*My Edit*

The first night in their new apartment. Sounds peaceful, doesn't it? Well, it was, expect for one, and that was Earl.

The tenor had woken up to strange knocking sounds. It was as if pulled straight from a horror film, as least, his reaction was.

The first night in a new home, and you hear odd sounds? That was more than enough to push Earl a little over the edge. To the extent where he tiptoed down the hallway, eyes sharp and alert, to Geoff's room.

He didn't want to wake up the others, since he knew he'd get an earful of cranky guys in the morning, so he decided he'd only bother one of them.

With caution in his step, he neared the bass's bedside. It had seemed that his sneaking tactics succeeded, because the strawberry-blond didn't seem to stir even the slightest bit. The fact that he seemed so relaxed was the only thing holding the tenor back from waking him up.

But, nevertheless, Earl have Geoff's shoulder a firm shake, whispering, "Geoff, hey! Wake up, buddy."

The bass's eyes shut tightly and a low grumble escaped his lips. "It's not time for work yet..." before the taller man attempted turn onto his side, away from Earl, but the tenor stopped him and slapped his cheek softly.

"Geoff, can you hear that, too?" Earl asked in reference to the noises as his eyes glanced towards the hallway.

Geoff took in a deep breath before his hands rubbed his brown eyes tiredly, "Hear what?" he asked airily with a yawn.

"That." Earl mentioned just as the sound happened once more. The bass paused for a second with his nose crinkled and if trying to concentrate.

The bass decided to give up and finally turned into his side before saying, "If it's not the sound of breakfast, I don't care." his words were slurred slightly.

"Seriously, man!" Earl tried to reason, also trying to keep his voice down so he wouldn't wake the others up.

"'Seriously' my @$$..." Geoff mumbled as he snuggled into the sheets a bit more.

Without warning, the blond decided it was hopeless trying to convince his friend, so he yanked the blanket straight off him. As the chill attacked Geoff, he quickly curled up into a ball and groaned. "Earl!" he moaned, "Gimme da blanket back, —"

"Not until you at least check it out." Earl answered. "I'm about eighty-four percent sure it's an actual demon."

"Go wake up Layne then... isn't he into the Harry Potter thing...?" Geoff whined.

"Come on, Geoff." Earl rolled his eyes and tossed the blanket aside much to the bass's pleads of dismay. "Get up."

Geoff groggily got up, sounding more like a living earthquake than a human being. The bass followed the tenor out the door, dragging his feet as he did so. He yawned as he rubbed her eyes once more and tried to awaken his mind a bit more.

When Earl heard the sound once more he quickly stopped, halting Geoff dead in his tracks as well. A few quick moments after the sound, Earl whispered loudly, "Did you hear it?"

Geoff blinked and glanced around the room. "Yeah..." he confirmed as his eyes scanned the area around them for where the sound may have come from. "If anything it's a rat or something... and it sounds like it's probably in the vents."

"... Even if it is a rodent, do you actually think I could sleep with that thought in my head?" Earl retaliated, crossing his arms over his chest and giving Geoff a sassy look.

"Go sleep in Layne's room then." Geoff answered simply, amusement playing on his pink lips. "Tony probably won't let you near his room and Eli's too picky. Layne's your best bet. Hell, he'd probably thrown a friggin' slumber party."

Earl shook his head with both stubbornness and absolute sureness, "I won't be able to sleep with that noise. Geoff, it's creepy!"

"Aghh," Geoff groaned exasperatedly, "okay, okay, in the morning, I'll tell the landlord about it if it'll make you happy."

"Thank you." Earl said gratefully with a sigh of relief. "At least it will make you look crazier than I am..."

Geoff gave him a look and was about to reply with a snarky comment, when there was a distant 'thud' come behind a wall. "What was that?" he finally asked, deciding it was too loud to be from a rat or a mouse.

"Maybe if the ghost that still roams these floors... The ghost of the former resident of apartment eleven..." Earl began dramatically, earning look from Geoff, who rolled his brown eyes.

"You seriously need to stop watching horror films." he commented as he slowly followed the apparent direction of the sound.

Earl followed the taller man, but when caught a glimpse of a short figure, he let out a sharp yelp. The bass reacted quickly and glanced back with wide brown eyes, "Earl?!"

There was another surprised cry before Earl felt something smack the side of his face. Then, no other than Eli's voice, said in breathless shock, "Wait, Earl? Geoff?"

"Eli?" Earl repsonded with a hand on the side of his stinging face, "Seriously, man? ... Is that a comb?" he asked as he caught sight of the object in his hand, held like a baseball bat.

"What're you guys doing awake?" Eli exasperated, "You look like a bunch of robbers sneaking around like that!"

"You hit Earl with a comb?" Geoff asked, still apparently not over that, "A comb? Your first line of defense is a hairbrush? Remind me to teach you guys some self-defense one day..."

"That's not the point!" Eli argued, lowering the brush.

Earl sighed, "We've been living alone too long." he sighed with his voice calming, "Have you been hearing the weird noises, too?" Earl asked the shorter man, implying that was the reason they were awake.

"What? No. I haven't heard anything." Eli answered with a slightly confused look, furrowing his brows.

"Geoff heard it, too. So, just informing you, I am not crazy. There's friggin' demons living in here." Earl stated firmly to get his point across.

"It's probably just a rat, Eli. No need to worry, Earl's just heard too many ghost stories." Geoff replied blandly, crossing his arms over his chest and standing straight.

"A rat?" Eli asked in revolting disgust, "That's supposed to make me feel better? I'd take Bloody Mary over a rat any day!"

Geoff, who heard even more rustling come from the hallway, quickly hushed them, saying in a sharp whisper, "Guys,
hush!"

The two faded into a silence as the bass slowly made his way over to the door and opened it as quietly as he could. He was almost completely sure that the sound was coming from the other side of the door.

Just when Geoff opened the door and stepped out into the hallway with his brown eyes scanning the shadows of the hallway, a dog came bounding down the hall and barked once before nearly tackling Geoff to the ground.

"Woah!" Geoff exclaimed in surprise as the dog stood on it's two hind legs to shove it's nose in Geoff's face and cover him with doggy-kisses. "Hey, there!"

The dog's tail wagged happily as the taller man rubbed it's pelt.

"There you are!" a woman's voice exclaimed strictly to the dog. Geoff managed to open one eye and find a shorter blonde woman running towards him. "I am so sorry about that! He gets excited when there are new people." she explained honestly as she grabbed the dog's collar.

"That's OK," Geoff answered as the dog fell back onto all fours and leaned his head down to sniff Geoff's black socks. "He's a nice looking dog." he commented, using his forearm to try and wipe the doggy slobber from his face.

The woman quickly clipped the leash onto the collar and tried to control the dog. "Thanks. This wasn't how I was planning on meeting you." she let out an awkward laugh, "And I'm so sorry if he woke you up, he just needed to figure out who moved in next door."

"Oh, so you're our neighbor?" he asked with a friendly smile.

Kirstie nodded before she blinked and asked the taller man, "'Our neighbor'?"

Geoff paused before it came to him, "Right. Yeah, there's five of us. Speaking of which..." he remembered before turning to peer back into the house, "Guys, come meet our neighbor." he called into the house.

Geoff glanced back, "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name." he mentioned.

The girl smiled before saying in a soft voice, "I'm Kirstie. And you are?"

"Geoff," the man offered out his hand, "Geoff Castellucci." The two shook hands before Earl and Eli finally peeked into the hallway. They both came out, and Earl was first to greet the young woman.

"What the hell's going on?" came Tony's exhausted, yet confused voice as he also came up to the door. Once he caught sight of the girl, he blinked before he stood there awkwardly.

"Oh, hi." he said, noting that he probably looked like a mess. He moved passed Geoff and went up to shake her hand just as the others had. "I— um, I'm Tony, by the way."

She smiled warmly before shaking his hand, saying, "I'm Kirstie." she replied before mentally counting the four men in front of her. "I thought you said there was five of you." she commented to Geoff.

"Oh, yeah. Layne's probably still asleep." Geoff answered, "Sometimes you can't wake that guy up worth the life of you."

"Well, I look forward to meeting him then." she mentioned, pulling on her dog's leash as she prepared to leave. "I should probably let you guys get ready them. It was nice to meet all of you."

"It was nice to meet you, too." Eli answered before he waved goodbye to the girl.

The guys then went back inside the apartment.

"She seemed sweet." Eli commented positively as the sun started to beam though their blinds.

"I'm just glad it wasn't a ghost." Earl answered in relief, causing Geoff to roll his eyes.

"Dammit," Tony sighed as he looked in the mirror and tried to tame the wild strands of black hair. "my hair must've looked like I was homeless or something."

"Relax, Tony." Earl rolled his eyes, "She probably gets it that you just woke up."

"Yeah," Eli agreed, "and not to mention that some women are attracted to messy hair." he tried to point out optimistically.

Tony sighed, "Sure. Whatever. I gotta get ready for work." then, he paused as a thought occurred to him, "Wait, why we're all of you up so early?"

"They were being loud." Eli pointed the blame to the two other men in the room.

"Earl woke me up." Geoff answered blandly, throwing the blame onto the tenor.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault it sounded like ghosts were haunting our apartment." Earl stated, holding his hands up in defense.

"Well, can you be a little quieter next time?" Tony asked, "'cause it sounded like the cries of a friggin' undead." he was clearly referring to Geoff's deep groaning.

Just as Tony made his way to the hallway, Eli followed, "I'd say more dying whale." he commented teasingly with a finger on his chin.

"Ha ha," Geoff fake laughed, though he couldn't help but smile just a little, "very funny."

~•~

ScarletMIX