Chapter 1
Sameen Shaw fumbled with her keys as she desperately tried to get through her apartment door, her body running dangerously low on energy after a 48 hour shift at the hospital, her eyes were struggling to stay open. She cursed loudly as the keys slipped through her fingers and clattered to the ground. Picking them up she whacked the top of her head on the door handle and another crude word tumbled off her tongue. Forcefully jamming the key in the lock and successfully getting the door open on her third attempt, she mentally reminded herself never to lock the stupid door ever again, not understanding why more than one lock is necessary in the first place.
She barely managed to pull her jacket off before her full weight hit the couch, her eyes finally being able to close. She let out an exhausted sigh. The silence of her new apartment building, and her lack of roommate ringing through her ears like music.
Then, suddenly, actual music.
“What the fuck” Sam’s eyes opened, she lay on the couch staring at the ceiling as suddenly wall shuddering, window cracking heavy metal bass ripped through the glorious silence.
Sam let her eyes shut again briefly as she attempted to shut the sound out, but when she swore she felt the couch vibrate beneath her, her eyes were open again and her jaw was clenched.
Pulling herself up, her muscles screamed as she marched across her empty apartment and threw the door open, glaring up and down the hallway before realising the sound was coming from the apartment directly across.
Blowing a mouthful of air out her fingers balled into a fist, and she banged on the door six times with the side of her hand. The music continued to blare in her ears, and she felt the thrum of a headache starting to spread across the top of her head. She lifted her hand to start round two of the door bashing when suddenly it was open, and she was face to face with a person who had significantly less lip piercings or neck tattoos than she had been expecting. In fact the person in front of her wasn’t even a sleazy looking guy with dyed black hair, it was a girl. Probably about the same age as her. She was tall and lanky, and was wearing glasses with red headphones around her neck.
Sam realised she was staring and quickly cleared her throat.
“Uh, could you tell your boyfriend or whatever to turn the death metal down” Sam said making the volume signal with her hands. The girl just stared at her.
“I mean you clearly don’t like it either” Sam continued, gesturing at the headphones around the girls neck and wondering why suddenly unnecessary words were coming out of her mouth.
“And you are?” the girl spoke, her voice light and perky.
“Really fucking tired,” Sam said and the girl quirked an eyebrow. “10B” Sam rolled her eyes and jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at her door.
The girl looked at the door, then back to Sam, then to Sam’s shock glanced down at her chest and smirked.
“If you say so,” she said pulling her phone from her back pocket, tapping the screen a couple of times, and suddenly everything was silent.
Sam stared at her in confusion.
“I don’t have a boyfriend” she said still looking at Sam with a dangerous smirk playing at the corners of her mouth.
“Whatever” Sam said “If you could just keep it down, I’ve been up for 48 hours”
“Ooh doing what?” the girl asked leaning on the frame of her door.
Sam frowned and turned back to her apartment. “Appreciate it” she called over her shoulder as she slammed the door shut.
Great she thought as she threw herself back down onto the couch I have a perky psycho nerd as my neighbour.