Chapter 2: Context Is King
'
Kylo had vaguely noticed he had a new neighbour. It was annoying, the flat next to him had been empty for months and he had liked not having to deal with a next door neighbour.
He was less annoyed when he first saw her though, she was pretty, even with her chestnut hair simply pulled back and dressed in dirty, scruffy clothes, and he wondered what she looked like when she made an effort.
He was even more intrigued when he saw her drive away one day on a motorbike. It wasn't a moped or anything he would expect a girl to own, it was a Ducati Monster, an older model but still impressive.
'
Then, she banged on his door one night. Kylo hated answering the door, hated being interrupted, unless it was a friend or someone delivering food. When he opened it, he found his new neighbour, glaring up at him as she politely asked him to turn his music down.
Before his brain could tell him it was a stupid thing to do, he smirked, said "No," and shut the door in her face. As soon as he'd done it, he regretted it. He was so fucking useless when it came to talking to women, and somehow he always seemed to regress to a thirteen year old.
Shit.
'
Kylo had resolutely forgotten about the incident, when some days later he was woken by the noise of a vacuum cleaner.
He was not a morning person, at all, and was about as happy as a badger in a sack as he pulled on yesterday's clothes and went round to bang on his neighbours door. She seemed surprised to see him when she opened it.
"What kind of person vacuums at 8am? Can't you do that later?" He asked her angrily.
"No," she said, and shut the door in his face.
He breathed carefully as he went back to his place, he supposed he had deserved that, after doing the same thing to her, but still. She looked like she ought to be the sort of person that took the moral high ground, that made overtures of friendship rather than… well, that.
'
The petty, sulky thirteen year old inside him, that she seemed somehow to always drag to the fore, decided to shove all his junk mail through her letter box. Part of him knew this was ridiculous, and another part rather hoped that she would come and tell him off again. To his disappointment, she didn't seem to even notice, and he eventually got bored and gave up.
'
The next time he saw her properly, was in the early evening, he was tired, had had a shitty day with his parents and wanted to get home so he could sit down and have a beer in peace.
As he crossed the lobby, he heard someone enter behind him and call to him to hold to lift. He sped up so he could get in the lift on his own, not wanting to share the small space with anyone else right now.
As he turned and pushed the button for his floor, he realised it had been his new pretty neighbour and he tried giving her an apologetic smile as the doors closed.
It must have come out wrong, though, because her expression became furious. But it was too late to stop the doors and he was too socially awkward to go back down and apologise.
'
Then he noticed one of his car tyres was a bit flat and he took it to a petrol station to pump it up. The next day it was down again, so he went back and pumped it up… after several days of this he suspected foul play.
Zainmar hadn't been over and she was a mechanic or something similar, so she knew all about cars…
After banging on her door, (perhaps a little too aggressively), she answered.
"What the fuck did you do to my car?" he asked immediately, then inwardly winced, he hadn't meant to say it quite like that.
She gave him a look like butter wouldn't melt and asked calmly, "Do? Why, is there something wrong with it?"
He could see she was trying not to laugh, her bright hazel eyes gave her away. She looked stupidly cute, still in her work clothes with a smudge of dirt on her lightly freckled cheek.
Kylo growled in frustration, trying to get his brain to focus, "You've done something, the fucking tyre keeps going down, I know it was you, and you better fix it. Now." God, he needed to stop swearing at her.
"I don't know what you are talking about. If you think something is wrong with it, you should take it to a garage."
He couldn't stop himself glaring at that, "You're a mechanic, so you can look at it." Why didn't he phrase it as a request? What the hell was wrong with him?
She tilted her head, looking alarmingly like his mother as she told him tartly, "I can, but I won't. I only do favours for friends or people who ask me nicely."
He was furiously trying to think of a response that would defuse the situation but she shut the door in his face.
'
Kylo started smoking again. He was sleeping badly and work was especially stressful, and the girl next door was slowly driving him crazy... Why wasn't he able to just fucking talk to her?
'
Zainmar and Leonmar came over on Saturday to cheer him up. They had some beers, played some games and he and Leonmar had gone out onto the balcony to smoke.
That was when Kylo noticed his neighbour lying on her stomach on her balcony, wearing a very small black bikini. And holy shit did she look good.
Leonmar noticed the direction of his gaze and turned to look too, letting out a long low whistle, "That the girl who's been driving you up the wall? I can see why."
Kylo just nodded, finding it hard to look away, she had headphones in and seemed oblivious to their presence.
Zainmar joined them and grinned, "Hey, I have water balloons in my bag. We should totally throw one at her!"
Leonmar shook his head, "Bad idea. You'll just piss her off… and why the hell are you carrying water balloons, Zain?"
Zainmar shrugged, "I used to be in the scouts," he threw them a salute, "Be prepared! And anyway, you totally should get her back for the car thing."
"I'm not sure," Kylo said doubtfully.
"It would get her to talk to you," Zainmar pushed.
The beer (and Kylo's inability to talk to a girl normally) won, Leonmar shook his head and stayed inside as Kylo and Zainmar filled a balloon and took it back out with them.
Just as he was about to throw, Kylo hesitated, his common sense getting the better of him, but Zainmar grabbed it off him and threw it anyway.
It was a direct hit. Oh shit. Kylo was already fighting back a nervous laugh as she squealed and sprang to her feet, expression incredulous.
"Oh! Sorry, we were having a water fight and got carried away," Kylo blurted, as Zainmar grinned beside him. She looked amazing from the front, toned and utterly stunning, and he felt his lips pull up in a grin despite himself.
"Then maybe you should play downstairs with the other children," came her icey reply as she gathered her things and disappeared into her flat.
"Not much of a sense of humour," Zainmar observed, "But when you are that fine, I guess it doesn't matter much."
Leonmar poked his head out of the door, "I told you it was a bad idea Kylo, you should never take advice from Zainmar, about anything."
Zainmar made an indignant sound and threw an extra water balloon he had made, Leonmar ducked just in time. Kylo wondered if he had just made a terrible mistake.
He pushed the feeling down and tried to ignore the tantalising smell of something chocolaty baking that drifted out of her open back door, he wondered if she were doing that on purpose.
He, Leonmar and Zainmar were later joined by Ingalan and Javiell and they hung out all evening.
Every time he went outside to smoke he couldn't help a little flare of jealousy as he listened to her spend her evening with the annoying gay guys on the other side of her.
'
It was about midnight when there was a banging on his front door, which immediately set Zainmar off laughing.
"What?" Kylo asked him suspiciously.
"That's probably your hot neighbour, I put olive oil on her door handle. You're welcome."
Kylo groaned but couldn't help smirking at the same time as he went to answer the door.
As soon as he opened it, she was on the offensive, "You!" she almost yelled as she wiped her oily hands on his t-shirt, "You are a massive land based tool!"
That little point of contact set his heart racing, and he couldn't help grinning down at her, "Are you drunk?"
She poked him hard in the chest as she said defiantly, "Maybe. That is not the point! You either clean my door, or I am sleeping on your sofa!"
He stayed as cool as he could and pulled the door fully open as he pressed himself against it, her confused frown was utterly adorable, "Come in then."
She blinked at him, puzzlement replacing her righteous indignation, "What?" There was a little slur to her voice he noticed.
He shrugged, "You said you were going to sleep on my sofa."
"I didn't mean..!" she paused and cocked her head then said, "Fine," and walked past him.
Kylo blinked and grinned to himself as he shut the door before following her.
But when he entered the living room, he saw to his alarm that she was out on the balcony, moving a chair to the partition, "Shit!"
He ran out there and grabbed hold of her before she could plummet over the side, five stories down. She wriggled as he pulled her off the chair and back onto the floor of the balcony. "Do you have a fucking death wish?" he asked as his heart beat in his throat while he held onto her.
She made an exasperated noise, "I was fine, let me go! Look - my window is open."
Kylo could see that it wasn't. He snorted, "You are drunk, there is no way I am letting you climb over that!"
She turned in his grasp till she was facing him, the furious glare she levelled at him somehow sexy.
She poked him in the chest again, "Take your hands off me, you giant shit biscuit!" The command lost its gravity with the slur to the words and the ridiculous insult.
Kylo smiled down at her, then winced as her small (but hard) fist connected with his stomach and her booted foot came down on his instep.
He let go of her in surprise as he grunted and somehow she was out of his reach and over the partition before he could catch her again. He heard delighted laughter coming from his living room as he watched her fumble about her balcony.
"Jesus, woman, you are crazy!"
Without missing a beat she shot back "And you're a muscle bound cretin!"
Then she managed to open her door and practically fell through it. He paused, just in case she had hurt herself but the door shut behind her and he didn't hear any noise to indicate she had taken any harm.
'
Kylo and the other's woke up late with hangovers, not bad ones, but the sort when you just can't be arsed to do anything, or move much.
He did, however manage to shove a load of washing in the machine and hang it out on the balcony, after that he decided his Sunday productivity quota was met.
They were just all trying to decide what to eat for a late lunch when his doorbell buzzed. Like some kind of godsend or fairy godmother, it was a pizza delivery guy.
When he answered the door the man presented him with two pizzas, coke, wings and a tub of ice cream. Kylo happily paid and they all dug in, not bothering to question where it came from at that point. They had to sub in some dips and chips and some other things as there were five of them, but they were all super happy about it.
"So who was this then? Did one of you just order?" Leonmar asked.
Everyone shook their heads. Kylo frowned, "Who then?"
"Could it be the girl next door?" Javiell asked, "Maybe to apologise for shouting at you?"
Ingalan snorted, "If it was her, she wasn't saying thank you, don't forget she only shouted at Kylo because Zain covered her doorknob in cooking oil."
Zainmar rolled his eyes, "If she thought that would annoy him, she doesn't understand how men work. Surprise pizza is always a win, if you ask me."
"You should go round and say thank you," Ingalan said, "It may make her warm up to you or at least own up to it."
Kylo chewed his lip, then nodded and before he could lose his nerve he went round and knocked on her door. But there was no answer and the windows were closed, after peering down at the car park, he could see her motorbike wasn't there.
"She wasn't in," he told the others as he walked back into the living room.
"So go back later or write a note and put it through her door," Leonmar said.
"If you write a note, the ball is in her court and it doesn't make you look pushy," Ingalan added.
Kylo shrugged and found some paper, writing should be easier than just knocking on her door, right? … "What should I say?" he asked, after staring at the paper for several minutes.
Ingalan rolled his eyes, "Just say thank you, do it, don't think about it!"
After a little more deliberating Kylo carefully wrote,
Thanks for the pizza, it was just what we needed!
Then quickly went to her door and shoved it through her letter box before he could change his mind. He didn't see her for the rest of the day.
'
After the others had gone home in the later afternoon, Kylo was confused to find that every piece of his washing had small marks of discolouration. At first, he had thought it was bird crap, but on closer inspection, it was as if everything had somehow got marked with spots of bleach.
It was really weird. He went on Amazon to order some black washing machine dye, hopefully that would sort it all out, but maybe he wouldn't put washing out on the balcony for a while.
'
The next day some cretin buzzed his doorbell at 7.30am, he'd had a vague idea that it was the dye from Amazon, so he had got up to answer it, but no one was there. He went back to bed, but was too irritated to get back to sleep.
'
He then had a shitty day, and somehow his car had started smelling strongly of fish, though he couldn't figure out why… but he really didn't feel like taking it to a garage, he was fairly certain he would just get laughed at, a lot.
The guys came round for dinner again - the rest of them still lived at home, so his flat tended to be where they mostly hung out. Kylo liked it that way, he'd always got on better with his friends than his family, they were more like brothers than friends.
When they arrived he took them down to see if it was just him that could smell the fish, (because he was slightly concerned he was going mad).
But he wasn't, and after a few minutes of puzzlement and then arguing, Javiell popped the bonnet and poked around, then produced a rotting piece of fish. "There's your culprit," he said as he waved it at Zainmar who almost squealed in distaste, much to everyone else's amusement.
Kylo frowned, "But how did it get in there?"
Ingalan clapped him on the shoulder, "I think you'll find that was your girl next door… pretty ingenious though, you must admit."
Kylo felt a wave of irritation and confusion, "But why?"
Javiell threw the fish away, "Probably in return for the oiled doorknob?"
Zainmar shook his head, "No, that was what the pizza was for, surely?"
Leonmar lit a cigarette and Kylo joined him, "Well, I guess she did both, then?"
"Well that's not fair, "Zainmar insisted.
"You're an idiot, Zain," Ingalan told the other guy fondly.
Kylo rubbed his eyes, his frustration with not being able to talk to his neighbour was really getting to him, "You guys want to go to the gym before dinner?"
'
Halfway through their session, Zainmar admitted to shoving a rubber snake through next doors letter box. Kylo dropped his face into his hands and groaned.
'
They picked up Thai on their way back to Kylo's and settled down to game, it was a Monday night but no one seemed inclined to leave, which was fine with Kylo as he went to bed late anyway.
'
They were disturbed by banging just after 1am, Kylo paused the game and the all sat still, frowns on their faces as they tried to work out whether that had been on Kylo's door or someone else's.
After a moment, Kylo got up and walked to his door, he couldn't see anyone waiting outside it, and was just walking back to the living room when he heard more banging, and he was sure it was coming from next door…
He didn't know why, but he felt worried and decided to check to make sure his neighbour was okay - she could just be drunk again, but it wouldn't take long to confirm.
"I'm just going to check that out," he called behind him as he went back to the front door, Zainmar followed, (probably hoping she had freaked out over the snake).
As Kylo opened the front door, he could hear a deep male voice coming from his neighbours.
Kylo thought he could hear sounds of movement, then came a small, frightened whimper, and his alarm intensified, "Zain? Go get the others and call the police," he said softly, then he walked carefully along to her front door, it was open.
"Shh, just relax and enjoy it," a husky male voice said and Kylo's blood ran cold.
There was a man in the doorway, holding his neighbour by the throat while his other hand…
"Get your hands off her now," Kylo said, allowing himself to let the violence he always kept hidden inside to leak into his voice.
The man turned to look at Kylo, giving him what he probably thought was a bloke-to-bloke-friendly-yet-warning-you-off-my-bird sort of smile as he said, "You've got the wrong idea mate, this is my girlfriend, she likes it rough."
Kylo's lip curled in disgust, "I somehow doubt that she'd go for a shit stain like you," he said as he looked the guy up and down, "Now fuck off before the police get here. I called them a few minutes ago."
Rather letting go, the cretin, who was clearly wasted, shook the girl by her throat as if she weighed nothing, "You been sleeping around behind my back, Rey? You're gonna need to be punished."
Rey? Her name was Rey? It suited her, Kylo blinked as Rey made a terrified sound and he realised the man's hand had gone further insude her jeans.
Kylo was moving before he realised what he was doing, and he wrenched the man's hand out of her jeans, punched him in the kidney and pulled the other hand away from her throat whilst pushing the man backwards down the hall.
Kylo caught Rey before she fell and pulled her with him out of the door and into Zainmar's waiting hands.
Just in time, because the guy was back on his feet and really, really, angry, he made a sloppy lunge at Kylo but his punch went wide as Kylo ducked it and came back with his own, connecting with his nose, he added an uppercut and a hard kick to the stomach.
The man fell onto his back and didn't get back up; Ingalan had to pull Kylo away or he would have continued.
"That's enough, Kylo. He's staying down, you need to leave him for the police now, they're on their way."
Kylo nodded curtly as he tried to calm his breathing down, adrenaline buzzing in his veins, "Is she okay?"
"She passed out, she's on your sofa, Zain's watching her. I think it may be best if we drag him out of her flat and shut the door."
Kylo shook his head, "We don't know where her keys are, and we probably should wait till the police get here before we move him… Just in case I did more damage that I meant to."
Javiell snorted, "You meant to do plenty, and did less, and he deserved more, but he isn't worth going to prison for, either."
'
The police arrived along with paramedics, who, to Kylo's amusement, gave only a cursory look at the man passed out in Rey's hall, then spent the rest of the time with Rey.
Kylo and the others made their statements and the man was roused, cuffed and taken away, yelling his innocence. No one listened to him.
Kylo had to swallowed his anger everytime he looked at Rey. Her throat was covered in bruises that only seemed to grow darker as time went on, it was so bad she could barely talk.
What if he had been out? What if he hadn't heard or investigated? She was so small, so delicate looking.
Once Rey had been checked and pronounced well enough not to need hospital, the police took her statement, then she was helped back to her flat.
Kylo wasn't happy about that, he didn't think she ought to be alone right now, but he couldn't really stop them.
Once the police had gone, he and the others sat down and passed around some whiskey.
"Well that was a shitty few hours," Leonmar said and Kylo nodded before disappearing on to the balcony to smoke several cigarettes in a row.
His mind kept replaying the image of Rey pressed against the wall, caught by the throat and with that shit head's hand down… Kylo shuddered.
'
They had changed to beer and started gaming again when there was a knock on the front door.
Kylo, who hadn't really been able to concentrate on the game, shot out of his seat and moved quickly to answer the door.
And there she stood, Rey. She was wrapped in a cardigan, her long legs bare up to mid-thigh where a blue nightdress peeked out of the cardigan.
Her eyes were huge in her face as she awkwardly handed him a note with a trembling hand,
Sorry, but please could I sleep on your sofa? I'm freaking out and can't stay in my flat tonight.
Kylo felt his face soften as he nodded immediately and stood aside so she could enter, he saw tears spill over as she passed him, but she quickly wiped them away.
He caught up to her as she froze in the doorway to the living room, obviously startled to find he wasn't alone, she turned and ran into his chest, he gently held her arms in case she fell over - as he could see she was none too steady on her feet, "It's okay. You're safe here," he told her.
She winced as she swallowed, looking up at him with nervous eyes, for some reason, now he was able to talk to her normally, "You can sleep in my bed and I'll take the sofa."
Her cheeked coloured and she gave him an anxious shrug, almost looking afraid, maybe she didn't want to be alone at all? He gave her a small, encouraging smile, "Or you can sit on the sofa with us? I can get you a blanket?"
The idea seemed to embarrass her, but she nodded anyway and Kylo gave her a little push towards the sofa before going into his bedroom to find a blanket. He found one his grandmother had made for him when he was small, it was soft and warm and would be perfect.
He found her sitting between Ingalan and Leonmar, she was obviously tense and uncomfortable, but she didn't move or flinch as he awkwardly draped the blanket over her.
It had the soothing effect he'd hoped, her body relaxed back into the sofa, and almost immediately, she was asleep.
The others stayed for a little while after that, but it was really late and they soon left. Kylo was unsure what to do now.
Did he just go to bed? Or sit on the sofa with her? She hadn't seemed to want to be left alone, but she may freak out if she woke to find him next to her…
In the end he settled on the sofa with her, but remained fully clothed and got another blanket so they wouldn't have to share, he also left a small lamp on, in case she woke up and it was still dark, then he fell into an exhausted asleep.