Two Smokers, One Rainy Day

~Strangers~

I opened my eyes, all I could see was darkness, like I was in some type of void. "H-Hello?" My voice was shaky and unsteady. No response. Where the hell am I, I'm so confused. I walked forward and called out hello again, only for once again, nothing. I sat down and brought my knees to my chest. What the fuck is going on? My mind is so overwhelmed and trying to think of any explanation for this. I laid my head on my knees and began to sob. I hugged my knees tightly, all that could be heard were my desperate cries. I felt a light shaking on my shoulder, I looked up and got a glimpse of someone with blue pigtails. "Mavis!" They yelled out.

Before I could even process the whole situation I opened my eyes to see my mom shaking me awake and yelling my name. I slowly brought my hand up to my cheek and touched it. My cheek was wet, had I been crying in my sleep? My mom looked terrified, like I had been murdered in front of her. "Are you okay?" Her voice sounded hoarse from all her yelling attempts at waking me up. Was I really gonna tell her the truth? "Um..yeah, I'm fine" I wiped the tears off with the sleeve of my sweater. "Are you sure? You screamed in your sleep and almost made me crash." That kind and concerned tone quickly shifted to an annoyed one. "Just a nightmare" I can't tell her about the whole..nightmare, she'll freak. "Well, we're here."

I hadn't even taken in my surroundings, I was too dazed and caught up in my nightmare. I hopped out of the truck and looked at the building in front of me. It look like it would fall over if I sneezed on it, from one shit-hole to another. Great. I can't blame my mom though, I bet this is all she can afford right now. I sigh and rub my temples. I'm extremely sore and emotionally distraught and now I have to move all of these boxes into this dingy ass apartment building. My mom had already opened the truck and had a couple of boxes in her arms. "Well, get to it kid. These boxes aren't gonna move themselves." I nodded and grabbed a few lighter boxes, shit please don't tell me we're gonna have to climb up stairs. I won't be able to walk afterwards if that's the case. I came up to the thankfully already opened wooden door. I walked in and took in all of the scenery.

There was a cork board with fallen notes all around it, only one note actually being on the board. I scooted past the table under the cork board and looked at the lobby. There was of course the lobby desk and mailboxes. I went up to the mailboxes and took a peek at all of the names. I finally found me and my moms last name, it was just a sticker with our last name taped over the box. That's trashy to say the least. I turned and saw the holy trinity, an elevator. I let out a sigh of relief and pressed the up button and waited for it to come down. I tapped my foot on the ground impatiently. I eventually heard the elevator trying its best to get down here, it sounded like it could break any second now. the doors opened and I stepped in the small elevator. It was pretty cramped, a claustrophobic person would probably have an anxiety attack in here. I pressed the 4th floor button and watched as the doors of the shaky elevator closed.

I moved the boxes to one hand and rested my chin against the top of them. I took out my phone and checked if I had any messages or missed calls. Nope none at all, how..disappointing. I shoved my phone back in my pocket and stared at the ground, contemplating. I mean I didn't like them, they were awful friends. But a little bit of concern, a message..it would be nice. I heard the elevator doors open and I pushed through them. I ran into something and fell back onto my ass, making a thud noise. I looked up from the ground and saw a person also down on the ground. They had a white mask with a pinkish-purple area around the eye. They were wearing a burnt maroon turtle neck sweater with a black t-shirt over it, black ripped jeans and dusty navy blue converse with writing all over them. Lots of piercings, necklaces, and rings. Wow they look cool, I never saw people dressed like this back in the part of New York I lived in. They also had blue pigtails..like the person in my nightmare.

"Hey, you okay?" Is what knocked me out of my train of thoughts. His voice was semi-deep, sounded muffled by the mask. "Yeah..sorry," I got up and held my hand out to him. He grabbed my hand and stood up, dusting off his pants afterwards. "You new here? I've never seen you around." He was looking straight at me, it sent chills down my spine. Maybe it was the mask, who just randomly wears a mask? "Sorry if I scared you, it's a prosthetic." It's as if he read my mind. Shit now I feel awful, I look away and rub my arm. "N-No! It's fine." I looked back at him and gave a small smile, "I'm uh Mavis. I'm moving in room 404 on floor 4." He tilted his head. Did I say too much? He did just ask me if I moved here, not my name or where I li- No, no I'm overthinking it. "That's funny, I also live on floor 4. Guess we'll be neighbors." His mask moved, I'm guessing he smiled? "Guess so," I said awkwardly.

I bent down and grabbed the boxes I was carrying, thankfully nothing fragile. "I gotta go get moving, my mom is really impatient. Hope we run into each other again..?" I was hinting at his name. "Sal, Sal Fisher." Thank god he caught on, wait there was a H. Fisher on the mailboxes, that's probably his dad or mom. I waved bye with my free hand and went to room 404. The door was already open, mom is probably already in there. I went in and looked around. It wasn't extremely big, but not as small as our last apartment. The wall color was really ugly though, it was a pale yellow, some of it was peeling. The carpets looked gross too, like they hadn't been cleaned since they were installed. At least it didn't stink like the elevator did. That elevator smelt like straight up dead body. I saw mom in the kitchen setting some boxes down. "Hey slow-poke, what took you so long?" Annoyance was laced in her voice. "I ran into somebody," short and straight to the point.

She turned back and smiled, wiping that previous snarl off her face. "Were they your age? Maybe you can make some new friends here." I feel her enthusiasm, but I'm scared. What if the people here are as awful as the people in New York. I mean..he didn't seem rude, but we did just meet. "I uh..think? He was a bit taller than me." She brought her hands together, "Oo a boy!" I rolled my eyes, "Mom please, I just met the dude." She crossed her arms and had a slight smirk, "I mean it wouldn't hurt you to get a boyfriend." I placed the boxes down and walked out. Why is she so weird about me getting a boyfriend, I've never really had a crush on anyone. I mean..there was this one girl but I'm 100% sure she was straight.

I need a break.

I went down to the lobby and quickly walked out. My throat felt itchy and I just felt overly anxious and pissed off. I ran to the back of the building and dug in my pocket, pulling out my cigarettes. God, I hadn't smoked since yesterday, I've been trying to limit myself but it's so hard.. I leaned back on the wall and pulled out my lighter, lighting the end of the cigarette. I put the cigarette in my mouth and closed my eyes. "New girl, right?" I heard a deep voice beside me. I stirred up, almost screaming and dropping my cigarette in the process. "Hey, hey calm down. It's only me." He says that like I know him, I turn my head and look at him. Woah. He had long brown hair that reached nearly his middle back, it looked messy, he also had a bit of a stubble. There was a mole under his eye, just like me. His eyes were brown and it looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep for weeks. He had cool face piercings, ear piercings, wearing necklaces like Sal. He had on a gray band t-shirt with a vest that had pins on it with dark blue ripped jeans and boots. I did recognize the band on his shirt, it was Sanity's Fall.

"You haven't said a thing, am I that handsome?" He chuckled. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, "No, just wondering how you knew I was the 'new girl' here." He pulled his cigarette out of his mouth and laughed, I hadn't even realized he was smoking as well. "My friend Sally Face told me." I cocked up an eyebrow, Sally Face? Who the hell is Sally Face. He brought his hand a bit above my head, "Bout this tall, blue hair." It finally clicked, "Ohh, that Sal Fisher dude?" He nodded, "You're uhhh Mavis right?" I give him a thumbs up. "Well, I'm Larry. I live in the basement of the apartments with my mom." Huh, that's odd. Are people even allowed to live there, I've never even heard of it. "I live on the 4th floor, room 404." He took a long puff of his cigarette and blew the smoke towards my face, I coughed at the smell. His cigarettes smelt waaay different than mine, holy fuck. He had a goofy smile on his face, "Guess I'll be seeing you around then cause I'm sure we'll bump into each other more." He pointed towards his cigarette and than mine, laying on the sidewalk. "Hah, I guess so."

Is this the start to a new friendship?

Me and my mom spent hours moving all of those boxes onto the 4th floor, mainly because of the elevator. I was laying in my bed, staring at the ceiling. Today was extremely eventful. I thought back to Sal and Larry, did I make 2 new friends? I mean..they were really nice to me, but maybe they just felt awkward or bad. My throat began feeling itchy again, fuck I need a cigarette. I look at the time on my phone, it was 11 p.m. I mean my mom should be asleep at this point, it wouldn't hurt for me to sneak out. I just need to be quiet and try not to wake her. I quietly got up and threw on a pair of boots and a jacket. I could feel the cold air blowing in from my cracked window. I tip toed out of my room, trying my best to avoid all of the creaky boards.

A part of me hopes I run into them...

(A/N): This is much longer than the last part by about 1k words. I'm pretty proud of this chapter if I'm honest. I introduced two new characters and included tons of dialogue. I hope I'm not moving too quickly, I mean these two chapters have only been one day. And the next will definitely also include a little bit more of this day. Again this book is really just to distracting me from mental health problems.