Riding The Line

Chapter Seven- Getting To Work

When Cass awoke the next morning, she was slightly confused. For her, waking up usually was a quick affair. Cass owned some fairly uncomfortable beds, and she tried not to stay in bed any longer than she had to. There's always something to be done, and she didn't like to waste time when she could be making money. But here, she was comfortable. Cass almost didn't want to get out of bed. She looked around the room, taking it all in as she hadn't done last night. The room was quite large, with the bed on the opposite wall of the door. A third wall was all windows, facing out to the skyline. Morning light poured through them, diffusing into the room giving it a soft glow. 

In the corner by the window there sat a small coffee table and chairs, but aside from that, the room had no other furniture. It had a nice color scheme that matched the rest of the house, being mostly black and white with a few brown accents throughout. The room as a whole seemed to have long been unoccupied, with the sheets a bit stiff and some dust over various surfaces. 

Cass realized she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday, which was only mildly annoying. She hated sleeping in jeans; it always left those lines up and down her legs, but she was apparently so tired last night that it didnt matter. 

She sat up, thinking about what she should do. She decided on going downstairs to make some coffee. Despite how good of a sleep she had last night, she was too far gone to not drink any. Cass put her hair up into a ponytail to hide how gross it had become over night. Her hair was sort of wavy, so it had to be washed often or it'd get too greasy.

She walked down the stairs quietly, determined to not wake anyone else up. But all of that was shattered as soon as she stepped foot on the main floor and instantly heard yelling.

"AYEEE! Good morning!" All four men yelled at once. Cass recoiled slightly, not used to loud noises in the morning. The rest, however, were all to used to it. There was always that one person that came in yelling while the others were tired and hungover, and it became a bit of a habit to disrupt each other's mornings as soon as they came in. The thought never occured to them that Cass was very not used to that. 

She walked sluggishly towards the coffee pot on the counter, helping herself to the coffee they'd already made. She took a sip and squinted her eyes for a moment, trying to adjust. They all stared at her, waiting for her to say something. She looked down at her mug.

"This is shit," she muttered, then immediately downed the rest of it. The four others cheered, lifting their own drinks into the air. 

"Alright," Ryan said, clapping his hands together as he stood up, "we've got a set up to do today, so let's meet back down here in forty-five minutes so we can get this over with." They all nodded and headed back to their respective rooms, except for Cass. She hesitated by the coffee pot, wondering what to do. She had no clothes to change into here, so she was going to repeat yesterday's outfit, plus she didn't have enough time for a shower. 

"Hey, Ryan? This is probably a dumb question, but do you happen to have any makeup remover anywhere around here?" Cass knew the likely answer to that, but she asked in hope anyways. 

"Actually I do," Ryan responded, not skipping a beat. "That facepaint is a bitch to remove, so I have some upstairs that you can use." As surprising as that was, Cass was elated to have the chance to remove the eyeliner that had migrated to under her eyes during the night. They walked upstairs and into Ryan's room, which was not significantly nicer than hers, but a little bit so. It had the exact same layout, just on the other side of the hall. There was also a unit of shelves on the wall opposite of the windows. They held several weapons, figures, and the occasional book. There was some clutter on his nightstand and the coffee table, which was expected for someone who actually spent time in their own home, but it was moderate. Unlike Cass's room, Ryan's room opened up to a very large bathroom. Her's was a lot smaller than this. It looked similar to both of their rooms, with a modern color scheme. It was fairly small compared to the rest of the room and the apartment as a whole, containing a double sink, and a tub/shower combo.