisley had to dump the hangover quick because she had to work bright and early, so she'd been loaded up on caffeine and tylenol since about five in the morning (which was... maybe? three hours after they had stopped for the night). She didn't work tomorrow so she'd probably be down to stay up even later with him if he wanted to. They'd fallen together like pieces of a puzzle and maybe they just brought out the worst in each others' habits, but they had a damn good time doing it and that was what matter.

... It helped that he was cute - a lot cuter to her than he had been before, but maybe her young brain just hadn't been seeing things right back when they were teenagers. Booze, buds and some eye candy all on top of it - what sort of girl who was circling the drain could even possibly resist such a combo?

"Two less?" Paisley scoffed as Ryan dared to suggest such a thing. She took another drag before saying anything else, angling her chin up so that the smoke billowed upwards as she exhaled. "More like two more - I'm not working tomorrow so we're making a night of it."

As if to make a point, she took a long drink from the beer that she had brought over with her.

 

[Arjayoh]

Amazed at how she was able to put down several beers after the night they'd had, he laughed and walked to his screen door, sliding it open and stepping inside, leaving her out in the heat as the air conditioning of his apartment enveloped his body and made him feel instantly better, at least for the time being.

Walking to the fridge he bent down and grabbed a couple more beers before returning and opening the door to the deck with his elbow. "Thanks for getting that for me," he winked, teasing her like it was something they were both completely used to at this point.

He set the two beers down on the deck and slid one over to her before twisting the top of his and taking a sip. And shiver quickly ran through his entire body as the sweet taste of Budweiser reminded him of the previous night. "Wow," he exhaled heavily before setting the beer down and taking another cigarette from the pack.

"Start as we mean to go on I guess," he laughed and then held his bottle up for her to touch with her own.

"You're a bad influence, you know that right?"

 

[Amaranthine]

"Pfft, you love my influence," Paisley quipped in return as she clinked her new bottle with his own and then brought it to her lips. All in all, she was very happy to have someone who she seemed to click with around. Sure she was probably verging on alcoholism and sure it probably wasn't a good thing that they enabled each other, but for the first time in a long time she had felt genuinely comfortable around someone.

Ryan returning to her life had been one of the best things that had happened to her in years. In her eyes their friendship was perfect, and she wouldn't want it any other way - perhaps it was because she wasn't trying to view him through the eyes of a potential romantic prospect and instead someone she simply bonded with. They could chain smoke and chain drink and hell, on a good night even have a joint or two (or three).

"Besides, what would you do if I wasn't around? Be a loner in your apartment?" She teased, but she knew for a fact that she would be a lot more withdrawn and much more of a loner if not for him.

 

[Arjayoh]

His phone was buzzing again. Rolling his eyes as he pulled his phone from his pocket, he looked at Paisley with a look that said 'I'm sorry, you know who it is.' Looking at the screen of his iPhone through glazed eyes, he saw sentences such as "I made a mistake," "I love you," and "Please take me back." Taking a drag on his cigarette he unlocked his phone and gave Lydia the satisfaction of seeing that he'd read the messages.

"Fuck," he sighed as he sipped the beer and took another drag of his cigarette.

"I can't reply to this right now, I need some time, give me a few days," he replied and then set his phone on silent, sliding the glass door open and throwing it inside on to the couch.

"Sorry, I'm ignoring that till you next go to work, you don't need to sit and hear me bitch about her for another night," he laughed as the sun slowly made its way down over the horizon.

"Honestly I think we'd both be loners in our apartments if the other wasn't around. This may be the hangover talking but you've definitely helped with my introvertedness," he smirked. "Is that even a word?"

 

[Amaranthine]

Ryan's relationship (ex-relationship?) drama made Paisley roll her eyes, but it wasn't like she could deny having her own fair share of it. While it had been a while since she last dealt with a break up, and even longer since the end of anything serious, she knew exactly what it was like to be in a position where an ex was asking for you back... and she also had to admit that she knew what it was like to be the one who realized they'd let someone amazing get away because of poor planning in the beginning.

Really, she didn't mind listening to him complain about Lydia - it left her feeling a little bit sour, she couldn't quite place why she felt that way but she did, but overall it... kind of made her feel good that at least for now her life wasn't too terrible. Yeah, she was still getting kind of anxious about the whole "this wasn't my plan" thing and with her biological clock ticking that was amplified with just a touch of baby fever, but the last few months she'd spent single were... peaceful. Quiet, yes, and the loneliness had been a little bit deafening, but still calmer than she was used to.

Calmer - and then she had started feeling alive a little bit once Ryan had moved in. Maybe just having a friend she could rely on was all she had needed.

"Eh, you'll stop bitching when you have a reason to. I can't say I blame you for not wanting to talk to her - some people just can't take a hint... or a brick when it's thrown right at their face." She shrugged and sipped at her beer a little more, sitting down in one of the chairs on the balcony and then kicking her feet up on the table. "It's gotta be a word, though - right? I feel like it would be. Either way, you're right. We'd both be shut ins if we didn't have anyone to help with that - I think it makes us that much better of a pair."

 

[Arjayoh]

He nodded and agreed with her as she spoke. Despite this, he couldn't help but think that Lydia may need that second chance that she was requesting. He knew way back somewhere in his mind that he shouldn't even be entertaining that idea, but the hangover and the currently Budweiser did nothing to stop those thoughts entering his mind.

"I don't know why she's messaging me today. We haven't spoke for weeks, there's no reason for her to text me at this random time. I could understand it if it was at 1 a.m. on a Saturday but this just makes me confused," he chuckled a little, still considering the fact that Lydia could be back with him at the click of his finger.

"Anyway, fuck that, are you almost done with that?" He asked, swigging and finishing his beer before sliding the door open and not even waiting for her to answer. Walking to the fridge, he only grabbed one beer and returned, handing it to her through the crack in the sliding door that he'd left.

"I'm gonna jump in the shower, I think it'll perk me up," he laughed. "Do you want me to leave the water running? I dunno if you've showered yet, but judging by the smell.....probably not," he winked, teasing her as he leaned back, getting ready to leave her on the deck alone.

 

[Amaranthine]

"Maybe she knows you're out here with me, her Paisley senses are tingling and she doesn't like it." The redhead rolled her eyes and got a kick out of her own remark. It didn't take a genius to know that Lydia had been handling some jealousy... poorly - and just like Ryan, Pais had no idea why the woman had such a problem with her. They were friends and nothing more, but they did spend more time with each other than anyone else... and if they didn't spend time with each other, they'd probably just spend that time alone. What was the problem?

"Or maybe she's realizing she let a good one get away," she also offered up, shrugging her shoulders as she finished up the last of her beer just in time for Ryan to walk away. Had he mentioned that he was thinking that maybe Lydia did deserve a second chance, Paisley would have been torn. On one hand she did believe in second chances - on the other, didn't Ryan deserve better than that?

Either way, she didn't know better so she didn't think about it. He returned with another drink and then said he was going to hop in the shower - but he didn't go before making a remark. "Rude," she countered, narrowing her eyes in such a playful manner that she couldn't be taken too seriously. "I'll just be here - drinking, smoking... Raiding your fridge for more drinks after this one is done. You know, the normal."

 

[Arjayoh]

Laughing a little as he closed the glass door, he first walked over to the couch to grab his phone that he'd thrown earlier. He was welcomed with three more texts, long ones about how Lydia wished he had the time to text her back and how she assumed he was with Paisley at the time "like he always was." It wasn't too far from the truth, to be fair with her.

Getting to the bathroom, he pulled off his loose fitting tank top from his body that had become slightly damp due to the humid weather outside making him sweat. Groaning, he stretched and felt his muscles contract and ache after yet another night of bad sleep.

He picked up his phone again and started to type.

"I guess I've been missing you too. We moved together across the country to live in my home town and I feel like things ended way too quickly for us to truly be done. I don't know exactly what you want from me or the relationship but you know where to find me," he said, pressing send before he'd really had time to think it over.

Despite the fact that Paisley was more like a sister to him than a friend or a romantic interest, he couldn't pretend that he never got jealous when men would hit on her in bars or when she decided to go on a date instead of hang out at home. Something inside him knew he'd need to get past that if anything with Lydia were to work, but he didn't know if he truly could.

Completely undressing, he closed the bathroom door and started to run the shower, waiting for the water to steam before stepping in and relaxing under the hot stream of water as he washed himself, thinking about the dilemma he now found himself in.

 

[Amaranthine]

Paisley was left with no clue at all that Ryan was messaging Lydia back - nor did she truly have a reason to be bothered if she had found out that he was. The rationality of it all didn't matter much, but even though she laid no claim on the man who had just walked away from her, she kind of hated the idea of him talking to her.

She didn't stay in silence as she waited on the balcony for him - instead, she had turned on her phone and opened Spotify. For a while she sipped at her beer until she finished it - and then she did exactly what she had said she would and waltzed inside like it was her own home to grab another from the kitchen. If she went through many more, she would buy him a new pack in the morning - Pais could be trusted to at least keep even. He bought one time, she the next - even.

----​

Meanwhile, on the other side of town at her mother's place a young woman was sipping wine out on the deck, watching a German Shepherd run around the fenced in back yard. All the while, she eyed her phone. Lydia had a few drinks in her now and maybe that was why she felt so desperate to get in touch with Ryan, but over the last few weeks she had grown to miss him more than anything in the world. She swore a reply would never come - had resigned herself to that even. Just as she had been about to put her phone on silent and walk back inside, she had the place to herself tonight, it rang from its spot on the table.

One message was enough to make her smile. In the end she just sent off one more simple text: "I just want a chance to be able to do things right."

 

[Arjayoh]

Out of the shower, he saw the text that lit his phone up and sighed, groaning a little in to the towel as he dried his face and hair. If that wasn't enough of a sign that things should maybe stay as they were, then maybe it was right that he learnt the hard way.

Drying off, he put his underwear and shorts back on but strolled through the living room to his bedroom to retrieve a fresh shirt, seeing Pais and smiling as he did so.

Returning to the main area of the apartment, he joined her in the kitchen and grabbed a beer. He knew better than to continuously text Lydia if he was going to keep drinking, but he figured when Paisley left later, that's exactly what he would find himself doing.

"So, what do you wanna do? Drink and smoke cigarettes?" He asked softly, chuckling a little as that's what they seemed to be best at recently. He didn't care too much about what they did or where they were, as long as they were spending the time together.

Something probably should have clicked in Ryan's mind at that moment that maybe bringing Lydia back in to his life wasn't such a great thing, especially when Paisley stood right in front of him and their connection clearly ran deep. Nonetheless, it did not, and his mind continued to swirl with ideas about how he'd even approach the topic with either women.

"Come on," he gestured as he walked to the back door again and grabbed a couple cigarettes from the pack in his pocket.

 

[Amaranthine]

"Way to call me out," Paisley joked as Ryan returned to the balcony, freshly washed and just as handsome as ever. She couldn't deny that she had peeked as he had walked across the apartment to his room lacking his shirt. Maybe it wasn't on purpose - but there was also that little piece of her who wasn't sure, and whose mouth had watered as Ryan's lean body crossed her sight. Paisley might not ever say out loud that she found him attractive, but she also didn't mind that she thought it. While it may have been a secret it wasn't one that she felt bad about - and some underlying attraction didn't have to mean anything. Besides - he was complicated, messy (as if she was any better).

Eventually they would retire - which probably just meant laying on opposite sides of his couch as a movie played in the background and they continued to sip at beers. It wasn't quite time for that, though - she'd watched the sun dip beyond the horizon while he had been gone to clean up, but just because night was settling down didn't mean that they needed to just yet. If anything, it meant that they should just be more appreciative of what they had.

"Just 'cause of that I'm taking both of these," she quipped and then reached towards him, snatching both the cigarettes he had pulled out between two of her own fingers. Her smile was devilish, teasing - she had started and finished a drink while he had been inside and the alcohol was starting to hit her just enough that she felt light - happy, even, like she was allowed to simply exist and for that moment as she stood with her favourite person of the moment, nothing else seemed to matter. It was good to feel free for one (or, for her, every night that she spent drunk at his side).

 

[Arjayoh]

He laughed in a bit of a shock as she grabbed the two cigarettes out of his hand, but he knew she was a feisty individual, and she'd no doubt give him a cigarette in a few days when he didn't have any left and didn't want to go to the store. He grabbed another out of his pack and then set the pack down on the deck, watching out as the sun burnt the sky a beautiful orange as it made it's way down the horizon.

"If you take this third one I might have to call your parents and tell them you have a problem," he teased before realising he didn't have a beer. Setting his cigarette down on the pack, he walked back inside and grabbed a couple, one for each of them as usual. Seeing he was running low, he hoped she would have some over at her place, where they'd presumably migrate to anyway. He had Netflix, she had Hulu, and for some reason they'd never shared the login details so they could watch either anywhere.

"Do we need to go to the store for more beer?" He asked as he walked back outside, a light breeze forming that made the day much less groggy and humid.

"If you don't have any then we might have to," he said as he twisted the caps off the two bottles and handed one to Pais.

Sipping it, he sighed softly. He knew he'd have to reply to Lydia eventually, maybe even that night, but he was so content there with Paisley that it seemed he should have never texted her back in the first place. Nothing ever seemed to end well when Lydia was involved, especially when Paisley and Lydia were involved.