timeless

chapter one

 ~ K A I ~

     i stepped out of the airport, waiting for the uber to come upfront and take me to my dorms. i stood at the edge of the curbs, my dark green and black luggage standing stationary beside me. 

     i fished my phone out from the pocket of my black pants, connecting my airpods and shuffling a random playlist on spotify. i shot a text to my mom and dad, telling them i arrived and that i'll text them once i get to the dorms.

     'to be young and in love in new york city,'

     the sound of lauv filled my left ear, my right foot tapping to the beat. it was the dream, y'know, to be 'young and in love in new york city', but, chances are, especially with my luck, that i'll probably be young and studying my butt of at f.i.t.

     i got the notification that my uber was about to pull up, so i took my airpod out and put it back into its case, stuffing it deep in my backpack.  the uber driver opened the window, asking if i was the one who asked for the uber.

     'uh, yeah. can you open the trunk so i can put my suitcases in?' i asked, gesturing to the luggage beside me. he seemed a bit taken aback from my british accent, but he quickly regained his compsure. 

     he nodded, coming out of the car, opening the back of the car, and i grabbed one of the larger ones and stuffed it in, but as i was gonna grab the next one, the uber driver had already grabbed them, pushing them in one by one.

     'uh, thanks,' i said, with a small smile. 

     'no problem,' he grinned back. he looked fairly young, with brown, tousled hair and big, light hazel eyes. maybe around my age, give or take a few months?

     he then turned around and sat at the driver's seat, while i sat at the passenger's, snapping my seatbelt in place. i removed my sunglasses from my hair and placed them right under the radio, smoothening out some stray strands, before typing it into a loose bun.

     'so, f.i.t. dorms?' he asked, double-checking on his phone, placing it on a stand on the dashboard. 

     'yea,' i said. 'i go there,'

     i took my airpods out of bag again, continuing where i left the song at. the rest of the ride was a blur, mostly me looking out of the window and the driver slightly humming along to some random song on the radio.

     soon after, we arrived on 27th street, the rustic buildings immediately grabbing my attention. i spotted the building i was staying at for the semester- nagler hall. 

     'my stop's here,' i said, pointing to the residential hall. he nodded, swiftly parking onto the one of the free spaces on the side of the road, and left the car to open the trunk.

     i picked up my carry-on bag from the floor of the car, lightly closing the door of the car. i took a few quick steps to the back of the car, my suitcases sitting on the road. 

     'so, how much was the ride?' i stuffed my hand in my front pocket, grabbing my wallet. 

     'uh,' he looked down on his phone, swiping a few times before looking back up. '$14.95,'

     i handed him a twenty, and grabbed my bags. 'keep the change!' i yelled over my shoulder, wheeling my stuff into the building, using my elbow to open the door.

~ L U C A ~

     i looked at the crisp twenty in my right hand, smiling broadly as i pocketed it. another successful trip. i started my car, backing into the new york city traffic. i didn't have any other ride bookings at the moment, so i decided on going back to my small studio to continue working on a piece i was working on.

     once i put my keys on the kitchen island, i grabbed my faux leather apron and a bowl of water and went to my clay sculpture. i pressed shuffle on a playlist from spotify, and some random pop song was now being used as some sort of background noise. 

     i kneaded the clay with hands, pounding and folding until it became significantly softer. i used some water to make my hands a bit more wet, taking some clay onto my fingers, and slowly started to apply it onto shoulder of achilles, who was the sculpture i was working on. i used a knife to smoothen out the edges, before repeating the process over and over and over again, until it was nightfall. 

     my chair scraped against the tiles of the floor, which was covered in specks of now dried clay and water droplets. i sighed, washing my hands, and grabbing the mop from the corner, washing away the stains.

     since it was only half past eight, i headed downstairs to the parking lot and opened up the option of accepting rides. almost instantaneously, i got a few requests. picking a random one, i drove out of the garage, the roads illuminated by the streetlights. 

     i glanced down at the radio, but did a double take. a pair of ray-bans sunglasses. something that would definitely be in my closet if i could afford them. i inspected the sides seeing a little, silver k on the inside of the glasses. i was broken out of the trance when a car honked at me, and i looked up to see the traffic light to be green.

     yelling a 'sorry!' out of my open window, i drove to the location of the booking. it was a relatively short ride, just to soho, but more and more rides piled up through the night, leading me to arrive at home at around half past one in the morning.

     too tired to actually even remove my shoes, i just shrugged my shirt off and flopped on the black comforter, the ac softly humming in the background.

boom. and that's the first chapter.