BETA: TheSupernova

Chapter 4: New York

"Now, this might be a little cramped for a few weeks," Brad said, as he walked across the room towards a solitary brown door. "It's only $400 a month, which is pretty cheap by New York standards."

The room they were in was empty, but it was rented out by one of Brad's friends, Mike.

"It's a closet," Randy said. He didn't need to see what was behind the door to figure that out.

Brad opened the door.

"It's actually a walk-in closet," Brad corrected.

"I would never have guessed," Randy shot back, though Brad wasn't paying attention.

The 'room' they were going to live in contained a single twin sized mattress. There was about three feet from the door to the end of the mattress, with two feet on either side left over for hanging clothes on a set of thick, wooden bars. There was a shelf just above the clothing bar for storage.

"We're overpaying," Randy said.

"We're lucky to even find a place so last minute for under $1000," Brad said. "This is New York. Just be glad Mike let us live here."

Randy still thought they were overpaying, but he didn't have any experience with apartment prices in NYC to compare it with.

"This still sucks," Randy pointed out.

"Hey, it's the best I could do." Brad shrugged, while setting his luggage off to the right. "I'll have to talk to Mike about some sheets and pillows. He won't be moving into the main room until next month, but he's letting us borrow some necessities."

"What about towels?" Randy asked.

"We're on our own there."

"Great," Randy said, sighing. "At least we're not living under the stairs."

Brad snorted. He punched Randy's shoulder lightly.

"Just get unpacked," Brad said. "I'm taking you out to dinner afterwards."

Randy's ears perked up.

"Where are we going?" he asked excitedly.

"The hot dog stand around the corner," Brad said. "Mike told me they had the best hot dogs anywhere in New York."

"Right," Randy said sarcastically. "Be still my beating heart."

"What was that?" Brad asked. He clearly hadn't been paying attention.

"Oh, nothing," Randy said innocently.

The job Brad lined up for them, at the Mini Mart, was a small, family-owned grocery store. They needed extra hands during the summer months, and Mike was friends with a friend who was friends with the owner's son. The job consisted of stocking, cashiering, and cleaning.

Which was a lot of responsibilities for two new teenage hires, but the owners, it turns out, where huge Tool Time fans. They loved how the Tim "Tool Man" Taylor "staged" accidents on the set, in an attempt to teach viewers what not to do.

Brad and Randy didn't bother correcting them.

Randy turned off the small table lamp next to the bed. It was odd, sleeping on just a mattress with no bedframe or side tables.

"Why am I always the little spoon?" Randy complained quietly.

Brad nuzzled the back of Randy's next instinctively. He was barely awake.

"Because I'm bigger than you," Brad mumbled. "And older."

"Like age has anything to do with it."

Brad made some agreeable sound and promptly fell asleep.

Randy tried to squirm around to change positions, but Brad's hold on him seem to be made of iron. Eventually, he just gave up.

Two months in, and the infamous Mike finally decided to move into the main room. Mike had only one rule, "no loitering in my room", which was easy enough to accommodate, because less than two weeks in and Randy had seen rat's nests cleaner than this garbage heap.

Apparently, Mike never used the main kitchen, because the room was littered with takeout boxes, ranging from Chinese, Italian, Mexican to pizza. Beer cans and juice boxes were intermixed with the laundry.

"Disgusting," Randy said as they walked carefully through the mess to their closet-room.

Brad shrugged. "It's not that bad."

Randy eyed a half-eaten pepperoni pizza slice, which was currently home to enough green fuzzies that it made Randy want to throw up. Apparently mold grew quick around here.

"This makes the basement at our house look cleaner than a hospital floor," Randy said. "More sterile, too."

Brad didn't voice an opinion, but Randy shuffled quickly towards the exit. The move to England couldn't come soon enough.