Mind to Metal

Chapter 4

"Ah! What are you doing?" I exclaimed when I opened the apartment door and almost smacked my amazing, wonderful best friend and roommate, Saturn in the face. She scooted out of the way for my wheel chair to pass through but returned to what she was doing before.

"I was doing an at-home leg work out and now I am stretching. Judgy much?" She pushed into a groin stretch as I set my bag on the counter. With the summer here, it was nice to not see her face stuffed with textbook or computer typing her life away with biochemistry things. Plus, with all of her things finally unpacked, she looked a hell of a lot mentally-lighter. Or maybe that was just the stretching.

"So? How was the internship?"

I realized I've been staring at nothing, not saying anything for a minute now.

I turned myself toward her. The first thing in my mouth is, "It was good. I met lots of new people. So many I couldn't even begin to tell you about them." It was as if my response went right over her head.

"Did you meet any attractive people? And by people, I mean men?" Her eyebrows rose to the roof. My cheeks became aflame.

"Saturn!" She belted out an uncontrollable laugh. I laughed too but couldn't meet her gaze. Sometimes I forgot that I was an adult, meaning out of the high school gossip and relationship drama.

When my roommate turned their back to me, I let myself look her way. She was wearing one of the workout clothes I helped pick out, which included a black sports bra and black leggings that fit in all the right places. I whipped my hands away from my lip after realizing I was chewing my lip thinking about everything and nothing. I sat on my hands. And almost forgot to respond.

"You know me. I'm not thinking much of that stuff. I have barely any friends as it is!"

She pouted, "Well, that's because you are an introverted hermit." After that, she sighed and found her way to a chair. "What other interesting things could happen at a place where all you do is mingle with technology and sometimes socialize with people? TV work romance, that's all I'm saying."

"You want me to fall in love with a robot? That's the closest match I'll get." I added, "And I did a lot of things today. I did some hacking, programming, and helping to plan the end of the world."

"So you didn't do shit today. I'm sorry sweetheart. If it makes you feel better, my biochem research lab didn't do anything today either. Intern programs like that must just start out slow and get faster and more detailed overtime."

I scuffed but say nothing. I better hope so. If not, my insufferable wage is going to pain me more than it already does.

"But that means you are free to watch a movie later tonight?"

I rolled to my room and replied over my shoulder, "Yep, I'm all yours. You pick and I'll make dinner." She let out a cute squeal.

"And I am a happy introverted hermit, just so you know."

Saturn chucked a throw pillow at my chair but I closed the door quick enough to hear it thump against the door. In the comfort of being alone, I let my lips fall into a smile.

Soon after, I considered whether I should call or Skype my Momma. I still had a good hour or two before feeling drained for the day.

Of course I didn't need to call. It was just my first day of this internship. I've had other jobs. And more importantly, I kept her up to date on the move to Atlanta and spammed photos of the new decor and final layout. Informed her that it was not that scary here and "Yes, I'm not dead, Momma. Everything is fine."

I guess it was understandable for her to want to be involved in moving to a new apartment. Especially one in a different state that she hadn't seen in person and hasn't undergone the Momma test to put her nerves at ease.