chapter three
897 Words
The Wall Conversation That Should Not Have Become Personal
Zara did not believe in talking to walls.
Walls were for privacy. For silence. For minding your business like a responsible adult.
They were not for communication.
Yet here she was—standing in her living room, staring at the shared wall like it had suddenly become a living thing.
Room 9B.
Noah’s territory.
The wall stayed quiet.
Too quiet.
Zara crossed her arms.
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered.
Tap.
Zara froze.
“…Did he just respond to me?”
She knocked once, slowly.
Tap.
She knocked twice.
Tap tap.
Her eyes narrowed.
“You are not serious.”
Tap tap tap.
A pause.
Then—
Tap.
Zara exhaled sharply.
“Oh my God.”
She should have walked away.
That would have been the normal thing.
The healthy thing.
Instead, she knocked again.
Harder.
Tap tap tap tap.
The response came instantly.
Tap tap tap tap.
Zara leaned closer to the wall.
“What are you doing?” she asked out loud.
Silence.
Then—
Tap.
She blinked.
“…That is not an answer.”
Tap tap.
Zara pressed her palm against the wall.
“This is how horror movies start,” she warned.
Tap.
She hesitated.
Then, against all logic, she asked:
“Are you bored?”
A beat.
Then—
Tap tap.
Zara frowned.
“…So yes.”
Tap.
She exhaled, shaking her head.
“This is unbelievable.”
But she didn’t move away.
That was the problem.
Inside Room 9B
Noah was lying on his couch, one arm over his face, trying very hard not to smile.
Mason would have been proud.
Actually, Mason would have been unbearable.
Noah tapped the wall again.
Tap.
A response came instantly.
Tap tap.
He sat up slightly.
“So she’s actually doing this,” he muttered.
He hadn’t expected it to work.
He had only knocked yesterday because he was bored.
Now it had turned into… this.
He tapped again.
Tap tap tap.
A pause.
Then—
Tap tap tap tap.
Noah stared at the wall.
“Okay,” he said slowly. “She’s competitive.”
He tapped:
Tap tap.
Almost immediately:
Tap tap tap.
He smirked.
“Oh, this is dangerous.”
Zara’s Apartment
Zara was now fully invested.
She had no idea when it happened.
She had simply started with confusion…
And ended with a war.
Tap tap.
Tap tap tap.
Tap.
Tap tap tap tap.
“This is not communication,” she said firmly. “This is provocation.”
She tapped again.
Harder.
Tap tap tap tap tap.
A long pause.
Then—
Tap tap tap tap tap.
Zara narrowed her eyes.
“Okay,” she whispered. “So you want competition.”
She grabbed a pen.
She wrote on a sticky note and pressed it against the wall:
“Stop tapping like a maniac.”
She waited.
Nothing.
Then—
Tap.
Followed by another tap.
Then a pause.
Then—
Tap tap tap.
Zara’s eye twitched.
“This man is enjoying this.”
She pressed her ear to the wall.
No sound.
Then suddenly—
Tap.
Right where her ear was.
Zara jumped back instantly.
“NO.”
Inside Room 9B
Noah had just covered his mouth to stop laughing.
He could picture her reaction perfectly.
The jump.
The outrage.
The offended dignity.
He tapped once more, softer this time.
Tap.
Then paused.
And, for reasons he didn’t fully understand, he said quietly:
“You’re dramatic.”
Silence.
Then—
Tap tap tap tap tap.
Noah smiled.
“Confirmed.”
Zara’s Apartment
Zara stopped pacing.
Something about that last exchange felt… personal.
Too personal.
She pressed her palm to the wall again.
“You’re annoying,” she said clearly.
A beat.
Then—
Tap.
She narrowed her eyes.
“But you’re also annoying,” she added.
Tap tap.
Zara blinked.
“…That sounded like agreement.”
Tap.
She frowned.
“This is not friendship.”
Tap tap.
“This is not anything,” she corrected quickly.
Tap.
She hesitated.
Then, quietly:
“You started it.”
There was a pause.
Longer this time.
Then—
Tap tap tap.
And something softer after it.
Tap.
Zara stared at the wall.
“…Did you just say sorry in tap language?”
Silence.
Then:
Tap.
She scoffed.
“No you didn’t.”
But she was smiling now.
And she hated that more than anything.
Inside Room 9B
Noah exhaled, leaning back against his couch.
He didn’t know why this felt different.
It shouldn’t.
It was just tapping.
Just a bored neighbor.
Just noise through a wall.
But it wasn’t.
Because for the first time since moving into Skyline Heights…
He wasn’t bored anymore.
He tapped once more.
Soft.
Tap.
Then stopped.
Zara’s Apartment
Zara waited.
No response.
She knocked once.
Nothing.
Again.
Still nothing.
She stepped back slowly.
“…He left?”
For some reason, that thought annoyed her.
She knocked again.
Harder.
Tap tap tap.
No answer.
Zara stared at the wall.
Then muttered:
“This is the worst person I’ve ever met.”
A pause.
Then she added quietly:
“…Why do I feel like I’m losing?”
She walked away.
Behind the wall, Noah was smiling to himself.
And neither of them knew—
This was the beginning of something far worse than noise complaints.
This was the beginning of habit.
- Writer
