~ Adam ~

Adam Grey groaned as the heavy thud of reverberating bass shook his house again. He could hear the plates rattling in the cabinet downstairs and felt the vibrations through the thin mattress on his bed. This was the third night in a row, and it was only getting worse.

Rolling over, Adam checked the time on his bedside alarm clock and scoffed in frustration. It was two fifty-eight in the morning and Adam had class at nine. If this ruckus kept up, he would be getting no sleep all night.

When another wave of bass hit the house again, Adam threw the covers back and jumped to his feet. It was no use going to the house next door as every time he stormed over and rapped his knuckles bloody on the door, his neighbour never answered. Either they couldn't hear Adam over their obnoxiously-loud dubbed trash or they were ignoring Adam's continuous knocking. The latter idea made Adam's blood boil.

There were other things he could do, but the police now knew his name personally given how many noise complaints Adam had called in over the past three months. He was ashamed to know the officers' names too and was even more humiliated when they smiled and waved him good night each time they came around.

It never seemed to matter in the end as no matter how many warnings or even fines were issued, Adam's neighbour refused to let up with blasting their stereo at ridiculous hours of the morning. It wasn't everyday, but Adam was struggling to find a pattern amongst this craziness. Maybe his neighbour just liked to piss off the rest of the street.

Adam had tried rallying his other neighbours but none had the same afflictions he did given that he was the second-last house at the end of the street and his rude neighbour was at the end of the block. Adam's house was closest and therefore he got the worst of the trashy tunes his neighbour liked to blare at deafening volumes during the night.

Picking up his phone, he opened his texts and typed furiously. It was late at night but Adam knew who would be awake.

As trustworthy as always. His best friend's reply was instant.

Adam's phone rang a moment later and he answered on the second ring.

"Oh honey." The voice of Piper Enzo filtered through Adam's phone speaker. "Do you want me to come over and kill them for you? I just got back from the gym and am pumped for a good brawling."

"This is the third night in a row." Adam answered, running a hand down his face in exhaustion. "I've already called in this week. I can't do it again. The officers call me by my name now."

"That bad, huh?"

"I haven't slept properly in months."

"You know you can always sleep at mine."

"I'm pretty sure your roommate hates me."

"Skye doesn't hate you." Piper replied, referring to her twenty-two year old goth roommate. "She's just emotionally-invested in the idea of plotting your death every time you come over."

Adam groaned and fell back on the bed. He was exhausted from the long hours of work he put in between class and pulling an all-nighter yesterday to finish an assessment on time. The terrible music blaring from the house next door was doing nothing to calm his sleep-deprived aggravation.

"Maybe it's time you went over and talked to them," Piper suggested. "This has been going on long enough."

"Do you recall the details of my last visit to that house?"

"You mean the one where you were promptly ignored for an hour or the time an entire bucket of golf balls were emptied onto the front porch from the upstairs window?"

Adam shuddered at the thought and subconsciously rubbed his head in the spot where a stray golf ball had struck him.

"He's such an ass." Piper concluded.

"What makes you think it's a dude?"

"Adam, they play dubstep and rap at three o'clock in the morning, drive a V8 Commodore, and showered you with an entire pack of brand new, expensive golf balls. Trust me, it's a guy."

The loud bass was causing the glass window in Adam's bedroom to shake in its frame. He let out a loud hiss of anger as a wave of vibrations went right through him.

"I can't take this anymore." he said through gritted teeth. "Him, her, whatever. I've concluded that they love being a jerk."

"Adam, you're twenty years old. Just swear like an adult for God's sake."

"And how would that go?"

"He's a fucking asshole."

"Piper!"

"Oh c'mon. Don't even try playing Mr Nice Guy with me. You know he deserves it."

They absolutely deserved it, but Adam had never liked to play the role of the antagonist. He considered himself a nice person and even at three o'clock in the morning was generally unwilling to resort to vulgar methods of expression. Verbally, at least.

He waited a moment longer. On the other end of the line, Piper was waiting for him to crack.

"That's it!"

Adam slammed his feet down as he rose from the bed again and stormed over to the window. His neighbour chose the wrong night to mess with him. Adam was a decent person, probably the nicest you would ever meet, but when running on four hours of sleep, zero caffeine in his system, and a truckload of stress and anger that was compounding with every snare hit, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Shoving the window open, Adam ignored the sting of splinters as he leaned out and shouted to the house next to him, "Hey! Asshole!"

The music was set at such a high volume that Adam had to wonder if his neighbour even heard him. Piper was cheering him on from his phone so he continued again with determination. "Jerkface! Some of us have class to get to in the morning! I don't know if you've realised but you're not the only person in this neighbourhood. Try acting like a civilised human being for once!"

Nothing happened, and although Adam was expecting it, it still angered him to know that he got no reaction back from his words. He was convinced his neighbour was just dead-set on being a horrible human being.

Piper was still dying of laughter when Adam lifted the phone to his ear again. "This is useless," he groaned. "They never answer."

"There's got to be something else you can do. Try sending him a letter?"

"I've never even seen them, much less checking their mail box. They'd probably just throw it out anyway."

"That depends how you address it."

"Is 'insolent jackass' too polite?"

"I'd say go for it."

Adam pulled the phone away from his ear and checked the time again. It was ten past three and exhaustion was rolling over him in waves, but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep with the level of music blaring just outside his window.

"Adam."

"Hm?" Adam hummed.

Piper sighed through the phone. "You need to get some sleep. I barely saw you all week which means you've been pulling all-nighters again between class and work."

"I'm fine." Adam rubbed a hand over his face, grateful that Piper couldn't see he was lying. "I have an hour break in the afternoon tomorrow. I'll rest then."

"Yeah, between studying for exams, doing homework, working six hours each afternoon and drowning in caffeine, you have plenty of time to nap."

"I'm fine," Adam repeated. "I promise. I'll figure it out."

"You're running yourself into the ground, Grey," his best friend said in concern. "All the hours you're busy during the day and now this no sleep thing? You've got to talk to him."

"You saw how well that worked out."

"Then try something else. I'll come over and yell at the dickhead if I have to."

"Pipe, we both know your version of talking results in the use of fists."

"Not true! Sometimes I use claws first."

With a hopeless glance towards the window, Adam said, "I need to try and get some sleep. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"I meant what I said Adam," Piper's concern filtered through the phone. "You're running yourself into the ground. You're going to burn out if you're not careful."

"I'll be fine. Three hours, that's all I need."

"Try eight. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Without another word, Adam hung up the phone and tossed it onto the bedside table before crawling into bed. He knew sleep was pointless but he had to try anyway. He'd almost fallen asleep at work that evening and couldn't afford to slip up again. He couldn't risk being fired. His life depended on it.

The music was still blaring outside. Adam couldn't afford many luxuries, noise-cancelling headphones being one of them, so he made do with shoving old earbuds into his ears and pulling the pillow over his head. It wasn't the best method of noise reduction but it was better than nothing.

Attempting to block out the thunderous bass, Adam counted each hit of the snare drum until he finally couldn't keep his eyes open any longer.

***

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