I hear a light knock on the door. Who could that be? I lower the volume of the music and look at Larry, who is already looking at the door.

"Who is it?" he yells, paintbrush still in hand.

I hear a deep voice from the door, "Uh, hey. I just moved into 402 and I met your mom, she sent me down here to say hi." the voice says.

I slowly put down the bag of chips, "Doors open!" I yell.

A short blue haired boy with a strange mask walks in. If I hadn't heard his voice, I would have thought he was a girl.

"Woah, that's such a cool mask little dude!" Larry says as he springs up from the easel.

"It's a prosthetic." the boy says, emotionless almost.

Larry turns to me, but I'm focused on the boy.

"Is there a problem, y/n?" Larry asks me. I realized I had zoned out on the boy.

I quickly remove my gaze and look to the floor, embarrassed. "Oh my God, no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" I blurt out.

"Looks like someone has a crush." Larry jokes. He sure does love to embarrass me.

"Shut the hell up Larry!" I snap at him, then turn back to the boy, "I'm sorry about that, I'm y/n, and this is my brother Larry."

He nods, "I'm Sal, my friends call me Sallyface."

Larry bursts out laughing, "I'm sorry man, what kind of friends would call you 'Sallyface'?"

I nudge Larry in the shoulder. He's rude sometimes, even if he doesn't realize it.

"Yeah, bullies at my old school used to call me it so, I just thought the best way to handle it was to own the name so they couldn't use it against me." Sal says.

"Huh- that's, pretty cool." I say.

He looks at me and nods. I notice his pretty blue eyes, because they're the only part of his face I can really see.

Trying not to zone out again, I stand up and turn on Sanity's Fall.

"Listen to this, I think you'd like it." I tell him and turn up the volume.

Me and Larry start to head bang, at first Sal stands there confused, but he joins in soon enough.

"That's crazy good, what's the name?" Sal asks when the song ends.

"Pretty cool, right? It's called Sanity's Fall, it's really the only thing me and y/n listen to." Larry laughs.

I'm glad he likes my music, I can tell we're gonna be great friends.

"Hey, what's your number? I was thinking I could put you in a group chat with Larry and me. Y'know, to talk about music and stuff." I say awkwardly. I'm not one with words.

"Yeah, totally." he says from under the mask. I give him my phone and he puts his number in.

I'm glad the new neighbors my age, I'm tired of listening to Chug whine about food and Todd talk about science stuff, as much as I love them.

"I uh, better get going," Sal says after a minute of silence, "I'm sure my dad wants me to unpack."

Larry and nod as we watch Sal leave. I wonder why he left so soon. Well, I wonder a lot of things about him.

"Dude, you were totally blushing." Larry laughs as we hear the apartment door shut.

I feel my cheeks, "Was I?" I ask.

"Yea dude. It was so obvious." Larry teases me.

"Oh shut up! It's- not like that." I look at the floor again.

Or is it like that? I think to myself.

-

Sunday. I hate Sundays.

The only thing we do in on Sundays is sit around and wait for Monday. It sucks.

I look to my left and see Larry still asleep. Weird. Usually I wake up before him.

I shake him a little bit to wake him up, and he does.

"Dude, you were snoring! Why are you still asleep?" I ask him.

"I went out to the treehouse last night at, like, three." he says, slowly opening his eyes.

"Oh." I say. I don't really know what else to say. He only goes to the treehouse when he's upset, or needs to think. I don't go up there very often. I usually only go if Larry wants to go, but never by myself.

I get up and walk into the kitchen to see my mom making breakfast.

"Hi dear! I didn't see you come in, you were so quiet! I don't feel so good today, so I decided to stay in and make you kiddos some breakfast." she beams.

I really needed her positivity today. I smiled and nodded, "I can take over so you can lay down, mom." I say.

"Oh, don't trouble yourself, dear. It's almost ready anyways!" she says, and starts humming again.

I go back into the bedroom to check my phone, one missed call from Sal. Why would he want to call me? I call him back frantically.

"Hello?" I hear him say over the phone.

"Uh, hey. It's y/n, I was just wondering why you called earlier?" I ask.

"Oh, yeah! I wanted to say that yesterday I got proof that Charley was the killer! I found a pony with a blood splatter on it in his room, took it while he was sleeping and turned it into the police! He's arrested now, I hope I did the right thing." he tells me.

"Woah, nice job! Wait til I tell Larry, I guess you heard him yelling at the cops yesterday, huh?" I say. He must trust us a lot to believe that we were telling the truth.

"Yeah, um, do you maybe wanna hang out today? You and Larry, I mean. I'm kinda nervous about going to a new school, and have nothing better to do." he says.

I process his words for a minute, with both my hands on my phone.

"Yeah, sure! We can, uh, show you around the apartments? Or, whatever. Your choice." I stammer. Why couldn't I just form a normal sentence? He probably thinks I'm
an idiot.

Relief rushes through me when I hear him laugh over the phone, though.

"Sure! I didn't get a chance to look around too much yesterday." he beams.

"Sweet! I'll tell Larry, we can meet you in, like, thirty minutes?" I say, walking around the room and twisting a strand of hair.

"Actually, I'm in the elevator now, if you don't mind." he laughs.

I stop, and look in the mirror. Oh no, he can't see me like this. I think. I run into the bathroom and start to brush my hair.

"Uh, totally! Sounds cool, yeah. Okay, see ya. Bye!" I say. He starts to say something else but I hang up before he finishes talking, and run into my room to find some clothes.

I grab a shirt from the dresser, which I think is Larry's, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

"Nice shirt," Larry says as he walks into the bedroom, "what's the rush?"

"Rush? What rush? I'm just getting ready for.." I stop. I'm getting ready for Sal?

"For?" he says, leaning against the bed.

"Um, Sal's coming over." I say, embarrassed. I look to the floor.

Larry laughs, "Knew it! You like him, dude." he mocks.

"I don't like him! You little-" I'm interrupted by a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" I call out before mom says anything. I think she's laying in her bed now.

I open the door to see Sal staring back at me. I feel the need to fix my hair, even though I know it's fine.

I start to speak, but Larry pops his head in the door, "What's up, little dude?" he says.

"Hey Larry, hey y/n." he says, with a little wave.

"Dude, y/n was running around and brushing her hair and shit for you-" Larry laughs, but I step on his foot to interrupt him. "Ouch!"

"Anyways," I say with a sarcastic smile, "Come on, there's this guy, named David, who has a mannequin as a wife." I say, and brush past Sal to get into the hallway. Larry and Sal follow after me.

-

(Fast forward to after they hang out cause nothing interesting is gonna happen they're just meeting the people in the apartment-)

Me and Larry crash onto the bed before I get back up to turn on Sanity's Fall.

"That was fun. Sals a great dude, no wonder you like him." Larry says, again. It's like he's trying to make me angry.

I don't even feel like getting mad at him for it, cause I know he's not going to shut up about it.

I sigh, "Should we show him the treehouse?" I ask Larry. Larry's never shown anyone the treehouse, but I can tell he trusts Sal, and I do, too.

He looks at me, "What? Um, I don't know. Never shown anyone that." Larry says.

"Maybe he could help with finding dad." I tell Larry. I never got to meet my dad, he left whole my mom was pregnant with me.

"Yeah, maybe. I guess we could show him, I trust the little dude." Larry says, as he gets into bed.

"Me too." I say, falling asleep.

-

I wake up in the middle of the night to a phone ringing. I rub my eyes and get up. I squint at my phone, Sal texted me. Why would he be texting at one?

I read it to myself, "You awake?". I text back,
"Yes, what's wrong?"

It takes him a minute, but he replies, "I had a nightmare about Charley, I just wanted someone to talk to."

I look at the screen for a minute, and smile. Why did I smile?

After a couple seconds, I text back "Want me to come up?"

I didn't think I was gonna be able to fall asleep after that, anyways.

He texts back, "If you can, if that's okay?"

I put on slippers and quietly open the door and walk to the elevator.

-

NOTE: Sorry, this is taking forever! But in the next chapter, you'll actually get to talk to Sal. This chapter took longer to write than expected! Thank you everyone who read the last chapter!! <33