When Worlds Combine - A WWC Sequel

61; Apartments, parties, and windchimes

Violet

"My favourite feature of this place is the windows. With the wide expansion you really get the full view of the city. And when the sunlight pours in it's absolutely gorgeous."

I follow the agent around the apartment, eyeing everything in absolute awe. It's your typical London apartment, nothing grand, but somehow it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. 

"Now, the walls have-"

"I'll take it," I blurt.

She stops her sentence and looks at me, a little shocked. We had only been here for about five minutes. "Really?" She grins. "Brilliant. Of course!" She starts shuffling around the papers on the bench. "Okay, great. You sure did make your mind up quick. I'll just get you to fill out these and these ones here. Signature required on that one. And payment can be made however you choose. You can take out a loan-"

"I have the cash." I pull out the wad of cash from my purse and hand it to her, and she almost falls over.

"Right." She takes the money gingerly. "Okay. Uh ... I don't think anything else needs to be done." She's looking at me like I'm somewhat crazy but she quickly masks herself, packing up her things and regaining her smart posture.

I smile, feeling a sense of accomplishment and happiness and excitement build up inside me as she hands me the key.

"Congratulations, Miss Smith. You've just bought your own apartment."

------

"God, Violet. How many books do you actually need?"

I roll my eyes and ignore Avery as she whines about unpacking my books from their boxes. She emphasises moans and groans and complains that her back is breaking and puts on quite the performance. "You should know the answer to that question by now. Be careful with that one!" My heart starts to race as she holds an old book loosely, the cover torn. "Put it on the top shelf."

She sighs and puts the book down. "You're so weird."

At that moment Niall comes skipping into the room riding a toy pony and waving his arm around in the air. "Aye aye!" He cries. "I got you a house warming gift, Vi!"

Avery and I just stare at the blonde haired child in absolute silence. Avery sighs and shakes her head, going back to unpacking the books. I just stand there.

"Uh ... thanks, Niall?" 

He grins. "No problem. She's quite pretty, huh? You can name her whatever you want but for the meantime I called her Nancy. I'll just put her here."

I force a cracked smile. "Gee, thanks." Who invited Niall?

"Man, this place looks great." He stands with his hands on his hips, surveilling the entire space. "This is really cool, Vi. I'm really proud of you for doing this."

"What, buying an apartment? People do that all the time, Niall. It's not that special." I laugh.

"No, but, look at you. I've known you for, like, a hundred years and this is the first time you've, like, done something for nobody but yourself. And it's just really cool, Violet. I'm really happy for you."

I turn to him and smile a little. He was right. I had lived my entire life doing things for others and finally I was able to do something for myself. And it felt so good. I felt like finally I had achieved something, something really worth it. This apartment was mine. Mine and no one else's. And that felt fucking incredible.

"I agree." Avery dusts off a book before placing it on the shelf. "This place is perfect. Totally you."

"It's going to be weird living alone," I tell them. I hadn't ever lived by myself, I always had someone with me. Living in the dorms was an experience I had gotten so used to and I didn't really know how to react to having no one around me. To everything in this apartment being my own responsibility. But i was also really excited about it. I could cook my own meals, watch whatever I wanted on TV whenever I wanted, do my laundry and not care about who can see my underwear because no one can. I can decorate my apartment however I want to because it's my apartment.