S U E R T E

it's Rydell

Rydell

September.
Start of the school year. Cool air blowing away the remnants of summer. Leaves falling in golden-brown accents round campus.

It's Rydell.

Rydell Rozlan.

Rye for short.

It's my senior year at college. Finally. I
can't wait to be done and get a job.

School isn't something I'm keen on,
but hey, gotta make the parents
happy. Enter class, off goes the
hoodie. Mr. Bailey enters the class.

Heavy footsteps echo the hallways.

I look up as a girl just makes it into
the class as the bell rings.

"Ah, I see you just made it. If you came
a second later I would've kicked you
out.", Mr. Bailey remarks.

"Won't happen again, I promise", Girl
Next Door squeaks out.

She drags her feet to the nearest table and sits down. Mr. Bailey starts lecturing,time rolls by slowly. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen her around here before. In my classes anyway. I shrug it off. Whatever.

Rain pours heavily as I step outside after class is done for the day. I hop from one foot to the other sideways to avoid water puddles. Can't afford it in my cheap battered Vans. Not Nikes. Arrive in my apartment twenty minutes later. Open the curtains to a nice skyline. Perks of off-campus housing. Hop onto the couch. Pull out my PC and login to SoundCloud. I've been listening to this artist C.V.B. for a while now, and they're good. Seemingly in most genres. I play their latest song and relax for a bit, mumbling the lyrics along (bad singer here).

I stand up to grab some soda when the TV remote falls on the spacebar, pausing the song. Except it didn't. I stood still, shocked, as the song was audible, but not from the laptop, but from the wall. I quickly walk over and put an ear to the wall: yep, wasn't my imagination.

Out of curiosity, I went to the next
apartment door and knocked. The
song stopped. The door opens...and it's
Girl Next Door. Literally. She has her
headphones round her neck, with her
studio microphone in the background. Electric blue eyes look at me quizzically.

"Sorry to interrupt, but are you C.V.B.?" I ask, curious.

"Dang,got spotted. I was tryna be low-key. Erin, nice to meet you",
she says,stretching out her hand.

"Rydell or Rye if you want", I reply.

"You're really good at singing, not gonna lie."

"Thanks, appreciate it."

Just then, her mood changes. She looks beyond me, like someone's there.

Before I can ask, she yells, "Get down!!" and pulls me down as the entrance door  flies off and whooshes where my head would've been and it hits the opposite wall before falling to the floor.

"Shit, almost got us", she says standing up quickly, determination etched into her face.

She's like a completely different person, not the socially awkward girl of this morning.

"There's hell to pay!!", she yells sprinting outside.

Damn. Didn't see that coming.