Ashes to Ashes

Welcome to New York

"If you will just sign here and here, I can get you the keys." The realtor said as she handed a packet of papers to my roommate and best friend, Reed. We exchanges a look and she quickly scribbled her name then handed me the paper and a pen. I neatly scrawled my name, Emma Asher Scott, on the designated papers and handed them back to Alice, our realtor.

"Here are the keys, the place is all yours! Oh and have a Happy New Years!" She handed us both a new set of shiny gold keys. I turned to Reed as Alice left the apartment and we both let out a scream.

"Oh my God! I can't believe we are actually here!" Reed gasped out as I spun around the spacious living room.

"I know! It's like a dream. Come look at this!" I pointed to the window. We had one, long window reaching from the ceiling to the floor.

"Asher it's gorgeous! How did you find this place?" I looked out at the Manhattan skyline. I could get used to this view.

"My mom and dad, they used their connections. Don't give me that face, if we passed this up, we would have had to live in the dorms." Reed gave me a look of annoyance when I mentioned my parents. "And I know how much you hate small spaces."

Reed didn't like my parents because they were abrupt and liked to throw money around without a second thought. While they were overbearing and tried to smother me whenever I visited, they were still my parents and I appreciated all that they had done for me the past few years. They took care of me.

"The apartment is pretty great, and it's only a few blocks from the school." A smile crept to her face. She feigned sighing in defeat. I knew she would love the place. "I still think its a lot for your parents to pay for all of this. I could help out, I have money saved up. Besides, they still don't like me ever since I convinved you to put off school and go backpacking with me last summer!"

"They still like you, they were just irritated when our summer trip turned into a year and a half stay." I pointed out and smirked remembering our heated phone call explaining why we missed our flight home.

"Come on, you can buy lunch, if you are so adamant about paying for stuff," I winked at her. I walked to the door and wrapped my purple scarf around my neck. I picked up my set of keys and turned to Reed, who was still standing near the window glancing down at the street below.

"We have been here a week and all we have done is sit in that hotel room watching Netflix on my laptop. Don't get me wrong, I love my Gossip Girl reruns, but that is all we have done and we have this huge city at our fingertips. Lets go do something fun." I whinned.

"That is not true, we went to the New Years Eve party in Times Square last night!" she reasoned. "We can go out tomorrow, before orientation." I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, we are going to start this year out right, Damn it!" It was quiet for a moment, until Reed and I both started laughing.

After several minutes of hysterics, Reed finally choked out, "Asher, what has New York done to you? I've never heard you curse in your entire life!" It was true, I had never cursed before. I was raised to think curse words were unladylike, and was punished if caught saying them. My justification for using the word now was that I am an adult, and should be able to speak the way I liked.

"New Year, New me." I smiled sweetly. I turned and walked out the door. I knew she would be following me, so I didnt hesitate as I got in the elevator and pressed the Lobby botton. Reed jumped through the doors right as they began to close.

"Where are we going?" she asked me.

"Lets go back to Times Square, I want to see it in the daylight." We stepped out into the lobby moments later and I waved to the doorman, Neil, who then flagged down a cab for us.