Smoke

CHAPTER 2

     After a very long, drawn out goodbye from my parents and my sister, I grab my bags and head inside the airport for baggage check. My dad always insists that arriving 2 hours before boarding is mandatory. "You don't want to chance it, bud." I hear his voice ringing in my head. However, it's 5:00 AM on a Tuesday with no big, upcoming holiday. The shops aren't even open yet. Only two cafes and the bar which I'm sure has highly overpriced alcohol and judgmental stares if I even dared to sit and order a drink at this time. I opt for coffee and an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. I may as well get Lily's since I can bet everything I own that she is running late as per her usual track record.

     For what seems like an eternity, while I watch almost all of our flight's passengers go through line to board, I hear a familiar high pitched shriek off in the distance.

      "Austyn! Wait for me! I'm here," Lily calls after me. Nearly face planting in the middle of the airport after tripping over someone's suitcase and using a little boy, who happens to be in her line of fire to break her fall.

      "b***h you're a mess. Way to wait till the last possible minute to make it to our terminal. Group 9 boards next," I roll my eyes at her sweat accumulating on her forehead and her heavy panting, trying to catch her breath. She pulls her disheveled blonde hair, into a messy bun as it is starting to stick to her face and her big brown eyes are full of panic after her near fall. She doesn't even acknowledge the kid she shoved to the ground.

      "Let me guess. Your dad dropped you off at the airport insanely early, to make sure you didn't miss your 7:00am flight? No one is here! What did you do for the remaining hour and 45 minutes after checking your bags and going through security, hmm?" She hums while straightening out her shirt that is riding up her slender torso.

     "First off...you're right about my dad. He worries. Second, you just ran into two people right in front of our terminal within seconds of each other, because you decided to show up obnoxiously late. Third...I got you a coffee and a breakfast sandwich because I knew you wouldn't have enough time,  what with that grand entrance and all.  You took too long though, so I ate your sandwich. Here's your cold ass coffee." I smirk whilst licking my fingers to try and get a rise out of her.

      She stares at me for a few moments trying to gauge her next comeback, ultimately failing. She just grabs my wrist and gives me a hard yank, catching me off guard instead. "Come on. Let's go, asshole. You're going to make us late," she huffs and stomps up to get in line. I can see a little smirk playing on her face as I stand behind her, like she's proud that she blamed me for our tardiness.

      I just let out a little chuckle as we scan our tickets and finally board the plane. After playing rock, paper, scissors for the window seat, I triumphantly take my spot and shove my bag under the seat in front of me while she flops down in the middle in defeat, crossing her arms and refusing to make eye contact with me due to her loss.

      A few minutes pass and I hear her gasp sharply and whisper, "Oh no!" I look up and see an older gentleman bouncing back and forth off of multiple people in the aisle seats. He is somewhat snorting as he breaths, while reaching up to shove a carry on much too large in the overhead compartment directly in front of us - nearly dropping it on the person's head sitting directly below it. Once the bag is forcefully shoved into place, he turns to us and smiles, then looks to the seat numbers to find his place. She lets out a rather loud sigh of relief when he takes a seat in the section diagonal from us. Bullet dodged.

      I look up to the next possible contestant and—

      s**t!

      Of course, as the universe loves to f**k with me, a 20 something year old, preppy blonde guy with his hair styled up into a messy fauxhawk, wearing a polo and f*****g khakis; sits on the other side of Lily. Thus foreshadowing my imminent torture on this 2 and a half hour plane ride. I would've preferred the old guy. I promptly put on my huge noise cancelling headphones and pull out my book in hopes of salvaging any sanity that I have left from this morning so that I can make it through the rest of today scott free.

     The only joy I am going to get from this trip, is seeing the little boy Lily ran over, sit in the row across from us. He sits down with his body turned towards her and stares with a look that I believe came from Satan himself. Lily sticks her tongue out at him, abruptly squelching the stare down, and focuses her attention back on Mr. Romeo to her left.

     Oh this is going to be fun.

      ONCE WE LAND, I immediately unbuckle my seatbelt and scavenge all of my stuff together and shove them in my bag, dying to get off this plane and drag my shamelessly love-sick friend with me and away from this preppy frat boy. No matter how loud I turned my music up, I could still hear her high pitched giggle every time he spoke. She elbowed me a couple times between her giggles and hair twirls to get me to listen to whatever story he was telling; but promptly stopped once I stomped on her foot, claiming to have just had a leg spasm. She caught on quickly thank the lord and left me alone the rest of the trip.

      "Holy crap Austyn! Isn't he just so cute?" She's acting like a giddy school girl who was just asked to prom by the cute kid two years older than her. I swear she has already planned their marriage and named their unborn babies by now.

      "Holy craaap...no," I mock in my finest squeaky-voice impression of her that I can muster up.

      Really, I don't understand how she is so eager to flirt and talk with strangers. The thought of having to contort my chronic-yes, I mean chronic b***h face, into something resembling a smile; just to pretend  to care about some random person's life story, makes me physically ill. That's the thing about me; I can't hide my emotions. They go directly to my face. They really need to make a pill for that.

     "Well, I got his number. He asked me on a date this Sunday. He lives on campus too!"

     "Let me guess...does he by any chance live in a frat house?" I tease her, because it is so blatantly obvious. 

     "He...I mean...well? Oh shut up," she huffs, clearly taking offense to my accusation and swiftly turns on her heel to get away from me before I can thoroughly make fun of her. Which I plan to make up for later.

      Once we collect our suitcases from baggage claims, we call for a cab and make our way to our new apartment in Manhattan. One thing I was not prepared for is this damn traffic! I mean downtown Indianapolis could get congested, sure. But Christ, Manhattan traffic is unlike anything I have ever experienced before in my life. Luckily, our apartment isn't too far from campus, so I can just walk there. It'll do me some good. I'm used to the outskirts of Indy, where it's all farmland and country roads with no real traffic signs or speed limits; they're basically just suggestions. Walking anywhere back in Indy just took too damn long and felt like a near death experience any time I tried. Which was once. Once was enough.

      After sitting through hell traffic and paying the most I've ever had to pay for transportation in my life, we have finally made it to the apartment. Being on the 4th floor with no working elevator makes me realize that I really should've taken my cardio seriously. I am basically crawling on all fours like a dog, up the last flight and a half. I mean, I played soccer back in high school but once I graduated and was no longer being forced to run every day, I retired my cardio career. Silently, I grow more and more grateful that this place came furnished. I can barely manage getting myself up the stairs, let alone anything else. I've never cared much for 'things' except my books, which had their own suitcase - while my clothes and other necessities occupied the other. That's all I needed.

      I had to mentally prepare myself that the apartment was going to be about one-third the size of what I am used to, and also about three times the amount of rent. As I take a deep breath, I push the key into the lock and brace myself for whatever is on the other side.

      It doesn't matter. I'm in New York. I'm in New York. I'm in New York.

      I chant this to myself over and over before I finally turn the knob and push open the heavy wooden door to my new home. 

      Damnit.

      "It's so..." Lily starts. Puzzled by what to say next, so she just stays quiet instead.

      "Yep...it is," agreeing with her unspoken words, all the while taking in the scenery in front of me.

      I scrunch my nose up at the overly tiny apartment, sporting dingy beige walls. The peeling paint up in the corner by the miniature kitchen, looks as though it was caused by an old, yet massive water leak from the apartment above.

     However, on the upside there is a large, wall length bay window behind the slightly used grey couch. It leads out to a concrete balcony that is big enough to hold a couple, decently sized wicker chairs and a small round table made of iron and topped with a sun-inspired mosaic design. It overlooks a small garden positioned between our building and the next. This was the whole reason I signed the lease. It made up for what the rest of the apartment lacked.

      Our bedrooms take a turn for the unexpected. Lily walks into her room first. I hang back to watch her expression since she brought her entire life with her on this move. 

"My walk-in closet back home was bigger than this s**t! How do people live like this? The actual closet here is a 2 foot wide hole, carved into the wall!"

      "Good thing they left the dresser, otherwise you'd actually have to go through your heaps of crap and get rid of some s**t," I sarcastically gasp and hold both sides of my face in horror. That would literally be her worst nightmare. 

     Changing the subject in hopes of preventing her from hyperventilating, I walk into the room and make my way over to the window. "Lets see what kind of view we are working with—" I instantly regret pulling the curtains back and try to slam them back together before she has a f*****g stroke.

      "Oh God no! No no no no no no NO!" She rushes to the other side of the room, which only took a whopping 4 steps and yanks the curtains open once more. "NO!"

      I can't even control myself at this point. My hand instantly slaps over my mouth to muffle the sounds that are betraying my composure. Why didn't I make some popcorn for this epic reveal? Behind the hideous hot pink curtains left behind, on the other side of the glass, is the impeccable view of a beautiful brick wall. It is so close that I could...no joke, reach my arm out half way and actually touch it. My knees buckle from under me causing me to collapse on the floor in hysterics. I am laughing so hard that tears start streaming down my cheeks and I have to curl into the fetal position due to the fact that it is starting to become painful.

      "Ha-ha! This is a joke right? Am I being punk'd right now? Where are the cameras because this sure as hell is not what I signed up for, for the next year of my life!" Lily's face is a mixture of confusion, horror and sheer anger, which I believe is meant to be directed towards me, for my uncontrollable fit I am having on her very very tiny floor in her new room. I didn't even notice when she bent down and tied my long, wavy brown hair around her bed post. When I finally catch my breath and go to stand, I am yanked right back down to the floor with a loud thud that echoes through the rising tension in the room.

      Ok I deserved that.

      Once I finally untangle myself from her bed, I walk into my new room only to see the same outcome. I don't need much room though unlike Miss Princess. I just need a spot to sleep and read. That is all I require.

      I finish unpacking all of my clothes, successfully fitting everything into my matching, makeshift, cut-out closet. I decide to be nice and move my dresser over to Lily's room. Before I enter, I'm pretty sure I hear her talking to her clothes through the wall, distraught over the fact that she might actually have to get rid of some of them. I can't help but let out a breathy chuckle. The dresser barely fits but we make it work. She just can't open her door all the way anymore, so she is going to have to shimmy in and out of her room instead. Unsurprisingly, she is okay with that as long as she gets to keep all of her clothes.