"Are you ready for this? A whole new life, a whole new COUNTRY!" I ask.
"I don't think I have a choice at this point to be anything but excited, Bec." she laughs.
So recently Jaycee and I finished up at our community college back in the states. We've been best friends since I can remember. Now I'm 21 and she's 20 and we recently decided it would be a completely life-changing experience if we just decided to attend school in England. London to be precise. We figured we should go big or go home and so that's why we're now currently sitting on a plane headed for London England. It's summer and we've already arranged to have an apartment ready for us and all of our larger possessions should have arrived by now.
I'm pale, I have long dark brown hair that drys freakishly straight every time. This makes it very hard for my hair to have any pizzazz I'm of average height, I'm average looking, and on top of all of that I wear a boring pair of black, square glasses on my face. You see, I'm blind without them and I never took to contact lenses.
"Ugh" She moans. "I hate flying."
"You'll be fine. You have your water right?" I ask.
"Yeah, it's right here. We're going to be so jet-lagged. Better question, are you going to be alright?"
"Don't worry about me. I'm just ready to be there already."
-ding- -ding-
The seat-belt light comes on and out steps our lovely flight attendant to announce the plane is ready to take off. Here we go.
Our cab pulls up out side of our new apartment complex. This place is seriously impressive. We grab our bags out of the trunk and proceed inside.
Jaycee asks, "You have the key right?"
"Yeah, just a sec." I pull the key out of my pocket. There was no way I was letting it off of my body knowing I might lose it. I also wasn't about to let Jace hang onto it, she's worse than I am.
"Here we are."
As the door swings open we're both more than excited to get inside and get our luggage into our rooms. The apartment is spacious with wood floors and large windows. Our couch and larger boxes have already arrived ahead of us. Things like our bookcases and coffee tables haven't been assembled yet but I'm very much thankful for the things that are ready for us (like our oh-so-comfortable sectional). A basic layout of the apartment: you walk in the door facing the living room. There is a small coat closet on the left and proceeding further into the room (on the left) is my bedroom. If you continue on the right there is a bar separating the living room & the kitchen and from the kitchen down the hall is Jaycee's room and the bathroom.
Jaycee steps out of her bedroom, on the other side of the apartment, and leans on the door frame,
"I could get used to this Bec, I really could"
"Good. I think I like it too." I grin.
"Lets hope our neighbors are as fantastic as this place."
"We should only hope." I say. Curious as to if we'll even ever meet any of our neighbors. "You think we should get unpacking? It's only 11."
"I don't know. I think I might arrange my room a bit but mostly I'm feeling like a good sleep." She explains.
"Fine by me. I slept on the flight over so I'm feeling pretty good."
"Well aren't you a fortunate one?"
I pick up a throw pillow from the couch and toss it at her head. It gracefully flies right past and back behind the couch.
She laughs at me and proceeds to her bedroom, shutting the door.
In a couple of hours I manage to assemble both coffee tables, our entertainment center (t.v stand for any of you who are unfamiliar) and arrange a few pieces of artwork we picked for the walls. I'm looking around admiring the progress I made when my stomach lets out an obnoxiously loud rumble.
When's the last time I ate?
Considering I can't remember, I take that as a hint to go out and get some groceries to stock the fridge and pantries. I quickly grab my keys and coat which I hung in the closet on the way in, lace up my chucks and head out the door. I lock the door and head downstairs to the street. Once I hit the bottom floor and carelessly turn the corner I bump into someone. Naturally I stutter,
"Oh gosh I'm so sorry."
and in unison they also apologize "Sorry about that."
and slowly walks past me.
I have that feeling that I'm being watched but I don't dare look at them in shame. All I see is a faint figure that seems to be quite tall and has dark hair that falls around their eyes. As I continue to the door I notice that whoever I bumped into could possibly be our neighbor. I turn to catch whoever it was walking away but only manage to see their short dark hair as they progress down the hall.
Well that was odd.
I then quickly brush it off and signal a cab.
As I'm placing the last can of soup into the pantry, Jaycee steps out of her room yawning, stretching, and looking rather exhausted.
"Feeling better?" I ask her grinning at her ridiculous appearance.
"A bit. What are you smiling at?"
"Oh nothing, you just look like you've been sleeping on the street for a week and a half. You might want to consider taking a shower. Oh and it's 9PM in case you were wondering. Make this a habit and you're going to become a night owl like me."
"Oh god, we wouldn't want that to happen. This jet lag sucks ass by the way. Holy shit, you got all of that" she gestures to the living room furniture "put together?"
"Yeah and I went out and got some groceries too. I think the cashier was overly mesmerized by my American accent at the store. It was quite funny, you would've loved it."
"Damn." She says with a bummed-out tone. "Well thanks though! Best friend ever." She gives me an over-exaggerated hug and opens the fridge for something to eat.
"I may or may not have met one of our neighbors on my way out this afternoon."
"Oh?" She questions, stuffing a piece of banana into her mouth. "May or may not?"
"Yeah I don't know, I ran into them rushing to the door and apologized. They headed up here I think so I'm not entirely sure if they live near us or not."
"Interesting. Well hopefully you'll run into whomever again sometime soon. Clutz. I'm bored as hell already."
"Oh yeah? Well then you can start unpacking these kitchen boxes then." I say and shove the box clearly labeled "KITCHEN" on it.
She sighs, finishes her banana and begins unpacking.
The next day we both wake up around noon, shower and sit down for some crappy daytime television show.
"We really need to find a Starbucks."
"Like now." Jaycee replies.
I quickly jump up, grab the remote, shut the t.v. off and head for the door. Jaycee right behind me. This time she locks the door and we head for the stairs. We're both going mach-speeds (I mean, come on it's Starbucks) and as Jaycee is in front of me it's her turn to run into random strangers while turning the corner.
The two of them roughly bang into each other. The stranger stumbles backward onto his friend and Jaycee hits the floor. I was still halfway up the steps and unable to help.
AH Sorry, what do you expect? A clutz is not at all graceful at attending to other clutz-es before something traumatic happens to them.
They both stutter apologies, Jaycee looking much like I'm sure I did yesterday when I did the exact same thing. This might be a continual problem. I make a mental not to take this corner cautiously in the future.
The stranger quickly recovers and helps her up as I take the last couple of stairs to reach her. As I do, I have the feeling of eyes on me again. That's when I glance at the friend and I honestly forget what air is.