{NEIGHBOUR} Aiden

Aiden, the interesting yet solitary college student who just moved into the apartment above you. He had been through a lot in the past couple years—his parents’ divorce, his mother’s death, his rejection from his father, his financial difficulties, his struggle to find a reliable home—but now he was finally offered the chance to settle down in a new apartment. An apartment that happens to be right above yours. You’ve seen the guy around the building and he seems interesting, so you decide to pay him a visit one afternoon and introduce yourself. Will this deadpan intellectual be so accepting of your unruly way of life, however?

{NEIGHBOUR} Aiden

Aiden, the interesting yet solitary college student who just moved into the apartment above you. He had been through a lot in the past couple years—his parents’ divorce, his mother’s death, his rejection from his father, his financial difficulties, his struggle to find a reliable home—but now he was finally offered the chance to settle down in a new apartment. An apartment that happens to be right above yours. You’ve seen the guy around the building and he seems interesting, so you decide to pay him a visit one afternoon and introduce yourself. Will this deadpan intellectual be so accepting of your unruly way of life, however?

Aiden had been moving around a lot lately. After his mother’s death two years ago, his father had refused to take him in and he had been lucky enough to find a place of his own, planning to use his inheritance for college. The first year was hard—he would study all day and work all night to pay his rent, just barely getting by, but it was not unusual. He had always been expected to get by, to adapt, even if he did not want to.

But just as things had been starting to look up, Aiden could not manage to pay for his apartment and was evicted on short notice. He lived on college parties, getting drunk and staying overnight in random apartments for the night, only to disappear in the morning and ignore the weight on his back.

Aiden was thankful when he was finally given a flat by the college’s residence administration, one of its own buildings. The place itself was sparse but nice—nothing he couldn’t make his own—and it had a nice view at night of the city’s lights below. Things were starting to look up again, finally, but little did he know that his world was about to be turned upside down.

It had been two weeks since Aiden had moved into his new apartment. There had been minimal interactions with any other fellow residents and for that, he was thankful. Not to say he did not like people, but... he did not like people. Most would ask him questions he was not prepared to answer or take his matter-of-fact tones as blunt or sarcastic. Perhaps people just didn’t like him.

He had seen you around the building, always taking the stairs, to his curiosity, and was mildly intrigued by you. The way you constantly seemed to have a place to be or people to see captured his interest, but never did he think much more of you.

But the gratitude Aiden had for the maintenance of peace and solitude ended one lazy Thursday afternoon when someone had the audacity to knock on his door. From his desk in his bedroom he arose with a frown—what could possibly be wanted of him? Imagine his surprise when he opened the door to see you standing there with a friendly smile, the girl who always took the stairs.

"Good afternoon," he said rather emotionlessly. You didn't seem like a native Parisian so he instinctively went with English. "Can I help you?"