Mason Park - Chapter Eleven
Ashley wakes me up minutes before we land so I can put my seatbelt back on and catch my first view of my new state. I've only been to California once before and I was really little, I think it was a vacation with my parents, which couldn't have been much fun.
We descend through the clouds and the sun covered state appears before me. The thousands of buildings look so small from here that it looks like a gigantic parking lot.
The airport and runway come closer and closer and before I know it, we're walking off the plane and down onto the concrete. I stop a few feet from the bottom of the stairs and look to the bright blue sky above me. It was snowing when we left New York and there was no blue in sight, It's now two hours ago, the same time that we got on the plane.
Ashley walks up besidesme and just laughs. "What are you doing?"
I look away from the sky and down into her eyes, ironically, it's like I never moved my head at all, her beautiful blue eyes match the beautiful blue sky. "Just getting a start on my tan." I smile at her and take her hand. "Let's go, I wanna go see our new home."
She pulls the new silver convertible, that was waiting for her at the airport, to a stop in the driveway of one of the nicest houses I have ever seen. "Um, Ash, what are we doing here?"
"Well, you said you wanted to see our new home." She looks at me like I've gone insane and pulls the keys from the ignition.
"I thought you said it was an apartment. This is...not an apartment. This is amazing." I pull my seatbelt off and slowly get out of the car, my eyes are too fixated on the house to wander anywhere else. I can't believe I'm going to be living here.
"Did I? Because I would not have my first place of residence in California be an apartment. You should have noticed that we weren't going to be living an apartment building on the ride up here anyway, I mean take a look around, this is like rich city up here. Now come on! I wanna go check it out!" She jumps over the car door and runs to the trunk to get our bags out.
"You mean you haven't been in it yet?"
"No, my manager got it for me. This is the first time I've even seen the outside of it. Now if you wouldn't mind, could you help me here?" She asks, trying to lug the biggest bag of them all out of the trunk.
I run to her side and help yank the thing out before getting the five other bags out. "Why do you have so much stuff? Couldn't you just send it with the movers, like I did? They're going to be here in a few days, what could you possibly need that takes up four suitcases?"
"Oh, wouldn't you like to know." She says and laughs evily as she begins dragging three of the bags up to the house.
"...actually, yes, I would." I yell after her and grab the other two bags before slamming the trunk and running up to the house.
She unlocks the door and pushes it open with her foot and as we both step inside, we don't get more than five feet before coming to a dead stop. The house is absolutely amazing, everything about it screams a mixture of "California" and "Hey, look at me, I'm rich".
The high ceilings extend out into the back living area and over the two staircases on either side of the entry way. The walls are painted a white that doesn't hurt your eyes, the floor of the entry way is covered in a beige marble tile that, as it moves to the back of the house, turns into a dark gery carpet, and all the woodwork in the house is made of a light oak.
Ashley drops her bags and the smile on her face makes her look like a seven year old in a candy store. "This is awesome!" She screams and jumps up and down excitedly. She's just too cute. She runs toward me and grabs my hand, hauling me off to look at the rest of the house without a chance to say anything.
"I can't believe this." I whisper in amazement and touch the wall with my finger tips. The entire back wall of the living room is a series of floor to ceiling windows. In the backyard is the coolest pool I've ever seen. The back wall of it just drops off so it looks like you could swim down through the Hollywood hills. I've only seen pools like this on TV shows and in music videos that I've always felt were never made for me. The rest of the backyard is filled with unnaturally green grass and a two foot high wall that runs around from one side of the house to the other, but drops away where the pool is.
"This is too cool!" Ashley screams and comes running at me, full speed, from out of one of the hallways. Just when she's about three feet from me, she dives for me and successfully wraps her arms around my neck, almost bringing me to the ground in the process. "I love my house!"
"I do too!" I scream and start jumping up and down...well, attempting to jump up and down with her in my arms. I walk over to one of the couches in the lowered living room and throw her down. "What do you want to do now?!" I ask, just a hint of excitement in my voice.
"Well, didn't you want to go see Joey?" She asks and props herself up on her elbows. That's right! Joey! I get to go see Joey! It doesn't matter if he's excited to see me or not, I get to see him! Through all that's happened in the past two weeks, even though Monica was my wife and pregnant with my child, I have to say that I've missed Joey the most. It's been hard not having somebody to talk to that understands..or doesn't, as well as him.
"Yea! Let's go do that!" I start jumping up and down again which promps Ashley to get off the couch and attempt to calm me down.
"Ok, Chandler. Hold on, have you even thought about what he's going to say to you? I mean, you haven't seen him in years and now you're just going to show up?"
I pause for a long time with the smile still on my face."......yea." I say cheerfully and quickly sober up before grabbing her hand. "Let's go." I nod my head as if to reassure myself before forcing myself to walk back out of the house that I've lived in for not more than five minutes to go see a friend that I technically haven't seen for more than three years.
to be continued...
Sorry for the short chapter again, but I am so close to finishing this! I pretty much have just one or two chapters left to write and then it's over! As sad as that is, I'm happy. This is the first story that I've gone straight through, no stopping for two months or anything. I'm trying to leave these stories at cliff hangers that will get you guys reviewing, but it's just not going so hot. I'd really like to reach 100 reviews on this story before it ends, and with your help, I can get there.
I'll make a deal with you guys, if I get a substantial amount of reviews, I'll have the next chapter up within two or three days. And just for those out there who think I am, I'm not trying to be annoying in trying to get you guys to review. It's just that it's been a year and this story is the only one that has gotten this many reviews.
Thanks for reading and if I don't update until then (which I probably will), Happy Thanksgiving!