Art is risk. (H.S.)

Prologue

I was struggling with a lot of thoughts on the plane.

How will my dad react when he finds my letter? Am I going to miss London? How will New York be? Am I going to make it as a photographer? Or am I going to have to look for another job and hate to go to work every single day?

God, I hate this insecurity.

But I'm doing what I want to do, what I always dreamed of, I was born for this. "It sounds so cliché; believe in dreams, create dreams and make dreams come true. But it is what you have to do, Zara." My mom always told me this.

Mom.

What if she would read the letter? Would she be proud because I am actually going to New York City? Or would she be mad because I left dad? Or even worse, would she be dissapointed?

I shouldn't be thinking about the past. This was supposed to be a new start. Dad will be fine, I shouldn't be worrying about him. He never worried about me either. He was always drunk anyways. He wasn't the same anymore. He took MY money to spend it on drugs and alcohol. I loved and needed him as a dad, not as a man who ruined my life even more than it already was since mom's death.

Mom's death.

I immediatly started rubbing my tempels, hoping that these thoughts would leave my head. I wasn't ready for this.

A voice went through the speakers, telling me that the plane was about to land.

~

After looking for my luggage for a while, I finally found it and walked out of the airport. I took a taxi and tried to memorize the streets of New York City. After ten minutes, the taxi stopped in front of a white apartment building. I payed and thanked the driver and walked to the building. A man who looked around 50 years old was standing in front of it. He was wearing a suit and he was smoking.

Urgh.

He smiled at me as I was walking up to him. He threw his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it.

"You must be Zara Dashner" his voice was low and sounded dry and craspy. I shaked his dry hand.

"Hi, mister Boyne, nice to finally meet you" I said.

"Nice to meet you too but you can call me Mark though" He smiled. This man may has really dry hands and a voice wich I would be scared of if I was a child, but he's nice and he's the owner of this building where my apartment is. I knew it was not officially my apartment yet but I was just so excited.

"Follow me" Mark told me. As I followed him into the building, I realised that I actually have a lot of luggage. I dragged it behind me and followed Mark into the elevator. He pushed the button for floor nine.

"This building has 14 floors" Mark told me "your apartment is on the ninth"

I smiled.

The elevator doors opened and we walked into a nice corridor. The walls were painted in white and the two doors were black. Noises were created by Mark's shoes, clicking on the parquet. "I already like it here and I haven't even been in the apartment yet" I laughed quietly.

"It's not the first time someone had said that" Mark said showing of some pride.

He unlocked the door at the right of the hallway and let me in. I gasped, looked to the other side of the living room and gasped again. It was so beautiful.

"You can check if everything you wanted is in here. I have to go to a meeting now but I'll be back in two hours. So that will be around 6pm. Then we can handle this off." Mark said while checking the time on his watch.

"Okay, thank you, Mark" I smiled.

He smiled back, "your welcome"

He gave me the keys and left.

The apartment looked like someone was already living here. It was competely furnished and really cosy. I switched on a couple little lamps in the corners.

As I switched on the last lamp near the window, my jaw dropped. The window started on the floor and went up to the ceiling. The sight was amazing. Other high buildings were peaking out in between lower ones, streets were full of cars and to be honest, I didn't mind about the cars hunking down there.

I love the citylife.

After discovering every inch of my apartment, I unpacked and took a shower.

After washing my body and long dark brown hair, I got out and walked over to my closet, my huge closet. I didn't put all my clothes on the hangers yet because I was too exhausted. I took some black sweatpants that looked okay to go outside with and also a tight white v-neck shirt and a black hoodie. Yes, I'm sorry but I basically only wear black, grey and white clothes. I put on my denim vans and took my purse to go grab some dinner first. I could also just order some pizza but I really wanted to see the city.

It was only 5pm so I had some time before Mark came back. Right before I left I took my camera with me. Sorry, I had to.

I had to walk since I don't have a car yet but I didn't mind. Within 5 minutes I was in the center of the city already I looked around and found a small coffee house.

Cosy leather couches were placed around a coffee table and small lamps were set up everywhere. As I walked in, I smelled the amazing smell of coffee. Quiet talks were made between people. Then I got greeted by a young lady.

"Hello!" she said smiling friendly.

"Hi" I smiled back.

"Where would you like to sit?"

"I'm not expecting someone else to come so... just somewhere where there's enough room for one person I guess."

Zara, that was literally the stupiest and most pointless thing you've ever said.

She laughed at me and said "Alright then, you can sit over here"

I followed her to a table in the corner. I thanked her and she gave me a menu. I ordered a chocolat flavored coffee.

I got it and talked a lot with the lady, Elizabeth. She is really nice and is 21 years old. I told her I was from London and moved to make my dreams come true, wich was right, half. I absolutely did not want to talk about my parents. I left the coffee house and promised her I would go back.

I got back home around 5:45pm. I made it before Mark did, luckily.

By 'we will handel this off later' he ment I had to pay when he was back. I did when he came and told him that everything was perfect. He gave me his spare key so he had none and I had two.

It's official; this is my apartment now.

After watching the city lights through my window for a while, I went to bed and enjoyed my first night in New York City.

~~~

Hye guys!

So this was the prologue of Art Is Risk, I hope you liked it. The pic is how I think Zara's apartment would look like.

Harry will come in the story in probably the first or the second chapter.

I'll try to update once a week and also sorry for errors bur I'm belgian so yeah.

I hope you liked it!

Add, like&comment ;)

Love, Nel

P.S.: my twitter: @NelSamoy