Chapter One: New Roommate
Sweat trickled down the nape of my neck and tiny strands of hair dangled in my face irritatingly as I leapt between the piles of boxes in my new apartment. Until this moment, I had never wished before that I'd had less stuff. Sarah, one of my new roommates, had offered to stay home to help me unpack but I didn't want her to miss out on her lecture. I kind of regretted that now but knew that I'd made the right choice. Now I just had to unpack all this stuff.
'Ugh' I reached out with my leg to kick one of the boxes in the direction of my room and hit my knee on another box which stood teetering in its path 'Ow!' I cursed under my breath. Hopefully, this would be the last time I'd have to move all my stuff for a long time.
'Ding Dong,' Yay, the doorbell, that meant more boxes. I slowly began to hobble towards the doorway. 'Coming!' I yelled out when I was halfway across the room. It was like trying to navigate an obstacle course. I really hoped I could get this stuff sorted out before Sarah and Christine got home that evening, or that I'd at least be able to push all the boxes into my room before then.
I suddenly missed my old apartment. I'd gotten on really well with my previous roommate. But she'd decided to give up law and move back to her parents' house in another state to work with them in their successful real estate business. Anyway, I wasn't having any luck finding another roommate to replace her and there was no way I was going to be able to afford to pay the rent on the minimal wages I got as a tutor at a local high-school.
One day, I was moaning in a law lecture about my misfortune when another student, who up until then I had only really viewed from a distance, came over and asked me if I'd be interested in giving up my old apartment and moving in with her and her current roommate, who were currently looking for someone to take their spare room. It was a tough decision leaving what had been my home since I'd moved up here to go to the university, but I had little choice and I appreciated Sarah's kindness and generosity in making the offer to me (which I suspected was based solely upon my misfortune, I hadn't seen any advertisements for the room up around the campus).
When I finally accepted her offer a few days later, I can remember thanking her and her saying something about 'stacking the odds in our favour' and 'having an advantage over them.' I wasn't sure what she really meant and as I reflected on this as I hobbled across the apartment's living room covered in boxes, I still wasn't sure that I really understood.
Over the coming weeks, we'd become closer as we'd began to plan when I would move in and Sarah had begun to tell me about her current roommate, Christine Daae. Sarah told me that she was a famous opera singer from Paris and I finally met her a week ago with all the nervousness and trepidation that comes from meeting someone older than you, more famous than you and someone that I felt I owed something to. This woman was, after all, letting me into her home.
The moment Sarah pointed her out sauntering across the car park however in a pair of skinny jeans, a halter top and some pumps however, with a massive grin stretched across her face, my nervousness disappeared and I knew that I was going to like Christine as much as I liked Sarah. We all sat down to have some coffee and we laughed and joked over some general chit-chat like how packing my stuff was going and the food at the new cafeteria at the university. The funniest part was when Sarah and I told Christine about our property law lecturer who had shoulder length long black hair that flicked when he turned his head like Severus Snape. We all laughed so hard when I started mimicking the action that we soon got death stares from the middle-aged people trying the read their newspapers, which only made us laugh more.
When we'd finally settled down, I thought I'd enquire a little about the broader apartment environment, my previous apartment having been on the other side of town. I stirred my coffee and looked down at it as I asked casually:
'So, what are the neighbours like?' When I glanced up, I noticed Sarah and Christine looking at each other, silently. It wasn't the reaction I was expecting.
'That bad aye?' I took a sip of coffee. 'Are they noisy, annoying? One of my neighbours from my old building used to play his trombone all night long, it used to drive me crazy.'
'Well,' Christine sighed, 'I suppose noisy and annoying is one way of putting it.' She reached for her coffee and took a sip. 'Let's just say that there are a couple of guys that we have a kind of past with that drive us both a bit crazy.'
'oh, like ex-boyfriends?' I asked.
'Yeah, sort of...' Christine answered, a little unconvincingly.
'...Never got that far.' I heard Sarah stammer adamantly inside her coffee cup.
'They can be a little bit strange and irritating but they aren't dangerous at all. You'll be perfectly safe with us.' Christine smiled and gently patted my hand which lay on the coffee table.
'Well...' Sarah began. But one sharp glance from Christine soon silenced that.
Needless to say, I pretty much forgot about the whole conversation amid the anarchy of packing until I opened the front door. Whoever I was expecting it wasn't that! My mouth made a small 'O' as I examined this stranger, right from his shining black leather shoes, to his black satin trousers and matching vest over a white cotton shirt, right up to the white porcelain mask and glossy black hair which fell in waves down the back of his head. His mouth was hard, but his soft, shining green eyes revealed his surprise when he spotted me. Evidently, he hadn't been warned of my arrival.
'Who are you?' He finally ventured to ask.
'I'm Nicole, the new roommate.' I reached out to shake his black gloved hand. He hesitated for a second, before taking it and shaking it promptly.
He stared at me wonderingly for a moment more, which made me feel a little uncomfortable, particularly once I'd remembered that I was wearing sweatpants and an old t-shirt and that my hair, which normally fell in frizzy brown curls, was even more wild than normal after a morning shifting cardboard boxes.
Eventually he muttered 'I came to see Christine briefly.'
'Oh, she's just at the university at the moment, sorry.' I replied very briskly.
'It's Wednesday, she always comes home for an hour at lunch on Wednesdays.' He pulled a gold pocket watch from one of his vest pockets to check to time, 'she should be home very soon.'
He tucked the watch back into his pocket and looked up at me, questioningly once more. 'I'll come back up in a few minutes then.' He began to turn away.
'No!' I reached out to him and caught his arm and regretted it immediately. He didn't look angry or disgusted by the fact that I had touched him, just surprised. He looked down at where my hand lay on his arm and I quickly removed it. I just felt embarrassed and I felt my cheeks grow red as I looked back at him.
'I mean, there's no point going all the way downstairs when you're going to come back up in a few minutes anyway. Come in' I gestured for him to enter the apartment and after quickly shutting the door, hobbled past him to try and push some of the boxes out of the way of the couch, where he very slowly and gracefully sat down.
'Can I get you anything to drink at all? Coffee? Tea?'
'Coffee would be splendid thank you, black with two sugars please.' I nodded and then swung into the kitchenette, filling the jug with the water and setting it to boil before dashing around to fill two cups with tea, coffee and sugar.
After running around to make the drinks, I tried to walk slowly and casually over to couch, partially because the thought of spilling the drinks horrified me, partially because I had a strange attraction to this person; a great desire to please him and impress him. I made it safely to the coffee table and set the two cups upon coasters, taking a seat gingerly at the opposite end of the three-seater. We just sat for a moment, letting the drinks cool, before I remembered something:
'Oh, I don't even know you're name yet.' I smiled at him.
'It's Erik.' My heart slowed a little bit when I saw him give a small smile back. It was only small, but his green eyes glistened when he smiled and I desperately wanted to see them glisten again.
'So, how do you know Christine?'
'From the Opera.' He replied softly.
'Oh, you worked there too?' I asked.
'Sort of.' Another one of those unconvincing answers. I already got the feeling that there was a lot of things that I didn't know about going on around here. I'd find out eventually though, I wasn't going to pry. Particularly as the door opened at that moment and Christine sauntered in. Erik leapt up from the couch and I felt a sudden spark of jealousy over the fact that she could invoke such a response from him. While she smiled at him though, I sensed that her feelings for him fell slightly short of his feelings for her.
I quickly excused myself and grabbing a box, ran into my room and shut the door. I'd get used to this place and all these people with time. At least I hoped so.
