Something New (A Chris Evans Story)

Chapter Five

"Finally! Jesus, that took fucking forever," I sighed as I collapsed into the new couch that furnished the small living room. In my own new apartment. Wow, even saying it sounds weird.

"Never realized you had so much stuff." Shanna's voice drifted in from the kitchen, where she was getting some more chicken wings and pizza. Ananth had already gone to bed after gobbling down his portion of our Italian fast food dinner, tuckered out from all the running around we did today.

I replied, "Well, there's still one large suitcase and 3-4 more boxes that have to be unpacked though. On the other hand, we got that insane amount of shopping- groceries, household items, the works- out of the way and finished. So it was a pretty productive day. But, I never, ever want to do that again- alone or with someone's help."

She came back and collapsed next to me. "Glad to know that I'll never have to help you move in again- thank goodness the furniture moving went smoothly."

She started at her plate for a minute, and then looked at me. "You do realize; I'm going to regret this carb-filled, cheesy goodness tomorrow morning."

"Yes, but that's tomorrow morning." I retorted. "And it will have saved me from doing dishes or putting in any effort tonight. So there." I stuck my tongue out at her.

She laughed, and nodded her head. "Touché, touché." We polished off our food and quickly disposed of the plastic plates. Seeing how late it was, Shanna probably needed to head back home.

We walked towards the apartment lobby, and once we reach there, Shanna asked, "So... what did you and Chris talk about? I was going to ask earlier, but it must have slipped my mind from everything we did today."

I chuckled, and shook my head. "I was hoping that you had forgotten about that. Anyway, long-story short, I told him about the whole arranged marriage deal, and we decided that we could just be friends."

Shanna gave a big snort, and started laughing. "Naina, I generally try really hard not to interfere with my brother's tumultuous personal life, but Chris... to put it mildly... is a huge flirt. Moreso than the average man. I'm just warning you; he never knows how to only be friends."

Raising my eyebrows, I smiled mirthfully, "I'll keep that in mind. Hey, thanks again, Shanna, really. I honestly couldn't have done all of the shopping and unpacking alone."

She gave me a big hug. "Don't worry about it, let me know if you need anything else."

We said our goodbyes, and she turned away to head to her car, and I walked back to my apartment room, still thinking about Shanna's words regarding Chris and my "friendship."

The next day, I helped Ananth finish his enrollment process at his new school, and help him move into his room, promising that I'd be back sometime on Friday to pick up him, if he wanted to come and stay at the apartment for the weekend. In that moment, my brother aged backwards and became the small baby that I remember from my own childhood. I'm pretty sure we both teared up a bit afterwards.

Collecting myself, I drove back to my now quiet and empty apartment. I tried to prepare for the next day since I would start my residency at MassGen this week.

I did some last-minute cleaning, laundry, cooking, and finally, finally finished my unpacking. I knew that I wouldn't have any time to do household chores this week since I'd be trying to get used to the erratic residency shifts.

I put out all the things I would need for the orientation and first shift into my backpack, and went through the motions of what I had to do tomorrow morning. I even triple-check Google Maps and drove the route once to make sure that I'll arrive on time.