You've got Problems?

Chapter 2: New Neighbors


Myer stirred from his uneasy sleep. He blinked like an owl as rays of sunshine filled his eyes. Grumbling from a slightly aching head, he rolled over in his bed and glanced at the clock. 10:37 a.m. He surprised himself, he was about an hour early in waking up. Not that he really had much reason to get up, other than the usual calls of nature.

Minutes later, after he had relieved himself, Myer cautiously slid his door open. With one eye sharply glancing around the dimly lit hallway, Myer slipped from his room. He didn’t know if the mystery woman from last night was still around, so he made sure to move softly downstairs to the kitchen.

Like every Sunday morning, the house seemed completely devoid of any type of life other than him. He might as well have been living on his own with the way he felt at the time. Breakfast for him wasn’t anything much to speak of. A couple of bowls full of cereal. But it would hold him over until later when his dad came back from the grocery store with the next week’s worth of food.

He ate through the cereal as fast as he could so he wouldn’t have to deal with his dad, and hopefully he wouldn’t even see him for the rest of the day. Almost as if his old man had read his mind, he heard the door to his father’s room open. An angry sigh passed from Myer’s lips and he felt his face contort as he listened to the approaching footsteps.

He didn’t bother to even look up from his bowl when his dad walked in. Myer could already tell that he had enjoyed his night with the way that he carried himself. The tramp must have really known what she was doing then.

“Morning.” His dad said cheerfully.

Myer glanced angrily out of the corner of his eyes at him. If anyone had looked through the kitchen windows right then, there would have been next to no way to tell that they were father and son. Myer’s dad was six-foot-two, built like an ox, and had sandy blonde hair with blue-green eyes. Myer, on the other hand, was five-foot-eight with a slightly medium build, and had shaggy brown hair with light brown eyes.

Most of his features came from his mother, who had been a rather small and petite woman. Occasionally when he glanced at old photos of his parents together, they had looked like the most miss matched couple ever. Myer blinked a couple of times and bit his lip. It was no good think about her now, there was nothing to be found except pain, and he already had his fare share for one weekend.

Myer scooped up the last few bites just as his dad sat comfortably across the table from him. Myer was up and nearly out of the kitchen before his dad had taken his first bite of breakfast.

“What? Going already?” his dad called after him.

“What do you want?” Myer asked him.

“I don’t know. Maybe have a chat with you, find out how life’s treating you. Maybe just to get a look at you. I think the last time I got a glance at you was about two months ago.” His dad said.

“Ha, ha, ha.” Myer said coldly as he moved to leave.

“Come on Myer, sit down. I want to talk to you.” He said.

“What do we have to talk about?” Myer questioned.

“Just sit down. Five minutes won’t hurt you, then you can go back to your cave.” The rising tone in his dad’s voice gave Myer a good assumption that what his dad said wasn’t a request.

Myer clenched his fist slightly before briskly walking back to the table and flopping himself down in his chair. He looked his dad dead in the eyes. “Alright, what do you want?”

“Just to talk with my son. Is that a crime?” he said. Myer didn’t say anything; he just stared across the table at him. He just wanted to let his dad get what ever the hell was on his mind out so that he could leave. His dad seemed to sense the hostility, and cleared his throat. “Look, I want this to stop.”

“What do you mean ‘this’?”

“This hermit crap you’re pulling, I want you to stop it.” His dad sighed, rubbing his eyes before continuing. “Myer, look, you can’t live your entire life locked up in your room. You hardly ever come out of there when you get back from school, you never go anywhere on the weekends. This is not healthy.”

“What hell would you know about healthy?” Myer growled.

His dad had to of guessed what he meant by that. His face reddened and he took a deep breath. “That’s not the point. The point is that you don’t have a life, that’s no way for someone your age to live. I don’t even see you with anyone anymore. Hell, how many times have you used that car I bought you a year ago, besides going to school? Two, three times?”

“Don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to see.” Myer told him.

“Now I know that’s bullshit.” His dad said, leaning towards him. “What about your two friends? James and Cynthia? You used to hang out with them all the time.”

Myer leaned back in his chair. “Well for one.” He said, holding up a finger. “James moved away about two years ago, hasn’t called or written to me in months.”

“Two,” he continued, lifting a second finger, “once Cynthia lost her braces and learned about he joys of contacts, she bagged herself one of the star running backs of the football team. The last time she said anything to me was Sophomore year.”

A shocked look spread across his dad’s face. The realization that he knew so very little about his own son’s life had to of been quiet a shock. Regardless, Myer did his best to hide the fact from his father that he was lying. The truth was that his friends hadn’t abandoned him, it had been the other way around.

Even after James had left and Cynthia was dating one of the most popular guys in school, they had tried to stay his friends. But like the reclusive idiot that he had been, he kept pushing them away, until finally they had given up on him. It was only after Myer found himself all alone did he realize the mistake he had made. But it was too late to repair the damage that he had done. He didn’t even want to try and make friends anymore, and anyone who knew anything at school was happy to oblige him.

“Are we done yet?” Myer said in a demanding voice.

His father looked like he was about to yell something at him, but they were both snapped out of their deadlock by a loud beeping sound. Myer glanced towards the window. “What the----what’s that?”

Myer’s dad looked at him with disbelief. “Do you even look out your window listened to anything I say anymore? I told you three weeks ago that the Smiths sold their house.”

“No way.” Myer said, not wanting to believe him. “Why?”

“They said they wanted to be closer to their kids and grandchildren. Plus they said the house was getting to be too much for them to manage.” His dad said.

Curious, Myer slipped out of his seat and looked out the window. All he could see was a moving truck with the outlines of two cars parked behind it. He didn’t see anyone out or about. “Do you have any idea who’s moving in?”

“Not really.” His dad said. “I saw them once when they were buying the place.”

“And?” Myer asked, kind of wanting to know who was going to be living next to him.

“Some guy and I guess his wife. Not much to say, they look like your typical couple. Didn’t see any kids with them. Too bad if they don’t.”

Myer gave his dad a sarcastic look. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Well it wouldn’t hurt you to have someone to make an new friend with.” His dad moved to the window and glanced out. “They sure do have a lot of stuff for just a married couple.”

“Maybe they do have kids.” His dad said. Myer didn’t say anything, he just kept looking out the window as the movers began to take the things in the back of the truck out. He felt his dad nudge his shoulder. When he looked at him, he saw a smirk on his dad’s face. “Maybe they’ve got a daughter your age.”

“You’re a jerk.” Myer said, storming out before his dad could say anything else. He felt his anger build up in him as he slammed the door to his room shut. Myer couldn’t believe that his dad would be such an ass as to play games like that with him. It wasn’t like his life was bad enough with his dad making it any worse.

He flipped on his stereo and did his best to listen to the tunes in a vain attempt to block the thoughts racing through his head out. Try as he might, what his dad had said kept tickling at his mind. Not wanting to even humor his dad’s ass attitude, he couldn’t help but take another look out of his window.

Fortunately, the tree next to his house didn’t block the view of the next door driveway. There was indeed an awful lot of crap being taken out of the back of the truck. It seemed like a lot more than a young couple would need, not that he knew anything about that. Looking past the moving van, Myer stared at the two cars parked along the street. The first looked like some small compact car, probably used for whoever earned the bread, if they both didn’t work. Then he noticed the old station wagon parked in the shade under the large oak tree in front of the house.

Myer blinked at it, taking a closer look to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things. A closer inspection told him that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. The windows were tinted, heavily. He doubted even if he was right next to the car if he could see in. That was really weird.

“Bunch of screwballs.” He said to himself. “But maybe they do have kids.”

With that, he went back to the darkness of his room and his much welcomed seclusion.