cozy cup

V.

Once home, Vinny takes in the quiet of the house, savoring it. It wasn't often that he got to just be in the house. He and his mom have similar enough work schedules that they were usually home at the same times, and he would be lying if he didn't think she did that on purpose. His mother, while sweet and caring, was often overbearing about many things. Them spending time together as much as possible was one of those things. She made it a house rule that as long as he was living in the house with her, they would eat dinner together. During which time she would sit in silence with an excited expression stamped onto her face and force conversation about his day. He always gave the same answers to her questions. His days didn't have much variety to them: work, home, bed, repeat.

Sometimes he would think about taking a trip somewhere to take some pictures again, but he had burnt himself out with school, and the year off was supposed to be a kind of reset for his photography as well. His fingers itched to take pictures again, though, and that was the best feeling to him. He had started dreading the activity his last semester of school, but now he was ready to jump back into it, learn some new techniques, and take some amazing pictures.

But first, he needed to find an apartment.

Sighing, he placed his keys on their designated hook by the entrance, slipped from his shoes, and trudged his way to his bedroom. His bag was placed by his bedroom door as he walked inside, immediately sliding out of his pants and reaching into one of the five drawers in his dresser for a pair of shorts. Once dressed, he settled himself onto his bed, sitting in the middle, where he had left his laptop that morning.

His files were still pulled up, tiny thumbnails of pictures he had taken over the years lining the screen. Vinny had used them to curb the itch he felt to go out to the park with his camera. He still needed some more time before getting seriously back into photography, though. Just a little longer, then he could jump right back into doing the thing he loved most.

Minimizing the page they were on, he pulled up a search engine and typed in Chestnut Avenue Apartments. The pictures that came up were beyond what he thought would be available for students, and just as Owen had said, there were a few spaces available for lease. Excitement started to bubble in his belly as he clicked to see the available floor plans for single bedrooms. They were a little small, but the way they had them styled, they looked spacious enough, and they had both furnished and unfurnished options. A relief, really. Furniture was expensive, and he didn't have the kinds of savings that would allow him to buy all the furniture needed to live comfortably.

He didn't have to go in to work until late morning, so Vinny called up to the leasing office and scheduled a viewing of one of their units. With that set, he laid back on his bed, laptop still open, and grinned. He hadn't done much of the stuff that he thought he would do in his year off school, but he was one step closer to one of the biggest of those things. He was excited, and he couldn't stop the way pride welled up in his chest. After getting a job, this was the first official adult thing he had done for himself–the first adult thing he didn't have to ask permission from his mother for.

That pride was immediately extinguished when he realized he would have to tell his mother about it. He was moving out of her house, where he often helped with chores and groceries, and she deserved to know. A groan fell from him as he curled into a ball and turned on his side. He knew what her reaction would be. How she would try to control and manipulate him into staying in that sweet voice and words disguised as compassion. Hell, he didn't even know if she knew how suffocatingly protective she was, how sheltered she had made his life.

Sighing, Vinny rolled out of bed, closed his laptop, and gathered his things. He didn't want to sit around and start thinking about things that would push him further into a bad mood. Usually when he thinks too much about certain things, his mood will be negative for a while, and it wasn't fair to anyone around him. Slipping into his shoes and grabbing his keys, he slipped out the front door and scurried to his car.

He might as well be semi-productive while he was distracting himself. He drove the twenty minutes through town to the university. Parking at a fast food establishment just on the outskirts of campus (he really couldn't afford a ticket for parking somewhere on campus for too long), he locked his car and started walking.

It was a warm day with a nice breeze, and he was glad to be back on campus on such a nice day. All the flowers were in bloom and the trees looked like they were the healthiest they had ever been. The greens looked spectacular against the backdrop of bright blue from the sky. Campus had always been beautiful in the spring and summer months, and having been away from it for so long made everything even more so. His fingers itched, necks tingling with the need to feel the weight of his camera once more.

Shaking his head, Vinny put all of his focus into remembering his way around campus, especially from where he had parked. He didn't often park on that side of campus, and he really needed to pay attention if he wanted to find his precious bug again later.

After a few minutes of walking, a sigh of relief puffed from his lips. The red brick of the bookstore was bright in the sun, spots of warm sunlight reflected from the windows of nearby buildings. It was beautiful, and made even more so by his struggle to remember where the damn place was. He slipped inside, walking slower than he wanted to accommodate the automatic doors, and went immediately to the online orders line.

A few people were already there, but there wasn't too much of a line. There wasn't much of a wait, two minutes max, by the time the older lady working the area called out for him to walk forward. "Did you get a confirmation email stating that your books were ready?" she asked, pulling a pen and a clipboard with papers on it towards herself.

"Yes."

"Name on the order?"

"Vincent McDaniel," he murmured, hands busy pulling things from his back pocket until his fingers finally grasped the one thing he needed.

"Student I.D.?" she muttered something under her breath when Vinny handed his card to her, but she took it and started writing down the number on his card. She handed the piece of plastic back with a small smile. "I'll be right back with your books."

Vinny watched as she disappeared, tucking his things away before sliding his hands into his front pockets. The pride in himself from earlier came back two-fold. He never really had much motivation to do things outside of work and when he wasn't on a break from it, taking pictures. But on this day, he did two very big things, and that made him really happy.

It wasn't long before the bookstore employee came back, two plastic bags in her hands. "Everything should be in here, and if it isn't just come back in and we'll see what we can do, okay? We've had some issues with one of the books you needed for your poetry class, but there wasn't anything marked on your order slip or in the computer."

"Alright," Vinny nodded, taking the bags from her hands. "Thank you!"

Now I just need to find my way back to my car, Vinny thought with a soft chuckle and a heavy sigh.

(word count: 2,127)