Chapter Text
Dead, crinkled leaves leapt along the asphalt, seemingly on a mission.
Their journey, helped along by the bitter autumn wind, led Craig Tucker's gaze from the edge of his driveway across the vacant street. His eyes followed them intently until they stopped short at a pair of dark brown work boots with untied laces. His stare moved upwards from the boots to find thin legs beneath threadbare grey jeans. There were small holes forming in the knees revealing patches of pale skin, and he could tell that the rips were organic and not a fashion statement.
The jeans, however, were quickly overshadowed by the frayed hem of an oversized olive green sweater. A white button-down was obscured by the mass of knit fabric, and Craig only knew it existed once he saw the crooked collar peeking out over the top. Beyond that was a face that he couldn't quite make out the features of, but it was topped with a mop of wild blond hair that looked soft to the touch.
As another strong gust of wind blew past, his laser focus seemed to short circuit. He scanned the driveway for the leaves that had initially grabbed his attention, but all he found were dozens of cardboard boxes haphazardly strewn about.
Must be the new neighbors , he thought to himself.
Craig shrugged his shoulders and hopped into his car, feeling the immediate relief once the door was shut and the wind could no longer reach him. One would think that he'd be used to the cold weather in Colorado having lived there his whole life, but he'd always preferred the warmer summer months.
He started the car and immediately blasted the heat out of desperation despite the cold air blowing through the vents. While he waited for it to warm up, he fiddled with his phone for a bit until he finally got the auxiliary cord to connect. The cord itself was on its last leg, and Craig had to set his phone in just the right position for it to work. It was a more-than-annoying ritual he went through every time he needed to drive somewhere, but it was necessary nonetheless.
As he scrolled through the music on his phone, he couldn't quite find something he was dying to listen to. With a flick of his wrist, he exited the music app and tapped on his favorite space podcast instead. With the soothing male voice describing nebulas and galaxies dripping through his speakers, he finally felt satisfied. His friends made fun of him for preferring podcasts over music sometimes, but that never really bothered him.
He liked what he liked and that was that.
As he pulled out of the driveway and into the street, he briefly got a closer look at the person belonging to the oversized sweater. There was a flash of green eyes, dark circles, and a few freckles dotted along the nose. They gave a halfhearted, confused wave and for a brief moment, Craig wondered who the neighbor was. But the moment quickly passed and instead of waving back, he sped off in the direction of his best friend Clyde's house for the last time before their senior year began.
"So," Token started as he settled comfortably on the sofa between Clyde and Craig, "your new neighbors finally moved in? That's awesome!"
"I guess." Craig replied in a monotone voice, as per usual.
Clyde reached into the bowl of chips resting dangerously close to the edge of the coffee table before them. "Aren't you curious about them?" he asked, popping a few into his mouth. "You said the guy you saw looked about our age. Maybe he's cool!"
Craig shrugged. "Maybe he sucks."
"Yeah, but how would you know if you don't talk to him? He could be nice!" Token added, the genuine pep in his voice almost enough to make Craig reconsider how much he cared. Almost.
"Yeah, dude," Clyde said between munches, "you're overthinking this way too much."
Craig stopped scrolling through the endless sea of Netflix shows and turned to Clyde with an incredulous look. "I'm not thinking about it at all !"
A tense, awkward silence settled between the three of them for a moment. And then they burst out laughing.
They spent the next few hours watching a random assortment of movies and mindlessly snacking. When the credits of the final movie rolled, Craig pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the time. As the screen lit up his face, he winced at the sudden onslaught of light in the otherwise dark living room. It was just a few minutes before ten, and his father had enacted a strict 10:30 PM curfew on school nights. He really didn't want to go home yet, but since tomorrow was the first day of class, he supposed it was time to leave the sanctity and comfort of Clyde’s couch.
"I have to head home now. I'll see you guys at school tomorrow?" he asked as he started heading towards the door, not really waiting for an answer.
“Yeah, goodnight, dude!” Clyde shouted behind him.
“Drive safe!” Token managed to add, just a mere second before Craig closed the door and ventured into the night.
Once Craig pulled back into his driveway, he immediately parked and shut off his car. The remaining heat quickly faded and the frigid air began to wrap around his long fingers as he gingerly pulled the aux cord out of his phone. Grabbing the rest of his things, he got out of the car and ambled up the walkway towards his front door. His hand hovered over the silver door knob, but didn’t quite make contact. For some reason, he felt compelled to turn around and look at the house across the street.
The boxes in the driveway were now gone, likely stacked high in various rooms of the house waiting to be unpacked. His gaze trailed across the front of the house, searching for any signs of life, and he noticed that every room was dark save for just one upstairs. He could see the soft flickering glow of a television through the uncovered window. The hues shifted from white to blue to black in an arrhythmic fashion, and he couldn’t help but stare at it for a little while. He was so mesmerized that he almost didn’t notice when a shadow momentarily obscured the light in the window. It was gone in a flash, but he could tell by the shape of the hair that the shadow had belonged to the guy he’d seen—and subsequently ignored—earlier.
Craig contemplated this a moment longer before shrugging his shoulders and letting himself into his house.
Nope, still don’t care.