The Boy Next Door

By Veronica Maye Griffin

Olivia moves to a new place and meets two new people. Wren, who gets Olivia a job at a modeling agency, and Luke, with whom she enters a romantic relationship. But the latter hides one big secret, and it affects the relationship. Will it break Olivia? Will it make her stronger?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Veronica Maye Griffin
• Release date: Apr 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215736890

Book preview

Part 1

I HATE MOVING. ALWAYS have. My family always moved, and I never stayed in one place long enough to have friends. My dad is an army man, and for as long as I can remember we moved whenever he was being restationed. Luckily, he’s in charge of the enlisting part and has never been part of a war. He never left the states for work, but still. The states are big enough to feel like you’re moving across the world. when I turned 18, I went to a university that had dorms, and had 4 wonderful years of staying in one place, except for holidays and vacations of course. Now that I’ve graduated and found a job, I can finally have a stable life living in one place and not moving every few months. This is what I’m thinking about when the moving truck stops and honks to let me know they’re here, I get up from the bench and take the dog crate. It’s a nice apartment building. I’ve been here before I bought my apartment. It has 6 floors and a roof, the outside wall is painted in an inviting shade of teal, the door is glass and shows the lovely lobby they have, in warm colors of gold, black, brown, and white. There are teal pots with green ferns inside as well. The elevator door is golden and the staircase handles as well. The floor is carpeted in random spots of black and white among mustard. Each floor of apartments is also in the gold, black, white color scheme and each door is a warm brown, that reminds me of trees in the snow. A light shade that somehow compliments the color scheme. Each apartment is, of course, different depending on the person living in it, and the roof is practically a forest with its tall trees. A patio set of black and white is put under the trees for the shade and secluded feeling of a private forest with golden accessories all around. My apartment is on the fourth floor, and the color scheme is province. Meaning, the purple shade of the lavender flower with a lot of wood. It was the apartment I chose for myself, since purple calms me down, I love the look of wood and the leaf green shade just ties everything together in the most wonderful way. A close second was a beach inspired apartment, with a color scheme of white, a few blues, and the shade of sand. It made me feel sick after being there for a long time, as I hate the ocean and the beach. But the province apartment is just my cup of tea. The kitchen, despite the old-fashioned color scheme, is very updated and has stainless steel appliances and an emerald green countertop with wooden counters and a backsplash adorned with pictured of lavenders. Did I mention the lavenders in vases in every room? That smell calms me down and makes me feel happy, it also wards off scorpions, the bug I fear most in life. Lavenders are my favorite flowers and I made the landlord add them to the place before I bought it. overall, it’s a very cozy place, with three bedrooms, a huge kitchen-and-living-room space. I open the door to the apartment and let the moving guys in, telling them where to put everything. My mother and I went shopping for living room furniture after I showed her the place. We went with light seating furniture and wooden tables. I did keep the things I used to have for my bedroom growing up and put them in my bedroom. My room is quite big, and aside from the en-suite bathroom and walk in closet there is also a small balcony where I can put a small chair and table and watch the garden the building is standing next to. The wall itself is a lovely shade of emerald green, which I painted over the horrible pink that was there before. I put white silky and see through curtains over the door to the balcony. The desk I used growing up has been colored to match the shade of wood in the rest of the apartment and is put in a small room that I will make my office. An ergonomic black chair is put next to it. the third room serves as storage for now, since I don’t really have any use for it. there is a door in my office that according to the landlord leads to my neighbor’s house. I was given the key but since the door is to remain locked at all times, I put heavy lavender purple curtains on it to keep it hidden and, mostly, to keep my curiosity at bay. I am definitely capable of opening that door if I keep it in my sights. After four whole hours of moving from the entrance to the fourth-floor apartment the movers move everything in and let me unpack in peace. Thank god it’s a Friday. I can pack alone all weekend. My dog, lady, is smelling the house. She’s been with me since I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD during sophomore year of college. I went on a trip with some friends and we got into an accident that almost took my life. Lady was bought by my parents as a service dog. I chose a cocker spaniel puppy and she was trained for a few months before she came to live with me. she goes everywhere with me, and helps with the extra cash work I do, fostering foxes. After the accident I decided I want to help animals, since I’ve always loved them but did nothing to help them. I sighed up to foster animals that could fit in the small space I rented after I decided to do that, senior year of college. The landlord told me to animals were allowed, but I brought four animals anyway. After new neighbors moved in and heard the foxes they complained and I was kicked out, two days after graduating college. At the moment I have a red fox called ruby, a silver fox called silver, and a fennec fox called sandy. Not very original, but they came with those names. When I looked at the apartment, I told the landlord about my animals. He agreed to let me move in but told me that I need to make sure they are as quiet as possible. he suggested letting them stay in the