Chapter Text
“Tom!! Wake up!! The neighbors move in today!!” His mother yelled from the hallway.
Tom rolled out of bed, sighing deeply. The bags under his eyes looked like he had not slept in a thousand years, though one could argue it was the contrary.
Why do I even have to get up for this? What does this have to do with me? He grumbled as he grabbed his grey hoodie from the messy floors and put it on. A bunch of clothes were scattered around the ground from him cleaning his closet last night. See, Tom did not hate new neighbors. He just found them irrelevant. The boy would rather spend time browsing forums in his room than outside socializing. He was your average teenager. With his average height, his constant anxiety, his failing grades. Sometimes his parents thought he underperformed on purpose.
Tom cracked open a window next to his bed. The lack of circulation in his room made him feel suffocated. As he opened the window, he noticed the large white moving truck parked right next door. In fact, the house next to his was so close it could have been conjoined with his. But it was way too early in the morning for Tom to give a crap about it. Instead, he grabbed his grey hoodie. It was wreaked of sweat, dried-up deodorant, and sweet cola. But Tom couldn't care any less about putting it in the wash. He snatched his Skullcandy earbuds from his bedside table, grabbing his MP3 player. Then he connected the earbuds to the MP3 player and blasted some random Reel Big Fish song. The bass was blaring through his crappy earbuds.
As he mumbled the lyrics to one of the songs, he could hear someone else singing along with him.
“The fuck? Was that you?” Tom exclaimed, turning to face his windowsill where he was met with a gray tabby cat. He just stared at it for a few seconds. Tom did not own a cat.
Then suddenly, a loud and hoarse laugh filled his room. He looked away from the cat and noticed another guy openly laughing at him. He had greasy light brown hair with two horns reminiscent of The Devil. He also wore a white button-up covered by a red sweatshirt with white stains on it. Tom’s lack of eyes met with the random dude’s grey and red eyes. It was an ugly set of colors to look at. The guy was still mockingly laughing at Tom. “Holy crap you’re stupid,” The guy exclaimed as he wiped a tear from his eye. His Norwegian accent grated Tom’s ears.
Tom looked at the guy unamused, “Huh?”
“Cats can’t talk you fucking idiot. I was the one singing!”
“Never sing again, you sound like shit.”
“You too, pussyboy.”
“Pussyboy?” Tom was slightly offended. I mean who the hell did this guy think he was? But at the same time, it was such a low blow for Tom to get riled up.
“The name’s Tord. Your new neighbor, friend, possible love interest, comrade, pal,” Tord held out his hand for Tom to shake it. Tom reluctantly shook Tord’s hand. It was sweaty and sticky to the touch.
Tom immediately took his hand away and rubbed it on his hoodie. “I’m Tom. I hate being with people so don’t expect me to be your boyfriend or something.”
Tord frowned at him mockingly, “Damn, I was hoping we could, like, have gay sex together.”
“I would rather be stuck in school forever than ever take it up the ass,” Tom quipped back.
Tord was quiet before he started snickering again, “You probably will. I mean, you were stupid enough to think a cat could sing. You’ll probably be a super senior.”
“Can you shut up? I didn’t even know you existed until now!” Tom quipped.
The two stared at each other until they could hear a woman call Tord down for dinner.
Tord got up from the windowsill, “I gotta eat. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Don’t you got other people to bother?”
“Nah, I got no friends”
“Imagine…”
“Until then, pussyboy”
“Until then.”