Chapter 2: Thank God For Pity-Coffee And Bulletin Boards
I wake up groggily to the sound of Jade calling my name.
" Ana, wake up we're here," she says, shaking me awake from my peaceful sleep. I blink my eyes open and look up into her hazel eyes.
"I don't wanna," I say sleepily trying to cuddle back into the pillow. I feel her grip the edge of the pillow and yank it from me. I whine loudly as I unbuckle my seat belt.
" Fine, fine I am awake," I say, stretching out the best that I can.
" Girl, you look a mess," she says, grabbing my bag for me from the car. I turn around quickly and look at my reflection in the window of the car. I groan loudly pulling my fingers through my hair quickly trying to fix it the best that I can, I finally give up and pull my waist length hair into a pony tale. I look around trying to figure out exactly where we are. That's when I see it. The University of Washington housing building. I was nervous, utterly and completely terrified. I have never been away from home for more than a month during the summer, and here I am standing in front of the building that would decide my fate for the rest of my college career.
" Well, I guess we could stand here in front of this building like idiots, or we can go in and get our dorm number," Jade says, linking her arm through mine. I roll my eyes at her, and smile.
" We came this far, might as well get this over with," I say, taking a step forward and reaching my hand out to the door handle.
An hour and a half later I felt like smashing my head against a brick wall. Jade and I have been sitting in this office for so long, waiting for someone to help us.
" I swear to all that is holy, if someone doesn't help us in the next two seconds, I'm going to scr-" Jade gets cut off in mid sentence, as our names are finally called. I sigh as I stand up and head to the desk. I try and muster up as happy as a smile as I can for the middle aged woman sitting behind the desk typing away on her computer. She looks up tiredly at Jade and me.
" Well girls, I am sorry to inform you that the dorm you were booked into is full. Over booked," she says, without an ounce of sympathy in her voice. I can feel the blood draining from my face.
" What do you mean that our dorm has been over booked?" Jade asks, gripping the counter top trying to contain her anger.
" I'm sorry ladies, but late registers such as yourself, are lucky to get a room and it seems that you were told you had a room a month ago, but failed to confirm it so your room was given away. The best we can tell you is to find an apartment close to campus," she says dismissively.
" Are you sure there isn't anything that can be done?" I ask, trying so hard not to lose my patience.
" Yes I am sure," she says, and with that one simple sentence it seems like everything we have worked so hard for is ruined. I walk slowly from the building, feeling like I am stuck in some bad episode of Punk'd.
" She was a bitch," Jade says easily, kicking the tire to our Explorer. I roll my eyes, trying so hard not to just break down and cry. I cant fight the feeling for long. I drop to the curb pulling my knees to my chest and I start silently sobbing. I hear Jade sigh heavily, before she sits next to me rubbing her hand up and down my back.
" Its okay Ana, we will figure something out," she says, trying to sound as upbeat as physically possible for her. I sniffle loudly looking up and around.
" Hey Jade," I say pitifully.
" Yes Ana," she says, looking around.
" I could really go for some pity-coffee right now," I say, smiling weakly as she laughs hysterically.
" You mean, we just found out, that as of right now, we are essentially homeless, in a state we know no one in, and you want pity-coffee?" she asks, laughing so hard, tears start rolling down her face.
" Yeah," I say, picking myself up from the curb. I stand and push myself on my tip toes looking around. At five foot three its hard for me to see over all the big cars surrounding me. I spot a small sign for Starbucks and my mood lifts slightly. I hold out my hand to Jade.
"Pity-coffee?" I ask, waiting for her to react. She sighs heavily, grabbing my hand firmly pulling herself up.
"Pity-coffee," she says easily, and we walk towards the coffee shop our own personal dark cloud following us.
I sit playing with the straw in my grande Java Chip frappucino trying to figure out what we are going to do. Jade and I have been sitting in this silence for almost two hours, thinking. Its never good when we get our heads together to think, some of the crazy ideas we can come up with. Our first ever crazy idea we cooked up together came shortly after we first met, junior year of high school, creative writing. When we decided that the boy sitting behind me was not only insanely cute but always smelled really good. Our idea to get near him, constantly drop our pens, pencils, papers, notebooks, basically whatever we had handy near him to smell him. Like I said, never a good idea when we put our heads together to get ideas. Jade's voice snaps me quickly out of my walk down memory lane.
" You know we can always find two girls we look a lot like, knock them out and mail them to Fiji and take their spots," Jade offers her idea, and I cant help but choke out a laugh.
" Oh yeah perfect idea there Jade," I say sarcasm dripping on every word.
" Hey, its better than any idea you have come up with so far," she says, sounding wounded.
" Yeah seeing as how I haven't come up with anything yet, I guess its better," I say, pushing my cup away from me. Silence settles again between us. I look around when I notice a bulletin board covered in fliers.
" Or, I can get up right now, walk to that bulletin board, and see if there is anyone looking for room mates," I say, getting up before Jade has the chance to comment on the slim chances that I will find anything. I bounce towards the bulletin board and start scouring through the papers. Live concert announcements, job placements, and just as I was about to give up hope a small square of paper peaks out at me. I move the other announcements out of the way to fully read it. I feel hope spread through me again as I realize how perfect this all sounds.
'In search of room mate. One room open, four other room mates. Pay your share of rent. Garbage, sewage, power free. Female/Male doesn't matter. Please Contact Rosalie at 206-555-1876.' I snatch the paper from the bulletin board and race back to my seat.
" I think I found something," I say, looking at Jade's skeptical face. She takes the paper from my hand, reads, and re-reads what is written.
" Well its better than nothing," she says, pulling her cell phone out of her purse. She dials the number easily. "Hello yeah, uhm, I was calling about a room mate position I found at a starbucks right by the University Housing office. Yes, well see, its me and my best friend. Yes two of us, uh huh, uh huh. Okay thanks," Jade taps furiously on the table signaling for a pen. I search furiously through my purse knowing that there is a pen in there somewhere. I finally get so frustrated I dump my purse over, scattering my contents all over the table and on the floor. I look around sheepishly as I hear a few people chuckle. I finally find the pen, having rolled all the way under the table behind Jade. I stand up quickly just as Jade clicks the phone off.
"Wait I have the pen," I say weakly, afraid that the person on the other end of the phone call got fed up with waiting. Jade smiles hugely as she twirls another pen lazily through his fingers.
"You might want to pick up your things, because we have a meeting in half an hour," she smiles slowly as I immediately drop down to pick up my scattered effects.
I sit nervously in the car looking at the house waiting before us. It was beautiful, only beautiful isn't the best term for it. It was captivating. A two story sprawling white house. It looks so out of place in the city, like a little piece of raw nature plucked up and placed in the middle of a bustling university city.
" Jade this is a bad idea. The worst idea I ever thought of. There is no way we could afford our share of the rent," I say, twirling my hair nervously around my fingers.
" Well we will never know if we don't try," she says, pushing out of the Explorer. I do the same, smoothing my clothes out. We walk slowly to the front door. And nervously, and in unison, take a deep breathe. I lift my hand to knock on the door, and before I can knock the door swings open, revealing, easily one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen. Her long blond locks fall past her shoulders and she offers a warm smile.
" You must be Jade and Ana," she says, extending her hand, " I'm Rosalie Hale. Please come in," she says, ushering us in and closing the door behind me. I was astounded by the outer beauty of the house, but inside the home was even more stunning. Eclectic pieces that should have clashed matched perfectly in the living room, where Rosalie led us to sit. I try to not look around and seem so amazed but I cant help myself. Jade elbows me roughly to get my attention.
" Oh I'm sorry, I was just, you have a beautiful home," I say, mentally smacking my self for sounding so, childish. She smiles widely, and that one small gesture immediately warms her blue eyes.
" Thank you. Now as I was saying, we do only have one room, but I think that it will be sufficient enough for both of you to share. The rent is 650 a month, but with there being two of you staying in one room, we wont charge you both that much. Each of you will be charged 325, and of course any food you want you buy. We have a bit of a system that might take some time to get used to, but I'm sure you guys will adjust," her melodic voice rings through the room, and I cant help but to feel somewhat inferior to her.
" Wait, the way you're talking, you make it sound like we can move in already," I accidentally blurt out. A smile once again crosses her face.
" Well of course, I will have to run this by the other people living here, but I am pretty certain that there will be no problems," she says, grabbing her phone from the table as it began to read. I look over at Jade, smiling nervously.
" Yes, Em, they look like nice girls. Yes they are cute. Em is that all you ever think about?" she asks, sounding mildly disgusted but the low ring of love in her voice was undeniable. " Oh so she already knows, what about Edward and Jazz?" she asks, her small smile growing even wider. " SO then I might as well tell them to start unpacking. Okay Em, and no I will not tell them that. You will be lucky if I don't make them so terrified of you that they lock themselves away in that room just to avoid you. Ha Ha, yes love you too, see you in a little while. Bye," with that she clicks the phone off easily and turns back to where Jade and I sit, exchanging questioning looks.
" Well, now that is all settled, how would you girls like to see where you will be staying?" she asks, getting up from her seat and walking up the stairs. We follow behind her at a safe distance.
"What do you think? This seems like it was a little to easy," I say in a hushed voice to Jade.
" Maybe it was too easy Ana, or perhaps we are just two of the luckiest girls in this world," she says, stopping suddenly when Rosalie stopped. Rosalie opens the door to the room, revealing the biggest room I think I have ever seen for a bedroom. It was empty, and blindingly white. I walk in looking around as if I am walking into some sort of dream. I cant help but laugh slightly.
" This is our room?" I ask, looking at Rosalie, as Jade immediately steps into the closet.
" This is it," she says, smiling as I continue to look around. Immediately my eyes are drawn to the window seat. I can picture myself sitting there on rainy days, reading some book, or strumming on my guitar. "Wow." That is all I can bring myself to say. Jade comes bubbling out of the closet a smile so wide that I laugh.
" We will so take it," she says, and I nod my head in agreement.
" Excellent. Well you two are more than welcome to start moving in. Edward and Jazz should be home soon and they will be the ones to go over the lease and everything with you. They have the mind for business I however have the mind for anything else but that," she says, moving towards the bedroom door.
"Wait is there anything else we should know, like just how mean is Emmett?" I ask sheepishly.
Her laughter catches me off guard as she clutches her sides.
" Oh, okay sorry. Listen, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to Emmett. He is as big and mean looking as a bear, but he has the heart of Winnie-the -Pooh. But the quickest way to get to him is to actually act scared of him, that will have him doing favors for you left and right," she says, wiping her face from where her laugh induced tears somewhat smudged her makeup. " Well I will leave you two to get settled, any questions come and ask me I will be in the living room." It silent when she walks out of the room, until Jade and I look at each other. Mirroring smiles form on our faces, as we proceed to grab each others hands and jump around like little school girls chanting out loud, 'We aren't homeless after all.'