Who gets boxes delivered to them at 2:30 in the morning?

Bryce's neighbor does, apparently. It wasn't the first time he's been woken up to the bright lights coming from a truck, parking itself across the street as his neighbor walks out and takes a few boxes from the man.

Now, as far as Bryce was concerned, there really wasn't anything wrong with getting boxes delivered to you in the middle of the night. Maybe you were just really embarrassed about whatever you were receiving. That's okay, it really was.

But when you drag three huge boxes down to your basement at 2:45 in the morning?

Suspicious. Super, super suspicious.

What in the world could that guy be hiding? A part of Bryce didn't want to know.  But, at the same time…

What if his neighbor was a murderer? Or what if he hoarded fat cats in his basement? What if he had some secret sex dungeon?

Bryce couldn't help himself. He had to find out.

And so began Bryce McQuaid’s investigations.

The first thing he learned was that his neighbor's name was Ryan, and he had a dog named Buddy. That much was pretty easy to figure out, Ryan walked his dog every day and pretty much spoiled the crap out of him. It was cute.

Ryan was also kind of cute, but that was something Bryce could deal with later. It didn't matter how cute Ryan looked if he had some dead body in his basement.

Ryan also had a lot of things delivered to his house. Usually at night, which made Bryce think.

What is it that he's receiving that he needs to keep a secret? Why is he so secretive about everything?

For the first week, Bryce simply watched from afar. Ryan left for work at ten thirty, on Mondays through Fridays, and came back around seven o’clock at night. He walked Buddy every morning, and sometimes at night, too.

This explained absolutely nothing about the weird deliveries, or why Ryan always locked the back door that lead to his basement.

So, Bryce decided, he would have to figure out a way to get inside of Ryan's house. Which meant that Bryce was going to need a way to befriend him. It shouldn't be that hard, Bryce thought. He considered himself to be a pretty friendly person, and Ryan didn't seem like all that bad of a guy. All he had to do was approach him, and start talking.

Simple, right?

Well, apparently it wasn't. Bryce quickly realized that he had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to start a conversation with Ryan without seeming creepy. After giving it much thought, and coming up with no plan whatsoever, Bryce decided to just walk outside and hope for the best.

He opened his front door, waiting for his cats Ellie and Dusty to run outside before stepping out himself and shutting it carefully. Turning to face the street, surprisingly empty for a Friday morning, Bryce began to walk towards his neighbor's house.

But before he could even get to the street, a dog came running towards him and nearly knocked him over. Bryce yelped, feeling his heart nearly jump out of his chest as he felt wet paws on his legs, and as he felt himself stumble backwards, having to catch himself by grabbing onto the fence.

“Buddy?! Buddy! Down, boy! Get off of him!” A voice is coming closer, yelling at the dog.

Bryce crouches down, smiling up at his neighbor as he begins to pet the dog. “He's yours, right?”

Ryan smiles tiredly down at Bryce. “Yeah. I'm sorry about him, he gets excited when he sees new people. I'm also sorry about your jeans, holy shit he messed it up.” Ryan gestured towards Bryce's jeans, which were covered in muddy paw prints and bits of grass.

“Oh! It's okay, these jeans were already messed up,” Bryce laughs. He stands up, trying to not laugh at Ryan's expression as he stares up at Bryce. “What? Taller than you expected?”

Ryan nodded, then took Buddy's leash into his hand. “Uh… I, uh, don't believe we've ever formally met, have we? I'm Ryan, and this is my dog Buddy.” He smiled warmly at Bryce, who smiled back down at him.

“I'm Bryce. It's nice to meet you. I'd introduce you to my cats, but they're all over the place.”

This was actually a lot easier than planned. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all? All Bryce has to do is get Ryan to bring him inside. And then he has to find a way into the basement, and then Bryce will know what he's hiding!

Man, I'm good at this. I could totally become a spy or something.

“Hey… Bryce, I know this is kind of sudden, but…” Ryan hesitated slightly, twisting the leash around in his hands before continuing. “Do you think you could watch Buddy for me, for the next week or so? I just- I'm just going out on a business trip, and I kinda need someone to take care of Buddy because he's such a needy dog, and he already likes you so much. All you’d have to do is come in and feed him three times a day, maybe take him for a walk or two, and…. Can you? I, uh, I know it's a bit sudden- actually, it's maybe too sudden…”

Ryan trailed off, awkwardly rubbing his hands together.

Bryce could've screamed from how excited he was right now. He hadn't even made a plan, and yet everything seemed to be working as smoothly as could be!

But of course, it would be kind of weird if Bryce started screaming out of nowhere. Instead of screaming, he smiled sweetly at Ryan and nodded his head. “Yeah! That sounds great!”