Hey Beautiful Ch. 1

13 June 2008, it was a sunny afternoon in the New York City. I looked up in the sky, it was immensely blue, not a sign of rain coming. I admired the beauty of the metropolis. It was so different from my hometown, buildings were overlapping each other and there were no hawks hovering over, just hustling and bustling. I took out my new phone. It's nothing compared to those fancy phones in downtown, but it's a luxury for us all young girls ,even our parents were fascinated by its robotic nature too, well it's just a farewell present from my friends before I left.

They said migration was 'Go on! Burn all bridges and leave all your friends! We don't need you and good luck with your completely unknown home and foreign neighbours!" , they said they won't be seeing me in a decade or even longer so this high-tech phone made up for the coming decade. Dorks. It's their saying of don't come back crawling for comfort when you didn't hit the bull's eye like you wanted…Ok it was mocking because at first I thought leaving home alone a token of freedom and independence, like the yellow sparrow flying among the skyscrapers. From the moment I set foot on this city of freedom, I knew this is my only chance.

Reset. Restart. Reborn.

I took a picture of the sapphire sky. I never thought I would find such a colour in such a city. It reminds me of the sea next to my house…

I used to live in the remote countryside, in Kansas, where ducklings and squirrels were my best friends. Though I have some friends in nearby farmhouses, no one understood me more than small animals, they were always there beside me, always there when Dad came home drunk, shouting and almost hitting. Besides animals, books, were my only comfort. Mother left behind a whole library in the deck of the house. I retired there everytime I felt lonely. I was homeschooled, and overprotected, books were the only windows for me to connect to the real world…But no animals could make a good companion like Toby. He and I used to hang out every day by the stream, chasing after furious livestock and playing hide and seek in the fields until Dad was too mad to come and grab us. He left. For a better future. We became penpals, we wrote to each other once a month until recently he told me to move into his flat, in New York. I haven't heard of his noise for 10 years already…I doubt if I could recognize him…He left as a fearless, bright, adventurous, never-growing up Peter pan. We talked about creating the future together but the promise was never fulfilled. I should never expect too much from a boy like Roby. Luckily we were too young or I'd become a helpless victim in immature love…I moved on, carrying my pink handy suitcase. I didn't bring all of my stuff to my new home, just enough to get me by...I moved on, walking gayly, almost skipping to the song in my heart. Passerby stared at me like they saw first Pandas, I continued my way.

I walked and walked from the subway to this four-story bricked building. I glanced up to the second floor and saw one room with windows opened, loud upbeat music was playing, totally unfamiliar and unknown compared to the soulful lullabys mother used to sing me to sleep. Another side of the floor, another opened window and a hand stretching out, she was hanging her clothes, and she saw me.

"Hey there!" she waved and dropped her clothing. My reflexes reacted faster than normal and caught her...bra~

"Oops~" she covered her mouth and giggled shyly. I chuckled along too, out of embarrassment. "You must be Emma! Toby always talked about you!"

"Hi there "I smiled as I was overwhelmed by her uniform cheerfulness, "I'm Kimberly Abigail from Kansas,' I chuckled a bit out of embarrassment because I realized I was holding her bra."Is Toby here?" I looked through the flat but could see no one but this smiling Angel.

"No unfortunately Toby's out for work, In India…, "her smiles disappeared when I mentioned Toby.

"For how long?"

"Three months or longer, but he told me he's an old friend called Kim Abi, he told me to let you stay,"she started picking up the remaining clothes that didn't fall, "By the way I'm Debbie, and friends call me Deb, Hey Kim, why don't you come up here? It's cooler inside!"

"Hey sis, whats the fuss down there?"a blonde teenage came to my sight half-naked.

"Morning Max, this is Kimberly, she'll be living with us from today,"

"hi im Max," he waved coolly while brushing his teeth wildly, i prayed he womt drop his toothbrush down," amd youre holding..."

"Umm Max you must first put some clothes on, its inappropriate..."

"Sis, isnt she…"Debbie pushed him out of the room.

"aha~" she started laughing again,"just get up here and ill make you breakfast, ah, i mean brunch, it's been a tough trip, isn't it?"

"Yeah, sorta..."I looked up at the sky once again. A whole unknown city, Toby's gone for at least 3 months but seemed-friendly-roomates , my worries were halved already. I swear to God, somewhere out there, not in the far future, I'm gonna make a name of myself and come home with my head and shoulders high and proud.

"Kimberly~come on quick! Your coffee is ready!" She appeared in the balcony again. So I opened the door and saw...no elevator, just stairs. Toby always told me they have things called elevators and escalators in the big city…but somehow it's no different from my old home…

I started dragging it up, suddenly I heard a crack, and everything burst out like a volcano. Maybe i was pulling too hard. The suitcase seemed to be unbuckled and I kneeled down to fix it.

"Ah!"something bumped me, someone. It was a guy holding his cellphone, a much fancier one than mine. I tripped him and all his fancy suit was ruined. He gave me a astonished expression. He picked himself up and his phone next, patting off the dirt and tried to hold on the conversation.

"Yeah Mr Johnson, I'm on my way to the threatre, please, 5 minutes is enough." He touched his messed-up hair, and glanced at me quite angrily for one last time before he left.

That was just not a friendly encounter with a new neighbor, but from the two glances I could tell he's handsome, deep blue eyes and perfectly-flowed burnette hair...even if its messed up by my all-fell-over clothing . Well no doubt New York have hotties all around, just like the irresistible protagonist you find in fictions…

"Kimberly! What took you so long?!"Debbie rushed down the stairs like an impatient child waiting for candies. " Oh my God what happened? Let me help you," We started clearing up the floor.

"Wait! Something is missing!" I said

" what?"

"My bra,"