Cali

1

"Jc where are you going?" "I don't know yet. West coast maybe?" "Why do you have to go right now?" "I can't stay here anymore. There's nothing for me here." "I'm here." "I know but maybe that just isn't enough anymore." As soon as the words left his mouth I was out the door.

That was the last time I saw my so called best friend before he moved. I should probably tell you a little about me before I really get into this. I'm Elizabeth Rose or Liz as everyone has called me for I don't know how long. I live on my own and I plan to move soon. I'm 22 and working on a music career.

Jc Caylen was my best friend for the majority of my life. We did almost everything together. That fight was 3 years ago. It was right after high school and I haven't seen him or talked to him. He tried to call me once and I didn't answer. He didn't try again so I assumed he was just done with me. Now here we are, 3 years later, my entire house is packed up and I'm moving to Los Angles, California by myself. I have a job lined up doing shows to get my music more out there so we will see how it goes. I know it going to be small gigs at first but you've got to start somewhere. I finished taping up the last box while the moving van guys started loading everything into the truck. This is not a drive I would want to make. Houston, TX to LA. I helped them carry boxes from various parts of the house to outside and between the 3 of us it took about 45 minutes to get the boxes and small pieces of furniture loaded up and secure. They were starting on their drive pretty much immediately and I was flying out tomorrow. I went into my, now empty, house and stared at the walls. I'd been living here for about 2 years now and I had so many memories. I wrote my first song in this house. Well, the first that someone other than my dog heard. My dog is coming with me to LA too. She a black lab mix and her name is Moscow. (My actual dog in the picture) I had a crate for her to ride in during the plane ride and I laid down in my bed for the last time. Tomorrow I start fresh. Tomorrow no body knows me. I drifted off to sleep with my dog on the top of my pillow.

*7AM THE NEXT MORNING*

I loaded Moscow into her crate and dragged my suitcase behind me while my dad carried Moscow. We got in the car and he drove me to the airport. Once we got there he walked me to my gate and went as far as he could with me. I had Moscow on a rolling thing with my suit case and was pulling it behind me. I hugged my dad and went through the gate, take my bag and Moscow to the check thing before finding somewhere to sit. I was playing on my phone, sitting against a wall so it can charge. One of my moms friends has a son in LA that's going to pick me up from the airport. I don't remember his name but apparently he will be waiting at my gate. The finally called for my plane to board and I made my way to my seat with everyone else. There was a kid in front of me that talked the entire time so headphones were necessary. Don't get me wrong, I like kids, just in moderation. I managed to sleep for most of the flight and when it landed I grabbed my carry-on and hurried to get off my plane. I was worried about Moscow the entire time. I've never taken and animal on a plane before so I didn't know how it was going to go. Once I walked out I went and got my bag and found Moscow's crate, loading it on another rolling cart thing. I made my way out to the gate exit and saw a tall guy around my age with a sign that had my name on it. I walked up to him and he smiled. He's really tall. "Hey, I'm Kian. You must be Liz." He said and I nodded. "Thanks for picking me up. Sorry if your whole day is shot." I said and he shook his head. "It's cool. I don't mind." He said and looked at the cart behind me. "What's with the crate?" He asked and I turned around. "That's Moscow. She's my dog." "You have a dog?" He asked and got really excited. "Yeah. So letting her out when we get to the car won't be a problem?" "Of course not." He said and forced me to let him pull the cart. Once we got to his car I opened the crate and Moscow came running out, jumping on me and Kian. "She's so cute." Kian said, almost sitting on the ground to play with her. "She likes you." I said as I put my bag in his trunk. I grabbed her leash and hooked it before getting her to jump in the back seat. Once the car got moving she laid down and went to sleep. "So what did you move to LA?" "I wanted a fresh start. I figured coming out here where no one knows me would be easiest." "Makes sense. So what are you planning to do while you're here?" "I'm starting out in music so I'm focused on that." I said and he pushed his jacket sleeves up and I saw all the tattoos. "Those are cool." I said pointing to his sleeve. "Thanks. My friend Romeo does tattoos." "That must be nice. I've been wanting to get one but haven't really found someone that feels right to do it." I said and then realized how crazy that sounded. "That makes me sound crazy. I'm sorry. I-" "No. I get it. It means a lot to you and you want to trust the person doing it." "Exactly." I said and felt a little better. He pulled up to the small house I going to be living in and looked around. "I live like one street over with my friend." He said and I made a weird face. "Seriously?" "Yeah. It's a pretty good neighborhood." "Awesome." I said and unbuckled to get out. I let Moscow outside and went up to the door. I heard Kian behind me and turned to see that he had my bag. "Thanks. I kind of forgot about that." I said as I unlocked the door. I let Moscow run through and took a minute to walk in for myself and look around. I've only seen pictures of this place so seeing it in person is amazing. Part of why I got it was the fenced in back yard and larger doggy door. Kian followed me through, leaving my bag by the door. "It's nice." He said while we were walking through. "It's small but it suits me." I said and he nodded. "By the way, if you want to meet Romeo, I'm going later this week to hang out. You can come?" He said and I nodded. "As long as Romeo doesn't mind." "Nah. He's chill. He won't care." "Okay. I'll give you my number and you can text me and let me know when." I said as we made our way back to the front. I went to the kitchen and saw the door to the back yard. I opened it and Moscow ran out, scoping out her new home completely. I closed the door and decided to let her do what she wanted. I walked with Kian back to the front door as his phone went off. "My friend is texting me. He wants to go get something to eat. Want to come?" "I'm waiting on the moving van to get here. They're supposed to be by in an hour with all my stuff so maybe next time." I said and he smiled. "I'll definitely let you know when next time is." He said and hugged me before leaving. About 5 minutes later he texted me.
"Hey it's Kian. I just got home."
"Wow, you really don't live far at all."
"No I don't. It's walking distance."
"That's good considering I don't have a car."
"Planning to see me soon?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I just want to meet your roommate and see if he's cuter than you"
"So you think I'm cute?"
"Not accepting or denying."

Kian and I talked for a while and the moving guys showed up about 2 hours later after he left. The three of us carried all the boxes inside and I continued to talk to Kian while I unpacked. I heard a knock on my door and when I went to open it I saw Kian and a few other people. "Umm... hi." I said, brushing hair out of my face. "Hope you don't mind us dropping by. They wanted to meet you and I figured you could use help unpacking everything." "If you guys want to come on in." I said and Moscow came running through. "Don't let her out front please!" I yelled and they all closed the door. "So are you going to introduce me to the strangers you brought into my house?" "Right. This is Sam." He said pointing to a really cute guy with dyed blonde hair and tattoos. "That's Trevor." He said and I saw a younger guy wearing makeup. Why can he do it better than I can? "That's Romeo." He said and pointed to a guy who seemed to have tattoos everywhere but his face. "Are any of them the one that lives with you?" "No. He's out with his girlfriend right now. But Romeo is the tattoo artist I was telling you about." "Oh! Well it's nice to meet you all. We can start in the kitchen?" I suggested and they all followed me, Moscow excited about the new people. I had a few boxes labeled "Kitchen" so we started unpacking, trying to make all my dishes fit with the limited space. Somehow we managed and the guys were really fun to be around.  We moved to the living room and set the lamps out and various family photos. Romeo, Sam and Trevor went go sort everything out for the 2 guest rooms while Kian helped me move stuff around in my room. I didn't like how the furniture was positioned so Sam came in to help move the bigger stuff. They're a lot stronger than they look. Once I had everything set up how I liked it I put the sheets I brought on the bed and sat my boxes of clothes and hangers on it. I'll go through that later. We moved through the house getting it set up and by the time we were done we were all hungry. "We can order pizza?" I suggested and they all agreed. Kian called to order and then told me we would have to go get it because they don't deliver to our neighborhood. "But we walked here so we need to go get my car." He said once he realized. "Well, lets go. I'm hungry." I said and grabbed my wallet and phone before we left. Once we got to Kian's house I realized how poorly I was dressed to have been meeting people and to go out in public. I looked down at my hufflepuff baseball shirt and my black leggings and converse. "You could've mentioned that I'm dressed like a slob." I said to Kian and he gave me a weird look. "I thought you looked fine." I said and once we got in his car I flipped the mirror down to see my hair was a mess. I pulled it out of its bun and tried to sort it out enough. Once I decided it was as good as it was getting I flipped the mirror up and slid my glasses back into place. "I did realize your hair did that." Kian said, glancing at me.

"Oh. Yeah it's been up all day." I said and he smiled at me. He has such a cute smile. After we got the pizza we went back to my house to see that they guys had my TV set up and Netflix  pulled up. "We have pizza." I said and went to grab paper plates from the kitchen. We ate and sat around for a while before passing out across my furniture, me included.