The Unknown Horrors of Teenage Apartments

The drive back to him was a blur, nothing seemed to stand out. He was looking at her now, stroking her tears away with him rough fingers, calloused from playing guitar.
“Are you going to be ok?” He spoke the words tenderly, just barely a whisper. His voice was rich and slightly deep, it rang with his emotions, his love for her. The love that drove her crazy, the love spoken with his voice. That voice, to hear that voice she would do anything, go anywhere.
Nodding weakly, she feigned a smile. Why does he make me so shy, no one else intimidates me like this? I don’t want to hurt him, why can’t I say what I need to say to him. Even as she thought the words, all she could allow herself to respond was, “Yes, I love you.” The words were choked out. Can I really tell him that my heart is breaking, that I want to go back and tear the letter to shreds, to let them try to convince me other wise?
Sitting up she looked at him. He had a strong chin covered with a slight goatee, although she had never liked guys with facial hair, it didn’t look bad on him, he owned that look. His eyes, like her were hazel, and she was jealous of them due to the amount of green in them. He flashed a smile at her, she loved his smile.
Their relationship hadn’t been easy. He had broken her heart once, made just one mistake that would have killed most relationships. It had taken everything that she had to get past that single act. He cheated, he confessed, he threw the whore out of his life, and a part of her hated him for it. That was eight months ago. It still hurt, but he was hers now, her Casey.
He was worth this; he was worth all of it. Not many people agreed with her, but they didn’t see him like she did. People didn’t see anyone like she did. Her sisters said that you can’t trust people, they are all inherently evil, it was the religious speech that revolved around the families head because they had heard it so often. Hang that stupid speech. She revolted against it down to her very core. She looked at people, saw their worst, and above their worst, what stood out, was their best. She saw what the world didn’t look at, she saw a chance. People loved her for this, a friend called it just judgment, or in essence the lack of judging at face value.
She refused to tell anyone what she saw in him, in those eyes. You are filled with light. I want to swim in the kindness, the hope, the trust, the jealousy, the resolve. You are strong in a quiet place. I see beauty, creativity, heart, and above all the ability to love unbound, to dive into the darkness and fight for what you believe. The seconds passed as they sat there holding each other in a completely non-sexual way. Violins, I would have violins playing a slow somber sound. Most times and places she put a sound or music to her life, a theme song.
Glancing up from the sound of his heart, she looked around the room. It was a tornado warning zone. He wasn’t the neatest of souls, she could live with that. In the, small to her, ten foot by fifteen foot room, there was a king sized bed that she now shared with her secret fiance. There were clothes everywhere, the dishes from their dinner sat at the end of the bed, the blinds were closed and they laid there amidst the chaos of their own making. The room was brightly lit, smelling of Febreeze, and full of stuff. There was clutter in every corner, surface, nook, and cranny.
The carpet was light in color, she wanted to say it was cream, but it was really closer to white. The room felt closed in around them, like hands holding and hiding them from the world. Here they could be safe for just a while longer.
A slight while, they were already looking for another place to live. This place was a disaster area worse than France after WWI and WWII, or maybe Poland. The room mates made it so, two women who couldn’t get along no matter how close the blood in their veins made them. In the dark they laid there not speaking, just absorbing the comfort of each other as the insults hurtled outside the locked door blew an imaginary hole in the wall around them.

Brittany Johnson was no ordinary woman, being about five six and two hundred and eighty pounds and counting down; she saw this new chapter in her life a chance to rule her universe. For the past years, who knows how long, she had raised her kids as best she could and had gotten nothing from it? Working a low paying job, really being part of the bottom of the work chain, she barely scrapped her life out of the stone wall that formed the barrier to grandeur she was climbing. It was all her daughter, Jessica’s, fault. She took everything that Brittany worked so hard for. Money was squandered and food was consumed. It didn’t help that neither of them were under two hundred pounds. At least I am loosing weight. Although she was still jealous that Jessica was young. Reaching forty two was not a high light of her life.
They were currently fighting about the couple they both hated, who were hiding in their room. No one wants that little bitch here. Bitter resentment touched the thought and colored in red.
The apartment was small, with a corner of a kitchen, horribly stained carpet, a single bathroom and the two cramped bedrooms. The living room doubled as Brittany’s bedroom, and the ever so spoiled Jessica claimed the smaller of the two bedrooms.
Their voices strained over each other, it surprised everyone that the cops didn’t get called and the two of them never physically fought.
“I don’t want them here, especially his little whore. Is she going to pay any bills or is she going to clean up after herself?” Jessica screamed at her mother.
Irritation flashed across her face which was sagging with wrinkles, covered in freckles, and surrounded by unhealthy, over dyed, scraggly blond hair. “Like you even clean up after yourself Jessica Lynn.”
The use of her last name pissed Jessie off. She preferred Jessie to anything her mother had named her. The nerve of the old bitch. “At least I didn’t let them into the apartment!”
“You know as my best friend’s son, I had to at least offer.” Even after the past 10 months, Brittany regretted letting the poor boy into her house. She didn’t like him, not that he or his little tart cared. “Not to mention it’s my apartment, I can let who ever I want live here.”
The fight continued to escalate neither side caving. They didn’t even know why they were fighting each other. Now that a common enemy was in the house, each side hoped for peace. It never came; they fought each other instead of the little girl that just came into their lives.
“You bitch! This is my house too!” Jessie was almost crying under the tough exterior that she wrapped around her center.
“Not until you pay for something in this place,” it pissed Brittany off that Jessie got the bedroom and didn’t even pay for it. “I wish you were taken by your father when he left.”
“At least he didn’t leave me.” Jessie’s brown eyes smiled viciously. “He left you. He loves me. And you are old, ugly, and washed up.”
Without another word Brittany picked up the lamp, the only expensive thing in the house, and hurled it at her daughter with all her might.

“Baby, where is Rafiki?” The little white kitten, a white calico with hollow yellow eyes that pierced the soul, was always into some sort of trouble. Her escapades were notorious all the way to North Carolina, where Casey’s mother lived.
“Around here somewhere, can never seem to find that darn cat.” His reply way laced with just a little irritation. The cat could climb up a door jamb and she still irritates him. She thought he was silly, but knew in her heart that he loved the little monster.
They spotted the ball of white just as it was flying onto the bed. “Oh my goodness!” Lizzy jumped out of her skin at the fright and shock of the sneak attack. With a grunt the motion continued into Casey who unceremoniously got pushed off the bed and onto his ass on the floor. Rafiki proceeded to streak smugly into the bass amplifier.
“Are you ok?” Lizzy helped him back onto the bed, being the only furniture in the room that could seat a body, laughing as she spoke. He always said he loved her laugh.
“I hate that cat. Why does she always do that?” he chuckled at Lizzy’s attempt to capture the now defensive kitten.
“Don’t be harsh,” she scolded him, “She is just a kitten. She will grow out of it.”
“I don’t believe you, that creature is never going to be as cool as Prince is.” He sounded defeated, and she could tell he was in pain.
Finally capturing the voracious, two pound kitten, she sauntered with her over to the man she was going to marry, her future. “Relax; let her grow up some more. It takes time.”
“Come here you little monster,” he scooped the kitten from Lizzy and started playing catch and take away with his fingers. “For a little monster she is a pest, a chore, and absolutely adorable.”
“You know you love her,” speaking as she massaged his now aching back, “I love you both too.”
“It’s time to get you both to bed, my love,” he spoke to her as he put the kitten in her little home. “You have to be up at five tomorrow cause, baby, don’t hate me for saying this, but you need a shower!”
She giggled and pulled him into bed with her. Curling up on her side she pulled him closer to her, as close as she could get him. His arms wrapped around her closing the gaps between their two bodies as the dark of night enveloped them when the light flipped off.
“Good night my love, my charming husband,” she whispered quietly to him.
Using the life long terms as pet names spread smiles on their young faces. The world didn’t understand this kind of love. It didn’t understand the hope of young hearts. As the rhythm of their heart beats and their breathing aligned, he spoke, “see my heart, my life, my soul mate, we were meant to be together.”
With the words that warmed her heart in her head, she slipped peacefully into a deep slumber filled with her dreams of a prince, a horse, and a sunset. Her fairytale had begun, or was it her nightmare. Then the sound reached them.

The lamp missed. At least it missed Jessie. Instead it sailed right past her head, catching a few strands of the light brown hair she was currently happy covered her head.
“What the hell was that?” She screamed at her mother.
From the hall the door burst open and the couple, that was the topic of the conversation, tumbled out of the room.
“What happened?” Lizzy panted as she and Casey calmed themselves.
“My bitch of a mother threw a damn lamp at me!” Jessie vented and took it out of the smaller framed woman. “It’s because of you, you shouldn’t have moved in here. What were you thinking? You are not wanted here, nor are you needed here.”
To her surprise Casey stepped in between his fiance as the towering hulk of a woman bent over to scream in Lizzy’s shorter 5 foot 4 face. “Back the hell off Jessie. I want her here and that is all there is to it. Shut your damn mouth before you put your own foot into it.
The two titans squared off in the living room that suddenly looked like a cave filled with cavemen. The debate over Little Lizzy became a guttural cadence with no real meaning. Her hero, the six foot five knight, stood in all his shimmering armor. Handsome and majestic he towered over the five foot ten cave woman that glared defiantly at the armor, and unwillingly backed down from the epic battle of sword versus club.
Scene, an invisible director must have called, Jessie stormed down the hall and slammed the door behind her. Casey scooped Lizzy up in his arms beamed at her and quickly and probably less gracefully than she remembered, stole away to their own bedroom. Leaving Brittany to clean up her own mess.

“Put me down,” laughing again Lizzy tried in vain to get out of the vice grip her man had on her. “Your going to hurt your back. I mean it, put me down.”
He knelt down on the floor and gently placed her on her back. Just like the night we met and you carried me out to see the lunar eclipse. He kissed her forehead and climbed into bed next to her.
“Casey?” She barely dared to whisper what was going through her mind. “Do you love me?”
He sat up a little in the dark. “With all of my heart. You still doubt me don’t you?”
“It’s a hard thing to get over.”
“I do love you Lizzy, no matter what I did. I love you now I already called my mom to bring the rings. I want you now and forever, I want you as my wife.”
“You know that proposal you did a few weeks back is going to have to be redone,” she beamed her best smile at him. “I think that you should actually have to put some effort into it, my love”
“As you wish my goddess divine,” he laughed to himself at the reference to the movie and book Pride and Prejudice. It was one of her favorites.
“Quoting my movie, do you want something?”
“Only you,” It made him so happy to know she wanted him just as badly as he wanted her. To know she needed him, thrived on him, loved him with everything she had, and that he was all she wanted.
He let the room get quiet then, the whole world condensed into the sounds of their breathing. It was peaceful and full of beauty. The moments they made were eternal, it didn’t end with the clock, or when they broke the moment themselves, it continued out into time and space to touch another life another soul, as is the way of the universe. Endless circles all touching another forming new bonds and breaking old ones.
How did I get so damn lucky? I still don’t understand how she could find it in her heart to forgive me. Only our closest friends know about it, not even her parents know. No one knew until she was already over it. I can’t believe she healed all by herself, no venting, crying, or complaining to anyone but God. It amazes me, the woman I found is beyond amazing, and I love her.
He wasn’t the only one laying there thinking about life. Lizzy was trapped in her own fears; did I really just do this? left one hell for another no matter how temporary? The scary thing is that I like it better here. How is that possible? Well for one thing Casey, I love him so much. I wish he understood that I take a while to heal after being hurt so badly. No one understands that either. I love his light. Goddess Divine? Who is he trying to kid? Ha ha, ya right bucko, you aren’t getting any tonight. What time is it? Four o’clock in the morning, great I have one hour left. Wish I could get some sleep. Wonder what he’s thinking about.
“Casey, what are you thinking about?”
“Sleeping, Lizzy, go to bed.”
“I can’t sleep though.”
“Just do, love you baby!”
After rolling over onto her left side she slid into a dreamless sleep, her mind troubled with worries the dream world couldn’t encompass.