Vic: I got the van, I’ll be there in a bit
Naira: Ok, Maya and I moved all the boxes downstairs so it should be easy
Vic: Never call moving easy
Naira: Trust me, I know, it was only some time ago that I had done this last. This will be the easy part, to get all my stuff to my apartment will be a whole lot more difficult. We’ll keep having to go up and down, up and down, up and down
Vic: Well, if you put it that way, this might be a lot more fun than I had expected ;)
Naira: Vic!! I meant the elevator!
Vic: Whatever you’re into
Naira: :(
Vic: Ok, ok, I’m sorry. I’m driving off now, see you in a bit.

Naira’s POV
I closed the door to what used to be my room, but was now back to being Maya’s guest room. All of my belongings had been moved back into the cardboard boxes I had used when I had moved here initially. Back then, I was so nervous, moving far away from my dad to a place that was completely unknown to me, living with my best friend who I had never met in real life, hoping to get a job I hadn’t even had an interview for. This time, however, it was different. Yes, I was still nervous, because I was going to be living all by myself, but it wasn’t covering as much unknown territory. I had friends, I had my best friend, I had my boyfriend, and my job was still waiting for me every day. Things weren’t as new anymore, and I still lived close to everybody. This was just a necessary step to make, as much as I would have loved to live with Maya forever. It was better to do it now than later in life and have serious issues with leaving each other.

If everything did go wrong, however, I could always leave the place in three months again. My contract started at me staying for at least three months and then I got to decide whether or not I wanted to stay each month after that. Not that I was necessarily planning on moving out any earlier than three months. I would have just gotten settled into this place, but then I’d have to pack all my stuff and go again. It just didn’t make any sense, and it wasn’t like I had any place to go to anyway.

“Are you sure you have to leave?” Maya pouted as she stared at the man boxes that had taken up all the space around her front door. I could tell she didn’t want me to leave and that she really enjoyed having another person around constantly, but maybe this would be that last push she needed to actually give Mike a chance.

I nodded, not planning on changing my mind unless she came up with a really good reason for me not to. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have weekly sleepovers!”

“But you always work to late in the night…”

“Well, then I’ll bring my work here and we will drink a bottle of wine while I do it, just like we’ve done the last couple of months.” I tried to reason. It definitely was going to be a lot more difficult to spend time together, especially since my free time now had to be shared between her and Vic. It wasn’t like all my mornings and most of my evenings were with her. I now practically only had Friday evening and the weekend to spend with either of them. Well, I could always stay over on a school night if they offered to bring me to work the next day.

“You promise?” She asked, looking sadder as time went by and Vic kept coming closer and closer to the house.

“Of course!” I exclaimed and hugged her tightly, standing on my tiptoes to be able to whisper into her ear, “make sure you eat three meals every day, though. I will know if you don’t.”

“Don’t threaten me!” She laughed as we both pulled away, but I gave her another stern look to let her know I wasn’t joking around. I really believed she had the capability of getting better, and I didn’t want her to lose all the progress she had been making.

Just as I was about to warn her again, the doorbell went, signifying that Vic had arrived with the van that had to help us move all my boxes into my apartment. I didn’t exactly have any furniture yet, meaning there was no bed nor any chairs in sight, but I still decided to move that day. All the furniture I had ordered were coming the day afterward and I was going to spend the night at Vic’s. The plan might have sounded weird to some people, but to me, it made perfect sense.

I quickly jumped over to the door and opened it to find Vic stuffing his phone and keys into the pockets of his jeans. He looked up surprised, not having expected somebody to open so quickly, especially here. Usually, Maya and I took at least five minutes to open the door while constantly screaming ‘I’m coming’.

“Were you waiting for me?” He smirked, giving me a chaste kiss and letting himself inside.

“No…” I blushed even though I knew he’d only think me being excited about his arrival was cute, “I was talking to Maya, and we coincidentally were here.”

“Oh, shut up,” Maya scoffed, rolling her eyes in a joking manner, “you were totally waiting for him.”

I quickly decided to change the subject, knowing that they would otherwise continue to tease me for the rest of the time until Vic and I left. From where I was still standing at the door, I could see the van, wondering how anybody could drive something like that without having a special license. I asked Vic, “how do you ride a thing that big?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged innocently, “I should ask you.”

Maya immediately burst out laughing, loving the stage my relationship with Vic was at now. We were at that point where we could make dirty jokes without offending or weirding out the other, but he still knew it annoyed the hell out of me, especially if there were other people around. I couldn’t even recall him making these jokes back when we weren’t dating yet.

“He’s just being a dick, because he hasn’t gotten laid in a week,” I retorted, giving him a sly smirk back, and closing the door.

“Oh my god, Vic, how have you been holding up!” Maya gasped dramatically, looking at him as if something terrible had overcome him, as if this was the worst thing in the world.

“I know, it’s been very difficult,” he nodded, putting a hand to his heart like this was something difficult to talk about.

“Shut up and help me move all these boxes into the van,” I threatened, not wanting this to turn into me being the one who being teased again, “or that week will turn into two.”

“You won’t do that!” Vic gulped, looking at me as if he were expecting me to tell him that I was just kidding.

I stared him right in the eyes, hoping to be as intimidating as possible. “Watch me.”

“Well, Maya, it was nice talking to you, see you sometime around, he smiled and nodded at her, immediately picking up two boxes and leaving the house as I opened the front door for him.

Who knew such a small threat could have such a big outcome. I just thought it was funny that he actually believed me without putting up a fight. Maybe he just knew that making another comment would actually make me go through with it, rather than it just being a thing I said. I could definitely use this to my advantage for the rest of the day. Of course, I would only make him do silly things, though.

“Look at you being manipulative. You’ve learned well,” Maya approved, giving me a pat on the back, “I’d never have expected you to be this.”

“Maya, I work with young kids, I know how to get people to shut up and do what I want them to do,” I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help but grin along with her.

“Yes, but you’ve managed to make it work on a full grown man.”

“It is pretty funny…” I agreed and decided to pick up some boxes as well.

As much as I would have liked to trick Vic into doing it all for me, which he probably would have done, I actually wanted to move everything into my apartment before the sun went down. If he had to do all the work, this would take way longer than it should have. I actually wanted to go to bed at a reasonable time, there was no way I was going to staying up all night just so that all my stuff was in the apartment.

Along with Maya’s help, all my belongings were put in the back of the van, and I said my last goodbye to her. It wasn’t a really sad or upsetting thing because I knew I was still going to see her pretty often. But still, we weren’t going to see each other every day anymore, so a long hug was definitely included. As much as I would have loved to be her roommate forever, this was eventually going to happen someday.

I was pretty lucky to have a boyfriend who used to drive an RV for extended periods of time, because he knew how to handle this larger vehicle. You technically didn’t need anything but a normal driver's license, but I did not trust myself. I mean, I rarely drove a car, how the hell was I going to drive something of such size and weight? No, really, it would not have ended well. Fortunately, Vic still knew a couple of things from touring around in an RV and said this was easy for him. I really didn’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t been there to help.

Getting all the boxes into the lobby of the apartment complex also wasn’t all too difficult, but getting them up to the fifth floor was. The stairs were obviously a no-go, and the elevator was definitely not going to fit everything in it. We were going to have to make a couple of trips, always taking a couple of boxes along while also making sure one of us fit in, but was also able to carry all them all into the apartment. One of us was going to have to stay in the lobby so that we could keep an eye on the stuff. You never know what could possibly happen.

“Ok, I’ll go first, because I have the key,” I told Vic and pressed the button to call the lift, “then when I get back, you get to go up. We’ll keep switching.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He nodded and kissed me just as the elevator door opened.

I took the first three boxes up with me, quickly taking them out and unlocking my door. I decided it would be ok to keep the door open here and moved all the boxes into the small space before the living room. However, there was no way everything was going to fit there before we moved everything to the right room. So, when I went back downstairs, I suggested that we just put all the boxes in the hallway at the elevator for the time being. I didn’t seem like it was going to cause a problem for anybody. So, that’s what we did. One of us would go up, taking a couple of things along, put them in the hallway and went back downstairs, before switching with the other person.

When I went up for what would be the last time for me, I decided to start moving everything into my apartment. However, just as I was about to start that, the door of the other apartment on this floor opened. A guy, who looked to be around my age, came out, looking at me and what was going on. He had brown hair cut to look exactly like a fuckboy haircut. I just hoped I hadn’t made the mistake of moving in next to somebody who was going to throw parties on a regular basis.

He turned back to his apartment, which had its door wide open. “You’re right! Somebody is moving in!”

“Please tell me it’s a hot girl! Please tell me it’s a hot girl!” His roommate begged, coming to see who I was. When he appeared, he was not wearing a shirt, showing off his six pack, and checking me out. “It is a hot girl! Fuck yeah!”

I blushed a little, not used to getting any compliments like that unless when they were from Vic, but he managed to make me blush a lot more. To be honest, I wasn’t attracted to that whole perfect-six-pack and rock-hard-muscle thing. It was just too superficial and didn’t do it for me.

“Umm, hi.” I smiled politely and started moving everything inside like I had planned to.

“Need some help?” Shirtless guy smirked, walking out and looking at the wall Vic and I had managed to build.

Speaking of which, Vic just came up with the last two boxes that I hadn’t managed to take along with me. He added them to the pile before eyeing the guys suspiciously. Of course, he wasn’t trying to make it too obvious, not wanting to judge them straight away, but I knew what was going through his mind. The only thing he was right about was that these guys were trying to flirt with me.

“Umm, you don’t have to,” I answered the guys, knowing that Vic wouldn’t exactly appreciate it, even though some extra help would really have been useful.

“No, I insist.” The shirtless one put a hand on his chest before walking up and picking up the boxes Vic had just brought up, and started carrying them into the living room.

“Don’t worry, it’s our pleasure.” The other guy joined, taking his keys out of the lock and closing the door to their apartment.

When they were both inside, Vic leaned over to me and grumbled through his teeth, “who are they?”

I shrugged, hoping we would be able to see the more innocent side of this, even if there probably wasn’t one. “Neighbors.”

I picked up a couple of the other boxes and brought them to the room I had allocated to it. When packing everything, I made sure to sort it, writing the name of the room in big black sharpie pen. That way I didn’t have to unpack everything and then find out where it was supposed to go. Now I could get everything ready in order of room rather than in order of box.

“Oh, sorry, we’re being rude,” the guy without the shirt came out again to get more boxes. I could tell Vic was about to agree, but he didn’t even have a chance to say anything. “My name’s Nick, and that is Daniel.”

Daniel gave a casual nod to acknowledge that he had just been introduced. I smiled at both of them, bringing a really heavy box into the master bedroom. When I placed it in the middle of the hard wooden floor, I looked around the place. The window might not have shown such a great view, but I still got to see the cars passing on the street. I actually had an ensuite bathroom, meaning I didn’t always have to take clothes with me when I went to shower or had to do the leap of faith back to my room.

“You know, usually the other person also introduces themselves during an introduction,” Nick told me, leaning in the doorway, holding another cardboard box to put here as well.

I jumped a little, not expecting somebody to be watching me. “Oh… well, I guess I’m Naira…”

“That doesn’t sound so assuring,” he laughed and gave me a wink, “a pretty girl like you should be sure of herself.”

When he left the room again, Vic came in next. He gave Nick a not really subtle glare, however, he didn’t see it. After quickly taking off his snapback and running his fingers through his hair, he turned to me. “I don’t like them.”

“Vic,” I sighed although I knew where he was coming from. They just didn’t realize that Vic and I were together. As soon as they did, they would probably leave me alone. I just had to figure out a way to hint towards it without saying it explicitly and them making up an excuse about ‘how they only wanted to be friends’. They seemed like the guys who easily switched around the blame.

The four of us continued to move everything inside until we were all left in the living room, nothing left out in the hall anymore. It did go a lot faster with more people. Vic and I would have never been able to finish this quickly if it had just been us two. Yes, the guys continued to flirt with me, but I always decided to indirectly shrug it off. I wasn’t interested in them, but still wanted to befriend my neighbors. The only thing was that I hadn’t managed to fit the whole Vic and I being a couple thing in there yet.

“Just so you know,” Nick started again, showing off his toned muscles, “I’m always shirtless.”

I frowned, deciding that this time it was time for me to answer to all of their attempts. Otherwise, this was never going to end. “Don’t you ever get cold?” I asked in a serious tone.

“Well, occasionally, but--”

“Well, that’s just stupid then,” I snorted quietly, actually hoping he would have put on a shirt a long time ago, “please remind me to never come over to you guys when I need a lightbulb or something, because I would not want to be met with this.” I motioned towards his body and saw Vic smirk from the corner of my eye.

Nick looked taken aback, not understanding why I was suddenly talking back. However, his wingman, Daniel, was ready to make sure the silence didn’t get too awkward. “So, Naira, do you have any hot sisters?”

“Nope.” I shook my head, not having told them even if I had one.

“Average-looking sisters?” He suggested next.

“Nope.”

“Brothers?” Nick laughed, teasing Daniel.

“That’s also a no.”

“What about any siblings?”

“Are you also going to ask me if I have a goldfish?” I laughed, “because it’s still going to be a no.”

“Well then…” Daniel whistled, seeing that his attempt had failed miserably.

“I do have a hot best friend, though,” I honestly told them, knowing they’d drool over Maya. But there was no way I was going to let them get together. “However, I’m pretty sure she’s going to be taken in no time, so there’s no need to even think about trying.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I thought for a bit until I suddenly thought of something. I could use this to my full advantage. “That it’s pretty complicated… wait a second…” I turned to Vic, hoping he caught onto what I was doing, “wouldn’t it be awesome if my boyfriend’s brother was dating my best friend?”

I saw Daniel and Nick looking at each other, mouthing the word ‘boyfriend’ with a questioning expression. They didn’t make the connection that Vic was the boyfriend I was talking about, however.

Unfortunately, Vic also didn’t exactly seem to understand. “Mike? You really think he has a chance?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, trying to help him get on the same page as me, “but don’t go telling him. He needs to man up himself.”

“Why would I tell him?” He laughed, still not realizing what I was trying to do, but coincidentally managing to make my plan work. “I love seeing my brother physically uncomfortable around a girl, of course, I won’t tell him!”

I let out a small victory smirk, which was when he suddenly put one and one together, his mouth forming an ‘o’ shape. Nick and David actually seemed at a loss for words, also having gotten exactly what I was implying. They couldn’t leave without seeming rude now, they had been here for too long. I could tell that there was some embarrassment. They probably had thought that I was some what interested and that Vic didn’t mind because we didn’t do anything sooner, but now it just showed how much Vic and I trusted each other (even though Vic had actually been pretty jealous and I really did want to tell them how uncomfortable I was). Mission accomplished.

“Anyway,” I decided to let the guys be free from their embarrassment for now, “we should get going because we need to bring the van back before the place closes.”

“Oh, ok. Well, happy that we could help.” Daniel smiled, feeling a bit better that he hadn’t made as many attempts as his friend did.

“Thanks for that, by the way. I’ll also already warn you that there might be some loud swearing tomorrow because I will be trying to build furniture.” I walked over to Vic and grabbed his hand, ready to go.

“Maybe we could help tomorrow as well?” David suggested to make fun of Nick, making the latter glare at the person who was supposedly supposed to be his best friend.

“I think I’ll be fine,” I started going to the front door, bringing Vic along with me, and making the other two boys follow as well, “but if things really do go bad, I’ll make sure to give you a call.”

And so I said my last goodbyes to my neighbors. I wasn’t going to say that it went well, but I also thought it didn’t go all too badly. This could have ended a lot worse. For example, I could have offended them at the very beginning by claiming they were hitting on me, Vic could have lost his temper, or they would have never stopped flirting with me. Now I was left with knowing my neighbors and them technically not being able to not speak to me anymore just because I had a boyfriend.

----

Vic and I had ordered a large pizza to share as dinner. We both didn’t feel like cooking, both being completely exhausted and in pain from carrying around boxes for hours on end. I was pretty sure my back was going to hurt like a bitch the next morning. For now, however, it was just me and Vic cuddled up on the couch, sharing a pizza, watching a movie, and having some slightly expensive wine just to make it all a little more fancy (If that was possible. What was less fancy than wearing pajamas, having a pizza, and having a night in?).

Well, I’m not really saying the truth. That was what Vic and I were doing. But, come on, we were really close to each other, we had already established that Vic desired something specific, and the couch was pretty comfortable. We had already moved on to Vic hovering over me and kissing me deeply as I was lying down on the couch. The shirt I was wearing, which was actually one of Vic’s, was already on the floor. As the time went by, Vic became more and more desperate.

However, just as he was about to take it another step further, my phone started buzzing on the coffee table. If it had just been one buzz, I would have ignored it, thinking it was just some stupid notification, but the fact that it did it multiple times, made me wonder what was so urgent.

I lightly pushed Vic away, but barely managed to make him part from me, as I took my time to catch my breath. “Phone,” I stated bluntly.

“Just leave it,” he told me, trying to get back to what he had started.

However, I pushed him away again and reached out for my phone. What I didn’t expect was what was on the display. Sure, the time was normal, but the person trying to contact me was really out of the blue.

I looked up at Vic as I unlocked it. “Why is your brother texting me?”

“I dunno.” He shrugged as if that were enough to get me to put it away.

Mike: Hi
Mike: Hope everything went ok
Mike: Are you and Vic back at his place yet?
Mike: Do you think I can come over?
Naira: Why don’t you ask him yourself?
Mike: Because he isn’t answering his phone. So, can I?
Naira: It isn’t my house
Mike: Just hand me over to my brother.
Naira: K

So, I did. This probably was the longest text conversation I ever had with Mike. We never really had a reason to text each other, so why would we just randomly start a conversation? That was more Maya’s job than mine.

“He’s asking if he can come over,” I told Vic even though he could have read the messages himself.

“Oh hell no. I’m not letting my own brother cockblock me!” Vic exclaimed, quickly writing a short response and putting my phone back on the coffee table.

Naira: No.

“Well too bad, cause I’m already here!” Mike shouted and entered the living room from the hallway that lead to several different rooms.

“Are you being fucking serious right now?” Vic groaned and pushed himself up so he could sit, no longer hovering over me.

“On the couch really?” Mike scrunched up his nose and shook his head. “I’d like to remind you that you have guests that sit on that. But you guys really have a lot more going on than I thought; same for what you have going on underneath those sweaters, Naira.”

I glared at him, blushing and quickly reaching out for the shirt that was still on the floor. “I will punch you.”

“No, you won’t.”

“Fine I’ll knee you in the balls then, you can ask Jaime how that felt. I’ve been told I have pretty boney knees. Plus, I don’t think Maya will really appreciate knowing that you were staring at my boobs.”

“I also don’t really appreciate it,” Vic made known, narrowing his eyes at his brother in a menacing manner.

Mike shrugged and let himself fall back on the recliner, looking completely fed up. “I just need somebody to hang out with. I’ve got no better place to be.”

“So you decide to come here?” Vic seethed, looking like he was going to throw a pillow as hard as possible at the invader. “You always hang out with Maya. Why don’t you just go do that? It will be so much better for everybody.”

“She’s been ignoring me, so I don’t see how that would do me any good.”

I snorted loudly, making both of the boys look at me. “Really? Why do you think that is? You can’t just kiss a girl and expect everything to go back to normal after that.”

“You did what?” Vic gasped, his eyes growing in size.

“Well, you and Vic didn’t completely ignore each other for days or weeks, I don’t know how long it’s been.” Mike retorted, rolling his eyes at me as if he had just made a valid point.

I looked at Vic briefly just to check if he didn’t want me to go into any more detail, but he didn’t even seem to realize my glance. He was more focused on the fact that Mike hadn’t told him, than what was actually happening in front of him.

I averted my eyes back to Mike and sighed, “only because Vic and I basically knew each other’s intentions and cleared everything up straight away. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be like this right now if it weren’t for the fact that I saw him driving away and him stopping.”

“Ok, but I can’t exactly go back in time now, can I?”
“No, but you can go back to Maya and talk. I never said that there was a time limit. Maya’s just very confused. Talk to her and everything will be fine, maybe even better than fine.”

“You just want me out of here, don’t you?” Mike got up from his place and picked up the one cold slice of pizza still left over.

“No,” I told him at the same time as Vic said ‘yes’.

“Yeah, you just want to have sex with my brother,” he continued and went to leave the living room.

“Yes,” Vic repeated again while I shook my head.

“Just make sure to use protection.”

As soon as the front door closed, and might I add that it wasn’t exactly a very polite way of closing the door, Vic was back on me again. It was like he had completely forgotten that Mike had interrupted just minutes before. However, I actually felt bad. They both liked each other and didn’t realize how the other felt. I was trying, but they were both so oblivious!

Notes

I don't know what to write in the notes, but at the same time I'm too awkward to leave them blank...

What do you guys think of Vic and Naira's Relationship so far?

- aweirdkindofyellow