Make Believe

Eleven.

We sat on the train, talking quietly to each other. Kristin seemed so interested in me, and I was interested in her. She seemed so cool, the sort of person I wanted to be.

First of all, from what I had gathered from our hour long train conversation, she was confident, wise and had experienced it all. Everything that I brought up as we spoke, she seemed to have an answer for. I was just sitting, taking in her every word.

When I spoke about Finn, she looked at me with knowing eyes. "You're just afraid. You'll just shut him out until he gives up."

I didn't say anything.

"You're just like I used to be." Kristin grinned. "It's crazy how different someone can become after a few years of experience."

"Thanks for this." I felt myself go a bit red. It wasn't like me to feel awkward, but I was on a train ride with an awesome stranger on the way to another city to go and fulfil my bucket list. That didn't happen every day.

"Stop worrying. I didn't think you were a worrier." Kristin winked. "Let yourself go. You can't be like this when we go to the rave later. You'll be eaten alive."

I sighed. "You're right. I'm just thinking about my roommates. I didn't leave a note or anything."

"Chill!" She laughed. "You're here to do something for you. Stop thinking about everyone else! I can tell you've been hurt and fucked over before, haven't you?"

My body tensed at these words, hating to talk about my feelings for more than a split second.

Kristin must have sensed this, because she shook her head and picked up her rucksack from the grey plastic table. "Let's go. It's our station."

We stood up and made our way off the train, the cool air stroking us as we stepped onto the platform. Without a word, the two of us walked out of the busy station and up  into the city.

I'd never been into Arrowhead Heights, but I'd heard that out of the cluster of cities in my area, this one was probably the most stylish.

I looked up, the buildings around me towering into the clouds. Back at home we had maybe one or two skyscrapers, but nothing like this. Everyone around us was wearing bright colours and had bright hair. Suddenly, my new blonde hair seemed ever so slightly too normal.

Glancing down at my outfit, I bit my lip. On second thoughts, there wasn't much point in worrying myself about how I looked. I wasn't here to find the love of my life. I was here to have a good time.

"My apartment is at the end of this street." Kristin explained. "I'm glad you could come hang out with me. Something tells me that I've met a new bestie."

My mouth curved into a grin and I relaxed a little.

As we walked, we chatted about various things: the city, hair, apartments and people walking slowly on a busy street.

After a while, the two of us turned into a huge black buliding and walked into the lobby and up onto the stairs. It wasn't overly fancy, the paint was peeling off a little and something told me that the building was quite old.

Much like outside, some graffiti was dotted on the walls and everything seemed like it had a personality.

After a long walk up the stairs, we reached her apartment. The door was a dark black with black flower stickers.

Inside smelt like insence and vanilla. The walls were off-white and had paint peeling off, so they had been mostly covered up with huge tapestries of various flowers and symbols.

There was a stylish sort of clutter everywhere: makeup, cigarette boxes, glass bottles and the general look that someone had lived there without cleaning up for a while. Kristin lead me into her lounge, sitting on the dark blue sofa after moving some clothes and junk off of it.

Before I sat down, I looked in awe out of the huge glass window in front of me. The whole city could be seen from this one spot. It was like watching TV, all of the tiny coloured cars and people buzzing around like bees in a hive below us.

"You get used to a view like this too easily." Kristin laughed softly, lighting a cigarette and drawing in a deep breath of the smoke.

"It's beautiful, Kristin." I sat down next to her and leant my head against the back of the sofa.

"Call me Kris." She winked. A warm feeling appeared in my chest. "Anyway," she shrugged. "I've thought of a day plan."

"Share your wisdom, great one." I said, relaxing into my usual self a little.

"Well, I was thinking about how you wanted to visit a garden of flowers. I know the perfect place." Kris said. "There's a row of mansions across the city. One of them has an amazing rose garden with lanterns and everything. After the rave we could break in and trespass."

I tensed. "Break in?"

"That kills two birds with one stone. You get to see a beautiful garden and get the adrenaline rush you wanted." She shrugged. "Don't go thinking I break into people's property all the time, because that's not who I am. I'm doing it for you."

"Okay." I nodded. "I won't be a pussy about it."

"So we'll go the the rave, dance, have fun, drink a bit, walk to the mansions, break in, sneak around and then finally go to the rose garden. Okay?"

"Okay." I was excited.

Kris smiled. "You can back out and we can do something else if you'd prefer?"

"Nah." I shook my head. "I'm going to do what I want to do for once."

"In that case, we have three hours until our plan takes action. First off, I'm going to get you a more 'rave friendly' outfit." She stood up and disappeared into another room, leaving her partially burned out cigarette on the table in front of us. "You can smoke some if you want."

"I'm not a smoker." I called in to her.

"That's what they all say." She chuckled. "But I'll believe you."