*DISCONTINUED* The Girl in The Strange City

Chapter 1 : Netflix and chill!

Heya Halers! So I finally completed my first chapter for you guys! I didn't expect seven views in just 10 hours, because this is my first book, of course. But I hope you guys love my book. Don't forget to vote, comment and share with your friends.

The picture above is Rhea's rented apartment. The view from the balcony isn't that great but her landlady at least provided her with all the furniture at least, I mean who does that in these days?

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Rhea's POV

It's been a week since I moved in to LA, in my new rented, fully furnished apartment, I was always a bright student, so I got a scholarship which helped me a lot. Not that my father couldn't afford my education in LA, but that I wanted to be an independent woman from the very beginning. My grades earned me my respect and scholarship.

I was always a sporty girl, who indulged herself in all kinds of activities, except for painting, ugh, I suck at it. Seriously! I usually uploaded videos on my YouTube channel every Tuesday, mainly discussing about issues, book reviews, movie reviews, song covers and sometimes gaming videos. I showed people how bad of a gamer I was. My song covers got many views, once I got like a million views on my cover of Camila Cabello's I Have Questions. Also, recently I uploaded a movie review on Avengers Infinity War, but I didn't bombard people with spoilers, otherwise it would have a negative effect on my channel. I had crossed 100,000 subscribers, yet I didn't get my silver play button. Sometimes, YouTube basically sucks.

Well, I said I was a bright student, so getting into the University Of California, LA, wasn't big of a deal for me. I was studying in the undergraduate course, for Accounting. I wanted to be a Chartered Accountant, but, more that I wanted to be a singer. But I think I'll just go with the flow.

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(Later in the afternoon on a lazy Sunday)

"Rhea! Rhea! Where are you my child?" Mrs. Marino shouted, her voice echoing in the apartment, while I was in my bathtub, chilling.

She was a 59 year old Italian-American woman, and a widow and more specifically my landlady. But she always treated me like her own daughter. She made me mouth-watering delicacies, and loved me like my own mother. Although she was suffering from a heart disease she never showed that she could leave the world at any moment. She was an adventurous and lively person.

"Yes Mrs. Marino? Do you need anything?" I replied to her.

"Oh no no, you know I was just getting tired and bored so I thought I could spend some time with you."

"I'll be there in a minute auntie! Just freshening up!" , I said hurriedly getting out of my bathtub and blow drying my hair. I put on a long T-shirt with WASTED written on it and a pair of shorts. I applied my strawberry chapstick to look 'presentable'.

I flipped over on the couch, while Mrs. Marino put a DVD inside the DVD player. I asked her, "Auntie, let's just Netflix and chill!"

"Do that with your boyfriend hunny! I'm gonna make you watch some romantic films today. You've watched enough of action films of Marvel and DC." She said with a smirk.

Boyfriend, eh?

She knew I didn't have one. Neither did I make an effort on doing it. Yeah I had guys drooling over me in my new University, but they we're mainly fuckboys, they would hump and dump, and no, I wasn't going to be a part of that game. This was all high school shit. Still people were so immature about all that.

I kept my virginity intact for 19 whole years, my first sexual encounter is going to be with the person who really understands me, makes me feel comfortable, with whom I can be vulnerable, with whom I can discover the entire world, who will make me feel protected, someone who has his eyes just for me. I know guys like that hardly exist; they do so only in Wattpad books.

Two hours passed watching The Notebook, it was a great film indeed, I don't just understand why don't I watch films like this? Why have I lost my faith in true love? Was it because of him? Was it because my love was unrequited?

Tears formed in the corner of my eyes, and I didn't even notice them. These weird-ass romantic films remind me of him. I just wanna forget all the miseries of mine because of him, and start a new life. I was tired of his attitude.

"Oh dear, don't cry!" Mrs. Marino pulled me in for a hug and wiped my tears. She embraced me like a mother would when her 5 year old would cry. Sometimes, I felt life wasn't fair to good people. Like, she would be an amazing mother if she ever had a child, unlike her sister-in-law who left her seven year old son for her selfishness and fetish for some other man's dick.

Disgusting!

I pulled back so that she could attend the call, her phone was ringing about like 3 times but she was more engrossed in embracing me. My cold heart felt like it was summer again.

I could hear it was a man's voice, it was husky, somewhat, appealing. Oh crap! What the hell is wrong with me?

"Sì Sì, figlio mio, certo, certo, prenditi cura di te, ti amo e dai il mio amore a Riccardo!", Mrs. Marino said in Italian, which I didn't understand at all, except for one word 'Ciao' which means 'Hello'. I only knew two foreign languages, English of course and Japanese. And no I'm not a manga or anime fan. I learnt it because I knew I might need it someday in my life. And I knew Hindi of course, it was my second language, because I was born in Mumbai, and since I was brought up by Bengali parents. As they say India is an extremely diverse country, its not like they say for nothing. So basically I knew English, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Japanese. I wanted to learn Spanish and French now.

"Rhea! Today you're coming with me to the mall okay? I'll come at five and we'll leave, I'm buying you some new clothes today!" Mrs. Marino said leaving me alone in my apartment, and going back to hers. Before I could protest she went away. Ohhh! Mrs. Marino and her tricks! Now she will take me with her no matter what! I knew it that the new clothes she would buy me would cost a fortune for me. No I can't do it. It was against my principles. If I accepted the clothes it would be wrong. It would feel like I'm taking advantage of her not having her own kids. A strike of guilt would always flow through me if I did so.

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Ouuuuu that was deep! Many times people feel like they take advantage of people even when they don't want to, like their hands are tied.

But Rhea was attracted to the voice to whom Mrs. Marino was talking, it felt like they were quite close, like they were related, but Mrs. Marino had no children, so who was it? Who was the man who could be so much arousing just by his voice on a phone call?

Wait till all this gets steamy and hot! Oh gosh I'm already sweating!

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Love you guys! XOXO!