The Fightin' Renters

... were a lesbian couple with a volatile relationship and a nasty nicotine habit. Their constant arguments, and constant cigarette smoke, would spill over into our apartment. “Sarah” flew off the handle during many of their loud, violent fights, and made sure everyone heard.

We’d be sitting at home any given evening, and muffled yelling would come from the other side of the wall. It would escalate, escalate, escalate, and then – SLAM!—Sarah would bang out of their apartment, slamming the door to illustrate to the entire fifth floor how pissed off she was. Our walls would rattle. One night, the impact was so hard, it knocked a custom-framed honeymoon photo off the wall. It crashed; the glass cracked. I put down my fork.
“That’s it,” I said to Kevin. “I’m saying something.”
I opened my door, and there was Sarah, standing across from the elevator, head down in a pout, arms crossed tightly, nervously tapping her foot, waiting for the elevator. Seems to me that if you’re pissed off enough, the stairs, which were right next to the elevator, are a more expedient way to storm off, but apparently Sarah was pissed off and lazy enough to wait for the elevator.

I walked up to her. My voice was firm. “Sarah, this has got to stop.”
She responded in a tight voice. “You don’t know what’s going on.”
“No, I don’t. I know this is hard, but—“
“Oh, you don’t know how hard this is,” she interrupted me.
“Listen—“ I was firmer now. I was not going to let her talk her way out of this one and think that her recklessness had zero consequences. “This. Has. Got to stop. You and Hillary fight every other day. You get pissed off and you slam your door. Well, you just knocked an expensive picture off my wall and broke the glass. Listen to me. We own here. You rent. I know you’re angry, but you’ve got to take others into consideration. You’re disturbing us when you fight, and you just broke my picture.”
Sarah kept shaking her head, and she exhaled sharply through her nose. She said quietly, “It won’t happen again.”
“Thank you. That’s all I ask.”
Their fighting did continue, but after that hallway confrontation, Sarah somehow figured out a way to storm off quietly. I guess she finally found the stairs.