Answer the door

One day while cooking dinner, your hair keeps falling in front of your eyes. You brush it back behind your ear repeatedly, but it always finds a way to fall back down. At one point it nearly plops into a pot of soup, and you decide that you've had enough. You find a piece of red string in the kitchen junk drawer and tie your hair back with it. You've been so preoccupied with school and everything happening lately that you didn't realize how long it had been since your last haircut.

A while later, after dinner, the doorbell rings and Jeff asks you to see who it is. You're wearing a simple black pencil skirt and sweater top, with some light jewelry. You don't really mind, though. It's not like anyone you know would be outside.

You open the door and find a young delivery-man standing beside a few large boxes. He looks up when you appear and says, "Oh, um, h-hi! Delivery! I'll need you to sign... This is the Doe residence, right?"

You nod. Why was this guy so nervous? He was fidgeting like crazy and looking everywhere except your eyes. Oh well, Whatever. Weird people are everywhere. You take the pen and quickly sign.

"Thanks!" the man says when you hand the clipboard back to him. He looks down at it. "Aiken... That's a pretty name!"

"Um... thanks," you say. The delivery guy doesn't move. You both stand there for a few seconds in silence before you ask, "Do you... need something else?"

"Huh? Oh! Uh, no, I just... Um... I could help you bring these inside, if you want! I mean they're pretty heavy. I'm used to lugging packages around all day, though. So I'm used to it.... Pretty strong now, actually..."

"Uh-huh..." you nod. "Sure, whatever I guess. Bring 'em in."

He obeys, and almost eagerly hauls all the packages inside, sometimes stacking several up together for no real reason. When he's finished, he comes back to the porch and smiles at you like he just did something incredible or praise-worthy.

"Great job. See ya," you say, and try to swing the door closed.

The delivery man catches it just before it closes completely. "W-wait! I uh... wanted to ask you something..." He opens the door and looks askance.

Internally, you groan. What the hell was happening? The whole point of having things delivered to your house was to avoid having to go into public and deal with people. This guy was ruining the whole system. But you weren't great at telling people off, so you just politely push: "Yes? What is it?"

He turns red and starts mumbling something. "I uh... Well it's like this... You see I... I... Um... And You..."

You start closing the door again.

"Wait! I'm trying to ask you... I mean, I'm wondering if maybe... you'd want to, like... you know... have dinner or coffee sometime. With me. Or a movie! I love movies! Unless you're not into them... Cause I'm not like super into them or anything but I've seen some really good obscure stuff at some festivals and I'd love to-"

"No thanks. I'm not really interested in... that," you finally say to shut him up. Jeez, was this even allowed? Surely this guy had like a quota to meet or something, right? Shouldn't he be getting back to his route?

"Oh, uh... that's cool... I mean... we barely know each other, so I understand... But, could I get your phone number or Snapchat? I'd love to get to know you better."

What? No! What the hell? "Um. I don't think so... I don't really give my number or socials out to strangers..."

The man rolls his eyes and smiles. You think he's trying to be playful, but it doesn't feel that way to you. He steps a little closer. "Well, I'm hardly a stranger. I deliver to this neighborhood like every day! Come on, I promise I'm really funny. How about your Instagram? Please? I'm a huge teddy bear once you get to know me!"

"No... Like I said... I don't do that..."

The man smirks and steps closer. You back up in kind. "Look, you're like exactly my type. I promise I'll make you laugh. Just give me your number? I've got so many memes I've been waiting to share with someone cute like you..."

You back up another step and catch movement out of the corner of your eye. Jeff! You need backup. And you know how to get Jeff's attention.

"Daddy!" you call to your stepdad. "Could you help me at the door?" You jerk your head a few times towards the creep to indicate some urgency.

Jeff furrows his brow and starts coming quickly to the door. "Everything okay, honey?" His voice booms out like you've never heard before. Like his stern voice on steroids, turned up to eleven. You didn't know he could sound so... forceful.

The delivery-man's eyes nearly bulge out of his head. "Oh sh- I... Sorry!" he says, and turns 180 to sprint to his truck.

You've never seen a delivery truck peel away before. It leaves tread marks and a cloud of tire smoke behind it as it shoots out of the neighborhood.

You breath a sigh of relief and plop onto the couch. That was more than enough excitement for you for one day. Annoyingly, Jeff grills you about the incident for a long time, and makes you go over everything that happened in exacting detail. He asks if you got the driver's name and what company he worked for.

"You've got to be more careful, Aiken," Jeff says while sitting next to you on the couch. You see him look at your ponytail several times. You'd forgotten it was still tied back. "Sorry for making you answer the door, and not checking on you sooner."

Later, you hear him talking on the phone for a while in his office.

The next day you see the same truck at a different house, but the delivery-man is different.

You never see the other delivery-man again.