Was rest too much to bloody ask for?

Lily covered her face with a pillow, but it did absolutely nothing to block out the blaring alarm coming from her neighbor's house. If they're going to set a loud as hell alarm at five in the goddamn morning, couldn't they at least wake up?

The alarm continued to sound and Lily finally decided that enough was enough. That stupid alarm has woke her up every morning since that inconsiderate twat moved in to the apartment next door; over a month ago.

Lily hadn't wanted to pick a fight with her neighbor and had kept her mouth shut, but enough was enough. It ends here.

Lily resolutely shoved her feet into her highly embarrassing bunny slippers, tied up her dark red hair, and trekked to apartment 36 in her pajamas.

"Stupid idiot waking me up four bloody hours before my classes even start..." Lily must've looked absolutely mad, dragging her feet to the apartment next to hers and mumbling things under her breath.

Lily pounded her fist against the door. "Whoever this twit is they'd better hear me over that bloody alarm." She mumbled sleepily.

The door opened slowly, the owner of apartment 36 not even bothering to check to see who was at the door. It was a man in his early twenties, standing in loose-fitting pajama pants and a white undershirt. His hair was a mess and his glasses looked as though they were about to slip off of his nose. Even in her half-dazed state Lily was still able to fully appreciate how fit he was.

"Who're you?"

"I'm Lily. I live in apartment 37." She said slowly, still staring at this boy.

"I'm J-James." He yawned.

Then she snapped out of her daze because that bloody alarm was still bloody ringing. "Well, your alarm rings every morning at 5 and you never wake up and I swear I'm going mad and it's still ringing and I'm almost sure the entire building hates you by now." Lily was aware that she was speaking very quickly, but she was rather angry and yet she did not want to make a fool of herself in front of this perfect stranger.

"Tea?"

"What?"

"Well if it's not your cup of tea..." He took a moment to appreciate his own joke. "I have coffee." And before she could answer he ushered her in and closed the door behind her. "Sit, please." James pointed towards a table. He walked towards a room off to the side and then the apartment was quiet. The alarm was off. Finally.

"Better?" He asked moving towards a kettle on the stove. "Tea or coffee?"

"Neither." Lily said quickly, not exactly sure what to do at this point. "I hate both." He shrugged and sat down across from her as the water boiled. "Why do you have an alarm for five anyway?" Lily asked pressing her hands against the wood of the table.

He shrugged. "I go to my mum's."

"At five in the morning?"

"Well, yes. She lives in Cambridge and it takes over an hour to get there by train." James looked away. "I have to be there by seven." The kettle began to whistle and James pushed his chair out and walked to the stove to stop the sound that was nearly as annoying as his alarm clock. "Sorry if my alarm has bothered you."

"Oh...I...um..." Lily had not been expecting to meet someone this apologetic. She had prepared for some smarmy ass who would make her yell until she was blue in the face. "But why do you have to get there so early?"

He paused. "Well, someone's got to take care of her and seeing as I'm an only child it's me." She heard the clinking of mugs being removed from a cabinet and water splashing inside aforementioned mugs. "She has Alzheimer's." He elaborated, putting his mug on the table.

"That must be terrible."

James nodded vaguely. "You could say that." He tapped his fingers against the wood of the table.

"Well...James..." Lily started. "If you need to be there by seven then you need to start actually waking up."

"My alarm isn't loud enough."

"And I am?"

"Yes."

"Really?" Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Definitely." James grinned. "You might as well be my personal alarm clock."