What's Your Story?

When Kylie got inside her apartment she put That 70s Show on and she began to pack. Conner and she had figured out that they could fit one huge suitcase each in the trunk and a big duffel bag each in the backseat. Then there were other little bags for electronics, notebooks, food, and blankets and towels. The biggest problem was being able to squeeze everything in and not have their view out of the back window blocked.

Kylie bought all of the clothes she was bringing out to the living room and threw them on the couch. Her suitcase was huge, large enough for her to lie in with her legs folded. The thing was lying open on her floor; her toiletries were already in the zipper part.

Kylie began to fold all of the clothes she was bringing. There was so much! She categorized them until her couch was filled with neatly folded tee shirts, dress pants, jeans, pajamas and lounge clothes, long sleeved shirts, and hoodies. Bras, underwear, and socks sat on the arm rests.

Kylie placed the pants in first, then the hoodies on top of them. Next were the bras and things, the black and green dress, and then the pajamas and shirts. As an after thought Kylie also threw in a two piece black bathing suit that had rainbow hearts all over. Conner never told her if they were staying at a hotel with a pool or hot tub and it’s better to be safe than sorry. There wasn’t anything else Kylie could think to put in there except for her hair things which would go in before Conner picked her up.

The next things she had to pack were books. The four she just bought were gently placed into the duffle bag along with a much abused copy of Order of the Phoenix and a somewhat together copy of Deathly Hallows, both were paperbacks. Also put into the bag were two clean notebooks and two new packages of Papermate pens, one black and one blue, and a few red pens for editing even though Conner would most likely have more than enough of those. There was still some room so Kylie placed a pool towel and a shower towel in the bag along with a washcloth. Now the duffle bag was full but Kylie still found space to put in a few ShopRite and garbage bags.

She checked through the bags to make sure she had everything then placed the heavy things on the floor by the door. She went to her room which looked emptier even though there were still items lying everywhere. She found all of her cords for her laptop and threw them in the laptop bag along with two DVDs. Once everything was packed, Kylie finally changed out of her clothes and into a pair of sweats from college and a tank top. She grabbed her Harry Potter blanket and the laptop bag then went out to the living room. That night Kylie drank two cups of tea, watched reruns, and went through her emails until she got too tired.

The next morning, Saturday morning, Kylie was up by nine. She was making tea and watching the news from the kitchen when her cell phone ran. After turning off the whistling water she got the phone from the coffee table.

“Yes, Conner?” she asked after checking the caller ID.

“Are you coming over anytime soon?”

“No. I’m eating then going food shopping. You can pick me up anytime after noon.”

“I have a little running around to do so I might be around by five and then we can grab some dinner.”

“Okay, just give me a call before hand.”

“Yep, bye,” he said hurriedly.

“Um bye?”

Conner hung up and Kylie stared at the phone for a second before snapping it shut. Kylie placed the phone in her bathrobe pocked and went back to the kitchen in search of something to eat. She decided on cream of wheat and once she was about to start eating her phone rang again.

“Why can’t I just eat in peace?” she demanded, not bothering to check who was calling.

“It’s nearly ten o’clock in the morning, Kylie Lynn,” a reprimanding voice began.

“Oh, Mom, hi.”

“Hello.”

“Why are you calling so early?” Kylie asked, leaning against the counter.

“Well, Sierra just told me something interesting, she’s home for the weekend, she said that on your website you put up a message that you were going on a road trip. A three month road trip.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“And when was I going to be told about this? You’re going to be gone over Thanksgiving and Christmas! Christmas, Kylie!”

“I know but this is the only time I can do this. If I want to make the next book dead line then Conner and I need to take this trip.”

“That’s another thing.”

“That is?” Kylie asked, having some of her cooling breakfast.

“Conner’s going with you?”

“Yes, Mother, the whole thing was his idea and there’s no way I would go alone.”

“Kylie, you can not do this!”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s too dangerous and you’ll miss the holidays!”

“Oh yes, I’m going to miss hearing about everyone’s accomplishments and how I only work when I feel like it. Damn, now I wish I wasn’t going.”

“Do not use that tone of voice-”

“I’m twenty-five, I can use whatever tone I want to.”

Kylie hit the end button and dialed Sierra’s number. The phone rang twice before Sierra’s chirpy voice answered.

“Hey! So she called you?”

“What the hell, Sierra? Why would you tell her that?”

“She deserved to know. It’s obvious that you weren’t going to tell her and she was getting so excited about next week. I don’t get why you didn’t tell.” her voice was thick and Kylie knew she was having her usual morning muffin.

“I didn’t tell her because I wanted to avoid the huge fight I knew would come.”
A door opened from Sierra’s line. “Sierra, I just called your sister and she hung up on me!”

“I’m talking to her, here.”

The second Kylie heard that the end button was pressed and the phone was turned off. She threw away her uneaten food and got dressed for the day.

Food shopping was never Kylie’s favorite thing to do, it was just too boring. It was also crowded and annoying children ran around everywhere, demanding everything. Then when their parents said no the tantrums started. The worst one Kylie had seen was when a four year old boy was denied a box of cookies and he screamed bloody murder, then in addition to the screams and stomping around that was happening the boy was pushing boxes of snacks to the ground while the mother begged him to stop. He wouldn’t let up until his mother had opened a package of cookies and shoved one in front of the boy’s face.

Kylie pushed the shopping car through the aisles. She walked past the fruits and vegetables and the frozen foods. The first aisle she went to was the cereal and cookies. Conner had requested Trix and her favorite was Corn Flakes. She grabbed two boxes of each and a box of graham crackers. While she was leaving the aisle she caught sight of animal crackers, there was no way she could pass them up so into the cart they went.
Next Kylie got some fruit punch Gatorades and a few vitamin waters, plus a thing of coffee mix and a box of tea bags. She also got a few cans of soup, chicken noodles, tomato, and mushroom.

That was all Kylie needed to get. She just needed some foods for the car rides and hotel so that they weren’t constantly going out to eat. The checkout lines were long and Kylie spent the time flipping through a People’s magazine.

The whole trip had taken an hour and Kylie was extremely happy to be out of the crowded store and walk to her car. The day was overcast and Kylie wondered if snow was on the way.

Back at the apartment, Kylie bagged up the food and put them on the kitchen counter. By the time she finished it was a little after noon and there wasn’t much to do. She washed her dishes from the morning and she cleaned the sink but ever that was over quickly.

Kylie was about to take desperate measures and break out the yoga tape Marianne got her for Christmas two years ago when there was a knock at her door. She hurried over and didn’t bother to check the peephole before she yanked the door open.

Amber stood in the hall and blinked at Kylie in surprise. Kylie looked pleased to see her which almost never happened; usually the reaction to Amber coming over was a sigh or confusion.

“Amber, I’ve never been happier to see you,” Kylie said, holding the door open for her. “I am so bored that I was about to try yoga.”

“Why are you so bored?” Amber asked as she walked inside. She maneuvered around the bags that sat on the floor and went to the couch.

“I’m not going to Conner’s house for a few hours and I have absolutely nothing to do. There’s nothing on TV and I edited all the stories I had to do before the trip.”

“Do you have any board games?”

“Monopoly and Scrabble.”

“What about Life?”

“Nope.”

“I’ll bring it over, that’ll waste an hour or so. I’ll grab a movie too. I just rented Night at the Museum, I’ve never watched it before.”

“Really?”

“Yep. So you get snacks or whatever ready and I’ll be right back.”

Amber left the apartment and Kylie ordered a pizza and some fries. When Amber came back she had changed into a pair of pajama pants and a sweatshirt. In her hands was the box for Life, the movie, and a bag of Twizzlers.

“It feels like a sleepover!” Amber exclaimed as she set up the game and Kylie started the movie.

They were ten minutes into the game when the intercom came on.

“Miss Shett, there’s a pizza here for you,” the doorman, Otto, said.

Kylie went over and pressed the intercom button, “Be right there. Amber, if you cheat you don’t get any food.”

"Fine, be that way."

Kylie took the elevator down and back up. She spent a few minutes speaking with Otto who was getting on in years and lived alone.

“Okay, there’s pizza and fries,” Kylie announced when she got back into the apartment.

Amber played the movie and they continued on with their game. Kylie actually enjoyed herself as they talked about celebrities and who was better; Owen Wilson or Ben Stiller, and Kylie listened as Amber gushed about this guy she worked with.

“Oh my God, his hair does this kind of sweeping thing,” Amber ran her hand over her bangs to demonstrate, “and they fall perfectly over his eyes. I am so lucky I work with cameras or the pictures I take would be seen as stalkerish.”

“You’re in love,” Kylie giggled. Being around Amber and hearing about how young the girl sounded amused Kylie but not in a bad way.

“No! Oh you should see him, Kylie.”

“You should ask him on a date or at least flirt a little.”

“What? Me? No. He’s like this really super guy and I’m just me.”

“So? He should like you, for you. If you like him so much go for it. If he turns out to not be the guy for you, oh well. At least you tried and you have stories to tell.”

“Well, maybe,” Amber big her lip and a piece of skin ripped away, causing the spot to start bleeding. She bit the spot again to keep the blood from going down her face.

They finished the game a few minutes before the movie ended. It didn’t take them long to clean up, Amber didn’t really care about a game box being extremely neat. They decided to watch MTV Cribs, it was a little after four by then. They were imagining what it would be like to live in those kind of houses when Kylie’s phone rang.

“Hello?” she laughed out.

“Kylie?” Conner asked, sounding surprised. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You’re happy.”

“Oh, shut up! Amber and I were just joking around.”

“Amber? Like your neighbor Amber?”

“Yes, her. I was really bored and she came over so we hung out for the day. It was fun.”

“Okay then. I finished what I had to do. When do you want me to pick you up?”

“Um give me a half hour, then head over here. You have to come up here to help with the bags.”

“How many do you have?” In the background Kylie could hear cars going past and horns blaring.

“A few and they’re heavy. Talk to you later!”

Kylie hung up and threw her phone onto the couch next to her. Amber lowered the TV which was showing a commercial for McDonalds.

“Do you need help when Conner comes?” Amber asked.

“Sure, and I’ll need you to do something else for me. I’m going to give you the key to here and if every other week or so you could just pop in and make sure everything’s okay, that would be great.”

“Okay. Is there anything else?”

“There’s some food in the cabinets, not much but if you wanted to take it, that’s fine. My water’s going to be turned off. If you need to borrow anything it’s fine as long as you return it. My rent’s paid for the trip and the month after just in case. So you’re fine with this?”

“Yep. Would it be all right if I call you every so often?”

“Sure, do you have my cell number?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay then. I guess that’s it. Let me grab the key and recheck everything.”

Kylie pushed herself off of the couch. She went to her bedroom and looked around her bed to see if there was anything important, she also unplugged her alarm clock, lamp, and printer. She didn’t see anything important so she went to her bathroom. The counter looked so empty, most of her hair things, skin products, and makeup were in her suitcase and she had put everything else away.

Once Kylie had decided that everything she would need was in her suitcases she went to the kitchen and sifted through the little ceramic bowl which sat back on the counter, next to the paper holder for bills and mail. Kylie found the extra apartment key and when she pulled her hand back it brushed against the mail.

“That’s it!” Kylie exclaimed. She hurried into the living room where Amber shot her a puzzled look. “My mail. I’m going to ask Otto to have Jerry hold my mail. Would you be able to get it once a week and sort it on the counter by month?”

“Sure.”

“You are a life saver,” Kylie sighed, sitting down. “Here,” she said, handing over the key.

Amber took it and looked at Kylie. “Are we friends?” she asked in a quiet voice. “You never seem to want me around.”

“It’s not that it’s just…you like Conner.”

Amber looked up in surprise. “I didn’t know you liked him.”

“No! That’s not what I meant. You like Conner and it’s so obvious, whenever he’s around you show up. I really don’t like being used to get a guy…or a girl. I went through high school like that with my siblings and I’m tired of it.”

“I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was using you. It’s just I have no idea how to talk to Conner but when you’re around I don’t make too much of a fool of myself.”

“You don’t need me around to talk to him, Con’s a really nice guy.”

“I know,” Amber sighed. “I really do like being around you.”

“You’re not too bad yourself,” Kylie laughed. “Today made me see that. Just spending the day together made me realize that you don’t just want to see Conner every time he’s over.”

“Well, that wouldn’t be a minus,” Amber joked. Kylie gave her a light shove and they both dissolved into giggles.

Conner called a few minutes later to say he was close by. Kylie and Amber went over to the bags and decided that they would take the lightest ones and the grocery bags and leave the heavier bag for Conner.

The whole transfer bags to the car adventure, as Conner called it when he came inside, took about twenty minutes and involved a lot of cursing, especially when Kylie’s duffle bag was dropped.

“My books are in there!” Kylie shrieked when she heard the crash.

Finally Kylie grabbed her Harry Potter blanket and left the apartment, locking the door behind her. Down in the lobby Amber was talking with Conner and Otto. She nearly jumped when Kylie pulled her into a light hug.

“Thanks for today. I’ll call you sometime this week.”

“Have fun, both of you,” Amber said, her voice full of surprise.

“You take care of her,” Otto warned Conner.

“Don’t worry. She’ll be safe with me.”

Kylie scoffed and Conner sent her a glare. They left the apartment building and Conner began to grill her on Amber the moment the car door closed.