WHEN I finally blinked awake into the morning, the first thought that crossed my mind was murder.

     And not just any murder, really. A specific murder. A murder that had anything and everything to do with the music that was ruthlessly ripping to shreds any hope of my well-deserved sleep.

     "Please, no, no, this cannot be happening," I groaned into my mattress, pulling my pillow tight over my head in a pathetic attempt to block out the awful sound. "Not again, not today."

     It did not work. Nothing worked. Everything was awful.

     I drew in a deep breath to soothe the swelling fury that was growing inside me, but it was hopeless. Hope had officially been tied to cement blocks and drowned out in a river of steady beats and guitar riffs.

     In through the nose, and out through the mouth. We are calm, cool, and collected. We will not murder anyone today.

     When I squeezed my eyes shut, forcefully willing myself to fall back asleep, I almost managed to convince myself that it was actually working.

     Until I had to admit that the irritating thump of bass was still very loud and still very there and still very much tempting me to commit homicide.

     "Go away, please, if there is any good in the world, please, I promise I'll never illegally download anything ever again," I tried to bargain with whatever entity that would listen, burying myself deeper within my blankets.

      The next thought that crossed my mind was where I'd be able to find any medieval torture tools on short notice. I bet a spiked mace could fix my problem. Craigslist, maybe?  

     Groaning for the umpteenth time, I flung my pillow across the room, hearing it crash into my desk chair but paying it no mind. My eyes were trained on the ceiling in a glare, because that was all my body could muster. Moving seemed like a terrible idea, but sadly, inevitable. The racket of outside continued to bleed in through my shut window, the glass creating no protection from my sanity, and I cursed him.

     Him who I knew was the reason for this awful happening, like most of the unfortunate events that had cursed my life as of late. Him who, one way or another, was going to end up with a mace in his face. Because I was as determined as I was eBay savvy.

     Someone was going to die, and the asshole next door was first on my list.

     I ripped off my thick duvet, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes with the heel of my palm as corrosive rage burned in the pit of my stomach. My retinas were burning against the light, and like clockwork, another groan spilled past my lips.

     With only pure hatred motivating my body, I dragged myself over to the window, pulling the blinds up to be met with the familiar sight of my neighbourhood. All green lawns and elm trees in the heart of suburbia. This, unfortunately, included my new next door neighbour- also known as The Antichrist, or the person who was blaring his music unspeakably loud on a Saturday morning.

     I usually just called him the worst person alive.

     Shoving my window open, I stuck out my head. My bedhead and polar bear pajama t-shirt were just afterthoughts to the meticulously planned homicide unfolding in my mind.

     And there, unsurprisingly, I found Reese.

     In all his light brown hair and tanned skin infamy, aviators perched amongst the pretentiously tousled waves of his hair, stood Reese. He had these infuriating dimples digging into his cheeks, and all I wanted to do was carve them out. With a sharp object. Preferably a machete.

     "Hey, what the fuck?" I snapped, glaring daggers at the boy who was nonchalantly wiping down the hood of his candy apple red car.

     All the doors were flung open, releasing a torrent of sound some might call music, but I would call the soundtrack to his eventual murder.

     He paused, looking up and greeting me with that signature Powers grin. All mischief and teeth, spread way too wide. He waved, standing ever so casually in front of his stupid car he always had to stupid clean so stupid early while listening to his stupid music.

     "Good morning to you too, sunshine!" he called back.

     I flipped him off.

     "It's seven in the morning, have some goddamn respect and turn that awful racket down!" I barked, hoping that I could access some long lost telekinetic powers and make Reese's head explode.

     I narrowed my eyes.

    Not today, at least. But there was always tomorrow.

     "Hey, calm down, Stella," he said, but the smirk curved on his face only served to infuriate me more. "We don't want you to break a hip or anything, grandma."

     "Oh, how original, I'm Reese Powers, and I'm so funny!" I sneered, dripping with sarcasm as I threw my arms around melodramatically, because it was the morning, and logical thought process was a job for afternoon Stella.

     His grin seemed to inexplicably widen.

     Reese only waved mockingly in response. I could feel my blood vessels on the verge of breaking, so I slammed my window shut, if only because I knew the rage bubbling inside could not be good for my health. And I was half-considering flinging myself towards my death in the only hope that I could fall on him and take Reese down with me.

     Despite everything, though, the music was still there. The bass was punctuated in the air, and I couldn't bring myself to fight it. Instead, I heaved a frustrated groan and stalked out my bedroom door.

     Not today, and maybe not even tomorrow, but one day- oh, one day, Reese Powers was going to pay.

     How I ended up even living next to the most insufferable person to ever curse the earth, I did not know. Maybe I was a mass murderer in a past life and this was my cruel and eternal punishment to endure.

     Or, well, until I moved out next year for college, but really, that seemed like an eternity away.

     I managed to drag my body downstairs into the kitchen, seduced by the smell of bacon, and came to be not disappointed. My older brother stood in front of the stove, bobbing his head to the music only he heard in his head, wearing boxers and a tank top. His dark brown hair was merely a shorter version of the chaos that made up my own.

     He was humming an all too-familiar tone,  also victim to Reese's disrespectful shenanigans, and I groaned again. Because that was all my life was made up of. Groaning and bacon.

     "Oh god, stop it," I complained, slapping a hand across my forehead as I sat down at the marble kitchen nook. "I'm getting war flashbacks. If you keep going, I swear to all that is good in the world, you will die."

     He arched an eyebrow at me. "What? It's catchy. And glad to see that mom's zen training is really working out for you. I see you're definitely using the ten second rule by the way you were screaming like a lunatic to the entire neighbourhood."

     "Sounds like you're no longer a twenty year old leaching off your parents and playing video games in the basement all day! Oh wait," I paused, waiting for a response, but Chris only glared. I grinned, triumphantly. "Sucker."

     The sour look on his face dropped as he turned his attention back to the frying pan, shrugging. "Sounds like someone doesn't want bacon."

     "Hey now, let's all be rational adults here," I cut in, flashing him a cheeky grin. "We wouldn't want someone telling mom that her scratched up bumper isn't from some asshole at the grocery store."

     Chris's lips thinned and he shot me a sharp stare, as if it could have any effect on me after two months of holding the scratched bumper over his head. Still, he put out two plates anyways with a pointed roll of his eyes. 

     Mid-way through breakfast, I heard the front door open.

     "Hello, my lovelies!" sang the familiar voice of Savannah, with it striding in my best friend.

     Her light blonde hair was curled to perfection as always, virgin sacrifices were involved I was sure, and her pale lips were set into a soft smile. I instantly felt my mood brighten, and Chris grinned, waving at her.

     "This morning was horrible," I whined, patting down the seat next to me for her to sit.

     Savannah chuckled, setting her ridiculously large teal purse on the counter and planting herself next to me. "So I've heard, Chris texted me that you were already up and wreaking havoc on the neighbourhood, so I thought I'd come over before you hulked out."

     I scoffed, eyebrows jumping up my forehead. "I'm wreaking havoc? I'm not the one blasting their damn music at seven in the goddamn morning. Do you know how early that is? I'm clearly the victim here."

     Savannah shrugged, amusement written across her face. "I'll be sure to tell that to the leading detective when Reese's body is found in little pieces across your lawn."

     "Ha," I deadpanned, and then paused, turning to my brother who was chewing his bacon in the corner, scrolling through his phone, already checked out. "Also, Chris, if you could delete her number and any other numbers associated with any of my underage friends, that would be great, you pervert."

"I'm not gonna date any of your friends, calm down," he mockingly reassured me, rolling his eyes. "How else am I supposed to get Savannah to come over to stop you from Godzilla stomping the entire neighbourhood? Use a bat signal?"

I pulled a face with the same level of maturity. "I'm not worried about you dating them, they have standards. I'm just saying if you even try that I'm going to gouge out your eyes."

As my brother touched his face, horrified, Savannah laughed with a bright grin. "On the topic of homicide, maybe we should agree that we shouldn't do it? Right, Stells?"

I paused for a moment, pressing a finger to my mouth in thoughtful consideration. "Is it homicide if it's justified? If it's clearly what the people want?"

"I think you're forgetting that at last years' charity auction Reese went for 300 dollars, which was a record. By like, a lot." Savannah cocked a brow, the edge of her lips quirked upward.

I waved her off. "Freshman are stupid and they were clearly under his mind control, which is awful, so the only thing you're proving is that killing him would make me a hero."

"And land you in prison," she added.

"Nelson Mandela went to prison and then Morgan Freeman played him in a movie." I shrugged and took another bite of my bacon.

Savannah's sympathetic smile did not look wholly convinced. "I don't think that's how it works."

Chris snorted, not even bothering to peel his eyes away from his phone. "Are we acting surprised here? No one claimed she was smart."

I glared and pointed an accusing finger at him. "Bumper!"

His eyes grew a fraction wider before he swiped up his plate and held up his free hand in caution, backing out of the room. "I'm outta here. If you murder anyone, don't implicate me or I will rat you out without a second thought."

I send him off with a very special finger and he grins before disappearing back into his basement lair. Savannah waves him goodbye, and I don't have the heart to dim her internal sparkle, so I let it go.

"Why are you the only person around me who isn't completely the worst?" I sighed, swivelling around in my stool to face Savannah again.

She raised her brows. "Are you talking about Chris or Reese here?"

"Chris and Reese, but mostly Reese, honestly. Chris I can deal with. Reese, well, I'm pretty sure only a barbed wire baseball bat can deal with him."

     "Is he really, really that bad?"

     I blinked at her in a way that wondered how someone so beautiful could be so ignorant. "Yes, he's really that bad. You don't know, Sav. You're not here- you think he's just living peacefully next to me? No. He's loud, and he's obnoxious, and he's stupid.  I'm telling you, Lucifer re-born," I insisted with furrowed brows, angrily chewing my bacon.

      How something as amazing as bacon and something as terrible as Reese could exist in the same universe, I did not know.

     Savannah laughed, shaking her head. "C'mon, it's only been a month. How about the breathing techniques thing, have you been using those lately?"

     I shot her the same look that I gave my brother and mom and everyone else who thought they had a doctorate in psychology after watching an Oprah episode. "I don't think 'breathing techniques' work when you're dealing with the Antichrist."

      She sighed, relenting, and leaned her chin in the palm of her hand. "How about we go back to my place? We can watch some movies and then my mom's making lasagna for dinner."

     "Lasagna? Why are we even here if there's lasagna?" I managed muffled noises of excitement through the wad of chewed up food still in my mouth.

     A piece of bacon may or may not have flew from my mouth and onto the plate.

     "All right, first swallow. Then finish your bacon and get dressed, and I'll drive," she said with a chuckle, dangling her keys in her hand. "You do know she hasn't even made it yet, right?"

     I shot her a look as if that mattered.

     In record breaking speeds, I raced to my room and threw in whatever looked the most clean and then hopped down the stairs.

     "All ready!" I announced, arms wide.

     Savannah sat up from the couch, where she'd been watching TV and gave me a thumbs up. "Looking glorious as always," she beamed.

     "Your sweater's inside out," Chris snorted as he materialized from the basement.

     I frowned, reaching behind my neck to feel that the zip-up may have had the tag sticking out on the other side.

     "I meant to do that," I mumbled, switching it the right way as Savannah fished her keys out her pocket.

     "Of course." She shot me a warm grin, stepping onto the porch.

     Outside the remnants of summer were still in the air, a warm breeze kissing my exposed skin to greet me out the door. With school on Monday's horizon, it was crazy to think that Savannah and I were both about to embark on our senior year, the four years seemingly flashing by in an instant.

     A smile quirked on my mouth at the thought, but was immediately wiped off by the familiar face of Reese.

     "Hello ladies," he called out, leaning against his stupid car.

     It absolutely astounded me that no one else thought it was strange that he sounded exactly like the serial killer in every single crime show basically ever.

     Savannah waved politely, and I flipped him off.

     "You've been coming over a lot, Savannah. I didn't know you guys were such close friends," he mused, and there was a mischievous glint in his eyes I was not very fond of.

     "The less you know about me or anyone around me, the better," I snapped, and forcefully pushed Savannah forward towards the car.

     The less time I was forced to spend around his suffocating presence, the better, and I was already feeling the poison set in my bloodstream.

      I was working on a theory that being around Reese was actually detrimental to my health. I was hoping that would be enough grounds to get a restraining order.

     When we were peeling out of the driveway, Reese's eyes never left the car, and I couldn't deny the anticipating knot that formed in my stomach. I didn't like the way he was staring, but it was probably nothing, I reassured myself.

     I turned my attention back to Savannah and grinned.

     "Lasagna!"

***

Here is the first chapter, hope you guys like! And thanks for reading! I'm really excited to start this story, and I have big things coming up, just you wait!