The Neighborhood

Zeb rose to the surface and took in a deep breath. He slung his long dark hair backwards and wiped the water from his eyes. As his vision cleared he noticed he was alone. He listened and heard the sound of his friends giggling from far away. He panicked as his eyes darted towards where his clothes were supposed to be. Not only were they gone, but his towel was gone too.

If he were at home, or even one of their houses, then he could laugh about this too. Clever prank, now laugh as I fumble around naked and wet as someone tries to take humiliating pictures of me. But he wasn’t somewhere familiar.

They had all broken in to the millionaire’s swimming pool at the end of the neighborhood. The pool was easy enough, they just climbed the wooden fence using a step ladder. Going back over the fence would be simple, just bring one of the nice pool chairs to the fence and jump over. The house was impossible, there were a million alarms, cameras, and every other security measure. In fact, they were almost certainly on camera in the pool, but nobody was worried about that.

No, the problem was walking the half mile home completely nude and dripping wet. Every house had a doorbell camera that would watch him go by. Running could shorten the time outside but wouldn’t change the images, might even make them worse.

Dave, the police officer was certain to charge him for the complaints that would be sure to come. And once he looked into why he was running through the street naked and wet he would be able to link him to the break in at the pool. His friends definitely didn’t think this through. His mom would die of humiliation and his dad would kill him.

What choice did he have? There were no clothes or towels and he couldn’t get in the house. He could wait it out until dark, but the house owners were certain to be back by then. At least he was proud of his body and he was all cleaned up. So he got to work. He carried a chair to the fence and climbed over. That was more painful than expected, sitting on the fence with no shorts was awkward indeed. He was convinced he scraped his ass. Was there anywhere closer to go than his own house? His ex-girlfriend, Tara, lived only a few doors down. But her dad would kick his ass without asking any questions.

He decided to avoid the street and go behind the houses and through the trees as much as possible. That would save his feet from the surprisingly hot concrete too. As he crept along he saw some little children jumping on the trampoline in their backyard. Shit, if they saw him he would look like a fucking creep. He fell down and crawled past their fence. He listened carefully as he crawled and heard no sign of them noticing him. Already he had a few scrapes, was sweating in this heat, and had dirt and grass all over his hands and knees. Things went well for the next few houses until he turned and locked eyes with Mr. Weston. He had no backyard fence, and was sitting in a lawn chair drinking. He didn’t say anything and neither did Zeb. He just walked slowly past, never breaking eye contact. Then, the barking started up. Nothing came running but now there was a clue to everyone that something was back here. Hopefully most people would ignore the alarm, but if anyone decided to investigate it could be disastrous.

He was getting close to home and nothing awful had happened yet. Then, he heard it. The buzzing sound. He looked around without slowing his pace and didn’t see anything. The sound only got louder though. Eventually he looked up, and there it was. The drone. It had a camera attached and it was following him.

So he ran. He thought he was lost twice, but he found his way. He ran up the back porch and banged on the sliding glass doors. He could see his friends sitting in the living room. The moment they saw him they laughed uncontrollably. They had no plans to let him in, but his mom did.

She started in berating him immediately, of course. Then her phone buzzed. It was a video posted on the neighborhood watch group chat.