Altered Love - Rewritten

Chapter One

I sometimes close my eyes and try and picture what my future will look like. Will I be a mother? Who is my soulmate? I've never been one to be able to picture that, whether it's because I just have poor imagination skills or because I won't achieve those said thoughts. I'm not against having a family, it's just that I'm not keen on thinking years ahead in my life. That's probably why I never made it to college and I work at a bar. The tips are great, but that just means I am never leaving this shitty apartment.

It's 6:00pm. I throw my blonde hair into a high ponytail, the uniform goes on and off to work I go. The hallway of my apartment is long and narrow and I swear the carpet hasn't been changed since the 80s. I can hear the sound of a guitar in my neighbours apartment. No use throwing in a complaint, it's not like my landlord is gonna listen and luckily my neighbour isn't too shabby at it.

Ten minutes later and I'm finally at my work. It's nothing fancy, just a typical bar in downtown Chicago. It was a girls twenty first birthday, and she made sure she brought all of her friends with her to celebrate. Being twenty one myself, I can understand the excitement but damn these girls made my shift miserable. A constant "What's this drink?" "What's that drink?" "OMG guys, I can't believe I'm finally 22!" "Let's take a picture!" Maybe I was jealous of how many friends she had and that she was clearly living a great life. Or maybe I just thought they were extremely annoying because my personality was completely different from theirs.

I'm not a all full of excitement girly girl kind of person. I'm definitely more laid back and would rather listen than scream and cheer with all of my friends. But that doesn't mean I'm one of those weird quiet kids that nobody liked in high school. I'm just bland and lacking personality but an overall good person. I have a couple of friends, I'm particularly close with my childhood friend Olivia. We just understand each other like nobody else.

After the dreading 7 hour shift its 1:30 in the morning and I finally get to go home. I walk home which terrifies me every night. Nothing safer than a 5 foot woman walking alone in the middle of the night in the streets of Chicago. When I was 14 I thought I would still grow a couple of inches but that never happened.

When I get home I decide to do my laundry. My sleeping schedule has never been normal and nobody in the building is in the laundry room at the time so it's perfect for my introverted self. Lugging the hamper down three flights of stair is never fun but waiting for the broken elevator is worse. I guess I spoke too soon when I said nobody would be here at two in the morning. There was a guy, who I'm assuming is my neighbour because of the acoustic guitar in his hand, was in the laundry room playing away like no one was watching.

I walk in and he continues to play and ignore me. We glance at each other and continue not to acknowledge each others presence. His hair was dark and in a man bun. I hate man buns. Tho I couldn't ignore the fact that he had a very visually pleasing face structure. And you could tell he was in shape based on how his clothes fit to his body. He noticed I was staring and stopped playing.

"I'm sorry am I bothering you?" His voice was soft

"Oh, no no, it's okay, but usually people aren't playing a guitar in a laundry room at two in the morning." I respond

"Yeah I get that, I just didn't wanna disrupt my neighbours and no one can hear me in here." He was very well mannered.

"I see, well I was just starting this and leaving anyways" I answered as I continued to put quarters in the washing machine.

He smiled at me and I smirked back.

"Im Rowen." he quickly blurted out as I reached the door

"Aria." I shortly answered while exiting the door.

I got back to my apartment and decided to head to bed. I had to set an alarm because I'd have to throw my clothes in the dyer in an hour.

When I went back downstair the room was empty. A part of me wanted Rowen to still be there but I'm also glad he was gone. Im not usually good at small talk. I proceed to go back to bed and will grab my clothes in the morning, people usually don't take other people's shit around here so I don't really care. It was 3:30 in the morning, which is a typical time for me to go to bed. My boring life is on a daily repeat and I'm just waiting for something to spark a change.