𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐋𝐀𝐖𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐒

𝐓𝐖𝐎

𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒

Compared to my apartment in London, this was... um... There were no walls nicely painted, or floorboards that actually looked clean. The windows were dirty, dust everywhere, and not a single piece of furniture inside. Hell, even the lightbulbs were broken.

"Sugar, this was not what the landlord showed us." Anastasia muttered as she stood beside me, sneering.

"He did mention some cleaning needed to be done..." I muttered back, looking around the empty apartment. I set down my bag as I walked into the kitchen, Anastasia refusing to touch a single thing as she followed me.

"There's probably rats in here." She whispered, a visible chill coursing through her body.

I rolled my eyes at her and inspected the kitchen cabinets, the doors, windows, bathroom... They were all in very good condition, just dirty. Really dirty.

"Nope, no rats—" I said, stopping when I saw her staring down the bathtub's drain. "What are you doing?"

"We should pour some acid in there just to make sure. You never know what's hiding down there." She shrugged, clapping her hands together as she pointed her blue eyes at me.

"Annie, please," I groaned, making my way back to the kitchen.

"What?" She protested, hot on my trail.

"I'm sure there's no need. We just need to do some cleaning and buy some paints to get that ugly shade of gray off the walls," I explained, "maybe buy some curtains, furniture, decorations... you know. Come on, just please bear with me here."

Her plump lips pressed into a thin line and she rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, but only because I want to have you in Seattle instead of London."

"Great."

Before I came back to Seattle, I hadn't expected to come here to see that the apartment I had checked out via the internet would be so thrashed. Then again, a small part of me was glad it was like that. It meant I could decorate it and prepare it to my liking.

That day, I spent the whole time cleaning and then going out with Anastasia so I could buy my furniture pieces. Since it was a small apartment, I didn't worry about having to spend too much. The items would be delivered to the apartment building in a few days, so I had time to prepare the rest of the area with Annie's help.

That is, until the part of painting the walls came. I figured It'd be easy at first, but later on Anastasia and I realized it wasn't as easy.

"God, we still have your room and the bathroom left," I heard Annie groan as I finished painting a spot on the wall. "I'm starving."

Wiping my hands on my shorts, I sighed. "Me too, but we wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't scared off the boy that offered to help us." I squinted my eyes at her.

"Oh, I scared him off?" Annie countered. "Sugar, he was basically drooling all over you and trying to grope you when you weren't looking, in case you didn't notice."

"Grope me?"

"Why do you think I scared him off?" She said, unbothered. "Now, don't question me and let's order some food. I want pizza from the new place downtown."

Pizza sounded heavenly right now. I decided I wouldn't question her and stood back, letting her do her thing.

As I was busy checking out the freshly painted walls of the living room, something my sweet and loving best friend said. "Yes, he'll be picking it up."