Home Is Where The Heart Is

Chapter 2

One word to explain how she felt right now?

Exhausted.

No, not just exhausted. More like burnt down, worn out, dog-tired, kaput.

She collapsed on the bed. It felt squeaky and springy but she didn't really mind. As long as she had someplace to get her rest. And after all this hectic rushing around, she really did need it.

Now, where could she begin?

Firstly, after alighting the plane, she had taken hours to get through immigrations. The snaking queue moved along at the speed of a snail, and bearing in mind that it was her first time travelling, she was so confused by the customs that she had to ask the officer to repeat himself thrice, shamefaced. The dirty looks she was given by the people behind her in line did not help, either. Struggling through the labyrinth-like airport to find the exit, she then finally hailed a cab whose driver punctuated his every sentence with the popping of his bubblegum and a complicated series of "yo"s.

After which, she had driven all around town to get everything settled. Her phone plan, her dinner, you name it. She must have visited at least five different buildings. Only afterwards, finally, did she reach her last stop, her apartment, which she had found over the Internet.

The landlord, however, seemed to be the male version of a nymphomaniac. While asking him for an apartment, she could not help but notice his hipster pants slung indecently low at his hips. He leaned across the counter and kept giving her what he must have thought was a sexy smile, only to show, in his teeth, things she didn't want to identify. As she handed over the money ($100 a week), his grimy hand reached out to paw hers. She practically jumped out of her skin, seized the keys and bolted.

And so here she was. She had hot-footed it into the apartment, rammed the door shut, and promptly tossed her belongings aside before blissfully dropping her carcass on the mattress.

The apartment wasn't a five-star hotel, for sure, but it wasn't a slum either. It had a small kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. At $100 a week, she couldn't very well ask for much. She really couldn't afford to squander her money away on luxuries, at least not at this point of time. She had already applied and been hired for a job at Universal Music, where she would work as a journalist, reporting on recent events. It paid a peanut excuse of $1250 a month, which she wasn't sure would be sufficient in the long run, but she didn't have much of a choice at the moment, and was willing to hedge her bets. Tomorrow she would report at the company.

She sighed. Just all these new worries made her head ache.

Electricity bills.

Water bills.

Food.

Daily necessities.

Her meagre pay.

Her work.

The rent.

Her pervertic landlord.

Many had said that once you began working, you would wish to go back to studying. Only now did she begin to find it true. It was hard to believe that just twelve hours ago, she was on a plane, exhilarated over the start of her new life, even though it was laced over doubt. And now, here she was, half-dead on a strange bed in a strange apartment, worn out on her very first day, just from settling all the necessary arrangements.

This was not what she had pictured in her mind before.

The dizzying rush of exuberance from before had been vanquished into a pool of fatigue. And now, even worse, disgorging upon her was a particular feeling.

She suddenly became aware of the fact that she had, quite literally, no one she could rely on at all. In this new, faraway, foreign land - that had seemed so inviting to her, so glitzy - she had dropped everything of her past and thrown herself into the unknown.

This was why she had to succeed in her conquest to be with Greyson Michael Chance. This was why she had no choice but to go as far as it took to get him. From this point on, there really was no turning back.

And then a question hit her; one that had never actually occurred to her, one that she didn't know the answer to, and wasn't sure she wanted to.

What if, even after all she had done, after losing her past, if she couldn't grasp her future - what if she failed?

Where would she go, then?