Rivalry with the Neighbor

The assignment: nieghbors, lending/borrowing things, odd relationships with neighbors. If anyone reads this, do you understand about the mural? My teacher didn't get it, and (although this is not the first time that she hasn't picked up on something) I had thought it was fairly obvious, so let me know.


Sheila and I had lived next door to each other for two years. We had been friendly since the day we both moved in, but things hadn’t really gotten heated until the month I stole her boyfriend from her and then she went out and stole my longtime crush. Neither of us ever admitted to doing it, but we were both aware. It’s been a competition ever since. For example, the week after I showed her my new 5.1 megapixel digital camera, she got a 6.1 megapixel delivered in the mail. That bitch. I shrugged it off, but made sure that I bought a tripod and a camera case and a silver plated photo album for the next time she came over. We met weekly, on Sunday afternoons, for tea and Danish. It had started out as instant coffee or a glass of day old wine with some crackers, but before long, our rivalry had taken us into hidden tea shops with exotic loose teas, and to the most exclusive French bakers for the most mouth watering Danish they could make. My last boyfriend thought I was crazy, spending $50 every other week on a woman I hated, but I had to do it. I was obsessed. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. He left me soon after, and I saw him creeping through her green door late one night through my peep hole. The bastard. I went to his unfinished canvas that he had left in my apartment (not so much left as I refused to give it back,) and tore through it with a paring knife. The result was quite good, I thought. It made me feel much better, although my date thought I had gone “a little…crazy. You know, just…uh, uh, a little.” The next Sunday I was at her apartment I couldn’t help but notice the life-size nude of her in the other room. I guess I had always wanted a mural in my living room anyway.