Beyond Monroeville

Chapter Two

            It’s not a fact proven by science, but I have every right to believe that the sound of a beeping alarm clock just may be the most obnoxiously annoying sound known to mankind. Also, with alarm clocks, it takes more than one try to turn the damn things off. After four swats at the large button, I had successfully achieved silence; unfortunately, this did mean I had to get out of bed.

            Sleep was something I never got enough of, especially when something was on my mind. In example, my mysterious neighbor. I’m fairly new to the area, I don’t even know anyone by their name, except my best friend and roommate, Evie. Speaking of which, where was she? I hadn’t even heard him come in last night. Evie worked night shift at the local 24 hour coffee shop. Before moving to Monroeville, I had never seen a coffee shop open 24 hours, but then again, I had the tendency to ignore things that didn’t interest me.

            Throwing on an old t-shirt that was lying on my bedroom floor, I walked down the hall, peering into her bedroom, finding that her bed was empty. I closed the door and ventured to the living room, finding her passed out on the couch, still in her uniform, arm hanging over the couch. I just smirked, Evie wasn’t a night owl the way I was. I turned out of the room and back down the hall again, to the bathroom.

 

            While in the shower, the events of the previous night came back to me. The questions buzzed through my brain, who was my blonde neighbor? What had he done to get on someone’s bad side? Was he a criminal? Or just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time? Maybe scenes like that were normal in this town, Evie and I both grew up in a very small, conservative town. It was sad to say that we haven’t seen much of the world, but it was the truth. Now we were just two 19 year old girls, out on our own, living in a town that was totally new to the both of us. Evie was the one who had found this town, had found this apartment for rent. The rent was surprisingly cheap, and Monroeville was only an hour away from our home town. Needless to say, the move had been more than convenient.

 

            “She lives!” I joked, walking down the hall freshly showered, to see Evie making her way to the bathroom I had just walked out of.

            She rolled her green eyes at me and pushed her red bangs out of her eyes. “I should be saying the same to you, since when do you ever get up this early?” she questioned.

            She had a valid point, as I said before, I was a bit of a night owl, usually, I was never awake at 9 am. “I decided to get up early to go job hunting.”

            She nodded slowly and nodded. “Nice, well, I’m going back to bed soon, good luck on hunting.” She said and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door.

            “Thanks.” I said to the closed door and returned to my room, grabbing my cigarettes from the dresser and lighting one. Evie typically was a bubbly person in the morning, something that I had learned to tolerate, but since she got this job at the coffee shop, she wasn’t very lively in the morning. I opened my closet and looked over my clothes, trying to decide what to wear. If I was going job hunting, maybe it would be best to wear something a little more formal, maybe something not so dark like my usual attire. Then again, my wardrobe didn’t consist of any bright colors or plain outfits. I sighed, why not be myself, who else would I be anyway?

            Finally, I decided on a pair of faded black jeans, and a black and white v- neck tee. I slipped on a pair of converse sneakers and glanced in the mirror. To be honest, this really was dressing down for me, it was as ‘normal’ as I was ever going to look, almost too plain. I put on a wristband and earrings, feeling a little better, and applied my make-up and brushed out my damp, long black hair, letting it air dry.