Author's Note: Hey everyone! Ladybuguboo here! Hope you like this next chapter, and when you're done, tell us what you liked and what you didn't.
Also, don't forget to check out Racheluvme's other story, and mine!
Chapter 2: The Apartment
My door creaked open and two small green eyes poked their way in. Turning from my mirror, I looked back as Trisha slipped inside the door.
"Mom said it's time for you to go," she said, placing herself precariously at the foot of my bed.
I turned back to my reflection, picked up an earring and jammed it into the tiny hole. "Tell her I'll be down after I brush my teeth."
For a moment Trisha balanced on my bed, her eyes shinning like crystal green pools. "What?" I asked.
Her shoulders slumped, "I was hoping I could go with you."
"It's really not going to be that cool"
"I know…But…I know."
Slowly I turned and knelt next to my baby sister. Her bottom lip just barely stuck out in a little pucker, trembling ever so slightly. I was sure that if I lifted her chin, her eyes would be shinning more than usual from tears.
My sister was the biggest baby sometimes. She cried at almost anything. I once tired to squash a spider in her room, and she almost tackled me. She "couldn't bare to see it get hurt," sometimes I think she would be better named Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. But I had never been able to scold her or tease her about it. I always found myself trying to protect her from the world instead of exposing her to it. Maybe it was because she looked so much like me. The only difference being that i had blue eyes and straight hair while she had green and curly.
Mother always said that we could have been twins if it weren't for the age difference and the fact that I have my father's eyes. I'd never met my father, at least that I can remember. He died when I was about five and then my mom got remarried, and had Trisha.
"Look," I said stroking her thick brown hair, "I don't really know what my apartment is going to be like. There might be a lot of bugs and you know what I do with bugs. I don't want to make you cry."
She nodded slowly. My sister, though she was only seven, just couldn't stick up for herself. She was one of those kids who would sit in the corner and read rather than interact with the other kids. She was just so shy and one little word could make her break down.
"But I'll bring you back lots of pictures ok?"
(Insert Page Break)
The car came to a stop. I rolled down the window and gazed out as an ominous feeling of dread came over me.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" mom's voice was filled with disgust.
The building was five stories high with big ugly rusted bars over all the windows. The ground was more dirt with cigarette butts, McDonald's bags, and broken glass then it was grass. In one of the Walls there was a hole where someone had been throwing pill bottles. The walls themselves looked like, at some point maybe a thousand years ago that they had been a green color, but no the paint was chipped and stained. Even the main door was falling off.
I was able to sigh in relief when I pushed open my door. It was much better on the inside. The walls were a light tan color that were in fairly good condition besides a long crack in the "Bedroom" section that was bout a foot and a half long with a three inch gap.
The room was empty except from a blue school chair in the corner and an old fridge that was avocado green. Inside it were three bottles that looked like wine from the previous owners. I wasn't really sure since the labels were in a different language.
That was odd. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to be in French. Unfortunately for me, I had taken German rather than French in High School. I carefully emptied out the bottles contents, a thick red liquid-solid, into the sink and tossed the glass into the wastebasket. My roommate Jen was known to be quite the drinker and I didn't want to have to rush her to the hospital for poisoning.
I set to work. It was two days before we would move in and this apartment was in desperate need of spring cleaning. Tearing open a packet of rags and some Lysol, I scrubbed the grime and dust off the counters and table tops. Next was the stove. Some foreign kind of food was burnt on to the stovetop. This would take more than Lysol. I checked in my small stash of cleaning supplies and found nothing that would be of use.
"Guess it's time to meet the neighbors," I thought as I grabbed my key. That's right, my key. No more dorm rooms with crazy roommates. In my freshman year at Green Hills University, I'd gone in blind, hoping to make new friends that way. Unfortunately I was paired with Missy; a perky cheerleader who slept with every guy on the football team and brought them all back to our room, and frequently, my bed. I'd become an expert at the art of laundry. But this year would be different. I was living in my own apartment just off campus with my best friend Jen. She had gotten out of the mass cleaning only because she was vacationing with her family in Greece.
"Deedee, It's gonna be torture. My dad's going to wake us up at 7:00 every morning to go sightseeing! I'll only have a couple days to lay out at the beach and I have to spend time with my cousin. I've never even met her!" This was her excuse as to why she couldn't help with all our "apartment details" as she called it.
"Oh, boo hoo, poor little Jen has to go to exotic Athens and meet her beautiful relatives and see all there is to see in a foreign country," I pouted.
"Well I'm sorry I'll miss out on the cleaning, but I promise I'll bring you back some expensive souvenirs and pictures," she said.
"I'll miss you," I said, giving her a hug and willing myself not to cry.
"I'll miss you more," she said, her voice shaking terribly.
"Goodbye," I whispered.
"Bye Deedee."
So this was how I came to be stuck, cleaning an apartment by myself with no stovetop cleaner. I knocked on apartment 15. No answer. I moved on to the apartment across the hall. A tall man wearing only boxer shorts opened the door.
"Um, Hi," I chocked out, trying not to stare at his defined chest.
"Yeah, what do you want?" He asked taking a swig of the beer in his hand.
"Well, I'm Diana and I was wondering if-"
"Listen lady, if you're selling something, I don't want it." He said dismissively.
"Oh, no, actually I'm moving in across the hall and I was just wondering if you had any stovetop cleaner," I said meekly.
"Do I look like Mr. Clean to you?" He gestured to his appearance.
"I guess not, well thanks anyway," I turned away to go back to my apartment but I caught him looking me up and down as he took another sip of beer. He let out a low whistle and leaned against the chipped and broken door frame.
Turning back to him I folded my arms across my chest, "Can I help you with something?'
"Not really," He said, taking another long drink from his bottle. A small drop slid from his mouth and down his neck. I forced myself to stop watching its progression down his chest. "I've just never seen an ass quite like that before."
My jaw fell open in anger. How the heck was I supposed to respond to that? I turned on my heels and marched down the hall back to my apartment. Trying desperately not to think about him staring at my butt the whole way, I yanked my keys out of my pocket and fumbled to get it in the lock, but I dropped them. As I bent to pick them up, I could hear him laughing.
I locked the door when I finally managed to get inside. I turned from the door and glanced around my empty apartment. I did a double take.
My heart rate had sped up in that small second that I could have sworn I had seen a tall blonde, red-eyed man standing next to my counter. Now that I looked again, I saw a small white and blue bottle sitting there. Picking it up, my eyes widened.
Kitchen Cleaner
-All surface mess remover!-
That night, back at my mom's house, before I went to bed I turned on all the lights and checked every room. Just before climbing under the covers, I thought of one last thing. In the bathroom I carefully removed the mirror, and then went around covering all my windows.
Author's Note: Ok now its Racheluvme! hehe so what did you think? keep reading and REVEIW REVIEW REVIEW! the good the bad the ugly, anything! WE want to hear from u!