" who's playing tricks on me"
"I'm just clearing the last table here before I go home," I shouted to my colleague Lewis at the bar. After my 8-hour shift, I feel pretty exhausted, especially today. It's my seventh shift without a day off in between and it's been the busiest day ever, I mean of course it's Saturday so it's going to be busy. Everyone's coming to eat and have a few drinks at the bar before getting drunk in some shitty bars or clubs. I picked up the last glass from the table, wiped it off and hurried over to the bar.
" Alright Lewis, I'm in a bit of a rush, can you do me a favour and tell Brad I'm off already? " he looked up at me with his typical grin on his lips " In a hurry, huh? What's your plan for today? " he asked, taking a Coke out of the fridge, opening it.
"I don't know. I'll meet Scar at my place, she said something about going to a house party, so my plan will probably get wasted" I laughed, removing the apron from my waist, and throwing it on the bar table.
"Have fun then, and try not to end up in hospital," Lewis joked, grabbing my apron and heading into the changing room before I could say anything back. I shook my head at his statement, grabbed my phone and car keys from the drawer and made my way out of the restaurant to the parking lot. I wasted no time, started the engine, drove out of the parking lot and made my way home.
I pulled up in the parking lot, spotting Scar, who was already waiting outside the door of my flat. I switched off the engine, grabbed my keys and my phone, slammed the car door shut and ran over to Scar. "Man, I'm sorry, I thought I'd be off work on time, but there was too much going on," I said, opening my arms and pulling Scar into a hug.
" don't worry we have plenty of time, we only have to be there at hmm... " Scarlet pulled out her phone to check the time "11 PM so we still have 3 hours, easy " she smiled, putting her phone back in her pocket.
I opened the front door and waved Scar in, walked to the lift and pressed the button. "You know, I'm very glad we have a lift here, imagine if you had to walk 14 floors" I laughed and looked at Scar who raised her eyebrows, "I know your fat ass can't even walk 2 floors, but me? I could easily do 14 floors"
We both went into the lift and pressed the button for the 14th floor. "Yes, of course, I'm sorry I forgot you live in the gym" I said, rolling my eyes. When we finally arrived, we made our way down the corridor to my flat.
"I forgot to ask how your neighbour is? Did you ever meet her again after she randomly turned up at your door? " Scar asked, following me like a puppy into my living room and flopping back onto my couch. "Yeah, I met her a few times when I went to work or when I came home, we had a few funny conversations here and there, but nothing more."
I threw my keys on the kitchen table, picked up 2 cups and poured some wine into them. "So that's it, huh? Does that mean you wanted more? " she called from the living room, playing one of her favourite songs on my speaker, I walked over to the living room, handed her the cup and plopped down on the couch " I've only met her a few times, so no, but if more happened I wouldn't say no, she's hot " I laughed and leaned back on my couch.
Carried away after the third cup of whine, and the loud music , I was snapped out of my trance by loud banging on my door. I turned the music down while Scar was busy in the bathroom, went to the door, opened it and was immediately greeted by an angry look on my hot neighbour's face.
" oh hey Billie, what's the reason you are banging on my door late evening ? "she came closer to me and just glared at me before literally shouting in my face "Dude, do you know what time it's? Turn the fucking music down, I'm trying to sleep! "
I took a step back because unlike the last few times, I felt very uncomfortable being this close to her. " well no reason to scream but yea, I will turn it down" she sighed, running a hand over her face "I fucking hope so, otherwise I'll do it " she snapped again before turning on her heels, walking away.
Stunned by her outburst, I went back in, closing the door behind me. " Scarlet, we need to get out of here before someone else storms in here and throws a tantrum," I shouted, grabbing my keys and my bag.
Scarlet came out of the bathroom looking stunning as always, she walked to my hallway and put her shoes on " damn, was that your neighbour you have a crush on? I thought she was a nice girl". We left my flat, locked the door and walked to the lift, "Yeah, I thought so too, I don't know what's going on with her today"
It wasn't long before we arrived at Scar's friend's house, you could tell from a metre away that there was a party going on, lots of lights shining down the street and loud music blaring from the speakers, luckily I decided not to take the car otherwise I'd have left it here and picked it up the next day, because a good girl doesn't drive drunk.
We squeezed our way through the crowd over to our friends who were waiting for us already. Evan, Scar's boyfriend made his way over to us, already taking Scar away from me. I made my way over to the couch sitting down next to Alan one of my really good friends. " damn took you both long enough huh " he screamed over the music, pulling me in for a hug.
"Yeah we got carried away, but now we are here. " I looked around, trying to get used to the layout of the house so I wouldn't get lost if I'd had too much to drink. " Where are the drinks? I need to get one before I sober up," he pointed across the room, "over there, can you get me one too? " I nodded, got up and made my way to the kitchen.
Still trying to decide what drink I should make, I grabbed a cup and threw a bunch of ice cubes in it, jumping when someone whispered in my ear, actually not someone, I immediately recognised the voice " Hey neighbour "
I turned around and met Billie's grinning face, she was standing very close to me again with her hands in her pockets, this girl knows nothing about personal space " stop acting like you don't know my name and most importantly why are you acting all smiley now, it's only been a few minutes since you shouted at me. didn't you say you wanted to sleep? " I said angrily, turning around again, reaching for the bottle of liqueur and pouring some into mine and Alan's cup.
" Lee, what are you talking about? " she said, still standing behind me. I felt a shiver run down my spine when I heard her call me Lee. I've always had a soft spot for being called Lee, I just love that nickname, but hearing it from her was a whole different feeling.
I grabbed the two cups and turned back to her, "What do you mean? You don't remember shouting at me about my music? "
Shrugging, she took another step towards me and leaned down to my ear " Well, it seems like you've had a few drinks, maybe you're just imagining things now " she said in a low voice in my ear, stepping back and turning to leave the room before looking back over her shoulder at me " Take care Lee, there are some scary people here. I don't want anything to happen to you."
With that, she left the kitchen, leaving me standing like a deer in headlights. Shaking my head, I left the kitchen, walked over to the couch and handed Alan his drink, "Damn Riley, you're taking your time today," he laughed, turning his attention back to one of his friends who were shouting at each other about some stupid bet. I plopped down on the couch and took a sip from my cup. I think I need a lot of them to forget what happened in the kitchen. Had I already had too much to drink and was it all in my head, or was she just fucking around with me. Either way, it's confusing the shit out of me.
After some hours and drinks and a lot of stupidity games with my friends, I was more than wasted.I can't even remember what I drank, the only thing I can remember is feeling like I was being watched all evening, every now and then I would scan the room for someone I might catch looking at me, but there was no one, maybe it was just Billie's statement that I was imagining things that was driving me crazy now. I decided to leave, before falling asleep in a random house. I said goodbye to all my friends, stumbled out of the house, sat on the porch and opened the Uber app on my phone to order an Uber.
I saw the Uber pulling up at the house, I carefully got up, grabbing my things. I walked over to the Uber but stopped, turned around to check if I had not forgotten anything, but didn't see anything except for my surprise Billie, who was just standing there motionless, staring in my direction. not thinking much about it, maybe she just wanted to make sure I ended up safe in the Uber I turned around, got into the back seat, closed the door, fastened my seatbelt and looked out of the window before the driver started the engine to wave goodbye to Billie, but there was no Billie in sight.
Wasn't it only a second ago that she was standing there staring at me?