Semua Bab The Guy Who Lives Next Door : Bab 1 - Bab 9

“Mom… do we really have to move?”Ruby asked the question even though she already knew the answer. The highway stretched endlessly in front of their car, New York license plates passing them every few minutes, reminding her that they were getting closer. Too close.Her mother exhaled in that tired way that made Ruby feel guilty. “Ruby… we talked about this. The job is good for me. It’s safer. It’s a fresh start for us.”A fresh start. Everyone kept saying that, but it felt more like a clean erasing. Everything Ruby knew—her old school, her friends, the street she grew up on—was being wiped from her life like chalk from a board.Ruby turned her face to the window, watching trees blur into concrete. “I just… I don’t fit in there. I know I won’t.”“You haven’t even tried yet.”“I don’t need to try. I know.”Her mom’s silence said she didn’t agree, but she also didn’t push. She rarely did anymore. Not since the divorce. Not since everything fell apart.Ruby hugged her backpack closer, the

Ruby had been in the house for five hours.Five.That was all it took for the universe to personally target her.She had just finished unpacking the last of her clothes and collapsed face-first on her bed when the shaking started. At first, she thought it was construction—because why not? The universe had a sense of humor. But then the bass hit, a low, vibrating thump-thump-thump that rattled her wall like someone was repeatedly kicking it.It wasn’t construction.It was a party.Next door.Her new next door.Ruby rolled onto her back, stared at the ceiling, and tried to breathe through the pulsating music. People shouted, splashed water, laughed the kind of loud, chaotic laughter only possible when alcohol was involved, and for some reason—because why wouldn’t this be happening—someone kept blowing a whistle like they were refereeing a pool Olympics.Ruby grabbed her pillow and shoved it over her face.It didn’t help.Not even close.After twenty minutes of trying to pretend she was

Ruby knew—deep in her soul—the morning was cursed the moment she opened her eyes and saw sunlight where sunlight absolutely should not have been.“NO,” she gasped, bolting upright.Her alarm hadn’t gone off.Correction: she’d forgotten to set her alarm because she’d been too busy replaying Kai’s creepy, smug warning in her head until 2 a.m.She tumbled out of bed and nearly face-planted into a box labeled “WINTER CLOTHES,” then scrambled around her room like a panicked raccoon.She brushed her hair.She hated it.She brushed it again.Still hated it.As if summoned by chaos, her mom called from the kitchen, “Ruby, honey! You’re gonna miss the—”“I KNOW!” Ruby yelled back, tripping as she tried to pull on jeans that suddenly felt two sizes too small.She sprinted downstairs, grabbed the nearest travel mug, and—Spilled hot coffee straight down the front of her only clean shirt.“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” she shrieked.Her mom blinked at her. “Maybe you should change?”“I don’t have time to

For the next two days, Ruby avoided Kai like he was radioactive.But Kai made that impossible.He took her usual seat in class.He “accidentally” bumped into her twice in the hallway.He stole her pen off her desk without even looking at her.Ruby gritted her teeth and kept her head down.It was working… until lunch.She tried to slip past Kai’s table unnoticed.Except someone said, “Kai, isn’t that your neighbor?”Ruby froze.Kai turned lazily, gaze sliding over her with calculated boredom.Ruby tried to mutter, “I’m not your—”And that was when it happened.She accidentally insulted him.Right in front of his entire table.He’d said something—something arrogant and smug—and Ruby snapped, “Maybe if you used your brain once in a while, you’d—”The table went silent.Kai’s smirk sharpened.Ruby’s heart pounded.Oh no.Oh no, no, no.“She had just declared war.”Silence.The cafeteria didn’t usually go silent — not even when teachers yelled — but somehow, Ruby managed to shut down an en

Ruby waited until Kai was completely gone—until his footsteps faded, until the echo of his presence dissolved into the noisy hallways—before she let her body move again.Her hands shook. Her knees felt weak. Her lungs burned with the effort of holding everything in.She needed to hide.She needed a door. A lock. Silence.Somewhere she could fall apart without an audience.She pushed through the bathroom door, and the second it swung shut behind her, she ran into the nearest stall and locked it.The metal click sounded too loud.Her breath sounded too loud.Everything was too loud.Ruby slid down until she was sitting on the closed toilet seat, burying her face in her hands.And then—She broke.---Breaking QuietlyTears spilled fast, hot, uncontrollable.She didn’t sob loudly. She cried the quiet, shaking kind—the kind that tightened her throat and made her chest ache like she had swallowed a stone.Her mind replayed everything:The spilled lunch.The laughter.Zara’s panicked face.