One Word

Chapter One~Finding An Apartment

I walked into the apartment building, shuddering at how distasteful it was. All the walls were off-white and the carpeting was an ugly beige color. If the lobby was that ugly, how would the rooms look? There was a desk next to one of the walls and there was a teenage girl sleeping in the office chair behind it. I really needed her assistance; hopefully I was old enough to stay here.

I knocked on the desk a couple times really loudly, hoping to wake her up. It definitely worked because her head flew up in shock; the force knocking her off her seat and onto the carpeted floor. Ugh... beige... Her bright auburn hair flew into her face and when she landed I heard a big bang.

"Ow," the girl whimpered. She looked up at me with big blue, seawater eyes and I saw that her face was worn and stressed. Her full passion pink lips looked chewed on and there were stress crinkles around her eyes. She looked about fifteen. How could a girl so young get so worn down? Too bad I couldn't ask her. The girl got off the floor, almost falling again, and sat in the chair. Her eyes were apologetic.

"My name is Norah, how may I be of assistance?" she asked robotically. Dang! How am I supposed to reply? That's when I remembered. I knew sign language! What a thing to forget.

Hi I am wondering how old you must be to get an apartment here I signed. She looked slightly confused. She must not know sign language.

"Um... alright... sorry I don't know sign language, could you write it down maybe?" Norah responded a little dazed. She awkwardly got a piece of paper and a pen. I wrote down what I said and gave it to her. She read it and nodded.

"Oh I see. You must be eighteen," Norah told me. My face must have shown how disappointed I was, because she slapped her forehead with her palm. "Oh yea. You can be 16 and up if you get a job within the building or corporation." Yay!! She gave me the pad of paper back and I wrote down what kind of jobs are there?

"Well, there is a daycare, a kitchen, cleaning apartments, and... hmmm this last one seems more up your alley. It's babysitting a little deaf girl," Norah answered, smiling a tired smile. I nodded enthusiastically. "Alright then, I will sign you up. When we find you an apartment I will give her the number so the Mother, Ms. Nightler, can come over and talk to you." I grinned and she smiled politely back. How did such a nice girl get stuck doing such a boring adult job?

Norah took me up a flight of steps and showed me a huge hallway full of numbered doors.

"Alright, here we have out first available apartment," she said pointing to an apartment with the inscribing 2b. She took out a key ring and jumbled through them until she found the right one. The door, now unlocked, swung open and I found myself falling in love. The carpeting was a light blue and the walls were deep non-neon purple. There was a king-sized bed in the corner of a separate bedroom and a huge dresser in the other corner, along with a refrigerator and every necessity.

"Yea the last apartment owners left all their stuff," Norah said. "We didn't want to get rid of it because their might be someone... like you if you don't mind me saying so... who might need it." I just nodded. "Do you like it?" she asked. I grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

"Alrighty, just set up what..." Norah looked down at the tiny bag I was holding and frowned before finishing, "little stuff you have and I'll come right back up with the papers you have to sign." With that she left. I went to the bed and sat down on it, throwing my belongings onto the floor. How did my life get this screwed up? How can my mom hate me? Is she that heartless? I felt a tear slip down my cheek. No! No more crying.

"Oh looky here, a new neighbor," said a deep voice. My head whipped up, probably giving me whiplash. There was a teenage boy in the hallway leaning against the doorframe. He had dark black hair that almost covered his deep emerald green eyes. His upper lip was thin but his lower lip was full and way too pink... curses why was I gay? He probably will hit me for checking him out because... do I dare think it? Yes I must... he was h.o.t.t. HOTT!! I must've blushed because he chuckled.

"Well aren't you a cutie." I swear I almost fainted. He chuckled again. "Well aren't you going to say something?" he asked. Well no, no I was not. My absence of an answer obviously bothered him. Oh! I had an idea. I signed to him.

Who are you? He looked taken aback for a second, but recovered quickly.

"Oh so your deaf?" he asked. I shook my head. He nodded his head slowly, slightly confused. "And the name's Jeremy."

Mason I signed. He nodded.

"Well... nice to meet you... Mason," Jeremy replied smirking. Why did he say that like I was a victim? I gulped. He then left.

Norah came back with the papers and I signed them as quickly as I could and I ignored her babbling about the room. She finally got the hint and left, telling me to have a good night. All I wanted to do was sleep. It was probably like 2 in the morning and I was exhausted. I fell asleep quickly, all the while forgetting to lock my door.