Neighbor Dearest

It was dark in the living room, except for the lights coming from the television. I turned to him. “I’m sorry. Your autobiography is way more terrifying than mine ever was.”

“You think?”

The weirdest part about the movie was the inclusion of Hellhounds, dogs that assisted Damien in his acts of evil. They were the same exact breed as The Double Ds.

Unable to keep from laughing, I said, “I swear to God, I had no clue that there were rottweilers in this movie.”

He pretended to be angry. “You planned this, didn’t you?”

“Yup. I was around in the seventies orchestrating a movie to haunt you with years later.”

“How freaky is this shit, though?” He looked over at the dogs. “Look at them. They don’t seem amused by their cameo, either.”

“I don’t blame them. I’m definitely going to have nightmares tonight.”

His phone chimed, and he looked down to check it. I wondered if it was a woman but curbed my temptation to ask. My reaction served as a reminder of exactly why I was moving.

We stuck it out until the end of The Omen. The dogs had given up on the movie and were hiding out in the other room. It was getting late.

“So, what next?” Damien asked. “Want to watch something else?”

“I should probably go back. We have a long day tomorrow.”

“This is it? Your last night here, and we ended it watching that crazy shit? That’s what you’re gonna remember me by? Damien and his Hellhounds?”

“You act like you won’t see me anymore.”

“Honestly, I kind of do feel like that. When you live right next door to someone, it’s effortless. But you’ll be across town, and realistically, it’s only a matter of time before things change. You’ll meet someone. He’s not gonna want you hanging out with me.”

Whenever he would pawn me off to other men with his words, it stung. I noticed how quiet it was all of a sudden with the dogs in the other room and the television off. I also noticed Damien staring at the bruise he’d given me on my neck. Shivers ran through me when he briefly grazed the area with his fingertip.

“You should really cover this up tomorrow.”

It was the first time he’d acknowledged it.

“Why?”

“Your parents are gonna wonder where it came from.”

“I’ll just tell them you attacked my neck in a women’s bathroom.”

Damien didn’t seem amused. “No, you won’t.”

“I was just joking.”

“Seriously, you should cover it up.”

“You don’t like looking at it?”

When he ran his thumb over it, my breathing quickened. The brief touch ignited awareness throughout my body. What he said next totally undid me.

“I love looking at it. Too much.”

We just stared at each other for a bit. His ears were red, and I could just sense that he was burning up inside as much as I was. I wanted so badly for him to kiss me, to touch me, to suck on every inch of my body. I had never wanted him more than I’d wanted him in that moment. The fact that I was moving tomorrow did nothing to curb the fire inside of me.

“What if that woman hadn’t walked in on us, Damien?” I whispered.

That question had been haunting me.

It took him a while to answer before he said, “I don’t know, Chelsea. I would’ve been fucked.”

“Technically, I would have been fucked.”

He cracked a smile and looked at me like he didn’t know whether he wanted to kiss me or strangle me.

I wanted to scream out that I knew he was hiding something. I wanted to scream out that whatever it was, it didn’t matter to me because there was nothing worse than losing him. But I couldn’t betray his brother, who’d shared that information with me in confidence. Feeling like I was going to burst, I needed to get it off my chest.

“I have to say something, because I don’t think we’re gonna have much time alone tomorrow, and I just want to set the record straight. And I swear, Damien, this is the last you’re gonna hear me speak of it.”

He backed away from me a bit. “Alright.”

“You say that I’ll forget you once I leave, but I can guarantee you that won’t be true. I might move on, yes, because you’ve left me no choice. But that doesn’t change how I feel about you. You’re in my heart, and I can’t get you out. I don’t know if I want to. Being with you is the only thing that feels right. It would be one thing if you just didn’t have feelings for me, but if you’re telling yourself that I am better off without you, then you’re just wrong. If the emptiness I’m feeling tonight is any indication, I am definitely not better off.”

“Chel—”

“Let me finish. When I first met you, I was in the worst place. The worst. The ironic thing is, even if you choose to disappear from my life after tomorrow, you are the reason that I now have the strength to handle it—to handle anything. I will always be indebted to you for bringing me out of that funk, for showing me that I deserved better, for being a friend and for being honest with me even when it hurt. I’m stronger now than I was, and I’m stronger than you think. Anything you ever have to say…I can handle the truth, Damien. That’s it. I’ve said my truth.”