Thursday, 11am, when food is in my face.

Smells Like Trouble.

Amber is my friend. Yeah yeah... I know it's weird to say that. But I have to remind myself of that fact before I let go of my right hand and slap her on her face. Hard.

Because there's this other thing about Amber. She talks. A lot.

So much that all I ever do hear is a buzz. Like the kind you hear in the silence. Except this is louder because it isn't silent. It's in your face. (Or should I say... 'ear'.)

She's yapping about the Geography test now and how she studied so very hard for it. How she stayed up all night yesterday. (No doubt because she forgot about it until the last minute.) And made mind maps of the chapter on Tourism. How she better score an A for it, or she might cry and she doesn't want Wen Yu, that guy she secretly had a huge crush on since Sec 3, to see her cry.

Because that will break his heart.

She kind of failed to see that he doesn't even like her.

So now I have to restrain myself with my left hand, because if she continues talking about Wen Yu, whom she has talked about for 2 whole years, but has never communicated with, Right Hand might just fly up without me noticing and hit a hard one across her face.

Amber is my friend. I. Cannot. Slap. Her.

I also cannot comprehend why on Earth my neighbour still laughs manically in my brain when he is not near me. It's almost as if I'm hallucinating.

Really. Mr Neighbour looks like he's two years older than I am.

So there is no way he could ever appear in front of me when I am walking to the Malay store, contemplating between getting Mee Rebus and Nasi Lemak, both very tantalising Malay food that I'm sure that I would be able to finish if Amber isn't yapping beside me about how that guy in my school's school uniform in front of me, who I am only 50 percent sure is Mr Neighbour, is 'so hot' and if he didn't walk to me and say, "Hi. Aren't you the girl who lives next door who enjoys staring at me?"

I blush but nod, feeling as if this whole thing is completely astounding. Which it is. Shocking and surprising. A witty comeback is what I really pray would come now, but nothing witty comes out of my mouth.

I just continue staring at him, like he just accused me of doing for the past two days.

"I'm Ryosuke," he said. "But you can call me Ryo for short."

So he is Japanese. I know. I'm stating the obvious.

"I'm Melanie. But you can call me Mel. For short." I smile as he laughs that deep, hearty laugh I heard so many times yesterday it got pretty annoying. But I don't mind it now.

Amber piped in, "I'm Amber. But I don't think I'll like it if you called me 'Am' for short."

I roll my eyes. It is just like Amber to come in and yap at the most inappropriate time.

Ryo smiled at her, though. So maybe it wasn't as annoying as I thought. But maybe he was being nice. I don't know. Sometimes I think I'm evil. I think evil thoughts about my friends. Like Amber.

Then he looks at me and go, "So how's the drilling? I hope it wasn't affecting you."

I wonder why nothing comes out of my mouth even though the drilling was definitely vexing for me.