The Best Things Happen When You Least Expect Them

The porch light was off. Again. David knew that he put a lot on Natalie's plate, but he also knew that he paid her royally for putting up with his crazy lifestyle. The porch light's bulb had burned out several days ago already, leaving the front of the house pitch dark at night. Annoyed, he sighted as he turned off his Tesla, deriving the place from its last source of light. At the sudden absence of noise and movement, Natalie stirred in the passenger seat.

"Are we home?" David would never fully admit to himself how much it warmed his heart to hear her talking about this house as her home. When he first moved here, it had not been a home, not even to him. He liked the decorations she put in and found they were well chosen, but they were not exactly personal. He had never lived on his own and this mansion turned out to not be a good choice to start doing so, and so this had only become a home when Natalie moved into the bedroom next to his own.

As glad as he was that he felt so much more at ease at night knowing of the presence of another person in the house, he had been worried about his best friend. Because she was precious. Precious and pure. And LA was not. LA was corrupted, and dirty, and full of lies and deceit. But Natalie managed quite well, fitting into this life without losing what he admired most about her. And so, he unconsciously knew that, while he was happy to call this his home, it made him even happier to hear her calling it her home as well.

"Yeah, we are." For a second, he wanted to mention the porch light, but her sleepy form on his passenger seat held him back. This was not the time; her evening had been shitty enough. They had gone out to an event on the UCLA campus, the whole crew was there, and Jason and Jonah had made the most embarrassing fools of themselves, gifting David with tons of footage for his vlog. Natalie had only reluctantly said yes to joining them this evening and once they had been there, Heath and Zane had talked her into several rounds of beer pong. David only saw her again an hour or so later, a little drunk and in an absolutely sour mood. Since he had enough footage already and these gatherings were not his favorite either, they decided to leave. As usual, his Tesla mutated into a party bus on the way back, but with every drop-off, the car had become quieter. By the time Heath had stumbled towards an amused looking Mariah standing in their front door, Natalie had been fast asleep.

Now, David had gotten out of the car and was fumbling through the darkness towards his front door, when he heard Natalie curse away like a drunken sailor "ah shit, what the fuck, ow" "You ok there?" "Just ran against your god damn –", David never found out what she had ran against, but suddenly felt her cling to his shoulders with enormous force. She was practically hanging from his torso, apparently having missed the step up to the porch and preventing herself from hitting the wall by gripping David like her life depended on it. Reflexively, his right arm slid around her waist, pulling her up to her feet again. "Woah there, that one last round of beer pong made you forget the layout of this house, or what?" "Don't tell me about the freaking beer pong", came grumpily from her. "And hurry up, I have to pee". Chuckling silently, he slid his key into the keyhole and as soon as the door opened up the slightest, he felt her shoving past him, practically running to the bathroom to get rid of that last round of beer pong that apparently had made her forget about the step to the front door of their home.

David turned on only the lights in the entrance area, kicked of his shoes and fell on his comfy couch, by far one of his most favorite pieces of furniture that Natalie had chosen for the house. He let his head fall back and put his arm over his eyes. Every time they filmed at a college party or something related to more traditional ways of spending one's time at the age of 22, he felt that maybe he was missing out on something. Every time he came back after one of these things, to the quiet of his house and the cushions of this couch, he knew that he was not. It gave him a feeling of contempt and satisfaction.