Punching Bag / JSchlatt

01

You never act aloud the way you appear...

Alana, after two minutes of what felt like hours of desperately searching, finally secured a space and parked her car. She'd scarcely been in New York a few hours and already felt like racing 150 miles per hour into a brick wall, at least it would be fun. Everything that went wrong could've gone wrong.

She woke up late and with a foggy brain, started driving to the completely wrong airport, had to run to get to her gate on time only to find out her flight had been delayed by two hours, was sat between two fat guys and directly behind a whining baby and then just to top it off almost threw up on the air hostess.

And that's just from the top of her head. She realised she needed a new, fresh mindset to enter her new life, trying to force a smile as got out of her car and headed to the lobby to collect her keys.

Keys were collected, no issues there. Now here's the breaking point, hauling her boxes up to her new apartment. This was the moment that could make or break it. Alana ran all the possible scenarios through her head: She could drop a box, or even worse have the bottom split open, she could get lost trying to find her room or maybe the worst possible outcome, have a shitty neighbour.

Hastily, she opened her boot and picked up the first box, sure to be careful and graceful when moving; She was not about to start this chapter with tears on her cheeks or a hole in the wall. Alana found the elevator, arrived at her floor and began searching for her room.

405

Perfect, a perfect first trip, no issues. She placed the box down inside and left once again for the second box, again, gracefully and carefully. No mistakes were to be made she was almost at boiling point and desperately needed to curl up in bed with some takeout, pretending the rest of the world didn't exist.

Same routine. Secure the box. Close boot. Lock car. Elevator. Fourth floor. Apartment 405.

Click.

Alana had just placed her box down to dig her keys out of her bag when the door a few inches from hers sprung open. Within the silhouette stood a towering, hefty man with one of those rugby player builds; the optimal mix of chub and muscle. He had this shiny, thick auburn hair peeking out from under a black Yankee cap paired with mutton chops and a moustache.

Alana stopped in her tracks like a deer caught in headlights, staring up at the man, not completely sure what to say.

"Hey," He rubbed his nose slightly awkwardly, taking a step out of the room, "I'm Jay, you just movin' in?" Alana unlocked her door and picked the box up.

"Alana." She replied bluntly with a nod, assuming it was blatantly evident she was moving in. She kept it blank, desperate to not have to engage in conversation right now due to her incredibly short temper and hatred for everyone at that moment. She entered the apartment and placed the box down, turning around to mark the tall man standing in her doorway.

He let out a short sigh and leaned his body weight against the doorway, staring down at the boxes, "You need any help?"

"No." She replied emptily, refusing to produce any eye contact as she shuffled past him and back down the hallway, leaving her door open.

Slight interruption to her routine, nothing she wasn't prepared for. She figured she could give the poor guy the bitch treatment today and then apologise later on, blaming it on Jet lag or whatnot. He seemed like an understanding fella and Alana really wasn't in the mood for interaction right now.

Box. Boot. Elevator. Four. 405.

There he was once again, lurking outside her apartment like some stalker. This time she decided to fully disregard him. He had this puzzled look on his face as he watched her insert her key into the lock as if he just wasn't there, but Alana had allowed enough of the staring.

"Can I help you?" She turned to look at him, piercing her silence. Jay awoke from his confused trance with a slight shake of his head.

"Oh, shit, sorry." He let out a chuckle, adjusting his eyes. Alana was quick to detect the distinct New York accent and collected the assumption he was a local. "Here." He passed her a crumpled-up receipt with a few distorted numbers scrawled onto it in thick black sharpie, barely readable from the ink leaking out into all directions. Alana examined the note over and over, getting angrier by the second. "Just in case you need any help or anything, I'm assuming you're not from here, cuz' of the accent..." There was a pause, she was still studying the note, "Anyway, give me a call if you need anything-" He turned to enter his room once again, but Alana abruptly interrupted.

"So... What you're saying is, you don't think I'm capable?" Jay turned on his heel in confusion, and honestly some shock. What was wrong with this girl, why was she acting like this?

"Oh, no, I didn't-" He tried to explain himself, not wanting to get off on the wrong foot to his bitchy new neighbour.

"What? Because I'm a girl? Do you think I'm fucking stupid or something? A damsel in distress in the need of a big strong man to come save me?" In hindsight, Alana realised the guy was actually doing a really nice thing for her and she was being incredibly ungrateful and just plain rude. But at the time, she really just needed a punching bag to take all her anger out on, poor guy.

"No?" Jay was starting to get a bit annoyed as well, "You know what, forget it." He once again opened the door and stepped in, not without hearing the girl whisper 'asshole' under her breath. He wasn't an argumentative guy, well, not with people he didn't know at least.

Alone at last, Alana thought to herself as she collapsed into her new, crispy pale sheets. Her stomach was screaming for some replenishment but she was too exhausted to shift, picking up her phone and ordering some sushi to her door. She was going to get one worthy thing out of this day if it killed her.

About 20 minutes of inpatient waiting later there was a knock on the door and Alana climbed out of bed and raced to answer it in about 3.2 seconds, if she was a cartoon she would've left a smoke silhouette on the bed. She swung the door open, secured the bag, and gave the man a quick thank you before slamming it shut and retreating to her kitchen counter, mouth-watering. However, upon opening the small white plastic bag, found they'd given her the completely wrong order. Alana ordered vegetable sushi rolls since she hated crab so much and that was exactly what they had given her.

After letting out a strained scream of frustration, she picked up her phone and dialled the number for the Sushi shop.

"Hi, Hello. You gave me the wrong order." The conversation went very back and forth between Alana and the clearly teenage customer help assistant. Alana, who was getting more and more enraged by the second whilst also trying not to give this poorly trained guy a hard time, gave them all her details and after a five-minute wait time of spa music finally got a response.

"Yes we believe you and your next-door neighbour ordered food at the same time, your orders must've gotten mixed up. Your neighbour is also on the line and we are under the influence he's coming to exchange food now?" And with that, a loud three knocks boomed across the room as Alana stood herself up with a audible sigh whilst cussing under her breath. She stomped over to the door, food clenched into her tight balls of hands as she unlocked and sprung her door open.

"Hey did you-?" Jay started, holding the same white plastic bag Alana had.

"Yes." She cut him off, snatching the bag off him and pushing hers into his chest before slamming the door in his face, trying to ignore his confused-hurt-angry face.

It's fine, she can apologise when she calms down, He'll understand.

-

Everyone please forgive her she's had a stressful day, I promise you they start being nice to each other at some point.