Cardboard Cities

Ogram

He was staring again.
He acted like I couldn't see him. He wasn't even discreet. I'd been telling myself it was just a phase for months now, but I was starting to doubt that. Maybe he was looking at my walls? I glanced at my 10 Minutes Of Autumn and 6 Ways To Go posters and sighed, maybe not.
We'd been next door neighbours for as long as I could remember, and he'd been staring for about half that time. Some days I considered walking around naked, really giving him something to stare at.  Again, maybe not.
A lot of the time I wondered why I had been picked as the unfortunate person he had to develop a crush on, I mean my hair is always greasy, my spots are forever on show and the glasses I wear make me look like Harry Potters fucked up sister.
He was as bad though, always looked like he needed a haircut and wore clothes that my 7 year old brother could pull off better! It was incredibly obvious we were more like siblings, yet he continued to have this false hope that we did.
I left my desk and wandered over to my bed where my phone was charging and unlocked it. 367 group chat messages. I started scrolling, most of them were discussions about the weirdos at school. Not the most fascinating conversation, but I was so bored anything would do. TV! The idea came to me in a vision. I turned it on to see Soft In Soul on, my favourite show. I settled down and watched so many episodes I lost count.
The next thing I knew my phone was bleeping in my ear with a text from P.
"Hey, how's it going? ;)x"
I groaned. Really? I got up and crossed my carpet to my window and glared at him. Had he really sat there the entire time? I stuck my middle finger up at him and decided to get on with homework.
I sat there, head bent down, trying to focus for nearly half an hour but I couldn't concentrate, knowing he was watching me, so I closed my blinds. I could still feel him watching me so I picked up my phone and texted back.
"Haven't you anything better to do?"
I got a reply almost instantly.
"Oh I am busy. I just thought I'd say hi.."
I rolled my eyes and took all of my things into a corner where I sat and worked for the next hour. When I finally gave up, I threw all of my things back on my desk and stared. He was watching. I hated the fact that he just kept staring even though he knew I could see him, pretending it was normal. How did he not realise it was creepy? How didn't his parents notice?!
I turned to look at my clock, it was nearly 11. I closed my blinds and pulled on my pajamas. I grabbed my phone and sent P another text.
"You can go to sleep now, please."
Another instant reply.
"Goodnight, sweet dreams :)x"
Does this guy ever stop trying?
He honestly felt like my brother, it's weird, constantly having him watch me and try to flirt every now and then. My mind wandered a little to our childhood, memories flooding back. How could it end like this? Ugh. I flicked back through our previous conversation...
"Wanna come round?"
"Busy. Homework."
"Need help with the maths?
"Bearing in mind I'm an A* student, NO."
I chuckled at all his attempts to be around me but then I felt bad, maybe I should be a bit nicer? Let him know we're friends. I had an idea. It was perfect.