Chapter 4: Old building
The next day, Rachel woke me up pretty early. We were going to check out that apartment that she was talking about last night, and she had work in the afternoon 'til midnight.
"It's really hard to find a place that nice for cheap." Rachel said as we headed to the apartment. "You're really lucky, you know." she added.
I nodded and looked around at the town while we walked. The place seemed nice and had a country vibe that I liked, since Ohio is like a rural state.
"On second thought, maybe you're not such a lucky after all." Rachel said and sighed as we continued walking. I quickly looked at her, her words having definitely captured my attention.
What does she mean by that? I'm just starting to fall in love with the place. What's the catch? Maybe a murder took place in that apartment or maybe the apartment is haunted.
"The place is great, but the people in there, not so much." Rachel clarified, pulling me out of my thoughts. What does she mean by that? Does she know people there? Well, at least it's safe to say it's not ghost.
"There are few bad apples that live in that apartment." Rachel stopped walking. "Please stay away from them or your world will be a living hell," Rachel added, a warning. Now that's intriguing, what does she mean by bad apples and how did she know people there? Should I be worried?
"Here we are." Rachel said and almost startled me. Rachel wasn't kidding when she said this apartment was near to her place.
It was an eight floor old building. Probably built before I was born. I loved it as soon as I opened the door. We went to the landlord and she quickly gave us the tour. Rachel seemed to know the place pretty well.
We finally went up to see the room for rent. The room was pretty huge for a cheap price, the kitchen was cute, there was a nice view from the window, and a bathtub in the bathroom. There was no doubt about it, I liked this place and I would like to live here.
I was about to say that I would take the place when I heard a familiar voice outside of the room.
I followed the voice without realizing it and as I followed the voice through the hallway I remembered who it belongs to. It was Santana's voice, the girl that I met in the plane.
That was the second time I'd found myself desperately searching for the girl I barely knew. I wanted to see her; that's what my body and mind were saying and I didn't even know why.
The voice stopped, leading me to a door. I was pretty sure that voice came from within, and this time I was positive it belonged to Santana. I lifted my hand and prepared to open the door, but as I touched the doorknob I felt butterflies in my stomach. Why was I feeling nervous? I gulped and summoned all my guts to open the door.
The door opened. Thank god it wasn't locked. As I opened the door, the brightness of the sun partially blinded me. I didn't think there were any curtains in this room.
I opened my eyes a little and tried to adjust them to the brightness of the sun. I held one of my hands over my forehead so I could see clearer. There was someone in the room but I couldn't quite see who it was, it was probably Santana. Yes, it was probably her.
I eagerly opened my eyes fully so I could finally see Santana. I didn't care if the brightness of the sun blinded me. All I cared for in that moment was to see her again.
When my eyes were finally situated to the brightness, my jaw dropped. I wasn't Santana after all. It was a guy with a mohawk. "Who are you?" the guy inside the room asked.
"Sorry, I think I have the wrong room" I confusedly answered the mohawk guy, and fled from that room.
What was wrong with me? I needed to stop looking for that girl and just wandering everywhere; I could end up getting myself killed for it.
"There you are, Brittany." a puzzled Rachel said to me. It startled me, for a second I thought it was the guy in that room. "The landlord was asking if you are going to take it." Rachel added, and with that I felt myself brought back to reality.
We went back to the room where the landlord was waiting for my answer. I took a few looks at the room and finally decided to take it.
I would give my parents a call later so they could send my stuff. Also, I think I'm going to tell them to send Lord Tubbington. The landlord said pets are allowed and I miss my Lord Tubbington.
After a chat with the landlord, Rachel and I decided to head out and have some coffee before we went our separate ways.
She was going to work and Artie and I were going out. In our way out we saw that mohawk guy that I saw earlier. He was carrying a few suitcases. He suddenly looked in our direction and his eyes grew bigger as if he was surprised to see us. Oh no, he's looking in our direction. Does he remember me? What was I thinking, opening that door anyway?
I looked at Rachel to see if she saw how that guy had looked at us. She was looking at the mohawk guy. Wait, does Rachel know this guy? I looked back that the mohawk guy, who was now walking towards us. "What's up, lil Jewish," he said when he got close to us.
Rachel didn't respond and just annoyingly rolled her eyes and flipped her hair. Rachel really knew this guy, but why didn't she say anything? Rachel noticed that I was looking at her, and she quickly walked toward the exit.
It gave me a weird vibe, like there was something strange in this place. Was it the people who lived here? And why was Rachel being so mysterious all of the sudden?
"I can't believe it took us that much time in that apartment." I said to Rachel as we sat back and relaxed in some coffee shop.
"I know, good thing you have me, right?" Rachel bragged. At first I thought of shaking my head, but she was right. I wouldn't found that place if it wasn't for Rachel, so I just smiled at her and nodded.
Then I remembered that guy we saw before we left. "Hey, do you know that mohawk guy?" I asked Rachel.
"What guy?" Rachel responded with startled looked on her face.
Now I was more curious than ever, people always know when Rachel Berry is hiding something and I'm no exception to that. Her eyes move everywhere when she's trying to keep a secret and her voice cracks, just like now. Something was up with her. "You're hiding some…" My sentence got cut off by a ringing phone. It was my phone and it made me forget our conversation.
It was a text message from Mike. "Don't forgot tomorrow is your first day at New Schu Empire. Send me the address of your friend. I'll pick you up tomorrow so we can go together". Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Luckily I have Mike to remind me.
Remembering that made me realize something. I only been here in L.A. for a couple of days and I managed to have my own place, have friends, plenty of friends, and have a decent job. It made me smile. Pretty good start for a girl who always gets confused.
The next day I woke up pretty early because I was excited about work. It was my first day and I couldn't believe it. Rachel was still sleeping when I woke up so I just left her a note.
Carrying my luggage, I went to my new flat. Thank god it was only few blocks away from Rachel's because I didn't want to waste my time and energy before work.
When I got to the apartment, it didn't have the same vibe as it did when Rachel and I were there. I didn't see the mohawk guy that was there before. Actually, I didn't see anybody in the building expect for the landlord who was cleaning the entrance door.
I asked for the landlord for my keys and went straight to my new room. When I got inside of my new place, I took a few seconds for myself and took a deep breath.
It was my actual first day of being independent. It was giving me such a mix feeling of fear and excitement at the same time. I wonder if I was ready to start my life on my own. What if I couldn't? What would my parents say? What would my friends say? Thinking of what might happen next was giving chills, but I remembered Mike was going to pick me up so I should probably get ready.
After few minutes, I saw Mike's green Civic in my window. He sure didn't want to be late. Good thing I left early from Rachel's. I went out as fast as I could and waved at Mike who was still looking to see if he was at the right place. "You're way too early, dude." I said to him as he got out of the car. His car is so shiny today, I wonder if he intentionally came here early so he can show off his car.
"I know, and no, I'm not showing off my beautiful car." Mike responded with a smile now, as if he just read my mind. Yes, he was definitely showing his car. This is what was Mike like when Tina wasn't around, an eight-year old kid show-off.
"Yeah, right." I pushed his left shoulder playfully with my right hand.
"But I want to talk to you about something" Mike said, and his face suddenly changed. I know that look, that's the look he always gave to me when I forgot our choreography and dance routines when we were in high school. Did I do something wrong?
"What are you doing?" Mike asked. What did I do? What was he talking about?
"What did I do?" I asked Mike with a blank expression on my face. I got the feeling this conversation would end up in confusion for me.
"You, bringing another guy in your boyfriend's flat…" Mike finished his sentence and sighed.
What is he talking about? Is he talking about Sam? I thought I had already told them that Sam was just a friend and I wouldn't hurt Artie. "But Sam is just my friend," I answered, a little irrigated with that topic.
"It just looked like you trusted that guy over Artie by choosing to stay with him instead of your boyfriend." Mike explained. I tried to process and rethink my actions of the other night.
"Is that how it looked like?" I quickly asked Mike. But I didn't choose to stay with Sam. I chose to stay with Rachel. "But I didn't stay with Sam, I was with our other friend who is a girl." I explained and tried to remove their wrong idea about Sam and I. "In fact, she's the one who helped me to find this nice place, not Sam." I added, but Mike just sighed and didn't respond. What the heck? I told everything and he's still not satisfied with my explanation. It's not like I was lying or anything. I frowned in frustration.
"You don't have to explain it to me. It's just, what do you think Artie felt?" Mike leaned against his car, addressing me as if he was scolding a kid.
I didn't know how to respond to him so I just held my hands and looked at the ground. So that's why Artie didn't text or call yesterday. I must've hurt his ego or something by bringing Sam to his flat and leaving. This was all just big misunderstanding. I grabbed my phone from my pocket and decided to call Artie so I could clarify everything but I stopped myself. I'd just end up confusing myself if I told him all on the phone. I'll just tell him when we met so I could also apologize properly. Yeah, that's a great idea.
"Sometimes you just need to stop being such a…" Mike stopped his sentence. He got my attention again. What was he going to say? Why did he stop? I looked at Mike and his face look surprise and confuse. "Did you just say own place?" Mike asked me, still with that surprised look on his face.
It made me smile because we could finally stop that awkward conversation. "Yeah, here, it's cheap and really nice inside." I told Mike the good news as I pointed the old building behind us. Mike held his right hand to his forehead while looking at the old building.
What's with that look? I was hoping he would say nice job Brittany or way to go Brittany. Isn't he happy I found my own place so fast and at this price?
He closed his eyes briefly, then looked at me. "You didn't tell this to Artie, didn't you?" Yeah, I haven't, but I can tell him later so what's with that look? I thought being independent was a good thing. I knew it- this conversation would only lead to confusion.
"Why don't you just live with Artie?" Mike asked, and it shocked me. Why were they pushing us to live together? We are not like them. I'm not ready and I didn't want to bring Artie down. Plus Artie was still studying. I wonder if this is an asian thing? Forcing other couples to live together so soon.
Even though I was a little fed up with what Tina and Mike wanted to happen to us, I still searched for an answer to Mike's question. "If we live together, he'll just be bummed because I'm so clueless and…" but Mike cut me off and started laughing. Why was he laughing? First, he came here showing off his car, then he scolded me like a little kid and now he's laughing at me. Is he playing with me?
"Do you think he didn't know that? He's used to that, we all are." Mike said, still laughing. I opened my mouth to react but the words vanished. Okay, should that make me feel okay or is he just insulting me? "Plus Artie doesn't want you to feel alone and he really wants to live with you." Mike stopped laughing as he said that. He said that? He really is the sweetest guy on earth.
