Janice sat at the table across from her now 5 year old with a stern smile. His arms were folded and he held a stoic expression.

"Want to tell mommy what happened at school today?"

        At his mother's question, he immediately got up from the table and went to his room. Janice sighed in frustration. This was her umpteenth time trying to start a conversation with her child. He'd become very distant after the divorce and no matter what Janice did, he would just not come around.

        Her and Charles had been doing co-parenting for the past few months, with them both having the children 3 weeks at a time. She'd gotten her own place and worked a 9 to 5 job, which paid handsomely and worked out perfectly for school hours while Charles lived only a few hours away. With Charles, the children were transported to and from daycare and school via personal driver. Either way, everything fit together nicely.

        She thought everything would start to sit well with Darius after a while, but there were no signs of that happening anytime soon. She only wanted what was best for her children, but sometimes she couldn’t help but question if she'd made a mistake.

        As Janice stood up from the table, she began to hear a loud series of barking. "Kyle, call off your horse." She furrowed her brows together. It was coming from outside, from the left side of her house, but no one lived there.. Well, as far as she knew. Out of pure curiosity, she went over to the window in search for the source of all the commotion. There, she saw two men carrying a big box into the house next door with a big redish dog growling at the one with shaggy brown hair.

"Clifford, calm down, girl.", the blonde male spoke.

        Clifford..? The dog lowered it's head along with it's growl before backing off. "You need to put that thing down.", the brown haired one spoke again. From the looks of it, it seemed as though they were getting new neighbors. As long as they didn’t cause any trouble, it wouldn’t bother her.

       Hearing the sound of her baby girl crying, Janice immediately went to go check up on her. Having had a long nap, most likely Hazel was hungry again.

       They put down the final box in the living room of Junior's new place, letting out breath's of relief. "Finally!", exclaimed Ezekiel, before falling down onto the couch. It'd been a long day. Kyle had called him up out of the blue practically begging for him to help after everyone else had turned him down. It was a miracle that they'd gotten everything finished as fast as they did. They thought that for sure it'd take 2 days at the least.

        Kyle ran a hand through his hair while looking around at all the boxes he'd have to unpack. "Yeah. Thanks, man. I owe you one.", he said. Ezekiel shrugged before replying. "No problem. So, party's tonight at your place?"

"Uh.. I'm not so sure about that. It looks like a quiet neighborhood."

        Ezekiel gave him a look of disbelief. "Aw. Come on.", he said. He'd already told all of their friends and he really didn’t want to have to call it off. Kyle scratched his head in uncertainty. "I don’t know, Zeke..", he replied, but then grew weary when he saw an off smile on Ezekiel's face. "Well, didn’t you just say you owed me one?" Ezekiel's statement caused him to let out a sigh. It was true that he'd told Zeke that and he was never one to go back on his word. His word was his honor and Ezekiel knew that.

So, he'd have to go through with it..

        When night came, Janice awoke to the sound of blaring music. She sat up in bed, trying to collect her thoughts. It had to be coming from next door. She got up and went to go up to her children's rooms to check up on them. She opened the door to Hazel's room and noticed the even rising and falling of her chest which indicated that she was sound asleep. She then slowly closed the door before making her way to Darius's room. She opened his door and quietly made her way over to him. She noted how defenseless he looked in his sleep and ran her hand over his cheek, smiling at his quiet snores.

        Janice went back downstairs and grabbed a jacket before leaving the house and locking the door behind her. She was going to try to get her neighbor to turn the music down, but by the time she got there, there were already a few people from the neighborhood standing there. "Can you believe the nerve of some people?!", one of them complained. Janice pulled her jacket tighter around her torso as the cold night breeze blew. One of the men from the crowd rose his fist to bang on the door.

        Inside, Kyle was trying his hardest to keep everything intact. He moved quickly to catch a glass cup from shattering after being knocked over by an excited friend who danced along to the beat of the music. He sighed in relief when he'd succeeded in catching the vase his grandmother had given him as a going away present, but soon after closed his eyes in failure when he heard the shattering of glass behind him. He turned around to see a broken lamp. "Man.." He really liked that lamp, too.

"Aye, Kyle?! Are there anymore snacks?", questioned an overly excited Johnathan.

"Yeah. Let me go check real quick."

        He left the living room and walked over to the cabinet in his kitchen. He began looking through it, ruling out the kind of snacks Johnathan didn’t like before deciding on Doritos. That was his favorite. Just as he was about to grab several bags for his chip-loving friend, Noah stopped him. "You know people are knocking at the door, right?", he said. Kyle furrowed his brows in confusion. Were there more guests?

        He walked back into the living room and towards his front door, barely managing to dodge a chair. "Hey, guys. Please, don't throw my chairs.", he said to the ones who threw it. "Sorry! It was intended for Omar!", was the response he'd gotten. He shook his head before opening the door to an angry mob. "Um.."

"Turn the music down!"

"Yeah! People are trying to sleep!"

       Kyle held his hands up in defense. "I-I'm sorry. I just moved here and-", he started, but was cut off. "We don't care for your sob story! Just turn the music off!"

"Okay..", Kyle said.

        Janice honestly felt bad for him when he went back inside. He didn’t seem like a bad kid, but he had to learn to consider other people's feelings. Kyle went over to the entertainment system and turned off the stereo, causing everyone to look at him. "Hey, guys. Party's off." Everyone groaned in disappointment before making their way out the door. The party didn’t even last that long. "See you later, guys.", he said sheepishly, trying to brighten up the mood. When they were all gone he went back to the group of neighbors and apologized.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't let it happen again.", one of them said.

         Kyle shook his head. "It won't." Just as they began to leave, he locked eyes with Janice. "Thank you.", she said. "Uh-huh.. Don't mention it..", he replied, watching her leave. When she was out of his vision, he went back inside and groaned. He had a hell of a mess to clean up.

        The next morning, Janice saw Darius off on the school bus. He didn’t wave back at her, but she still saw her son off with a smile. She could only hope that one day he'd smile back at her like he used to. When the bus took off, she let out a sigh and turned the stroller to the side, making her way over to the public bus stop. She had to drop Hazel off at daycare and then go to work.

"Hey! Wait!", she heard a voice chime behind her accompanied by that of hurried footsteps.

        She turned around to see who it was calling out to her and was struck with a sense of déjà vu. It was the blonde from last night who disturbed the peace with his overly loud music. When he caught up to her, he smiled sheepishly at her before speaking. "Hey. I'm sorry about last night. My friends wanted to throw me a party for getting my first place, ..but, I guess things got out of hand."

        Another cool breeze blew through the air and Janice pulled the covers up on her baby. Winter was coming, so it'd been getting windier and colder by the passing days. "It's fine.", she replied. Kyle looked down at the baby that lay in the stroller. "You have a baby?", he asked. Janice nodded. "A 7 month old and a 5 year old." Kyle tilted his head at her. "..but, you don’t look that old." Janice knitted her brows together, causing Kyle to quickly retrack what he said. "I mean, not old old, just.. Up in age?" Not seeing a satisfied look on his neighbors face, he tried once more. "I'm not trying to say you're old, I'm just saying..", he continued, getting a little laugh from Janice. "It's okay."

         Kyle let out a sigh of relief, mesmerized by her smile. "I thought you were my age.", he said. "How old are you?", she questioned. He looked like he was a teenager, around 17 at the most. "I'm 19, but I turn 20 in two weeks.", he said proudly.

"Oh. Well, I'm no teenager. I'm 25."

       He then widened his eyes at her. "You age really well.", he remarked in disbelief. Janice smiled in return, noting how animated this teenager was. "Thank you." Kyle then held out his hand to her. "I'm Kyle. It's nice to meet you." Janice shook his hand and gave him her name as well. "Can I ask you a question?" Janice nodded. He'd already been asking questions, so another wouldn’t hurt. "Why are you standing on the side of the road? Do you do this a lot?", he asked, looking down at her in confusion. Janice gave him an exasperated look before shaking her head. It should have been obvious.

"I'm waiting for the bus.", she said.

       Kyle looked up, finding a sign that read 'Public Bus Stop', and immediately felt like an idiot. "Ohhh.", he responded. "Do you want me to give you a ride to wherever you're going? I'm off today, so I have plenty of time." Janice looked down the road to see that the bus still wasn’t coming even though it was supposed to be there over 7 minutes ago. She then looked up at Kyle and took him up on his offer.

        After they'd gotten her stroller into the trunk of his car and fastened Hazel into her car seat, Kyle began to pull off. Janice took in the fresh scent of his car. She'd expected for the inside to be messy with him being a loud teenager, but it was quite the opposite. He also drove responsibly, keeping his eyes on the road and his hands on the wheel, which was different from how Charles was at his age. She sighed at the thought of him.

"Are you alright?", Kyle questioned, picking up on her sigh.

        Janice replied 'yes' before looking out the window. She really didn’t want to talk about it. Even though they'd been apart for a while now, the smallest things still reminded her of him. She still loved him. A few more moments of silence went by before Kyle broke it by humming a tune. The melody was so relaxing that it seemed to soothe Janice for the time being. It was so sweet and calming.

"In 2.1 miles, turn left.", the G.P.S chimed.

        Kyle soon pulled into the driveway of the daycare she'd given him the directions to. "We're here.", he said. Janice smiled at him before thanking him and getting Hazel out of her car seat. As she began walking towards the daycare, Kyle called out to her. "I'll wait here for you, so I can take you to your job." She smiled at his kindness.

"It's okay. I work right across the street."

        Kyle looked to the right side of him, spotting FLQ's Insure. It was a company where she spoke to people over the phone, helping them get insurance among other things. He'd saw a commercial from this place on T.V. the other day. "That's convenient.", Kyle replied.

"Well, I guess, I'll see you later, then.", he said.

"Same to you.", she replied before going inside of the daycare.

        Kyle once again watched her leave before starting up his car and driving off. He was fortunate to have such a nice neighbor and could honestly see them becoming close friends if not something more. 'Hopefully something more.', he thought to himself.