A/N: Thank you veerrry much for your comments on the last chapter. Luckily, I’m pretty free for the next couple of weeks, so I’ll be hoping to write more of this and my other story. :)

Wooho! I guess you can say I'm on a roll! I updated Quinntessential last week, and now this! :)

WATERED DOWN

CHAPTER TWO

I was coming back from the supermarket the same time my new neighbor was leaving the apartment building. His date was at his side, laughing at something he said. Her long brown hair flowed past her shoulders and she had a dark red scarf around her neck. She was pretty, but then, I could already tell my neighbor wasn’t the kind of guy to date ugly girls. Her arm was around his waist as they made their way past the apartment building’s large glass door and as they turned toward my direction.

Austin’s brown eyes slightly widened with recognition, and he even waved as he called for me. “Hey!”

I was keeping my head down, in the hopes of slipping into the apartment unnoticed. Sadly, it didn’t turn out that way, so I grudgingly looked up at him. “Hello.”

He grinned at his date/girlfriend/fiancé/wife? then jerked a finger at my direction before sliding his hand into his jean pocket. “Amy, this is my neighbor... uh,” he paused and glanced at me.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, my heavy grocery bags in my arms. Seeing that we never formally introduced ourselves, he expected me to finish the sentence for him, but I didn’t have to since the young woman beside him finished it for him.

“Austin, you live next to Eugene Bell?”

His face then transformed into a look of uncomfortable confusion as his eyes flickered from me to his date. “Oh, haha, yeah, Eugene,” he chuckled, his right hand going up to scratch the back of his head. “You two know each other?”

She laughed as she punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Austin, I think every person who hasn’t been living under a rock these past couple of years knows your neighbor,” she said, rolling her eyes affectionately before turning to me, setting a hand over Austin’s chest. “I apologize for my date, Mr. Bell, he’s never in the country long enough to know what’s going on here.”

“Oh,” I muttered, glancing toward the apartment entrance. So my neighbor moves a lot... that meant he wasn’t going to live across me for too long.

“Okay, Amy,” Austin interrupted, a red tinge in his cheeks as he placed his hands on her shoulders and started pushing her to move. “We’re going to be late for the movie, so let’s go and leave Mr. Bell with his groceries.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, noticing the slightly teasing layer in his words. “Well, have fun,” I drawled, my voice hollow and not really caring if their date turned out bad or if it ended in someone’s bed.

I was in the elevator when I realized... I had just went grocery shopping on a Saturday night.

I had a sad life... but it wasn’t like I didn’t already know that.

There was a knock on a door. I opened it and standing in front of my door was an attractive woman with auburn hair, wearing a dark green dress – and a small kid at her side.

Oh, shit.

“What do you want?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at Jillian and her kid. In the back of my head, I already knew what she came up for from the way she was so dressed up, so I strengthened the power of my glare in the hopes of scaring her kid off before she could ask it.

“Hi, Eugene,” she greeted, avoiding my question as she tried to look over my shoulder. I pulled the door closer to myself so there was nothing to see. “All alone on a Saturday night?”

I lied. “Actually, I have – “

“Just as I thought,” she interrupted, nodding. “Well, since you can’t be alone on a Saturday night, I have my lovely little son here to keep you company.”

“No thanks, I’m fine.”

A small frown appeared on her face. “Okay, so the real reason why I’m here is because this guy from work asked me out on a date, and I always thought this guy was cool, so I said yes, and he’s waiting – “

“Jillian,” I said sternly, leaning against the doorframe. “I’m not someone you can just drop your kid off when you feel like it.”

“Come on, Eugene,” she whimpered, holding onto my hands as she looked up at me, batting her eyelashes and pouting. “I haven’t gone out on a date in such a long time and I really like this guy.”

I pulled my hands away and kept them behind my back before she could latch onto them again. “That’s all well and good – but I’m not a babysitter!”

“Come on,” she insisted, crouching down to her son’s level as she rested her hands on his shoulders. “How can you resist a face like this? He’s a very good boy!”

As if on cue – then again, Jillian practicing this little act with her son for future nights out wasn’t out of the realm of possibility – her son looked up at me with his wide eyes and held out a DVD. “Mommy let me bring Finding Nemo, Uncle Eugene! Let’s watch it!”

Unfazed, I kept my eyes on Jillian and ignored the kid who was excitedly waving the DVD around. “Exploiting your son to go on a date?” I drawled, my hand reaching for the door to close it. “Yeah, Jillian, you’re a perfect candidate for the Mother of the Year award.”

“So is that a yes?” she piped up, grinning widely and inconspicuously setting her foot in the door’s way.

“No, it wasn’t,” I deadpanned.

“If you say yes, I’ll cook your breakfast for the entire of next week,” she offered.

“I don’t like your cooking.”

“You like my french toast!”

“I do not – “

“You like Doritos too, Uncle Eugene?”

I blinked, wondering why the annoying little boy’s voice was suddenly inside my apartment. I looked down at the space where he was supposed to be and realized he was gone. I was too focused with Jillian to notice her kid had slipped inside my flat and was already making himself comfortable. I looked back at the kid to make sure he wasn’t going to break a vase before returning to her, my grip on the door tightening. “Conniving bitch,” I said darkly.

“You’re just jealous I’m smarter than you,” Jillian said sweetly, leaning over to give me a small peck on the cheek before looking over my shoulder. “Have fun with Uncle Eugene, sweetie!”

Her kid looked up from my bag of chips. “Bye mommy!”

I turned back to give Jillian another verbal lashing, but she was already bounding down the hallway in her heels. Sighing, I closed the door and went over to my kitchen, and automatically caught the glass vase I knew her kid would knock over with his elbow.

“Oops, sorry, Uncle Eugene,” he said, looking up at me as I walked off to set the vase on a counter far away from him.

“I’m sure you are,” I muttered, going back to him. He had already opened my bag of Doritos, and he had one hand inside while he was unabashedly licking the cheese off the other. I wrinkled my nose. Kids were disgusting.

But then again, so were grown ups.

I groaned, not believing Jillian had pulled another stunt to get me to take care of her kid for the night. “So, are we watching that movie or not?” I asked boredly, setting my hands on the counter.

He nodded excitedly, reaching for the DVD case in the middle of the island counter. I grabbed it before he could touch it with his cheese covered fingers. I read the synopsis at the back of the case, then glanced at the boy, who was eyeing the fruit beside him.

“Hey, what’s your name again?”

I had probably asked that a number of times before because he didn’t even look up at me from his chips. “Simon, Uncle Eugene.”

“Oh, right,” I said absentmindedly. “I was just testing you.”

I ignored the confused eyebrows the kid raised and put his DVD in the player.

Jillian got home at around two and I had fallen asleep on the couch fifteen minutes into the movie. I groaned when I heard two sharp knocks on the door, and I rubbed my face to wake myself up. I expected the kid to be sprawled on the floor, asleep too, but he was wide awake, watching some action movie.

I looked at the screen and took in the large machine guns – and the scantily clad woman whose breasts rose and fell as she ran away from a large tank. I reached for the remote and turned it off. “I don’t think you’re allowed to watch that yet,” I muttered, getting up to open the door.

When I opened it, I had only expected a possibly inebriated Jillian, but she was quite sober – and she had Austin standing beside her.

“What are you two doing?” I asked lamely, unable to control the lethargic slur in my voice.

Jillian chuckled, tearing her eyes away from Austin. “Oh, Austin and I met at the lobby. We both just got back from our dates.”

“Yeah,” he added, smiling at Jillian. Then he turned to me, the same grin set on his face like the one he had given me earlier in the evening. “So, Eugene, how are the groceries?”

Before I could say, “Fuck off,” Jillian’s kid raced up from behind me and latched onto her legs, and all language was automatically set to G-rated. “Mommy! Uncle Eugene was snoring so loud I couldn’t watch the movie.”

My eyes shot down to the kid and I could feel my face getting hotter by the second. What an ungrateful kid. I gave him my chips, my pears, and I let him watch a movie – and that was how he repaid me. I should have left him in the hallway.

Before I could voice these thoughts aloud, Austin started laughing, reaching down to ruffle the ungrateful kid’s hair. He glanced at me and winked. “The snoring type, huh?” he began. “So that’s why you play your music really loud?”

Oh, I was not going to give that kid anymore food.

Jillian started laughing, but immediately covered her mouth with her hand when I shot a glare at her. “Shouldn’t you be putting that kid to bed by now?” I said.

“Oh, of course, of course,” she said immediately, making me wonder why she was suddenly too happy to comply. “I’ll see you tomorrow for breakfast... after your swim?”

I frowned. “You don’t have to – “

“We have a pool here?”

Sick of being interrupted, I turned to him. “Yeah, and a gym. Maybe that’s why we have a button in the elevator that leads to the Gym and Pool Floor.”

Jillian punched my shoulder, pushing me to the side. “Oh, Eugene, you’re so moody,” she said, looking up at Austin. “Yeah, Eugene swims there everyday. He should show it to you sometime.”

“All he has to do is press a button in the elevator,” I cut in. “What is there to show?”

“You are his neighbor, give him a tour!”

Ignoring the both of them, Austin looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “We have a gym here? And to think I’ve been going to the gym across the street,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I wasted so much money on my membership!”

I stopped, shut my mouth, and reached for my doorknob. Things were annoying enough with Jillian and her kid, and now I had an idiot living across me. I closed the door and left the two outside, and I could still hear them talking in the hallway as fixed all the food the brat left open.

He was at the pool the next day.

I walked into the pool, my towel slung over my shoulder, and I was fixing my swim cap when I saw him. I wasn’t all that surprised, mostly because I didn’t really care. He was sitting by the pool edge, his hands at his sides as he let his legs hang over the edge. He wasn’t wearing a suit, just a normal shirt and his boxers; probably what he had been sleeping in. He must have woken up and just decided to check the pool out.

He looked up at me and squinted, not quite awake. “Uh... Eugene?” he said, my name echoing throughout the large room.

“What?” I muttered, setting my towel down on a seat.

“Wow, it’s really early,” he yawned, looking around the room for a clock, but couldn’t find one since there were no walls. Just tall glass windows.

After doing a couple of stretches, I held onto the pool edge as I slipped inside. Shivers raced up my dry skin the second I touched the water and I submerged myself to get used to the temperature.

“Cold?” he asked from the side, kicking absentmindedly and yawning even more.

I nodded, wading to one end. He was starting to ask another question when I started my laps, kicking the side and setting my arms out in front of me. My hands sliced through the water easily enough, and although I was going at a slow, steady pace since I was just starting, I got to the other end fast enough.

Every time I’d raise my head up to breathe, depending on which interval, my face would be toward his direction and I caught him watching me numerous times. I was used to people watching me swim, not only a couple, but millions, so it wasn’t like his pair of eyes were special enough to make me choke and sputter in nervousness.

As I finished the tenth lap, I could feel the twinge of pain on my calf. Deciding not to give him a chance to see me stop completely and see my face in pain, I stopped after the tenth lap and stayed at the sides for a while to catch my breath, and for the pain to subside as I cooled down.

“So... you do this everyday?”

My shoulders tensed at his voice. Why wasn’t he leaving? I sighed and gave him a curt answer. “Yeah.”

I could hear his feet lightly kicking the water. “You’re really good, you know.”

I almost said, “No shit,” but I controlled myself. Instead, I said, “Thanks.”

“I took swimming lessons when I was a kid,” he shared, his words gentle, like the way the water would move in every small motion in its surface. “I had them everyday for about four summers.”

“Were you any good?”

There was a long pause. “I still can’t do the doggy paddle.”

Before I could control myself this time, I actually laughed at that. “You’re an idiot,” I said, shaking my head, and as much as I tried to, the smile wouldn’t come off just yet.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that was what my swim teacher wanted to say to me countless times.”

I couldn’t get back to my laps since he started going on about his swimming lesson experiences. Most times I would have ignored his stories, yet I’ll admit, listening to someone have a hard time in something I know I’m great at – or maybe, was great at, is always fun, as conceited as it may sound.

Austin was sharing a story about his grandmother beating him at freestyle when I felt that I had already heard a story just like it. It did not take long for me to remember that he had shared a similar story. Although it was with his grandfather and they were swimming at a lake. He was ten years old and it was his birthday, and he ended up winning the race, only because he knew his grandfather let him.

I looked down at the water and I realized we had many nights like this before. I’d stay and practice after school, and while everyone else left, I always stayed a bit longer, and he’d always stay with me. He’d sit by the pool edge and time my laps, and every time I stopped to take a break, he’d start talking about something funny that happened to him during the day.

I remembered I always looked forward to hear those stories, to hear his voice, every night.

I glanced at Austin, his blond hair, his normal brown eyes, and the cheerful look on his face as he talked about how his grandmother let him win in the end too.

He wasn’t him, he’d never be him.

But despite this, I still felt a shiver run up my back, and I knew it wasn’t the water.

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