Chapter Text
I
”Well, since everything’s fine we can take our leaves.” A tall and broad police officer lifted his cap slightly with his thumb and index finger, looking between two adult men like it was some kind of joke. Matt gritted his teeth. This couldn’t happen.
“Like hell everything’s fine,” he said, eyes glued to the little shit that was ruining his life and sanity. Little by little. Unless that brat had already done it since it wasn’t like Matt to lose his temper. In front of the police, to the boot. “That… that guy,” he had better names to that guy but decided it was taking it too far. In front of bigger uniform clad officers, at least. “He fucking dumbed his shit to my backyard. His fucking rotten food, for god’s sake. There’s no way it was an accident.”
As the two officers turned to him with stern faces, the little shit locked eyes with Matt, grinning like some spawn of Devil. Maybe he was. Matt swore to god he could see flames of hell flashing in his evil looking red eyes. Even though they weren’t even close to red since they were blue but those flames, yep, those flames made them look red as fuck. Now if only the police would turn to that guy they’d see what a liar he was and that they’d fallen for his tricks too. Matt had once too – he was embarrassed about his naivety – but it was so clear now. His neighbour was no human.
“Sir,” the word was stressed with a meaningful tone. “We talked about this already. Mr Hunter here already apologized and explained how he’d mistaken the location of the compost and dumbed his bio waste accidentally to your yard.” Matt turned his head at least ten meters to his right where the compost was standing clearer than the day. There was no way anyone would miss that. “Mr Hunter moved back just recently so it’s understandable that mistakes happen. I hope there’s no problem.”
Yeah. No problem at all if you didn’t count the smelly pile of old food on his grass, shit eating grin of his neighbour’s son and his shitty mood of being scolded by the brainwashed police men. “Yes. Everything’s fine,” he said through his teeth. He could feel his wain pulsing.
“Good that we agree.” The speaker, the only police of the two who’d opened his mouth during the whole scenario, turned to Andrew Hunter – whose grin turned into a sweet smile – and continued, “Mr Hunter, I hope you clean up the mess you made to Mr Mcfall’s yard. Well, good day then.”
The brat had nodded but Matt knew better. He didn’t let his eyes stray from the asshole the whole time the police got back to their car and took off. Only when the car disappeared from the sight, did his annoying neighbour turn to him. They measured each other for a while, Matt challenging the younger man not to do as he was told to. If he didn’t clean up his property, he’d make him clean it.
When neither of them made the first move, Matt got enough. “Well?” He raised his brow and nodded down to the pile which seemed to be the flies’ favourite spot. The sun was burning hot to the ground, making both the rotten smell and Matt’s sweating worse. His grey t-shirt glued to his back, making him feel weird combination of chills and hot waves in his body.
“Calm down, Matty.” Andrew Hunter rose his hands up and for a while Matt let himself imagine how good it’d feel to throw that shit against that shitty face. He restrained his hands with a cigarette.
“You better clean up or I’ll tell the police.” Like it was any good. He’d called the police only half an hour earlier, deciding enough was enough when he saw his neighbour’s son tilting the red bucket over the waist high fence that separated the two houses. The kid had been whistling. Whistling! It was no accident. So he’d called the cops and told them everything but then that Hunter kid had come and told them his little tale and made Matt the bad guy. There was no way in hell Matt would do as he threatened because he bet the guy would talk himself out of it once again. It was unfair, so fucking unfair, but Matt couldn’t afford to do it. He had already too much on stage.
“Yeah, yeah, go crying to the cops again since it worked the last time so well.” Andrew leaned against the fence, his smile long gone.
Matt tried to breathe in and out, calm himself down, so when he leaned towards the asshole, he felt himself shake. “You. Will. Clean. It. Is that clear, Hunter?”
His only answer was a roll of dark blue eyes and a turned back when the kid started to walk away. Matt barked after him angrily, feeling his blood boil out of their wains. His brain was filling with fog. “Calm down, dude. I’m just getting the shovel, okay?”
Matt slumped against his old car – Opel Commodore, year model 1967 – and let out a sigh. He rubbed his eyes and decided his life was hell. Nothing went as it should and nothing worked out when he tried to make it work. What was wrong with him? Had he committed some unforgivable crime in his last life to deserve such a faith? Not that he actually believed in faith or past lives or fortune telling or whatever. He just wanted some kind of answers to the messed up situation that was his life.
Rounding a car, he sat on the hood of it and lit a Chesterfiel. He felt the nicotine burn his throat and bring his tingling nerves to calmness. Grey smoke rushed forward into the air like something was chasing it. For a while Matt heard sounds only normal for a suburb – someone honked their car and somewhere kids’ laughter covered the curious gossiping of neighbourhood ladies. Then he heard a creak that belonged to the shed of the Hunters. Matt buried his head to his knees for a while, then dragged another breath of smoke. He watched as the dark haired young man hopped over the fence easily. He shook his head and continued making sure the work was done. There was no way everything went this smoothly with Andrew Hunter. The guy had to have some sly card hidden in his sleeve.
For a while Matt thought the guy had at least a little bit humane feelings in him after all but then almost choked to the smoke when he heard the first words.
“Ya know, you’re gonna get a heart attack with all the greasy food, beer and nicotine you consume every day.” Then Andrew shrugged with a light smile on his face. “You’d deserve it, though.”
Matt frowned and tried to ignore his shaking hands. “What do you know about the way I live, huh?”
“It’s not that hard when you sit right on that spot drinking and smoking every evening. Not to forget how your fridge looks like.”
Matt’s hand halted in the middle of its movement towards his mouth. “What?”
“Your fridge looks like shit. Literally.”
“And how the fuck do you know how it looks?”
The guy didn’t answer and continued to shovel the last of the bio waste into the bucket. He looked pleased with himself. A cold feeling that resembled too much dread slowly creeped up Matt’s back.
“Have you broken into my house!”
“Hey, you’re the criminal here, not me.”
Matt didn’t ask what the other guy meant with that since he definitely didn’t have any criminal record. He tried to detect a lie, hesitation, guilt, glee, anything on Andrew’s face but saw only a content little smile. A smile that fitted to a true Asshole with a capital A. Andrew the Asshole. If Matt didn’t like Mr and Mrs Hunter as much as he did, he’d have changed the name on their mailbox into that.
But unlike their son they were decent people.
He decided to swallow his next words because those would have only ended up biting his own ass in the end, but it left behind this bitter taste. He wanted to wash it down with something – preferably with a cold beer. He grunted when Andrew’s words came back to his mind. That shit had spoiled even alcohol for him. He threw the stub to the gravelled road and suffocated it with his heel. Fuck that guy. He could finish his work without guarding.
Matt ignored a shout about him being ungrateful – with an acted anger, of course, since Andrew had no right to be pissed off – and slammed the door shut. A quietness that followed the echo was deafening. Somewhere an old grandfather clock ticked monotonously without missing a beat. Television was still flashing blue light to the dark living room which had its blinds down – a proof of how he’d rushed out after seeing Andrew doing his “little accident” from the kitchen window. The coffee he’d just poured then was now cold and definitely bitter. He didn’t even try to taste it but threw it to the sink. Matt leaned against the kitchen counter, hanging his head low. Whatever.
And this was supposed to be a relaxing day-off after a long time. Last weekend he’d been busy with talking to his lawyer and a weekend before that that shit had started his very common and very regular accidents. Matt scoffed, knowing quite well his new neighbour had something against him – but what, it was beyond him. He’d done absolutely nothing to the other man or his parents and sister. He’d just been living there quietly and most likely would have ignored him and everyone else for a long time. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with others but apparently his sworn enemy had decided otherwise. Not only was he an ass, he was a selfish ass. Andrew Hunter knew absolutely nothing and deserved to get some kind of slap against his huge ego.
Matt slammed the radio on and decided it was time to feel hungry. He took a left over pizza from the top shelf and ignored, once again, the words about getting a heart attack soon. The pizza was still good, he’d eat it. Only a light and couple of beers were left to the cold shelves. He hesitated a minute. Fuck it. Only two beers and a light were left to the fridge. A low hiss filled the kitchen with some 80’s hit song in the background, whatever its name was again.
The food was good and greasy and unhealthy as fuck but Matt felt at peace. He liked the coldness of his drink in his throat as he listened to an old and clear voice explaining the news of the world. Some shooting again, the government declared a decision to cut the payment of the students, unemployed and elders – “Fuckers” – and some girl had a genius dog who could dance for the techno beat. They were going to have some silly competition for dogs who could dance, too. Matt downed the rest of his beer before it would become bitter and warm. The world was sure a crazy place. He let his eyes wander to the yellow neighbour house where a red car drove up to the garage. No wonder their son’d gone crazy once again. No one was home to notice how he wasn’t that golden boy everyone in his family thought he was. He’d gone to some fancy ass school and graduated as whateverwhocared. Then he’d suddenly returned home and didn’t continue living alone like any normal graduate young and definitely adult person would. Whatever his motivation was it was better be a good one because thanks to that he’d become Matt’s current nightmare. Or one of them, at least. His world wasn’t led by only one younger guy who thought he was better than Matt who wasn’t so well off. Not in home, not in work and not in a private life either. Definitely not in private life.
At least the dark haired devil had gotten his fun tonight so he was free. Maybe he could watch some telly or maybe look at his baby – the one that was still standing by his side no matter what – or maybe he could finally take the trash out since it was getting smellier than the Hunter’s rotten food earlier…
There was a sad thudding sound. A hand around a tin gripped harder and grey eyes looked alerted. His gaze wandered right away towards the yellow two-store house.
A thud was there again and then another and another and another. It was coming from the upstairs. For a while Matt contemplated if it was worth it to even check, he knew that way he was playing right into his neighbour’s hands, but he really had to check what was going on. Just in case anything was actually broken. And when there was a clear crash he was already running up the stairs. He ignored the door to the toilet and to a nursery and opened one to his bedroom. Right then there was a thud once again and he saw that just right across the yard and the fence at the next window there was a slim face, a stubbly chin, tanned cheeks and those goddamn devil red eyes watching at him amusedly. The guy had something in his hand and then he lifted it behind his head and threw. It landed right in the middle of Matt’s window with a sharp crack and yellow substance started flow down towards the ground. It looked like an egg. It was an egg.
…
That fucker was throwing eggs at his house.
A look he got back to his shocked one was challenging. Like telling him to do something about it. But the guy’s parents were home! Matt had seen them driving to the house. He stomped to the window and opened it like in a trance, only focusing his attention to the other window.
“What the actual fuck are you doing?” He pronounced every word carefully with a hiss. “What. The. Fuck.”
Andrew lifted his shoulders while grinning happily. He wasn’t happy. His eyes were still telling something completely different. “Saw something that resembled you and decided to give it back to you?” And lifted another rotten egg. “It’s a gift.”
Matt just stared. This was straight out vandalism, destroying someone else’s property. A crime! Still, instead of threatening the guy with the police once again, he ended up saying, “I don’t want it.” He felt stupid when Andrew rolled his eyes, a cynical look in them.
“No one asked you, idiot.”
“Seriously, you’re crazy.”
“Nah, just treating you like every human being should.”
Matt licked his lips and looked away for a while. Then he asked the question that had been bothering him since the first time Andrew had wet Matt with a garden hose, the time he’d scratched Matt’s new family car that probably would never be used, the time he’d yelled dirty, flirtatious words in front of Matt’s friends, embarrassing Matt, the time he’d lied everyone else and told it was all an accident. “Why?”
The last hint of anything towards to positive feeling left the crazy neighbour’s face. “Are you seriously asking me why?”
Matt tapped the window board. “Yeah. I’ve done absolutely nothing to you or anyone else you know.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Then he slammed the window shut with a dangerous rattle and disappeared like he’d never been there. Matt was left a mouth hanging open, once again a rotten smell in his nose. After a while which felt like hours he shut his own window and sat down to the double bed. He kinda felt like fucking himself, actually, since it’d take his mind away from everything confusing. He shook his head and let the fingers comp through his hair. The locks ended short and his fingers were left touching air.
So he was at fault, huh?
He straightened his back.
Like hell he was.
He’d done absolutely nothing wrong. He’d been nice to his neighbours and friends his all life, he hadn’t said mean words to anyone and he definitely hadn’t done anything against the law. Yeah, he had his flaws but he’d done nothing bad on purpose, especially not to the Hunter family.
That little shit had gone too far and ran wild for far too long. It was time to put a stop to this. He was no pushover.
~
It was so early in the morning that even the sun was still down. The temperature though didn’t seem like it since a tank top was enough to make Matt’s skin shine with sweat. Perfect weather for some soft and disgusting peaches. He hummed quietly, feeling confident and sure of himself. For a while he watched how the inhabitants of the suburb drove by, leaving for work. Even if it was summer, the everyday life didn’t stop for many people. Unlike others even Matt had to leave for work in fifteen minutes. But he was in time, he’d woken up especially early just for his lovely, dark haired dem—I mean, neighbour. Clock stroke half past five; it was time.
He watched calmly as the first pebble hit the curtain covered window just right across his bedroom. If he was lucky, he didn’t wake up any other person in the house but just the one he’d wanted. He took a risk that this indeed was his biggest hater’s window.
Nothing happened. He threw another one and the third one right away without missing a beat. He hummed the melody of that 80’s song he’d heard on the radio yesterday. Such a happy melody, indeed. Fitted right to his mood like these stones to that window.
Finally the curtains moved aside and a messy main of dark hair appeared to the window. Eyes squinted at him showing how out of it the guy was. Matt felt a chuckle – an evil one, mind you, he hadn’t known it was possible to laugh like those villains in superhero movies – bubbling in his chest but he kept it in. He let a pleasant, friendly smile form to his lips. He didn’t admit he’d learned that expression right from the demon itself.
“G’morning, Hunter,” he greeted, drawling the words a way he knew annoyed many of his friends. “Such a pleasant morning, isn’t it?”
“Wha?” Andrew’s voice was groggy and sounded like some adolescent kid’s cracking voice.
“Your gift yesterday was such a nice thought so I wanted to give a little payback.” He made a gesture to his walls and window that he was yet to clean. He had wanted to leave an evidence out. Andrew’s eyes followed his movements like in a trance. Then the blue eyes found him holding a fruit in his hand, observing it like it was something out of Earth.
“You might want to move aside.” And he threw. The peach splattered right in the middle of the younger man’s face and he staggered behind. Then Matt threw another one and it hit the wall in the back of the room. His aim was still on but he’d been one of the best baseball pitchers back in High school, after all. He listened with a giddy feeling in his gut how rotten fruits splashed against walls, Andrew, window. And the asshole couldn’t even say a thing because he was so confused.
After four fruits Matt stopped and kept the smile on, like nothing but a pleasant conversation had happened. Andrew was about to open his mouth, probably to yell something with a loud and annoying voice so Matt rushed to say the last word.
“Hope you like your present.”
And then he left for work with a skip in his steps and a whistle in his lips.
~
In Sex and the City, six letters. Matt fiddled a red pen between his fingers and after a while of thinking put the other end to his mouth. How the hell would he know some fucking Sex and the City character or actor? It was more Lydia’s field of knowledge. He couldn’t ask her anyway so he decided to move to some other word. The crossword puzzle was filling itself slowly, an old grandfather clock was ticking in the living room, telling it wasn’t 9 o’clock yet.
Flower. Is that all he fucking got as a clue? Like there wasn’t shit-load of flowers in the world anyway. Whoever had made this crossword puzzle was an idiot or a sadist.
He heard a low knocking somewhere. Was it coming from his door? He listened for a while and it finally stopped. Whoever it was, they’d given up and he wouldn’t have to rise from the toilet seat. He wasn’t ready anyway.
And that fucking crosswords too.
Knocking was there again just as regular and loud. Something was amiss with it. Matt frowned and listened, something nagged the back of his mind. It’d been too silent and calm after he’d come home. Nothing had been done to his yard or house either, so he’d just cleaned up the rotten eggs and continued his life with a pleased feeling. He’d thought he’d won but…
Knocking stopped for a second and then continued again. Matt rose with a flash and flushed the toilet. He ran to the front door and tried to open it.
The door only budged and crashed against something else.
He pushed harder, rattling the door knob. Banging stopped and nothing happened. What he saw from the window lowered his mood more than any resent trick or divorce or fucking whatever. Andrew Hunter walked across his yard carrying blanks and a hammer. A cold dread pooled in his stomach. He opened a small window that was way too small to fit him out.
“Did you just board my door shut!?”
The lean male stopped and turned to him with flashing eyes.
“You called for this.”
Matt opened his mouth only for a whimper come out.
“I fucking did not!”
All that asshole did was shrug and then turn to continue his way back to his own house. Matt was left to watch there stupidly, without able to do a thing with the blocked door.
“Wait!” His yell was ignored and a cold and hot blood boiled once again. He was getting a heart attack because of that little shit and not because of his lifestyle. He slammed the small window shut and ran a hand through his hair. It felt greasy and he definitely needed a shower. But first he needed to get those blanks out of the way. There was no way no one had seen what that guy had done. Or they just didn’t care which was unbelievable because he hadn’t known he was hated in his neighbourhood. Life sucked. Hard.
Backdoor.
He took long steps to the last door that was his hope. He tried to push it but something was in the way. No fucking way! He sank down into a fetal position and growled. Growled so hard he bet even that cursed Hunter family heard him. They were all cursed because of that one guy. It was their fault anyway there was any Andrew Hunter. Even the sister’s. Maybe she’d encouraged her parents to get her a little brother.
He ignored the fact the sister was actually younger than Andrew.
Did he seriously have to climb out of the window? Seriously? Seriously? A sob escaped his throat. Whatever. He swallowed his pride and opened the Livingroom window. He tried to wiggle his way past a TV and couple of half dead plants and once he was on the sill he lost his balance and rolled to the ground without grace.
He cursed under breath, cursed everything else too and brushed himself off. It wasn’t nice to fall to a flowerbed. Especially when you’ve let it go wild and it was filled with burdocks and nettles. He turned slowly around, rubbing his bare arms. He froze.
His backyard neighbours were watching him with differing expressions. The wife was looking mouth hanging open, the husband was snickering without even trying to hide it and the kids were whispering something about weirdos. Matt nodded politely and went to his shed, hoping it wasn’t blocked or he’d have to rip the boards off with bare hands.
~
Okay. So, he wasn’t going to be a childish one. He was already 25 years old man with a steady job, ok income and… yes. And stuff. He didn’t dare to remember that other stuff. Anyway, he hoped that brat was happy now that he got the final word in by locking Matt into his own house so Matt wasn’t going to have a revenge – no matter how sweet it’d be – but he’d ignore the guy altogether. So the next day he’d decided to do something to his life after falling into a wild and stingy flowerbed. He’d dragged the lawn mower out of the shed after work and started to get rid of the over-grown grass despite the heat. If he waited for colder weathers he’d have to wait until the greenery was approaching his rooftop.
He thought he’d get to be all alone but of course that wasn’t the case. When he came around the corner and the yellow house was in sight, he saw something else too. There he was again, leaning against the fence like he owned it. His face was indifferent and no one else was around. Matt steeled himself just in case but walked past the man like he wasn’t even there.
Andrew looked like he was ignoring Matt too. That was just perfect.
It took at least three rounds back and forth the grass next to the fence when Matt finally heard something over the engine.
He didn’t hear what it was, though, so he continued cutting the grass feigning he hadn’t noticed a thing.
Voice started to speak louder and Matt made a movement that made the machine roar louder. He almost snickered. Almost.
Suddenly the mower whined and clanked as something went inside of it. The engine made a sad sound and almost froze. A stone flew out of it. Matt turned to the culprit with murder in his eyes and let the machine go quiet.
“Are you seriously so into fucking up my stuff, huh?”
“Of course not, whatever you mean with that,” the guy responded, smiling in a way that reminded a lot of that one mean bitch at high school. That girl always talked bad about others behind everyone’s backs, she was like a snake and she had had always that smile when she was just being fucking annoying. He had ended up marrying that girl.
“Then leave me alone.” Matt couldn’t believe how bitter his own voice sounded. He had never sounded like that. If he wasn’t so full of it he would’ve been more shocked of what had happened to him. Instead he just put the engine back on and tried to tell his hands to stop shaking.
“I need to talk to you,” Matt heard over the engine. He scowled and sighed.
“Out with it, then.”
“Stop doing that and listen.”
Matt scoffed. “Fuck off by all means. I’m busy.”
There was a silence.
“Look, I’m not stopping my work for you so go on and say it. I’m being generous and listening.” He paused for a heartbeat. “For now.”
Silence lasted so long that Matt thought the guy wouldn’t say anything. But then he heard a steady voice say, “What you did yesterday was unforgivable. You had no right to mess up my room.”
Matt stopped, then continued. He almost laughed. It seemed like Andrew didn’t like being ignored because soon his steady voice wasn’t so under control anymore. “Did you hear me? You messed up my room and you’re…”
Matt let go of the lawn mower and walked up to the fence. He kept his eyes locked with the blue ones, making sure his every emotion was easy to read from them. He shook, his arms were still stinging from the yesterday’s fall, his back was slick with sweat, his mind filled with only one emotion – rage. He could see how the guy flinched back and hardly kept himself rooted to his spot. He saw how Andrew’s eyes widened slightly, moving away from his eyes briefly to Matt’s bare chest, then back to the face. He saw how his Adam’s apple popped as he swallowed nervously. He saw how he licked his lips as his gaze flickered once more down. Matt leaned in, their noses almost touching, and he said with a low, gruff voice,
“You fucking dare to blame me.” He couldn’t keep the shake off of his voice. “When you’re the one who’d messed up everything.”
He saw how Andrew wanted to say something but nothing came out.
“You.”
He leaned out, content with the reaction he got. The man was quiet, unable to say anything. The message had finally gone through and Matt seriously wished it had also done some good. He smirked. Andrew turned his head away with still wide eyes, a look of disbelief in them.
Matt continued to cut his grass in peace.