"Fuck!"

The woman in the middle of the road screeched into empty streets as the bus before her drove off into the sunny distance towards Los Angeles. The stupid sign with the words 'four and a half miles to L.A' loomed over her as if to mock her petite frame.

Of course she had to forget her coins. Of everything she had made a list of to pack up, she didn't include the fare for travel. All she had was cash and a stupid debit card that wasn't even used on a public bus. And because of that, the bus driver had very politely told her to get the fuck off and hitchhike instead.

Here she was, with two large suitcases filled to the brim with useless clothes, and a backpack with all her books, she was stranded in the desert of California. Tears of frustration pricked at the corner of her eyes as she desperately tried to self-sooth.

So much for going out with a bang , she thought. If it weren't for the lack of signal out there, she would've sent her new roommate a text asking for a ride. But lo and behold, there was no signal for her, too. Snapping her phone shut, she gazed across the horizon.

Lenora dreaded asking random strangers for rides. What if she got kidnapped and they stole her kidneys?! There were other worst case scenarios that she didn't even want to think about, but with her state of affairs, it wasn't like she had any other choice. She briefly contemplated ditching her clothes and walking the next few hours to the nearest town, but then she realized that all her jewellery her mother had passed down was also buried under the heep of garments.

Karma or not, she was adamant that this happened because she decided to raid her cousin's snack bar the other week. The little brat probably prayed to Satan the next day and this was the result. Lenora relented and grabbed both suitcases before trudging forward down the street. Under the scorching sun, she swore the road looked longer than it actually was.

She cursed herself for wearing a tank top instead of a shirt, because now her body was going to be burnt to a crisp. It was guaranteed to be a whole day's worth of walking if she didn't find a ride soon. Lenora made up her mind that as soon as she settled down in her new home, driving lessons were the next step in her life. As long as she breathed, this would not happen again. Her mother's savings account had more than enough to support her for a while, so she was going to put that into good use.

Lenora wondered why she decided to pick LA as a place to finish her education. On second thought, she really could've just transferred to somewhere cooler. She frowned; scratch that, she would even take up the offer to go to Mars if that was possible.

The idea of a city life sounded fun on paper, and she figured maybe this was the place where she could freely be what she wanted to become. But as of now, this all looked like a massive pile of sandstorms. Lenora was beginning to see a pattern in her choices, all of them were as shitty as shit can be.

Wallowing in self pity, she continued down her journey, oblivious to the approaching vehicle behind her. The car was just a few feet away from her when the driver honked at her. With a loud yelp, she was that close to leaping up like a frog.

"Wha-?!" Her words didn't formulate properly when she whipped around to face the perpetrator.

A large, bald man sat in the driver's seat, with a young, pretty Hispanic woman by his side. To be frank, the guy looked pretty intimidating. All sorts of images flashed within her mind as she faced the couple head on in the middle of nowhere. So this is where she meets the infamous serial killing couple and gets dismembered into pieces while the local police wouldn't even be able to figure out what had happened-

"Are you ok, ma'am?" the man asked from the car. He had rolled down the window unbeknownst to her. "You're gonna pass out in this condition."

Lenora breathed out slowly. She was watching way too much NCIS.

"I ran out of coins," she admitted. "So I was dropped off." Eyeing them, she noted that the lady was staring at her with rather intense curiosity.

The man raised a brow. "You need a ride? Or is someone picking you up?"

She thought about lying to get them off her back. Lenora wasn't the one to judge, but with her frazzled mind, she couldn't come to the conclusion on whether or not they were trustworthy.

With all her prized possessions around her, she could easily be robbed and be left with nothing. She licked her drying lips, trying to come up with a response when the stinging sensation of torn skin met her tongue. It dawned on her that she had barely enough water to last for the day. Lenora wanted to throw a temper tantrum right then and there. Thankfully, it only took her a few seconds to cool back down.

"I can pay you," she offered meekly. "I have cash."

"Don't worry 'bout it," he replied. "Just hop on in."

Seeing her hesitate, the woman flashed her a grin. "It's no problem, chica. We don't bite."

Not that promises alone would be enough to guarantee her safety, but Lenora was truly going to have a heat stroke if she stayed any longer. The woman introduced herself as Letty, while her boyfriend, Dom, helped her haul her luggages onto the truck.

"Lenora," she responded. Her introduction sounded far worse than what she'd intended, most likely due to the dehydration catching up to her body. The couple was kind enough to hand her a chilled bottle of water from a mini fridge, which she accepted graciously. She downed the whole thing in one go.

I'm never taking this for granted ever again.

The ride was going to be an interesting one, with Dom asking about her every now and then. Lenora tried to be as polite as possible, not wanting to piss off the guy. She wasn't sure if he had the resting-bitch-face syndrome or what, because he looked angry, even when the air of the questions were not at all harmful.

"So you go to school?" The question caught her off guard.

Lenora nodded. "Yeah, I'm a sophomore in college."

Her answer seemed to peak an interest in him and his girl, because their faces lightened up.

"I figured. You look around the age of my sister," he explained.

She nodded, not knowing what else to say. It could've been the heat, or the lack of a comfortable environment, because all her brain wanted to do was shut down and not have anything to do with the world. After what seemed like an eternity, she forced out a response.

"Does she go to college in the states?"

"Yeah," Letty piped up, "the local community college. She studies math."

There was an air of nonchalance with her as she gestured her hands wildly, as if painting a picture of the equations. Lenora mouthed a quiet 'oh' before turning her attention back onto the road. It was going to be a two-hour ride to the nearest town to Echo Park, and she wondered if there was going to be an atm somewhere.

"So what do you study?" Letty asked. "Are you the Asian kid who loves math, too?"

Lenora snorted at the remark, not able to hide her amusement. "I wish. Math is a strong suit of mine, but I'm more interested in architecture."

The woman quirked her lips. "Well that's a new one I've seen."

"Yeah, I thought it'd be nice to add some diversity," Lenora offered.

Letty sniggered at the response and slapped Dom on the shoulder with good-nature. "Ye hear that? The kid's going places!"

The man grunted a laugh and shook his head. It was a relief to find the tension easing up in the car, and Lenora was more than grateful. Later on, it came across as a surprise when she found out that they were headed to the same city. Turns out that Dom and Letty lived there their whole lives, and were just returning from picking up some stuff for their store.

"So you guys just cram into one house?!" Lenora was stunned. She hated her life squeezed up with her grandparents and her cousins, so she couldn't even imagine having friends, siblings, and their respective partners all in one room. To her, that was enough to cause a migraine.

Dom nodded. "We're a lively bunch. It gets murky from time to time, but we get by."

"Ah," she noted. Thank goodness the guy only had a younger sibling to look after, compared to her sister and the horde of female cousins she had back in northern California. At least rooming with friends sounded a lot better.

Letty threw her a quizzical look. "You new here?"

Lenora wasn't sure how much she wanted to give out to two strangers in the desert, but given the things they've done for her so far, they were starting to seem more and more amiable. She chucked it to watching too many crime shows recently.

"I just transferred to Pepperdine," Lenora explained. "I'm finishing my last two years here, before I get outta California."

The older woman smirked. "You sound like you hate this place."

"I don't. But I wanna tour the world before I get too lazy with age." That was a lie. Lenora gritted her teeth as she engineered a decent answer. If it were possible, she would never step foot in this state ever again. After her graduation and subsequent job offer, she was going to take her sister and disappear from everyone in her 'family' for good.

Sounds like a plan," Letty mused. "It'll be fun. Y'know we used to do a lot of road trips ourselves back in the day."

"Oh yeah?" The younger woman raised a brow.

"You should've seen Dom here," Letty continued, "crashed his motorbike right into the public trash can on his first rodeo. Apparently, overnight runs weren't his thing."

"Letty!" Dom glared at her. But that only sent her bawling with boisterous laughter even harder. Lenora fought back a smile as she watched the couple now beginning to banter back and forth about the incident.

"We don't talk about that!" Dom warned. As if that helped the situation.

"C'mon!" Letty protested. "It popped into my head just now! I wanted to entertain our new friend here!"

Lenora sighed. "I promise I'll keep my lips sealed." That remark only served to fuel Letty on.

"Don't ya worry," she joked, "Dom here is quite the squishy despite his hard shell." The man huffed at that and rolled his eyes. Lenora watched with amusement as they started arguing in Spanish. Their house was definitely the epitome of Mad Hatter's tea party.

In a blink of an eye, the signs pointing to Echo Park emerged from the distance. Time had passed much quicker than she'd expected, and Lenora felt an odd excitement peaking within her. The thrill of exploring her new home was starting to feel delirious. Maybe a shopping trip should be on the list…Her musings were cut short when she heard Dom say something.

"What's your address?" He asked. Lenora's eyes widened with shock as she registered the fact she had arrived at the town of her destination.

"It's alright!" she began. "You guys can just drop me here.

Letty frowned at her. "You sure? How you gonna get to your new place?"

"I'll find an ATM and get my bus fare," Lenora replied.

"That's gonna take a while," Dom cut in, "that and dehydration will get to you. You'll be sick the next day."

Lenora mulled over the advice for a good minute. He was right for the most part, probably because he had experience taking care of his sister. And it didn't seem like she really bothered them with her problem, so it shouldn't hurt to just have them drop her off if they lived in the same city.

In the end, she gave them her address, and Letty's face said it all. "Well, well, well. Looks like we're gonna get a new neighbor on the block!"

Lenora choked on her spit. "What?!"

The Latina grinned. "We live not too far away from you actually! Looks like you're in luck today."

Whatever deity that was in charge of luck was trying to take her out on an emotional rollercoaster that day. Lenora couldn't believe her ears; she was not much for superstitions, but it was like everything was falling into place for her in the most unconventional ways. She couldn't make up her mind on whether or not she appreciated that. Letty, on the other hand, seemed way too excited at the prospect of having a new addition to the town.

The vehicle slowly began to approach a suburban neighborhood, with victorian-styled houses spaced evenly between one another. The green pastures looked inviting, and she couldn't help but notice the amount of shiny cars parked alongside the streets. It was like going to a museum.

Lenora reread her address, and her eyes fell on a nice little house sandwiched between the many other complexes around it. At least it looked like the picture on the craigslist ad, else she wouldn't know what to do if this turned out to be a keys unlocked the front door with no problem, and she was greeted by an empty living room. It was apparent she had gotten there first. Lenora breathed out another sigh, it was better this way.

Dom surprised her by helping her haul her stuff back from the truck. She half-expected them to just drop a goodbye and speed off into the distance arguing about petty shit. It was kinda heart-warming to say the least, and this made her solidify the idea in her mind to pay them a good sum.

She took out a wad of cash, almost catching him off guard. But Dom eyed it with no interest.

"Like I said, don't worry 'bout it," he stated.

Lenora felt guilt wallowing up her throat. "I took up a lot of your time, today. This is just me expressing gratitude."

He opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted when the head of Letty popped into the doorway. She was wearing that mischievous grin again.

"If you really feel bad, maybe you can help Mia with her homework over the weekends!"

The job offer came out of nowhere and hit Lenora upside the head. Wait, what? How did it come to this? She glanced at the woman in disbelief.

"You're ok with that?" Lenora asked. "Does she need a tutor?"

To her side, Dom's face darkened considerably and he looked like he was about to shoo Letty away when the latter beat him to the talking punch.

Letty nodded. "Yup. Homegirl struggles a lot in that department sometimes, so I figured you could help her since y'all are in the same field. Besides, you guys could get along and make some friends."

The younger woman glanced back at the man timidly, waiting for his nod of approval. But Dom's face was back to the usual stony guise. Sensing his haphazard reaction, she relaxed. This could be a way for her to branch out and meet new people, that was for sure. But she didn't know if she was going to survive the first day in that house.

Whatever, if they're happy, I'll make new friends. And if they're not, they'll leave me alone. Win, win.

"Alright," Lenora replied. "I'll see what I can do."

"Bueno!" Letty agreed. "I left our home phone on your porch, give us a call whenever!"

It wasn't long before the couple disappeared from her driveway. Lenora was sure Dom didn't take that offer seriously, but something told her that Letty, however, thought otherwise. She ran a hand through her bangs, before wrinkling her nose at the grimy feeling. Whatever that she'd planned on doing, she needed a shower first.

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