Nope, you’re not going crazy. This actually is a new story from me. I started it a while ago, got onto page 3, and sorta gave up, but I was inspired today and this is what I have. You guys know the deal… my updates will be few and far between, but have faith… I really want this to go somewhere. Use your author alerts. They’re lovely features. PLEASE REVIEW! I want to know what you guys think, particularly the ones that have already read some of my stuff… does this have what it takes to compete with what I’ve already written? Thanks so much.

My Apartment

© Kayli

Chapter One

Nothing is cooler than when you finally move in to your own place. Nothing. The feeling of finally being on your own is worth packing everything you own into impossibly small boxes; it’s worth the six trips from your previous home to your new one; it’s even worth smashing your pinky toe on the door to your apartment so hard that it turns your toe purple. I didn’t mind that it had taken me nearly two and a half tanks of gas to take the forty-mile each way trip from my old house to my new apartment. I didn’t mind anything about it, except that it didn’t happen sooner.

While most people my age were leaving their homes to go to universities and colleges far away from their families, I was getting out on my own now. I didn’t care about college. I didn’t have any desire to go and I saw no reason in wasting my parents’ money for an education that I didn’t find necessary. I wanted to get out and experience life.

So I packed up all my stuff and moved to Minneapolis. I was so excited to get out of the lame suburb that I had lived in before that I found the ideal apartment in less than a week.

For three-hundred dollars a month, my one-room apartment was a steal. Built in what was a really old house, I had a room about the size of an average living room. It was no big deal to me. The room I had at my parents’ house was half the size. The bottom floor of my building had three other rooms, and while we all had to share the bathroom, I was just so content with being able to afford moving out that it didn’t matter to me.

There was only one real reason I could afford living by myself. My previous part-time job offered me a full-time position working overnight. I worked at a small, privately owned photography studio. Typically I just developed the photos, but occasionally I got to take pictures, which was what I absolutely loved. Working overnight, I obviously wouldn’t be able to, but it gave me time at work with just one other person, so I knew I would get the developing done nearly perfectly.

“Al?” my sister broke my thoughts, bringing me back to reality. “Alex?” she repeated.

“Hmm?” I looked around fondly at my new apartment. Yeah, the paint was chipping and the carpet desperately needed to be cleaned—or replaced entirely—but it didn’t matter. To me, this was the most beautiful place in the world.

“Are you sure all your stuff is going to fit in here?” Anna inquired.

I grinned at her, “We’ll make it.”

Anna and I were as close as two sisters could be. She was my best friend, even if she was two years younger than me. She was definitely going to be what I missed from home the most.

Anna was the definition of beautiful. Her amazing aquamarine eyes were only one of the gorgeous features she possessed. She had long, golden blonde hair that was naturally spirally and always looked great. Her teeth had always been straight and pearly white and she had the most elegant figure imaginable. Very tall and very poised, being a dancer for her entire life, she was the model of a perfect daughter.

I, on the other hand, was shorter by almost five inches. My eyes were gray. Gray! Could you get any more boring? I don’t even know where I got the color. My mother’s eyes were the same aquamarine as Anna’s, and my dad’s were brown. My short, punky brown hair always held streaks of red. Braces saved my overcrowded mouth from looking entirely horrible. My figure was definitely what I was most proud of. I’d been in karate since Anna was in diapers. I competed regionally and kicked some serious ass, so I had some muscle that I was really happy with. Of course, it didn’t help that I had to be the clumsiest person I knew. The only reason I lost my regional karate meet was because I was too excited and ended up falling over. I grabbed at the other girl totally unintentionally, but I got disqualified. It totally sucked.

“Too bad Mom and Dad can’t help,” Anna said, glancing hopelessly at the pile of boxes she promised to help me unpack.

I smiled, “You know they’re too busy turning my room into an office.”

“Shut up, Al,” Anna glared at me as best she could—which wasn’t very. It wasn’t that my parents didn’t love me—I knew they did—it was more that they were severely disappointed in me for not choosing to go to college. The last six months spent in their house was practically torture, but I couldn’t see how going to college for their sake was a good idea at all. It certainly wasn’t something that I didn’t ever want to do, I just knew that I needed a break from school before I did. Their disappointment moved me out of the house even faster than I had intended, but I was much happier knowing that I was going to be on my own.

“I’m sorta worried about you,” Anna admitted as we brought the last of the boxes inside.

I rolled my eyes before turning to her, grabbing the box cutter beside her. “Why’s that?”

“Because I don’t think this neighborhood is very safe, Alex. With you living here alone, not knowing anyone, leaving late at night and coming home God knows when… something could happen to you.”

I smirked at her. Sometimes she acted like more of a mother than my mother did. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it. You know I need to do this.”

She sighed and nodded. “I guess I just wish you would have waited until I could move out with you. I’m gonna hate not having you around.”

“I’m not that far away, Ann… we’ll see each other enough,” I assured her, pulling out the pieces to my coffee table.

“But I’m gonna be at college now… I’m going to have so much homework,” she pointed out, the anxiety pouring from her.

To add to my parents’ immense disappointment in me, it certainly didn’t help to hear that “Anna’s going to college and she’s still technically supposed to be in high school!” So the post-secondary enrollment option appealed to her… that’s great. I was proud of her for putting her 4.0 GPA at risk at going to college to take harder classes. But what my parents didn’t seem to understand was that Anna and I are two different people with very different goals in life. If she and I could accept each other, why couldn’t they accept my choices too?

“Hey,” I heard from the doorway. I spun around, not expecting anyone to be around.

“Hi,” I smiled at the stranger.

“I’m Mike,” he stepped into my room slightly apprehensively, “I live next door.”

Mike, super tall with tousled brown hair and amazing honey colored eyes, was very, very attractive. I shook his hand and smiled at him before introducing myself and Anna.

“You both staying here?” he inquired.

“Nah,” I shook my head, “Anna here is a bit too young to live on her own just yet.” I grinned as she playfully hit me.

“Mentally I’m much older than she is,” Anna retorted before turning back to my dresser, struggling to get it in place.

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Mike smiled and I almost died. He had the most amazing smile I had ever seen in my life. “I’ll be around, mostly during the day. If you ever need anything, feel free to stop by.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I grinned, “Thanks.”

“No prob,” he walked back to his room and shut the door.

“Damn,” Anna hissed, “Can I move in with him?”

I rolled my eyes. “You have a boyfriend.”

“So? You wouldn’t tell him, would you?” she grinned. “He’s hot. You should see what happens.”

I just shook my head. Anna seemed to think the progress of my love life was entirely her concern and if my love life just happened to be nonexistent, she spent far too much time trying to set me up with her boyfriend’s friends. It never worked, mostly because it wasn’t something I wanted. No matter how many times I said that, though, Anna refused to believe me.

“You just don’t know what it’s like to be in love,” she’d always gush.

“I don’t care,” I’d reply. There wasn’t much she didn’t know about me, but I had been in love. And it sucked.

We unpacked in silence for a while. I threw in some music to hopefully avert any more of Anna’s attempts to hook me up with some strange guy. One thing she didn’t seem to understand that I found very important: it was completely my fault these dates didn’t progress into relationships. Some of the guys may have been totally willing, but I wasn’t. I didn’t want to be tied down during the most independent moment of my life.

I glanced at my clock what I thought was an hour later. “Shit!”

Anna jumped, evidently surprised to hear my voice. “What?”

“I have to go. I have to work. Damn it,” I searched for my keys, which I found under piles of newspaper ten minutes later.

“Wow, it’s almost ten already. That’s crazy,” Anna commented. “I’ll walk you to your car, okay?”

We made it almost completely to my car before she brought up some guy her boyfriend worked with. After all the stress of the day, I thought I would explode.

“G’night, Ann,” I said quietly. I got in my car without turning back to her. I didn’t want her to think I was mad, but I was so sick of being treated like I was incapable of running my own life. “I’ll call you later this week…we’ll watch movies or something.”

“’Kay,” she said and I could tell she was a little upset. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with sisterly drama, so I left before we had the chance to start arguing.

Another upside to moving to Minneapolis was that the drive to work went from fifty minutes to ten. My boss, Karen, was so happy that I moved closer that she bought me a couch. I was definitely amused by that, but I certainly wasn’t going to turn her down. I needed any help I could get.

When I pulled into the tiny parking lot next to the shop, I was happy to see that my coworker Erika was already there. She had the keys to get in and I was excited to get started. Our primary photographer had taken some really awesome wedding pictures that I couldn’t wait to start developing. We did things really differently than most shops. While we had the technology to develop pictures using machines, Karen wanted us to develop important pictures (such as wedding photos) by hand. It took a lot of time, but the final product was always well worth it. I was immensely proud of what I did.

“Hey, Al,” Erika smiled at me. She and I had been friends since middle school. Working together came naturally, something Karen really loved because we worked extremely well together. I had always adored Erika and I knew that working overnights with her now would help us get closer than we had been in a while. “How’s your apartment?”

“Freakin’ awesome!” I exclaimed. “I’m so happy to be out here. You have no idea.”

“I saw a honey of a man coming out of your building earlier… you probably haven’t met him yet… really tall, dark hair—“

“Amazing eyes and a gorgeous smile?” I finished, “We met. His name’s Mike.”

“Damn, girl… he’s hot. I could tell driving by,” she grinned. “Maybe we should throw you a housewarming party. Invite him, get a few drinks in you, who knows what’ll happen.” She winked at me.

“Shut up, Erika… you sound like Anna,” I groaned as she unlocked the door. I unconsciously shut the alarm off, threw my coat and purse onto the nearest chair, and headed to the darkroom.

We spent most of the night in silence. I wasn’t mad at her and she knew it, but I wasn’t in the mood for talking. Around three in the morning, I was feeling more than tired.

“Okay, break time,” Erika said suddenly after I yawned for the ninety-sixth time. “All your yawning is making me tired.”

“This isn’t an easy schedule,” I yawned again, cracking open a can of Mountain Dew.

“You’ll get used to it. It’s hard in the beginning, but it ends up being sorta nice. You’ll be able to sleep anywhere soon enough.”

“That’s reassuring,” I sighed, sinking deeper into my chair.

“Do you ever think that maybe Anna’s right?” Erika inquired softly.

“Erika, I don’t want to—“

“You never want to. You’re already set against a guy that you admit you’re attracted to.”

I groaned, “We just met. Why would I entertain the idea of dating someone I don’t even know?”

“Because that’s normal behavior,” she pointed out, “And you just keep proving you’re anything but normal.”

I rolled my eyes, “Who wants to be normal?”

“You do,” she proclaimed, “That’s why you won’t talk about this, that’s why you’re so bitter. You want to be normal, but you won’t let yourself.”

“Eri—“

“We all get hurt, Alex. Every single one of us. Don’t think that the world is out to get you. I bet I’ve been fucked over worse than you, but I move on. I think it’s about damn time you did the same.”

“You don’t know a damn thing about me or my history,” I stood up.

“I know enough,” she said quietly. “And regardless, holding this all in isn’t going to make anything better for you. It’s just going to keep getting worse.”

I looked at her, but I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. I tossed my pop can into the recycle bin and went back to the darkroom.

We worked for the rest of the night in tense silence.

It was nearing six-thirty in the morning when I finally trudged down the stairs to my apartment. Fumbling with my keys, I almost had them into the hole when I heard footsteps behind me. Spinning around, I dropped my keys on the ground and nearly lost the digital camera I’d borrowed from work as well.

“Sorry,” he smiled, “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No worries,” I said as he picked up my keys for me. “It’s been a long night.”

“You work nights too?” He inquired.

“First night,” I said proudly.

He grinned, “Kinda obvious.”

I laughed, “Yeah, I’m a walking zombie. I know. At least I get paid better.”

“No doubt,” he smiled again, “Hey, do you wanna come in for coffee?”

I looked at him for a moment. Wearing a pair of brown Dickies and a black tee shirt with some illegible band name, he seemed so genuine that I almost said yes. I wanted to say yes.

This was huge. I hadn’t wanted anything to do with any guys in so long, but I really, truly wanted to say yes.

But I didn’t.

“I’d love to, Mike, but I’m so exhausted,” I smiled weakly, “Rain check?”

“No problem,” he unlocked my door for me, opened it, and handed me the keys, “I’ll ask again in a few weeks, when you get used to the schedule.”

“Sounds good,” I said softly.

“You’ll get used to it,” he told me. “And soon enough, you’ll be able to sleep in places and at times you never thought possible.”

I grinned, “I’m hearing that a lot.”

“Goodnight, Alex,” he smiled at me once more before shutting the door behind him.

“G’night, Mike,” I whispered. I heard his door shut, some ruffling, and then there was silence.

I barely managed to turn a fan on before falling onto my new couch. I was asleep within seconds, Mike completely forgotten.