DEEP

3. The Right Place

"You're new here, right?" she asks me, "Stone was just telling me you're neighbors!"

Still smiling, I nod. Her handshake is firm, tight enough to convey to me a certain territoriality. How could I even imagine a guy like Eddie not having a girlfriend?

"Cool! We often go to his place, so" she continues, clutching at Eddie's arm as her smile grows even bigger "we'll be seein' a lot of each other, I expect!"

"I'm looking forward to it!" I answer, smiling politely.

I've never been too good at camouflaging my sarcasm, which my interlocutors never failed to point out, but this time it seems to go unnoticed.

"Well, it's lucky you ended up living next door. You two seem like a good fit!" she says then, all of a sudden, almost making Stone choke on his beer.

"Er, wait," I say, without succeeding to hide a certain embarrassment "me and Stone are not dating. Plus we only met what, three hours ago?"

Beth looks at me with a smirk in a complete silence, scrutinizing my face with skepticism.

"Stone, you tell her.", I say in an awkward, shrill voice.

He first looks at me and then at her, answering without too much urgency to straighten things out.

"She's right. We're not dating."

"That's too bad" she adds then, in a mischievous and annoyingly chanting tone "I'd have bet on you guys. You two look good together."
She puts a cigarette in her mouth and lights it, then looks back at Eddie.
"Ed, our friends are about to start playing. Let's go see them?"

He gently smiles back at her.

"Sure. Alright, maybe I'll catch you later. Have a nice time guys!"

I say goodbye with a slight gesture of the hand and as I watch them walk away I can finally put this stupid smile back in my pocket, showing my light distress freely. I can't deny I'm a little disappointed.

"You ok?"

It's Stone's voice that brings me back out of my thoughts. I turn to him and smile again, this time a bit wearily.

"Yeah, sure. I'm just a bit tired, tomorrow will be my first day of work, and I'll have to wake up early, so..."

"Would you rather just go on home?"

"If you don't mind."

"Yeah, yeah that's ok. No problem. Let me just...Jeff! Hey Jeff!"

A guy with a weird colored hat just turns to us, walking between people to reach Stone with a nice relaxed smile and a skateboard under his arm.

"Stone! I was looking for you, dude."

"I was talking to Ed and Beth, did you meet them?"

"No, not yet," he says then, looking at me "Hi, I'm Jeff."

I shake his hand and smile back, looking at his round earrings barely swaying on the earlobes.

"Sarah. Stone's new next-door neighbor."

"Oh, I'm so sorry for that!" Jeff adds then in a laugh "Just kidding, he's a nice guy. Sometimes we go to his flat to listen to some tapes and have a beer, you know."

"I think we'll meet sometime, then. I just met Eddie and his girlfriend, they told me that they often go at Stone's too."

"Yeah, just like they don't have a roof over their heads." Stone says with his usual sarcastic tone.

"Don't listen to him. Great music listening sessions there. Beth also plays, the bass like me. Do you play any instrument?"

Here it is, that feeling of being the puzzle piece that cannot fit in with others. Why does every person I've known since I came to this town know how to play an instrument?