The Girl Next Door

Chapter Four: The Window Next Door

            There was a slight chill in the air that hung over us heavily as I lifted my lips from hers. Her face was white to the lips and her eyes were bigger than ever, blazing a clear blue, a startling feature in her white face. "Relena?" I whispered anxiously, debating whether or not to touch her.

            Color leapt into her face suddenly and she glared at me as her hand reached out and administered a sharp, curt slap to my face. "How could you?" she whispered fiercely as I stared at her in shock, feeling where’d I’d been slapped. "How could you do that when you know how I feel about Treize?"

            I blinked slowly, swallowing harshly as I was brought abruptly back down to earth. What was wrong with me? She glared again and bit down on her lower lip as if to hold back some words from spilling out before turning and storming away, her shoulders squared against the cool wind that blew across the yard.

            I found my voice when Relena was halfway across the yard. "Re-Relena?" My voice caught on the first syllable of her name and I cursed myself as she turned expectantly.

            "Yes Heero?"

            "I…"

            "Yes"
            "I…"

            Relena sighed and rolled her eyes. "What is it? Spit it out!"

            "I…never mind." How utterly witty and clever of me. What a way to impress a lady!

            She rolled her eyes again. "Fine. Good night."

            And with that, she flounced out of the yard into the house, leaving me to my own self-mocking.

#@#@#@

            The phone rang the instant I got into my room. I growled at my reflection and yanked the phone off the hook. ‘What is it?” I barked into the phone.

            A light, almost bitter laugh floated across the phone line to reach my ear. “No need to be so gruff Heero, everyone knows you’re a softy inside.”

            “What do you want?” I snapped.

            “I wanted to know what Relena had to say! I’m supposed to be her best friend…but she wouldn’t tell me what you two were talking about.” Great. Dorothy’s voice was becoming soft and wistful. If Dorothy was depressed and coming off her natural, I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude, than something had to be wrong in the world as I knew it.

            “It’s confidential,” I answered, sitting down on the edge of my bed and kicking the side of my desk aimlessly.

            “You and her have a *thing* going, don’t you? Oh my God! Oh my God! My two best friends have hooked up! This isn’t fair-,”

            I broke into her hysterical rant. “No! She just wanted some help on…on a project!”

            “Liar! You kissed her, didn’t you? You probably freakin’ *slept* with her! Heero, how could you?”

            “Dorothy! Shut up!” I ordered.

            A very sulky voice answered. “No!”

            I sighed and gritted my teeth. “You wanna know what happened?”

            “Yes.”

            “Call Relena.” And with that, I hung up on her. And then, on second thought, removed the phone from the hook to prevent her from calling back.

            And then I made the mistake of looking out my window.

#@#@#@

            I choked immediately and fell onto my bed. I was looking *straight* into Relena’s bedroom. Why had I never noticed my window looked directly into her window before? I immediately began to sweat, imagining the possibilities. What if she saw me looking into her room and thought I was a pervert? What if I *was* a pervert and couldn’t stop looking into her room? I gnashed my teeth. Damn!

            And then an unexpected thing happened. Relena looked out her window-into *my* window, grinned and *waved*.

            I forced my own mouth into a weak smile and waved back, feeling stupid as I did so. She turned, evidently through with me and I cursed angrily at the night’s events. Nothing was turning out the way I planned! Nothing was normal anymore! Nothing! I groaned and stood up, turning off my light and getting ready for bed in the dark.

            As I passed my window on my way to my bed, I paused and opened it. I’ll never know what possessed me to do that and I’ll never be able to explain why I don’t know. All’s I know is, I opened the window and let the warm summer air enter my room.

            And that, when I woke up in the morning, there was a note resting on my bedspread, evidently thrown from the window next door.