Yeah. Creeped me the holy hell out. Partly because it was a dude. And partly because this dude was messed up. And, apparently, it's really really easy to stalk your next-door neighbor.
I kinda want to tell the story, I'll just give the short version.
I had been in a new apartment a few months before I first spoke to my neighbor. He weirded me out, so I made up an excuse and ducked into my apartment. About ten minutes later there's a knock at my door. He's standing there holding a potted plant. He'd brought me a gift, so I felt too guilty to not let him in. Again with the weirdness, so I told him I wanted a cigarette and didn't smoke inside, asked him if he'd accompany me outside. He said he didn't mind smoking in his apartment, and I couldn't think of a way out quick enough so we went over to his place. He showed me around, then showed me his "project," a binder full of pictures cut out of magazines with coins taped over all of the faces. I finally came up with an excuse and bailed, he tried to hug me on my way out.
There were a few weeks where our only interactions were of the "Hey how's it going. Cool, see you around" variety. Then, one night at about 2am, there's another knock at my door. He's standing there wearing a woman's overcoat with obviously nothing underneath. He asks for a cigarette. I give him one then tell him I'm going to bed and shut the door, thoroughly creeped out.
A week or two past that, I see him outside panicking. He's crazy late for work, I take pity and drive him there. A mistake on my part, I shouldn't have encouraged him.
Another few weeks, and I hear through the wall him having a crying fit. It lasts all night. At 7am he knocks on my door and asks if he can use my phone. He calls what I assume is his roommate. I hear him say "Our phone's shut off." I assume the roommate asks "Where are you calling from?" He answers "My friends house." Again my conjecture about what the other person says; "What friend?" And he answers "My only friend." Sad, right?
The whole time I'd been living there, every so often I'd hear Madonna blasting from next door. This time when I hear it as I'm leaving, I see his window is open. He is dancing, in women's underwear. For the rest of the time I live there I have to avert my eyes whenever I'm leaving or coming home.
The walls of the apartments are very thin, so much so you can tell exactly what the person next door is doing. In particular, from the sound of the pipes, you can tell when your neighbor is in the shower. One day, I get out of the shower, get dressed and leave for work. As soon as I walk out the door, I see him crouched down outside my window, looking through a crack where my blinds are bent. He pretends to be messing with the plants in the planter right underneath. Now, he can't help but know when I'm getting out of the shower, so god only knows how many times he did this before I caught him.
This story ignores all the little unwanted, but less overtly weird, daily interactions. I move out a couple weeks later and never hear from him again.
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If life's not beautiful without the pain,
well I'd just rather never ever even see beauty again.
Well as life gets longer, awful feels softer.
And it feels pretty soft to me.
Modest Mouse - The View