$1,000 to $20,000

I was just walking home mediocrely stoned from my local bar up the street when a young girl starts walking towards me. She was in a pink sweat suit, hair braided and some semblance of a smile on her face. She starts waving at me and I don’t immediately recognize her. I stop and look at her when I’m close enough to see that it’s Neighbor Girl. The little girl that I have watched grow up and always hung my washing in front of her window when she was in there. The little girl that asked me if I was a senior citizen when I was 27. The little girl that asked me if I liked to fuck. The little girl that I told to never come to my house again. My neighbor.<br><br>I didn’t know how she was going to react when she saw me, as I had told her father to keep her away from me after she told me she wanted to do sexual things. After I showed her my tits. After I gave her a bottle of my perfume. After I started to question my motives. She didn’t know how I was going to react to her. She didn’t know whether I was going to hug her or punch her in the face. But as I stood there, up went my arms and over went my hands as I pulled her in for a hug.<br><br>She didn’t hug me back. She kind of stood there with her arms at her sides like I was hugging a cardboard cutout. I squeezed her once and let go. I asked her how she’s doing in school, when her birthday was coming up, etc. I was trying to deflect from the fact that we had not spoken in over a year. I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it worked. She told me she was doing well, was getting better grades, was playing in the band at school and had just joined debate team. She seemed like a completely different person. She used to tell me about all of the bad things she would do, like how she would drink to double digits, or how she would Vape so much she would pass out, or how she was being kicked out of school. Now she just seemed like a young girl again. No, I was no longer attracted to her. I think the moment she told me she wanted to do sexual things to me something in me just turned off. <br><br>She told me she was going home to pack. I asked her why and she said her family was leaving the country tomorrow. I asked where she was going and she said Beirut, Lebanon. I asked her for how long and she said a year. I asked why and she said her father got a job working for the government. She told me she had never been there before, but that she was excited as she had heard good things. I asked her if she was nervous about leaving her friends behind. She said she didn’t have very many. So I told her that I would miss her. I lied. <br><br>We parted ways and I went home. The next morning I woke up early and looked out my window towards her house. I could see her helping carry bags to a vehicle that was parked in the street. She waved at me when she saw me watching. I waved back and then the car left. <br><br>That was 8 months ago.