To Be Young And In Love In New York City

Chapter 2: "Hot Guy From The Writing Session"

"Is this it?" Niki looked at the GPS on her phone and then at the white building in front of her.

Colette glanced around, trying to look for a sign that said the building's name on it. They were standing alone in the middle of a vast parking lot, ten feet away from three intimidating white buildings that stood side by side. A GPS link that was sent to them when they registered for the writing session led them there.

A black SUV entered the parking lot. It zoomed past them and cut to a left, then halted beside three other cars. A girl with vibrant, red hair stepped out of it. She pushed her sunglasses to her head and made eye contact with them. Locking the car, she walked up to them and smiled. "Hi! Are you guys lost?" Her bright green eyes that were brought out by her pale skin twinkled.

"Um, we're looking for a certain building." Niki showed her the address on her phone.

"You guys are here for the writing session?"

"Yes," Colette nodded.

"Me too! You can join me."

"Oh, okay."

They followed her into the white building in the middle. She wore a purple tank top tucked into white shorts. "I'm Abri." She said, smiling.

"I'm Niki and this is Colette." They offered their smiles. "Have you been here before?"

"The writing session? Yeah. I've been to the one for budding writers last month, decided to try the one for poets."

They walked towards the elevator and it opened with a 'ding' sound.

"Which one are you guys going to?" Abri questioned, as they walked into the elevator. She pressed the button that had a "3" written in silver.

"I'm going to the writer's one and her, the poets'" Colette answered.

"Cool. Niki and I can go together."

The elevator opened to a long, narrow corridor. A little further away from them, a man stood by the wall, guiding people into two different rooms. The three girls approached him.

"Hi, there! Can I please see your registration details?" Niki pulled up a screenshot of the registration details of her and Colette's session, and he scanned the barcode on it with his phone. After doing the same with Abri, he pointed to a white door behind him. "This is for the poets and that-", he pointed to a similar white door across them, "-is for writers."

Niki squeezed Colette's hand. "Hey, have fun in there, okay? Wait for me in the lot after you're done. See ya."

With that, they walked into their respective rooms.

*

Niki's Poetry Session

Niki was not expecting what she saw when she opened the door. It was an enormous room, twice as big as her entire apartment. The room had three pairs of windows attached to the wall opposite to where she was standing.

On to the left of the door, a long row of tables stood, with heaps of books sitting on them. There was a whiteboard attached to one wall, and in front of it lay a long and sleek black metallic desk with a chair. Several regular-looking wooden desks with chairs were scattered around the room. At least a hundred people of various ages were there, some were checking out the books laid out on the tables, and some sat on the benches, chatting with one another. It was like a high school classroom, except bigger, with the similar sounds of excited chattering and laughs lingering in the air.

Niki felt oddly intimidated at the sight, but immediately relieved when she realized Abri was with her. Abri, Niki sensed, felt slightly overwhelmed too, but covered it up with a smile. "Let's take a seat, Niki." They sat on chairs that were right in the center of the room.