Square One

5

Melissa woke up to the smell of bitter coffee brewing in the room next door. She groaned, and dug her head deeper under the scratchy covers. Her arms and legs were sore, her head groggy. She hugged her knees to her chest, trying to disappear.

"Morning," Carmen said. 

Melissa's head suddenly popped out of the covers, to see Carmen was standing over her, a slight grin on his face. He was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, his hair a wild mess.

"Morning," Melissa replied, trying to stretch her arms, but only succeeding in hitting the head board. "How long have you been up?"

"I could barely sleep," Carmen said, running his fingers through his hair. "I was about to take a shower."

"Ok," Melissa said, and turned back over on her side to rest. A minute later, she heard the sound of the shower running, and pulled herself up out of bed.

Melissa was thankful to find a hairbrush shoved away in her bag, and starting ripping it through her hair as she ran through what they had to do that day. 

"Money, job, apartment," She whispered to herself. "Money, job, apartment."

Carmen emerged a few minutes later, his damp hair sticking to his face and neck. "You ready to leave?" He asked.

"More than ready," Melissa said, picking up her suitcase. The two headed into the frosty day.

"So what's first on our list today?" Carmen asked.

"We need to withdraw everything from my bank account," Melissa replied. She paused. "People can't track where you withdraw money from, right?"

"Who would be tracking you?"

Melissa shot him a look. "Doesn't that break the 'no talking about our past' thing?"

"Fair point," Carmen said. "So a bank?"

"Bank."

The two were relived to find one where she could withdraw her money, even if it took an hour or so to find. And even though the woman at the front desk had protested that they needed to be told in advance if such a large withdrawl was going to be made, Melissa left with as much money as they would give her stuffed into her suitcase.

"That should hold us over for a while," She said, as they started walking again.

"Hopefully."

"Ok, now I'm looking for a job, and you're looking for an apartment."

"I know, Melissa."

"Oh, well I'm sorry, Carmen," Melissa snapped back.

"Fine. Where will you be looking?"

"Restaurants probably. I did a lot of waitressing in highschool."

"Good."

"Where are you going to look?"

Carmen held up his phone. "I picked out a bunch of locations to look at last night."

"Perfect!" Melissa said, beaming. "This is gonna be great!"

"Great."

"Don't say it like that. It is going to be great."

"Great."

Melissa shoved Carmen's arm as they reached the center of town. "You ready to split up?"

"Yup." Carmen smiled down at her.

"I will meet you back here at..." Melissa glanced at her phone. "6:00. Then we'll get dinner and discuss are next step."

"It's a deal."

"See you at 6:00," Melissa said with a smile, and she spun around, and started searching.

---

OHMYGOSH I'M ACTUALLY UPDATING AGAIN AFTER LIKE 30 YEARS EVEN IF IT'S SUPER SHORT IT'S SOMETHING RIGHT???

Thank you so much for reading! Sorry this chapter was short, but if you liked it, please vote comment, and so on.

Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes.

ily babes

XOX