The taxi gently rolls to a stop, I peek up from my phone and out the window. This gigantic apartment complex, with a gothic design (complete with missing pieces), towers above us. I look back into the cab, beside me, at my companion. Her face has practically become one with the window as she tries to see to the very top of the surrounding buildings. I roll my eyes and shake my head, smiling at her childish behavior. I slip my phone into my pocket and look over at the taxi driver. He is just shuffling around a few receipts. He glances up at the meter fare and looks back at us with a smile.
"Alright, your total today is going to be $34.56." The taxi driver states. I look over at my companion, Allison, and reach into her unprotected purse. I pull out two twenties and hand them to the driver.
"Keep the change, and thank you for the smooth ride," I say as the taxi driver takes the money from my hand and nods his response, turning forward and places the money in the front cupholder.
I poke Allison, trying to get her attention. She peels her face off the window and turns to me. I nod towards my own door and then turn and open it. She quickly follows suit, stepping out of the taxi with me. Once outside we both go around to the trunk and pop it open. Within sits our luggage; two plain black suitcases. I grab mine and Alli grabs hers. I back away and walk over to the curb, rolling my suitcase behind me. Allison shuts the trunk, pounding on it to let the taxi driver know we had gotten everything. He sticks his hand out the window and waves as he drives off. Allison runs over and stands on the sidewalk next to me. We marvel at the building before us for a few minutes, trying to take in every detail. This was supposedly one of the many buildings hit by the "event" last year.
"You owe me," Allison states, walking forward towards the entrance.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I say, coming up behind Allison, bumping her shoulder slightly. She shakes her head and holds open the door and jesters within.
"After you thief."
"My pleasure." I stroll in, Allison following close behind.
"I can't believe it, we're back! Finally! It feels like it's been forever since we've been in New York. You know what, we should go sightseeing! Like, around our old neighborhood and stuff like that. What do you think, Beth?"
"Sure, Allison," I laugh, "but first let's unpack and get our new home in livable condition." I push past her and into the building. Once inside, the cold air conditioning blows our hair around and ruffles our clothes. We are greeted by a quaint, little entrance decorated in a flowered wallpaper with photos of beautiful New York landscape.
"You two must be Elizabeth Miller and Allison Walker, welcome." An older woman smiles from behind a counter. We walk over to her.
"Just Beth please." I request the old woman smiles and nods.
"If that's what you want," she replies. "I am very sorry to inform you, but our elevator is out of commission. So, you will be needing to take the stairs to your room." I look over and see that, in fact, the elevator is being worked on and looked like it was being torn apart. Wires were hanging everywhere inside of it.
"That's fine, stairs never killed anyone." I shrug, turning back to the lady, Mrs. Morgan, as her I.D. read. She turns her back to us and walks over to the wall behind her, it is covering in square hole-like boxes stuck to the wall, some are filled with mail, others look as though they have been empty for years. She walks over and reaches up to the box marked 12-34, and pulls our two keys. The keys look old, but well-taken care off, both being a different design. She turns back around and walks back over to the main desk area, she shuffles around a few papers.
"Can you girls remind me who choose which room?" Mrs. Morgan asks, still pushing papers to the side.
"I got the one with the two windows, I believe it was the smaller of the two, and Beth got the other one," Allison answers, I nod in agreement. Mrs. Morgan seemed to have found the papers she was looking for and smiles down at them.
"You're Shane's girls." Mrs. Morgan states, looking back up us. Allison vigorously nods in reply.
"Oh! So, your Juli?!" She exclaims, Mrs. Morgan chuckles while she skims through the papers.
"That's me, old Julia Morgan, me and Shane were pretty close friends in college." As she speaks she spots the information she was looking for and places a unique key in front of each us. The one she placed in front of me is a copper, rustic color, its end twists inward into what might have been considered a heart, but not exactly. Allison's was colored a faded silver the end twisted outwards, the reverse of mine. I pick mine up and examine it, Allison does the same.
"What are these for?" I ask. Mrs. Morgan smiles.
"There so you can open the doors to your individual rooms, this one, however," She pulls out two small, identical black keys that had engravings on them of what looked like a rose. "opens your 'front door.'" I slip both keys into my pocket.
"Thank you, is our stuff already here? We got a notice that our truck made it here, but you know shipping companies aren't always… the best." I ask. Mrs. Morgan smiles.
"Well, no need to worry about that, all your stuff is here and in your room." She replies. We both thank her one last time before walking over to the door marked 'Stairs'. Allison holds the door open from the inside, letting me sneak in before she let the door shut. I start walking up the steps, Allison skips a few to catch up.
"So, what floor are we on anyway?" Allison asks.
I sigh. "We're on the 12th floor Allison. We already know this."
"Sorry I forgot." She says.
I roll my eyes and look up at the spiraling stairs that seem to go on forever. "This is just great," I say, sarcasm dripping from my voice.
Allison giggles. "It's your old enemy, stairs~." She jokes. I glare over at her, growling slightly under my breath. She smiles innocently and jumps ahead a few steps and starts walking backward up facing me. "Now, now Beth. No need for that." I roll my eyes.
"This is not going to be fun," I grumble. Allison looks up and shrugs and looks back at me.
"Guess I'm going to meet you upstairs." She notes with a smirk.
"Don't you dare leave me." I state sternly. She looks ahead and places a mocking hand on her ear.
"I'm sorry? I can't hear you. I'll just meet you upstairs then." She lied, sprinting up the stairs.
"ALLISON!" I shout after her. I could hear her snicker at my call as she ascends. I grumble some choice words under my breath as I continue to trudge up the stairs by myself. Not even a full minute goes by before the faint echo of a door shutting is carried through this infinite stairway.
"They better get that elevator fixed soon." I threaten, readjusting my suitcase and pick up the pace slightly. It would be best not to leave Allison alone for too long, especially with any new neighbors.
Finally reaching the 12th floor I open the door with a huff. I see Allison's head pressed against the farthest door in the hallway.
"Don't listen into other people's rooms!" I exclaim, my voice wavers slightly in shock. Allison removes her head from the door and walks over, looking at every room as she passes it.
"I don't think we have neighbors," She walks up in front of me and smiles, "How was the walk?" I frown up at her and punch her in the arm, which inevitably causes my fist to throb. I look back down at it and push past Allison.
"If that bruises I swear," I comment while making our way towards our designated room. Allison laughs slightly and walks up beside me.
"You're tougher than that by now." She assures. I glance over at her and sigh.
"Says you." As we walk towards our room I look around that hallway. The walls are a peach white, in between every door was a small dark brown desk with a clear vase, fake roses placed in each of them. Each door was pure black with the silver room numbers and a small silver rose in the middle of the door.
"I wonder if every floor is themed?" I mutter to myself, admiring the extent of the detail.
"They are, flowers." Allison answers. I accept the answer and look at every door as we pass. 1228, 1230, 1232… I spot our room number, right at the end of the hall. We both stand in front of the door as I fumble with the key.
"There are 40 rooms on this floor, including one storage room full of cleaning equipment." Allison states. I glance over at her, eyebrow raised.
"And I needed to know this... why?" I ask, fitting the key into the door. She shrugs and looks around the hallway.
"You don't, it's just what I found out while waiting for you." She states. I roll my eyes and swing the door open. I step inside, quickly followed by Allison, into our new home. Boxes are piled high, scattered around the room. I throw my bag to the floor and go to inspect.
"Looks like the movers did a good job, doesn't look like anything's broken or missing," I state, opening a few random boxes. One contained our collection of movies, another the few dishes we had decided to keep and bring, and the other was full of plush stuffed animals. Allison walks up behind me, snatching up one of her stuffed animals, Po. She holds the stuffed animal high in the air, then brings into down into her arms. She whips up a goofy smile, suffocating Po in her chest. I roll my eyes and leave the boxes alone for now.
The blank cream walls and wooden floor leading us towards the kitchen and past that, the carpeted living room. A hallway off of the living room leads to two bedrooms and a bathroom. More boxes are in both of the bedrooms with a mattress, an unassembled bed frame, a small bookcase, and desks for each.
We drag our suitcases behind us to a separate bedroom each. My room has five boxes, not including the desk, bookcase, and bed frame, each with a different word sharpied onto the top. I roll the suitcase to the corner and walk over to the opposite bedroom. Allison already started on putting together the mattress frame for her bed.
"Wow, the view for the window is pretty nice," I say. I walk over and grab two screwdrivers, a Phillips and a straight-blade.
"Yeah it is pretty nice, but you got the bigger bedroom." She replies as she continues pulling the metal pieces out of the box.
"Well, I'm taking these to work on my desk. You have two others right next to you. Holler if you need me for some muscle or something."
"Will do. Call if you need an extra pair of arms." She replies as I walk back over to my room.
I walk over to the box with the desk inside. I pull out a small flip knife out of my pocket and slice the box open. A multitude of packing peanuts surround the blacktop of the desk and its base. I tip the box on its side as a few hundred of the peanuts fall out. I slide the two pieces of the desk out and reach back in for the bag of screws and the paper instructions. I sigh as I look over the box with the block letters 'IKEA' stamped on it. "Curse you and your stupid 'do it yourself' steps," I mumble to myself.
Later, after a few small necessities were built (the bed and desk), I walk around all my half-opened boxes, out of my room, and over to Allison's. "How much you get done? I'm calling it for the night and ordering some pizza." I announce, leaning against the door frame.
She peaks out behind an unsafe looking pile of boxes with a smile. "I'm finished putting everything together, just need to unpack. Pizza sounds amazing right now, you know what I like."
"Cheese and sausage," We both say simultaneously.
"Ya ya, I know." I smirk, "I'll go order it. Maybe there are some amazing pizza places near here. You just keep doing what you're doing." I push off the door frame and glide out to our boxed living room and threw myself onto the old brown couch. I pull out my phone and slide the lock screen over, punched in the code. I casually scroll through the listings of pizza places in New York (which was A LOT, more than I could ever guess), trying to find something that was nearby.
After a minute of searching, the name "Antonio's Pizza-Rama" caught my eye. I called them found out they still delivered at this time (Thank god) and ordered a large pizza, sausage. Once that was done I stared at the ceiling in thought, did I really want to continue unpacking? Not really, but should I? Yes, Allison and I both would rather not have boxes littering the apartment forever. I groan and roll off the couch then maneuver around the multiple stacks of boxes and back into my own room. I had only done the bare minimum of work and really didn't want to do any more tonight. I glance up at the empty curtain poles and shrug walking over to one of my many boxes. This one was marked; BED. I swipe the exact-o knife off my small desk on the way to the box and easily slice it open. I toss out my black bedding and pillows onto the bed, I reach past my few plushies and grip my black curtains. I know what your thinking, and no, I am not some gothic obsessed girl who wears way too much make up for her own good. I had black sheets and curtains strictly for scientific purposes. Black is the most absorbent of the colors (as I hope you know), and because of the fact that I am naturally cold (don't ask) I love it when it's warm. So, black bedding becomes warm from the open window, once night finally rolls around BOOM warm bed and happy Beth.
I look around at the other boxes. One labeled BOOKS caught my eye. I cut it open and start piling said books across the span of my desk and the floor surrounding it. After the box was empty, the piles of books were spread around dangerously across the floor. I sat down and started sorting them by the author into safer piles against the wall. Once done, I stood up and walked over to the last box from Ikea finding the pieces of dark oak planks that would eventually form my bookcase. I remove the pieces and begin to assemble it, screwing each piece into its proper position.
Once done, I pushed it against the wall across from my desk, grabbing the first piles of books and stacking them in order. Eventually, the bookcase became full and the floor cleared, except for the top two shelves I left open for my collectibles and other fan-made stuff. I kick the now empty box out of the room and move onto the third one labeled RANDOM STUFF. I cut the box open and look at the many newspaper wraps packed into the box. I pull one out and unroll the wrap. A model 1967 Impala emerges first. I place it to the side, continuing to unravel the newspaper. Next came a plastic TARDIS, a small figurine of Demon Dean with the First Blade in his hand, Crowley with an angel blade, and Bobby with a shotgun. I take the figurines and start placing them on the top empty shelf of my bookcase.
After a few rolls and a couple of Decepticon figurines and with my realistic sonic screwdrivers, I go back to the box to grab the final things at the bottom. I smile as I pull out a fan-made pop vinyl of me. Once everything was in order I step back to make sure everything looked alright. You had to admit it was a little crowded, but it was worth having everything right there.
Just as I kicked that box into the hall, I heard the intercom buzzer go off from the hallway. I walk over to the small grey machine as Allison pokes her head out of her room. I push the button and wait for whoever is there to talk.
"Hello? I have a large sausage and cheese pizza from Antonio's for a Ms. Miller." The guy on the other side claims.
"That's me, you can head on up, the elevator is broken though. Sorry about that." I reply. Allison snickers in the background. I turn around to shush her, but she'd already receded back into her room. I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to the speaker. "12th floor. Room 34. Last room down the hall."
"Alright, I'll be up...eventually." The intercom went dead.
I turned around and walk over to Allison's ajar room and knocked on the frame to get her attention. She's gotten a lot done in the past few hours, her bed was made with white sheets, a green blanket draped over. Stuffed animals covered every corner of the bed and tossed across the floor. A small desk was set up in the corner, it was smaller than mine due to her workspace being above on the roof, but it still had the necessary computer, random pencils, and notebooks. Her bookcase was set up next to her desk and was filled to the brim with plaques and fanmade memorabilia.
"Hey. Pizza's coming up now. Not that you wouldn't know." I lean against the frame. She looks over, hair draped across her face.
"Thank you for the update, almost finished in here." She sits back on her heels, transitioning from sitting to standing and steps back beside me to look at her progress. I smile as I look out her window over the fire escape, seeing the skyline in the background lit up by the streets and a blazing red sun setting behind the buildings in the distance.
"We're back" I whisper. The realization finally sinking in, "After all these years, we're finally back." I turn to smile at Allison. "We're finally back home."
"Yup. It took way too long for us to get back. But hey, college can be like that, especially with grad school on the table." Allison responds. I smile and turn back to the window, taking in the sunset. Allison continues unpacking a few final things in the background as I look out the window to the slowly setting sun.
"Hey if you want, you can help me with these last few boxes" Allison's voice comes from behind me. I look over and see her elbows deep into a box of more stuffed animals. I grin and walk over to help her sort her possessions.
A few minutes later, I heard a knock on the door and a faint, "Pizza" from the other side. I smile and exit Allison's room and back into the hallway towards the door. "Oh, and don't worry, pizza's on me." I opened the door and was greeted by a young boy around 17. He was looking down at the receipt.
"Hello! Your total is going to be $15.24, please." He told me. He glanced up and went slack-jawed. "Wait! You-you're Beth! From FinalFront4Art! Oh my God. I didn't think you'd be moving to New York!"
I laughed at his enthusiasm. "Yeah, uh, Allison and I just moved back after college was over," I explain. I rummage through my wallet and take out a twenty and a five. I hand them over to the kid. "Keep the change, okay?"
"Y-ya, Ummm… would it be too much to ask for a picture with the two of you?" He asks. I smile and nod.
"Sure, let me go set this down." I walk into the kitchen and set down the box. Once turned back around I see Allison is already chatting it up with the shy pizza guy.
"So you got a name, or should we just refer to you as pizza man?" Allison jokes.
"My names Tony." He responds, chuckling at the joke.
"Well Tony, you got a phone, I think it might be best for Allison to hold it," I suggest. Allison waves her arms out in front of her.
"I got them long arms." She smiles. Tony reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his phone. Allison takes it and holds it out, we both move to either side of Tony. "Smile!" The phone flashes and we step back, Allison hands Tony his phone back.
"Thanks, my friends will be soooo jealous!" He smiles, tucking his phone safely into his back pocket. I smile at his enthusiasm and joy.
"Just...don't let anyone know where we live, okay? I don't want to deal with what the bigger YouTubers are dealing with. You know, stalkers and stuff like that. Promise?" I ask.
"Sh-sure! No problem. I wouldn't ever do that to you guys! You guys are like, my idols! I love your artwork and Allison your singing is astounding!" He stammered out. "And what do you mean bigger YouTubers? You guys are already past two million subs! It won't be long 'till you're up in the ranks with the holy trinity of gaming and YouTube!" He exclaimed.
I chuckle. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Enjoy the rest of you night kid, okay?"
"Will do Beth! It was really nice meeting you both in person!" He says before he turns around and starts walking back down the hall.
"Sure thing! And hey, don't forget to smile. One smile can change one person's day from bad to better!" I smile once more as I close the door and lock it for the night. Allison is already gone into the kitchen, the two Pepsi bottles in hand.
"He was really sweet, wonder if we'll see him again," I say, sitting down next to Allison and opening the pizza so the smell started permeating the air in the room. We both take a piece and start eating. Allison takes one bite and groans in delight, eyes flutter shut.
"Holy shit! This pizza is amazing!" She says, her mouth still full.
I laughed at her reaction. "I'm guessing we're about to be their newest full-time customers?" Allison grunts with a nod as she takes another bite of her pizza.
"Maybe we can even have Tony be our regular delivery guy? Sure he would love that." I nod, wondering if that was a thing we could ask for. I look out over the skyline through the window from our spots at the little bar our room had. The damage done by the alien attack was still obvious, especially on the buildings farther from the center of the city. Chunks were missing off rooftops and giant holes were torn through entire floors. I thought back to when the alien attack first appeared on the news a year ago, a good deal of the city had been left in shambles. It's strange how fast people can rebuild when the image of a city is at stake, especially the golden jewel of the United States.
As we finished the pizza and Pepsi, I walk back to my room and started getting ready for bed. I had three more days until I am supposed to start working on the channel again. Until then, I was going to unpack and create a studio of sorts in my giant walk-in closet. Looking at my room it had a lot of empty space, but that was just how I liked it, not so cramped. I poke my head out to see Allison returning from the bathroom at the end of the hall and heading to her room.
"G'night Allison. Hopefully, we can finish everything by tomorrow afternoon." I say. She smiles back to me, leaning against her room's door.
"Ya, I haven't even started setting up my studio on the roof yet though… Well, goodnight Beth." She waves disappearing into her room, the door shuts behind her. I roll my eyes and close the door to my room as well.
I pull the curtains to my window aside after I had slipped into my PJ's to see the light of New York.
"The city that never sleeps" I whisper to myself. I'm sure if you could see me from a third person perspective my eyes would be sparkling as I stare over the expanse of the skyline. I grin and keep the curtains open, letting the lights shine into my room. Crawling into bed I curl the blankets around me while I hug a pillow close to my chest. I sigh contently and feel my eyes begin to droop.