Serendipity (J.Barakat)

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

I love my life. Renting a homely three bedroom house with my best friend in a friendly neighbourhood among the streets of Baltimore. Being a journalist for Strum magazine, also I was recently promoted to co-editor, not to blow my own horn but... TOOT.

There was not much in my life that I wasn't happy with. I had amazing friends, an amazing job, an amazing lov- oh wait, that was non-existent... my mistake.

However, if there is one thing I do not particularly like about my life, it is the fact that for some damned reason that the good lord himself doesn't even know, my boss insists that I come into work an hour early on a Monday. An hour early. On a Monday. I don't know about anyone else, but I, Avery Lennox Kennedy, am not a functioning being in the morning, let alone on a Monday.

Like today. Today was a Monday and, like usual, I had slept through my alarm and was woken to an annoyed best friend shoving me out of bed so he could go back to sleep.

"Shawn, you asshole." I groaned trying to pick myself up off the floor. I received no reply as the dark skinned boy had already made his way back to his room. Shawn didn't have work today, he was a tattoo artist and the parlour he worked at was closed today due to the boss being somewhere or something like that, to be honest I wasn't paying attention when Shawn told me about it excitedly, sign me up for best friend of the year.

Hurriedly I changed into one of the many Drop Dead t-shirts I owned as well as a pair of ripped black skinny jeans. What can I say? Get on my level, I'm way too hardcore for you. Please note the sarcasm. Running to the bathroom to do my teeth, I applied minimal make up as I knew if I did anymore I would essentially spend three hours looking in the mirror trying to perfect my look.

Realising that I infact did not have time for breakfast, I quickly popped my head into Shawn's room to bid him farewell, only to be met with the not so light snores from the man I call my best friend.

Laughing, I grabbed my large camo-green hand bag off the couch, checking it had everything in it that I would need for the day, laptop, keys, phone, charger, papers that literally hold my future at Strum. Deciding I indeed had everything, I ran out to my car, a royal blue Suzuki Swift, and began my 20 minute journey to the busy CBD of Baltimore, Maryland.

Pulling into the familiar car park behind the two-story building, I smiled. I may complain a hell of a lot about my early mornings but I wouldn't change it for the world. Writing has been my absolute passion since I was eight years old and started writing stories about Pink Princess and her best friend, Baby Blue Princess. I like to think that my writing has improved since then, as I'm now 26 and studied Writing Studies and Design and Media Studies for four years at University.

My other passion was always music and performing. I absolutely loved being on a stage and expressing myself through performance. So when the opportunity came up to work for such a big magazine like Strum, I was ecstatic.

Strum is a music magazine based on the alternative music of today, such as bands like Pierce The Veil and Fall Out Boy etc etc. In a lot of ways it's quite similar to other music magazines such as Kerrang and AP, either way it was an amazing place to work.

With my content smile not leaving my face, I made my way into the building to get my office ready for the day ahead before the staff briefing with the rest of my colleagues.