It was time. She'd fought against it for so long, the urge to just go away. Becoming a new person seemed like a better idea to escape it all and now she was going to do it.
She had never felt better rolling her luggage behind her in a dark street barely lit by any street lights. Towering above her were rundown dingy apartments. Hers was one of the two bedroom ones at the end of the lane, at the very top.
No one knew her here, she thought, she had changed her name, and began a new life. She was now, 19, and dreamed of opening up a coffee shop and bookstore, in this small dreary town.
She was happy to rid herself of her old life. It was horrible, she was trapped and was not able to make decisions for herself. Now she was free from them. And she arrived at the top floor of the building. On the fifth floor she stood out the balcony that was more designed to be like a porch. And the metal rusted staircases leading up to here were not going to last long.
But that's okay because she took the back way, and the front part of the building was indoors, and had better stairs. Observing the left part of the balcony she observed the area, by looking at the cheap plastic gate set up, the numerous balls laying around, and the mix of small and big outdoor chairs she realized that children lived in the neighbors apartment.
Good, children are good. Maybe she could advertise herself as a babysitter. However, considering the parents lived here, they probably weren’t the best. It would be best to distance herself. But this was the only apartment she could afford.
But it was a start.
All was good.
She was now Andi Louris.
When she arrived in her new home, she noticed that the curtains were closed. Giving the already bleak atmosphere a musty feel. She opened the curtains and windows. Gulping in a breath of fresh air she sat down on the flat carpet and pulled her laptop out of her bag and plugged it into the lone outlet in the living room. She set the laptop down and let it do it’s thing; it usually took a half-hour to set up. She rolled her bag into the bigger bedroom (which wasn’t really really big in the first place). And got to work.
She took the two felt bins out of her big and placed the bottoms in them making them sit upright, and had them sit in the corner. She placed her clothing in one and all of her other stuff in the other.
Stretching her cot out of her bag and unfolding it, she got all her bedding out. Putting on a fitted sheet is just as hard as placing it on a normal bed, she wasted too much time fluffing up her pillows, and neatly placed her two comforters one her bed, the only time they would ever look nice.
She found her list of things she wanted to buy and taped it up to the cold stone wall. Her first thing to buy was a little carry around light. None of the bedrooms, unlike the living room/kitchen and bathroom, had overhead lights. So she will have to buy some. However, that was expensive, so until then, she would have to deal with a tiny one.
But it looked like a cute pumpkin so that made everything better.
She went back to her living room and sat down next to the computer. She thanked herself for leaving her phone at 20% (it was a boring train ride), and ordered a pizza to celebrate.
Opening up a browser on her computer and waiting, she was already met with a message board (she was piggybacking off a neighbor's wifi, because they didnt put a password on) of the events going in the nicer area of town. A party for the spring starting was going on in a couple of days. With her faded dress and worn shoes, she knew she couldn't go, it required formal wear. She had none, and besides she didn’t know anyone over there, she would only bother knowing her neighbors, landlords, and co-workers. She planned on moving away when she was going to open her on business.
She opened up her door to accept the pizza, and gave the man a tip. She sat back down and ate some of it, and placed the rest in the fridge for breakfast. She flicked through the taps message board searching for jobs, she filled out applications for a fastfood place, a tea shoppe, and a gas station. She was glad she chose a place that had a high minimum wage, or else she would not get a lot of money from the fast food place or gas station. She only applied for the tea place because she liked tea, and they had cute uniforms. And you could make a lot of money.
She watched some videos off of youtube on her computer, until late in the night (she was always a night owl), and got to sleep on her cot, which took a while because it was a new bed.
Andi couldn’t remember what she dreamt of that night but looking back she bets it was about waterfalls. She doesn't know why but all she thinks about when looking back is the image of a raging waterfall. Oh and a Humming bird flying about. She can't piece those together. Really, It was kinda strange.
