Apartment 3B

5. The Sun

Elaine

I was nervous as hell. As much as I was looking forward to living with Luna, I was scared of everyone else. I hadn't really talked to anyone else and my brain was making the most outrageous conclusions about something that hadn't even happened yet.

When I was about three years old, my parents thought I had a learning disability because I acquired language pretty late and didn't recognize their voices. They later thought I had autism. As I grew older, the symptoms changed, from a quiet child, I became an aggressive ball of energy. They had me checked for ADHD and later, IED. After having the symptoms for possibly all disorders they knew of and getting me checked for it, they let it go.

Undiagnosed, as a 25 year old adult, I worked towards and took this job teaching kids with special needs because I wanted them to know they had someone who cared and that they weren't different or weird.

I grew to be better adjusted as I grew up but I still remained a little clumsy, anxious and enjoyed talking to myself. That's why being with new people made me nervous. I took my locket in my hand and traced the cat pattern engraved on it. I was mildly obsessed with cats as a child. A cat had given birth to a litter of seven kittens in our backyard once, they were my best friends.

It calmed me to hold that locket as I walked up the stairs to Apartment 3B. My suitcases and boxes were on the curb where the moving truck left them and a really nice blonde guy helped me carry it up.

When we reached the door, he laughed and said, "Oh, so you're Elaine. I'm Jesse, one of your roommates. I'm the guy who's the limelight of tonight's evil party."

He seemed so comfortable and it made me ease up too. I shook his hand, "Yes, I'm Elaine but please call me Lainey. It's nice to meet you and thanks for the help."

"No problem at all, Lainey." He gave me a grin.

I sighed with relief when I entered the apartment. Maybe this wouldn't be that scary.

I was greeted by Luna who wrapped me in a hug like we were long lost friends. She looked like a dream in her black pyjama bottoms and a plain baggy pink t shirt. Her hair was loose and she was barefoot. In person, she looked better than I could've imagined.

"I'm so happy to finally meet you. I'm sorry we did all this without you," Luna apologized.

"That's okay, I love it," I said looking at the living room that had brown curtains, a white fuzzy carpet and two black bean bags. She took me to the party room and turned on the yellow fairy lights and the vibe of the room was lovely, they did a damn great job.

Exiting that starry room, I gave Luna another hug. She smelled like lavender.

We entered our bedroom which didn't even have a bed, it had two mattresses and some picture frames lying around.

After that, she showed me the boys' room. Kabir was asleep on the king size bed that I presume the boys got together.

"He had a late night," she informed.

Their room at least looked like a real room. It had two side tables, lamps and there were no boxes in sight. They were much cleaner than the girls whose room was still scattered with unopened packages and had clothes lying around.

Jesse placed my mattress in the girls' room and added to the pile of boxes. "Okay, now all of you, scram. I'll unpack and see you guys after you're back from work." I commanded.