On the Corner of Lace and Hendrix

Moving In

After all the paperwork was done, Verona passed it back to Ariel along with the pen. The Danish girl smiled softly and looked back down, typing a few things that Verona couldn’t decipher into the computer. She nodded.

“Alright. There are 3 rooms open. 209, 114, and 363. Do you have any preferences?” Ariel inquired, blinking. Keagan looked over at his sister to see if she did, since she was the picky one. What he found was Verona, not paying attention and staring at the cute front desk clerk.

“Verona.” He urged. Again, she jerked out of a daze and again, Ariel giggled.

“Oh, uh, room… room 209. Yeah, that one’s fine.” Verona nodded, eyes flicking over towards Ariel ever so subtly. Keagan raised an eyebrow, but just shook his head and didn’t say anything.

“Are you sure you don’t want to see it first?” Ariel asked, just for good measure.

“We’re sure.” Verona replied, both impatient and confident that she made a good choice. “What, is there something wrong with it?” The clerk answered quickly.

“No, no, of course not. Just usually people like to see what they’re paying for before they make the decision.”

“Well I really don’t care what most people do.” Verona pointed out. “Anyway, we did say we were in a hurry. Didn’t we, Keagan?”

Her younger brother nodded. “Yes.” Ariel sighed and shrugged in their general direction, stamping out 2 keys that had the room number imprinted into them then handing them to their new owners.

“Here are the keys.” She said, pulling her dress down bashfully as she reached across the desk to hand the keys over.  “Do you need help with your belongings?” Not being able to find the words, she sat back down as she spoke. “I could get someone from your floor to-“

Verona interrupted, flustered. “Uh- no. We’re fine.”

Ariel blinked, slightly disappointed. She thought that the newcomer liked her, and then, she guessed that was an ‘inaccurate deduction’ by how the other girl was acting. Ariel was proud of herself for remembering the term from an English book she was reading. ‘Sherlock Holmes – A Study in Scarlet’ it was called. The first English book she had ever received – from her father, of course. No one else in her family would have gotten it for her, and Ariel didn’t really have friends. Little did she know, her deduction was extremely accurate, more so than she realized.

“Alright.” Ariel put on a smile and began organizing papers. “But if you need anything, tell me.”

Keagan nodded and mumbled a ‘thank you,’ following after his sister, who was speed-walking to the elevator. “Jeez, Verona, no need to be cold.” Now it was his turn to look disapprovingly.

“Yeah, well, a Disney princess just mocked me. I have reason to be pissed. She doesn’t even have a shell bikini or a tail.” She sniffed.

“Really, Verona?” He sighed.

“What?” Verona snapped back.

“That’s low, even for you.” Keagan shook his head and stepped inside the elevator as soon as the doors opened wide enough for him to get through. His sister followed, suddenly with a look of longing and slight shame.

“Yeah, I know.”

He sighed once more and patted her back. “Don’t give up like that, that’s not you. You bother her every day until she gives you her number, that’s the Verona I know. Now when we get up there, you’re gonna help me unpack, and then we’re going to say hi to the neighbours. Then, I’ll make us something for dinner, like fried rice, and we’ll watch really bad horror movies. Does that sound alright to you?” He smiled hopefully, knowing she’d approve of a plan like that.

Verona suddenly puffed back up at the mention of food and horror movies, which were both things that she endorsed greatly. “That sounds just fine to me.”

“Great.” Keagan nodded. He didn’t mind cooking for his sister, he had to do it almost every day of his life anyway, since, as earlier mentioned, she couldn’t cook whatsoever. Verona plus kitchen equals quarantine, the only equation he had to remember that wasn’t in the form of a standardized test. There was no getting away from it, he had just finished college with a degree in the Culinary Arts, yet still couldn’t even begin to make a recipe, or even an algorithm, that could describe, represent, or even dissect his sister’s psyche. It was impossible. He sighed deeply as the silver doors opened once again, only now on the floor that contained their new home. 

Keagan awaited seeing the room, wondering how it would look, if it was nice, what accommodations it had, and so on. Fairly mundane things. But as they walked on the burgundy-shaded carpet, down to their room, Verona began having second thoughts. What if it wasn’t just how she wanted it to be? What if the neighbours were crazy? What if Ariel was lying, and it did have something wrong with it? What if this entire apartment complex was entirely damned by demonic energy? Okay, that was a bit extreme, even for her. She shook her head, as if ridding herself of the thoughts and walked at a faster pace, getting to the door before Keagan did. The black marble plaque had fancy gold lettering that read ‘209.’ The letters were in cursive, running together into a little line that lay underneath them. Stop looking at the door plaque, Verona. It’s not good for your sight or sanity. Just open the door. Her hand was on the knob. So close.

Suddenly, it opened.

In the midst of her deep thinking, Keagan had come up behind and impatiently pushed the door open, like it was the easiest thing in the world. Verona looked up at him, as if offended by his annoyed sigh. She walked in, showing off how brave she was, but her walking was stopped short when she opened her eyes. 

The room was large, spacious, and already furnished, which was why she suspected it cost so much, with a white European-style balcony right outside the glass door, which in turn was framed by burgundy curtains that matched the carpet, although there was one difference. The curtains had embroidered gold vines and leaves weaving through the dark red. Verona always liked red, and burgundy? Well, she supposed that would do. 

The kitchen had a small, black marble island in the center, god bless. Oh, and hanging lamps above! Keagan was entranced by that whole area of the house, while his sister checked on the bedrooms. 

Apparently, the bed sheets matched the curtains. What next? The toilet seat cover? Verona found herself liking the colour though, and the bathroom was alright as well, with it’s black marble counters and bowl sink. Sadly, there wasn’t a toilet seat cover to make fun of, so she looked at the “living room” once again. Black couch, burgundy and gold pillows. The pillows had tassels, which Verona remembered always chewing on when she was little. Ah, the fun of it all. 

There was a black glass coffee table, too, right in front of the couch, and right behind a monster-sized TV, mounted on the right wall. She was beginning to think these accessories would turn out to not be theirs, and that they would have to buy them. Not that she minded, Keagan really seemed to like the kitchen, and Verona was beginning to take a shine to the apartment as well.

Okay, she was really pumped about it.

Maybe.