So, let me warn you again. This is not by any means a love story. Actually, I am not sure what exactly it is myself. It’s a story, things happen, but the events aren’t that interesting, really. I guess the best way to describe it is ‘real life’. Life happens. Not everybody gets the privilege to have a Disney love story, nor do they have to go through the painful and unforgettable heartache some do. Their life just goes by with its ups and downs, but no significant highs or lows. This is the same for the people in this story.

Alex was just your usual-everyday-guy. Well, he was a usual-everyday-guy when he wasn’t in a recording studio or touring around the world. When he was doing that, he was the energetic guy most people knew him as. But as soon as he said goodbye to his bandmates and finally entered his house, he took a deep breath and acted like all his fellow neighbors. It was a fairly quiet neighborhood, and so Alex would fit in for the short while he was there for.

Ah, the beautiful suburbs. Such a perfect setting for such an imperfect story. While Alex’s house only looked like a one-story-house from the outside, it definitely was a two-story-house. The second floor just happened to be underground. A perfect space for Alex to go to if he wanted to unleash a little and maybe throw a party here and there. It was just your usual suburbs. All houses were detached and had a garden, but they also weren’t placed very far apart. Just the usual neighborhood you would often grow up in as a kid when your parents decided to buy a house and settle in it for the rest of their lives until they felt a smaller house was more appropriate when all the kids were out of the house. Alex just happened to have bought a house at quite a young age of twenty-three. His job contributed to that. He had been living there for four years now.

Every day, after waking up and making himself some coffee, he’d get up and let his two dogs out into the backyard for a run. As soon as they were out, he turned around to go to the front door. He’d step outside and go straight for his mailbox closer to the street. If he saw that one of his neighbors was outside at the same time, he’d wave at them and tell them to have a good morning. Sometimes there would be people walking their dogs outside or going out for a jog.

This time, a girl who seemed to be in her twenties was walking past his house walking her yellow labrador retriever just as Alex went to go back inside. He didn’t take much notice of her, having only caught a glimpse and not thinking much at all of another person outside with a dog on a leash. It was just a completely normal day.

He locked the door and walked back to his wooden dining table, throwing all the mail on top of it. As he sipped his still rather hot coffee, he looked at everything and if there was anything important he had to read. Most of it were bills, some of it some advertisements, and others were just letters he didn’t know what for. So, the usual mail. Nothing interesting for him to read.

When his dogs came running back in, he made sure to close the backdoor as well so they wouldn’t manage to escape without him noticing.

And this was his usual routine. Every single day the same thing happened. Of course, the rest of his day was occasionally way more interesting and adventurous, but sometimes all he did was stay inside and simply hang around on the couch. Not everybody went out every day. Who even has the energy for that? We all need rest days.

Ok, so, I’d like to repeat my warning again. This story isn’t anything special. Our main protagonist, here, isn’t going to have a sudden change in lifestyle nor is he going to experience any horrifying event. His life is simply going to continue just as it usually did. Wake up, let the dogs out, make coffee, get the mail, go back inside and face the rest of the day. Why would that change in any way? Not everybody has an exciting story. Sure, he was known around the world and played in a band, but that was all really.

Ok, I lie. Well, only a little. Eh, maybe not.

Over the course of a couple days, Alex started noticing that girl with the yellow labrador. She always walked past at the same time, not acknowledging whatever was going on around her. It was sunny? She was out. It was windy? She was out. It was rainy? She was out with her bright yellow raincoat. Every single day, she’d be in front of his house around ten thirty in the morning. She’d practically become a part of Alex’s routine. Even when it was too stormy for Alex to run out and get his mail, she was out walking her dog like it was just another day.

He started to admire her dedication. Of course he had no idea who she was and why she was always so punctual, but that didn’t mean he could appreciate her from a distance. Now, bear in mind that the admiration wasn’t based on him having any remote feelings for her. He simply didn’t have them. He also admired the old lady just a couple of houses down the road that still tended her garden on a weekly basis despite her age; he admired the way the birds chirped in the spring except if they started way too early in the morning; he also admired the fact that he was able to live so calmly despite his growing fan base. Not everything had to be for a reason.

One sunny morning, when the sprinklers on the garden from the neighbors across were on, Alex happened to just be at his mailbox exactly when the girl walked past. They made eye contact, and although Alex didn’t feel anything when he did so, he still smiled and waved, only managing a quiet ‘hi’ in his unused morning voice. The girl smiled back shyly as she pushed some of her long blonde hair out of her face and waved in return. She, however, was smart enough not to try and use her voice.

And that was their encounter.

That’s it. You can leave now. The story ends here. They had their interaction and now they continued on separately. As I said so many times before, not everything has to end with them getting into a relationship and living happily ever after. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. We’ve all met that one girl or guy in the supermarket or out on the street who you smile at but that’s it. Well, that’s how this story goes too. This is reality.

If only Alex didn’t continue to wave every single day… This would have been so much easier on me. Now I seem like the asshole.

His routine changed just slightly once again. At first he’d just admire her from afar, but now he actually interacted just a bit. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for him to know that his day was going to be good and nothing was going to ruin it. But he wouldn’t dare to go any further than that small greeting. Well, he tried one time. He had waved at her, she had waved back, she continued down the sidewalk, he called out a ‘hey’ to try and get her attention, but she didn’t even seem to notice that it was directed at her.

After that, he lost a little confidence and stayed with the waving. But, of course, eventually he wanted to find out a little more about her. Once or twice a week he’d try to call after her, but she wouldn’t turn back around. He even went out in the rain for her. Every single time, he expected the next day to be awkward because she shot him down, but she always acted like whatever he had tried the day before hadn’t happened.

It was quite peculiar to Alex, but as long as he still had some sort of connection and made the girl smile, everything was alright.

Now, this might sound a little creepy, but I can assure you that it is completely coincidental. One day, Alex was driving back from the grocery store when he saw his yellow-labrador-girl entering a house just two blocks down from his. He made a mental note to remember which house it was, guessing that that was where she lived. If she had been coming around every day and at the same time, she had to live close. A longer walk would have left a larger range.

Alex didn’t know what to do with the information and didn’t intend to do anything with it, but somehow it made him happy. Maybe it was because his mystery girl lived close, maybe it was because if needed he could always go out to find her. But still, he swore he would never just randomly show up uninvited.

And then the strangest thing happened. Out of the blue, one day, yellow-labrador-girl didn’t come past at the usual time. Alex shrugged it off as her maybe having overslept or having other plans. But it happened the next day, and the next, and the next. He waited out in the kitchen, looking through the window to see if she even still came. It hurt him to think she might have started taking a different route. Sure, he didn’t really have any control over it and all they shared were waves, but he still believed she’d at least come by and either say hi or tell him she was switching up her route.

When it had been a week, he decided to do the thing he had sworn never to do. He left his house, but not only to get the mail. No, this time he went to that house he saw yellow-labrador-girl enter a while before. He prayed to god it was where she lived and that it wasn’t some stranger's house. Well, technically she still was a stranger, but it felt different. It was like there had been a friendship built up just from their glances and waves.

He rang the doorbell and waited patiently. If it wasn’t yellow-labrador-girl opening the door, he would first ask if she lived here before even thinking about leaving. All he wanted was to know if she was ok. I couldn’t harm to ask, right? If anything, it could even do the opposite of harm. He made sure to put on a smile to not seem like some angry neighbor or somebody who wasn’t welcomed, but he also didn’t want to seem creepy by going overboard.

But then a guy opened the door and his smile almost completely faded. He didn’t know exactly why. It would have made so much sense if this was her boyfriend’s house and she always went there after her walk, or she maybe even lived with him. The whole not reacting to Alex’s calls would have made sense.

“Can I help you?” The (what Alex considered) way more attractive man asked. He didn’t have blonde hair like yellow-labrador-girl, instead it was quite a plain brown, but he had a face just as symmetrical as hers and light eyes just as hers.

“Yeah, umm, this might sound a bit weird, but,” Alex scratched the back of his neck, hoping so desperately that his actions weren’t going to cause a scene--this was why he planned to never go in the first place, “does a girl with long blonde hair, a yellow labrador, and a yellow raincoat live here?”

“Riley? How do you know her?” The stranger asked him, seeming genuinely interested. It wasn’t anything like the anger Alex had expected.

“Well, I don’t technically know her, but she always walks past my house in the morning with her dog. She hasn’t come past for a week, so I just want to check if everything’s ok,” Alex told the truth, hoping to hear everything was perfectly fine.

“Yeah, she’s fine. Sadie died a week ago, though, so she hasn’t been able to go out.”

Did Alex come at the wrong time? Was there some death going on in the family and he just rudely interrupted whatever they were doing to cope?

“Sadie?” He asked nonetheless.

“The yellow labrador,” the guy informed, smiling when he repeated Alex’s description from before, “but it’s all ok. We’ve signed up for a new one, but it always takes a while for it to all be registered and to get a dog that’s been trained fully… Would you want me to call Riley for you?”

“You would do that?” Alex questioned next, being full of questions that day.

When the guy nodded with a grin, he reached out for the phone in his pocket and started typing something. Alex couldn’t believe that he was actually going to meet his new friend. It sounded so weird to him, meeting his friend for the first time. Sure, it would have made sense if they had been internet friends, but this was nothing of the like. This was a different kind of ‘meet’.

Yellow-labrador-girl (well, I can call her Riley now, since you all know her name and don’t need the suspense anymore) came to the door wearing a large gray t-shirt and a pair of simple shorts. Alex couldn’t believe that she was actually standing in front of him now, with her hair parted all the way on her left. This felt so different compared to all the other times.

Ok, I’m going to stop you once more. I really can’t let this keep going. I’ve warned you so many times before, this is not the story you’re expecting. Please, just put this away and never return. This isn’t going to be a happy ending, even if it also won’t be a bad ending. Nothing is going to happen from this point on. Just spare yourself and leave it be. You will not get what you want no matter how hard you beg for it.

Alex’s smile was back completely when she shyly waved like she did every morning during the few seconds they had together. But then the unexpected happened. Rather than introducing herself properly, the guy from before turned to her and started moving his hands in organized gestures. Riley replied back in a similar manner, and that was when Alex realized what it was: sign language.

I warned you. I told you to leave and never come back. I said this wasn’t going to be a happy ending, nor an ending with heartbreak. This is where it ends. There is no way this can continue in any way possible. Did you really think that it was possible for a guy like Alex, an international rock star who depended on people hearing and listening to his music, to end up with a girl like Riley, who had been deaf since birth?

No. It’s impossible.

I told you to stay away…

Notes

I had this idea for a oneshot and it was going to stay at that but I actually like the idea of letting you guys request chapters that would fit in with the story. So, basically it will be a fanfiction request, but with these characters. I don't know if a thing like this exists, but I decided to call it snapshots, because it will literally be snapshots.
Next chapter I still have an idea, but after that, it's all up to you guys. So, if it doesn't get updated anymore due to no suggestions/request, then it's not my fault. Of course, if you suggest something, you'll get full credit (unless you want it anonymous). Just follow the one rule I put up on the summary page. You can also send it through a message if you'd rather not comment.