“Everly?” A confused brunette in striped pajama bottoms and white tank top asked at the front of her apartment. I stood in her hallway with my luggage in hand and my clothes a dripping mess. I nodded at her and swallowed the ball the size of a softball down my throat.
“Naylan I left him. I left Dylan, for good.” I whispered quietly as it took all the force I had to say those few words. I felt dizzy, but Naylan embraced me in a warm hug that helped me steady myself. “Oh you poor thing, here come in,” she pulled me into her small flat, “I’ll go find you some warm clothes, okay?” She disappeared momentarily. I walked around aimlessly not sitting as not wanting to ruin any of her leather furniture. Finally she reappeared with basketball shirts and an old Maroon 5 t-shirt. I laughed to myself, “Is this from when we saw them at staples center?”
She nodded and joined in with her nasally laugh. She plopped herself on her couch and her eyes went back as if recollecting that day almost 5 years ago, “God we were some sexually deprived fifteen year olds!”
I striped down and put on the pajamas and agreed, “Adam! Oh Adam let me have your babies!” Our shrill laughs echoed throughout the whole apartment as we reminisced. It’s been awhile since I’ve last seen her. Almost three months I presume?
We made an enormous amount of conversation over hot chocolate and snicker doodles.
“How’s school?” I asked nibbling politely on my snicker doodle. She finished her long gulp of chocolate and nodded, “Great. I’m a sophomore down at USC by Figueroa.”
I blew over the steam of my mug and nodded approvingly, “Damn that’s great! I mean do you know what you want to do?”
She smiled a perky smile, “I want to be a nurse. Or anything that involves helping, especially with kids,” she glanced my way and spoke to me by using just her eyes.
I set my mug down on her coffee table, “Oh I don’t go to school. Never was much of a scholar anyways.”
She rolled her eyes, “Everly shut up! God your mind is such a terrible thing to waste! I mean you’ve read more books than anyone I’ve ever known and oh,” she smiled distantly, “God your writing was beautiful. I mean how could you have not gone to school? You could’ve been an English major.”
I curled my feet beneath me, “Honestly I’m not into the whole lecture crap. I think the true foundation of learning is to go out into the world and experience it. You don’t need a book to tell you how to think. You get me?”
She agreed and smiled, “So do you plan to stay with me for long?” I felt shock and embarrassment at the sound of this question. I felt like a guest who’s overstayed their welcome.
“I-I don’t know. I mean I could move to Seattle to m-”
“No! I mean if you’re going to be living with me we’re going to have to share the expenses now.” She giggled out. “Oh.”
“Yeah so do you have a job?” She asked as she cleaned up after us. I stood up and picked the porcelain plate that once held our snicker doodles. I washed the plate wearingly. “I know the perfect job for you!” She ran to her counter and swiped up her phone and dialed a couple numbers and pressed it to her cheek.
“Yes uh Jeremy? Yeah okay hey it’s Naylan! Yeah okay well remember that time I helped you with your business? Mhmm I think it’s time I use that IOU you promised.” She slowly strolled off into the small hallway and I dare not follow her. I tapped my fingers impatiently on the counter.
She skipped back into the kitchen and I put on a bright face, “Okay so well I pulled in a favor and it looks like you’ll be working tomorrow,” she gestured with her hands for me to shoo away as ig I were a pesky fly and not her friend-slash-new-roommate, “So off to bed now because you start at ten tomorrow aaaaaaaaand you’re on cleaning duty tomorrow as well.”
Okay fair enough. I could deal with that. I stretched my limbs and began to walk to the couch, “Can I at least know where I’m working at?”
This question made her face light up with pure joy as she clasped her hands together, “The Labyrinth Above the Last Book Store!”
A smile tugged playfully at the corners of my mouth, “No way! You got me a job at a book store?”
Her smile brightened and widened, “Not just any book store! It’s the coolest bookstore ever! Okay so hop on to bed you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow!”
She led me to her room which was cream colored with a queen sized bed and a wooden mirror-slash-dresser. We crawled under the sheets and dozed off to sleep, after all tomorrow is a new day, a new day in a new apartment and a new job.
As my eyelids became heavier and heavier and my breathing slowed and deepened my thoughts trailed off to the handsome stranger drawing me in all my sugary glory. That night I slept great as my mind slowly went blank and I immersed into a deep slumber.
YOU ARE READING
Rain
FanfictionI was sunshine and he was rain. My parade and I marched on confidently, but deep inside me I hoped, wished, even prayed he'd drizzle himself over me and my parade.
