Fire Escapes

Chapter One

"Are you okay?"
My mother's voice weighed with worry through the phone. I sighed and threw my bag on the bed.
"Mom, I'm fine."
I had just moved into my new, cozy, little apartment in New York City. After a very long five days in the car with Theodore Hall, quite an obnoxious person.
"Are you sure, did you forget anything?"
"No, mom, I-"
"Do you want me to drive up there?"
"Mo-"
"I'll just call your brother, you are clearly freaking out."
Beep.
I groaned and collapsed onto the bed, reaching for a pillow to hug tightly to my chest.
After breathing in it's scent for a few seconds, I decided that it was a good time to start unpacking.
I had originally moved to New York at the age of eighteen, with a relative of my mother's. After a while of my lazying about, my family decided I had to keep studying in New York but find my own apartment. While I searched, I had decided to spend the summer down in San Francisco with my mom, my younger sister and my two brothers. My emotional and clingy twin had then decided to move to New York with me, originally in the same apartment, but after many battles for my independence, I manage to convince him to get his own.
I sat up and looked around myself.
Boxes upon boxes of stuff.
"What? Yeah, she's fine."
A voice came closer and closer, until Teddy walked through my bedroom door, holding yet another brown cardboard box with his left arm and his phone to his ear with his left.
"Yeah, she's just sitting on the bed with a rather desperate look of pain in her eyes, why?"
He smiled and stared at me while describing my facial expression to who I supposed to be our mother.
Then he frowned and looked away suddenly. He sat the box on the floor.
"No, why should she be dying?"
I shook my head and stood up, getting ready to do some serious unpacking.
I reached for the first box I saw, sitting on the corner of my bed.
Most of the contents of the box were clothes which had been tightly pressed together.
I set it gently on the ground and started searching for another box. I wanted to put clothing away last.
"Okay, thanks mom. Bye."
My brother, who I had been standing right next to, shoved his phone back into his pocket and reached for a box.
It was the box I had stuffed most of my books and notebooks into. He stared into it blankly for a couple of seconds before shaking his head frantically and setting it back onto another box.
"No. No, nope, not happening."
He squeezed in front of me and walked out of my bedroom.
I furrowed my brows and quickly set the box onto the floor before speed walking after him.
He had promised me he would help me unpack, the traitor.
"Theodore Hall, where are you going?"
I followed him into the living room.
"Iz, it's nine and we're in New York. I refuse to spend the evening unpacking stuff."
He said, turning to face me in front of the door.
"But you said you'd help me!"
I whined as obnoxiously as I could, considering the fact that it worked when we were five.
"Listen, come with me and we can go get a drink." He paused and grinned.
"Maybe pick up a few chicks."
I wasn't sure I had ever made such a disgusted face before as I furrowed my brows and frowned, crinkling my nose.
"Never say that again to me."
I said shaking my head slowly.
He shrugged. "What?"
"Just not a twin activity, you know what I mean?" I said, just a drop of sarcasm in my voice.
He rolled his eyes and sighed before quickly turning towards the open front door.
"See ya, Izzy."
And with that he stormed off, leaving me confused and lost amongst the boxes.
"He's got a point, you know."
I jumped, frightened by the rather unexpected comment.
There was a young woman about my age, sitting by the fire escape, right outside my window, grinning straight at me.