the propinquity effect

01

+ 01 +

I took my Xbox controller from the coffee table and sat down on the fluffy carpet. My hands had been aching since I had not played my Xbox in a while since I had examinations. But after it was all finished, I had a month worth of summer holiday so I was excited.

Mom knew I was going to play all day long and she knew she could not do anything about it since my Xbox and I were practically inseparable. I turned it on from the controller itself and started to choose the game I was going to play. Since Call of Duty took my attention the first I decided to play it.

Five minutes into the game a soft knock came from the door and I let out a loud grunt. No one would usually dare to interfere with my game day except for my little sister, Lexi, or Mom. I stood up slowly while still holding my blanket above my head and opened the door.

Lexi stood there with a plate of cake and I raised one of my eyebrows at her. What a considerate sister I have, no she isn't considerate maybe she was only teasing me. She knew I would do anything for the cake but she wouldn't give it to me.

"What?" I spat and she smiled, she might be only four but she had annoyed the shit out of me it was almost impossible. Her black curly hair fell messily on her shoulders.

"Mom said you need to give this cake to the new neighbor beside us," Lexi stated. I scoffed and put my controller on the floor while throwing my blanket along. Why couldn't Mom do it herself?

"Why won't Mom do it herself?" I questioned my little sister in front of me and she shrugged her shoulders. I took the plate from her hand and shut my door with my foot.

"Fine, ugh." I moaned miserably and went down the stairs to go to the next door. I had never been there since they just moved in a couple of days before and I had no intention on finding out who they were. I was going to spend my summer alone and alone was how I was going to spend it because:

One) I hate the human population

Two) I hate the fact that I need to socialize

Three) We cannot trust humans

I almost fell down when I slipped on the last step but then managed to get up again. Mom was cooking in the kitchen and she looked pretty serious cooking whatever she was cooking; I walked out of the front door and slipped into my shoes. The boundary between the neighbors and us was only a low fence but we always didn't have the need to talk to them since we had each other.

I walked towards the white colored house and rang the doorbell with my elbow. A few distinct chatters were heard from inside, maybe they were arguing on who should open the door. But after a good five seconds a middle-aged woman with a daughter clinging on her foot opened it.

She looked friendly and I guessed she was the mom while the one on her foot was her daughter. I greeted her daughter with a smile and she blushed.

"Oh! I'm really sorry, I forgot. Uh, here's something from my mom because she likes to bake cakes but you know, doesn't know who to share it with. And I'd like to say a personal welcome to the neighborhood." I said to the woman and gave her the chocolate cake. Her daughter looked like she could drool over the cake any second but contained herself.

"Thank you so much, both my daughter and I really like cakes. But my son, eh, not so much," The woman stated. So then she had a son, great, maybe he was one of those rebellious teenagers that would smoke and would go around the neighborhood naked. And I would be forced to have sex with him or something, worse if he was in the same age.

"That's good news, my name is Alexa by the way. You can call me Lexa." I stated and crouched down to speak to her daughter. She has green - eyes and pale skin that matched her mother's. Her hair was blonde and straight, she is the complete opposite of my sister.