I felt it the moment she looked at me. That sudden disdain, that loathing, the same look a person has when they've seen a dangerous creature, an alien, something that could strike at any moment.

It didn't matter that I was smiling, it didn't matter that I had just done something nice.

I was "that neighbor."

So that's how long it takes for someone to go from friendly and nice, to being just like everyone else on the block.

"I was wondering if you know who this dog belongs to." I smile and nod to the pretty little girl lab on the end of the leash. "I found her in our yard."

"Oh. My brothers. We're dog sitting." The cold unfriendly stare. The judging eyes going up and down my body with complete distrust.

"No problem, just didn't want her running off." I grin but it feels so fake. I can feel her eyes cutting through me like daggers of ice.

My heart sank, and I suddenly felt like I was standing naked on national TV. I was humiliated for doing the right thing.

She probably didn't mean to. I'm sure she's not that kind of person. They were nice to us when they first moved here.

But the fact is I know what our neighbors think of us, the others got to her, made her think like they do. Think of that "damned dog" we have, my misunderstood creature. Big and odd looking. My mutt. I know that the mothers and the fathers circle together (separately of course, mothers with the children, fathers with their TV and beer) and they warned them about us. I know because I've seen them gathered in the driveways. I've felt the sudden silence when I step outside. They told them nasty untrue things like they have from the beginning. The way all people talk about things they don't understand and are unwilling to get to know.

"You don't belong here."

I see it when I go to get the mail every day and the mothers suddenly fall silent and stare at me. The fathers lean in closer and whisper.

God I wish this was an exaggeration. I wish the people on my block weren't like this. But when family comes and stays they feel it too. They ask "what's wrong with your neighbors?" and "they're awfully odd to you aren't they?" and I smile and nod and that's that. Even Will mentioned it.

It's terrible living in a neighborhood were people hate you because they just don't know you. Wait, let me change that. Because they just WON'T know you. They refuse. They prefer their assumptions and their wild ideas. The plain ordinary truth is just too plain and ordinary.

I don't understand these neighbors. I don't understand most of the people up here. I hear people say "oh it just takes a while, but once you get past their shell they're the nicest people you'll ever know!" Well, I've lived here six years. I don't have a single native friend. All the friends I've had moved here from out of state.

Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just a strange person. Maybe they have a reason to torment my dog, to whisper behind my parents' backs, to let their dogs piss in our yard. Maybe they have a reason to say the hateful things they say when they think we can't hear them.

But I don't think it's us. It was never like this anywhere else I've ever lived. It's only here.

I can't wait to move. I want out of here so badly. I've met friendlier people on a New York subway. I'm tired of being the unwanted neighbor that the neighborhood counts the days until you leave.