NOVEL NEXT [3] Water and Oil
Water and Oil
Premise Tags: Opposites Attract, Slice of Life,
Modern, Past Crush, Comedic Undertone.
Content Warnings: N/A.
Autumn is that season where you relax with a hot cup of cider and newspaper outside on your blue folding chair planted on your lawn in the slightly chilly air. It’s not so intolerably hot that you’d rather be inside with the AC, nor is it cold enough to freeze your toes off. The neighborhood kids are off to school so it’s finally quiet and peaceful... or that’s how it should’ve been.
Instead, my peaceful afternoon is rudely interrupted by the eternal nuisance known as my new neighbor with his leaf blower. Imagine looking at the pages and reading “In recent news-” when you’re interrupted by a bellowing “BRRRRRRRRRRR”. “According to the local authorities-BRRRRRRRRRR”. Each second of that infernal racket, I feel my brow furrow an inch, and if someone put a thermometer to me, I’m sure that by now I’d be well over 38 degrees celsius.
Ignore it... Ignore it... but what if you can’t? Within moments I’m ready to give that large, lumbering, bear-like, flannel covered figure a piece of my mind. My new neighbor is what you’d call a nice guy. He’s the type that smiles at people for no reason at all, decks his house in unnecessarily ostentatious decorations for Halloween and probably every other holiday (I can see those clowns staring at me), and he’s probably the type that actually gives children candy instead of the sensible choice of toothbrushes. Basically, he’s my exact opposite and someone I can never get along with. I knew this from the moment I saw a life sized Spongebob plushie coming out of his moving van, although I’ve never actually met the man myself in the month or so that we’ve been neighbors. Anyway, if he’s Spongebob then I’m Gary, if he is a dog then I’m a cat, if he is water then I am oil. Regardless... We. Do. Not. Mix.
Therefore, I’m going to tell him off right now and we’ll never talk again. I stomp over to him, stopping right in front of the metal fence separating our two houses. I place my hands on my hips and muster the fiercest scowl I can manage (which isn’t difficult, I’m already 90% of the way there).
“Excuse me.” The guy continues obliviously blowing leaves and... bobbing his head? Hold up, are those air pods I see? So he gets to plug his ears while the rest of us suffer?!
“Excuse me!” He still doesn’t hear me and now I’m practically hopping mad. No matter how many times I call, he’s just standing there like a big, deaf oaf. I feel my lips twitching, and finally, I’ve had enough. I place both hands on the railing of the fence and haul myself up. Then I roar at the top of my lungs “TURN AROUND YOU BIG JERK!”
Finally, something registers and the guy turns around. I get a look at his face and freeze, forgetting for a moment that I’m balancing on a metal fence. The next moment I’m on the ground, my face making intimate contact with the insect infested grass. But my mind is galaxies away: Alex Stuman, how could it be Alex Stuman?
Alex Stuman was... the golden boy of our class. I don’t know how else to say it. He was friendly, smart, athletic, popular enough to be class president every year he ran as well as valedictorian. On top of that he was hot... and ripped (believe me, I didn’t even play sports and I’d be in the locker room the days he had practice. What? You wouldn’t be able to resist either in my situation). He was so well known and so well liked that even a scrooge like me knew of and had a teeny, tiny crush on him. Just a teeny, tiny one though-
“Hey, you okay?” Hearing that familiar husky voice I feel my heart burst into a flurry of butterflies and my face grows hot, despite being pressed against the cool, wet grass. Stop it...I internally reprimand as I scramble up to my feet. But I can do nothing to stop my heart palpitations from speeding up faster and faster as I take in that familiar well sculpted, dark haired visage. His face is sharper, less baby fat and there’s a hint of stubble on his chin. He’s darker, likely tanned from this past summer. I feel my face heat up as I imagine how tan the rest of him must be and I just barely manage to keep my gaze from wandering lower than it should be.
“Hey, you’re Kai aren’t you?! From highschool?” I jump, hearing his enthusiastic voice. I find his eyes fixed on my face. Uhhh... how did he recognize me? I was the epitome of a shy, unknown nerd. Then my mind goes to another urgent matter. I look awful, don’t I? I have grass all over my face, not to mention I just fell on my face like an idiot-
“Hey, so you’re my neighbor? That’s awesome, what a coincidence! We ought to get together for drinks sometime.” I process his words and my heart breaks into another round of butterflies. Seriously, it’s been so many years and I’ve been in relationships by this point, why am I still…?
“So, what do you say?” I look up at him: earnest, friendly to the point where he recognizes and expresses the desire to reconnect with a random classmate he hardly spoke two words to, hot-too hot for my own good, probably straight, and maybe even taken. I could reject him; I’m generally not the type of person who can’t say no, I always say what’s on my mind. Furthermore, knowing myself, I can’t just settle for friendship, not with someone like him. So, logically it’d make sense to say no, that way I’m not hurt and he doesn’t end up signing up for more than he bargained for. I open my mouth.
“Sure.”
Instantly his face lights up and I feel another onset of flutters. Water and oil do not mix. But it’s another story if it’s Alex Stuman. Welp, there goes my peaceful autumn a voice complains in my head. But another part of me, the larger part, is excited, because autumn is just one step closer to spring.
🍁
Author's Account:
CynicalStrawberry (SH).
