Your Love Will Be Safe With Me

My roommate was out of town. She was at a family reunion on the other side of the country in Iowa or Idaho or Illinois or some state that started with an “I.” Me on the other hand? I was stuck at home. I was supposed to be in Arizona, visiting my family, but they bailed out on me and decided to head up to Utah for a quick vacation.

Hanley and I had this all set up. She’d leave on Friday and I’d leave on Sunday. We’d both come home on the following Friday. Except my parents cancelled on me on Saturday. Hanley also told me her cell phone wouldn’t work where she was going, so she was just leaving it off the entire time. She was basically being cut off from reality for a week.

Usually, I’d be okay with being alone. But this time I’d be alone for a whole week. I could only take my alone time for so long. I loved being alone, but I hated it at the same time. After all, I was only Seventeen. Seventeen?! Yes, seventeen. Yes, I am in school still and yes I live in a different state than my parents.

To make a long, boring story short, my parents decided to move to Arizona to start their retirement early and thought it would be best if I didn’t follow them out there, so I could finish off my schooling where I grew up. I was in high school. My high school was different, though. It was an independent studies program called Options for Youth or simply Options for anyone who knew anything about it. Every Wednesday I make the forty-five minute trek to the location I had been going to since I was fifteen.

When my parents told me I wouldn’t be moving with them, I immediately began looking for an apartment, deciding on a studio apartment in Los Angeles or to be more specific: Hollywood. My parents weren’t too happy that I was dead set on this one. They almost didn’t let me, but I convinced them otherwise. It was a shock to me, too.

Thus began my life in Hollywood with Hanley. Hanley was a twenty-three year old tattoo artist that looked like a pinup model from the fifties. Her black hair was always pinned up on her head to look somewhat like horns and her lips were always painted a bright red color. Her beauty could give Bettie Page a run for her money. Her skin was covered with ink. Two full sleeves and a back piece consisting of different things that meant a lot to her.

When I first met her a year and a half ago I felt intimidated by her. She was older and had seen a lot more than I could ever in my whole life. All of my nerves were out the window when she introduced herself with such a sweet voice and a cake that said “Welcome to the family, Babe” That’s another thing about Hanley: she bakes as a hobby. Our apartment always had baked goods waiting to be eaten in the kitchen.
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The rain was falling in Hollywood, California which was weird since the day before was bright and sunny. That’s California weather for you, though; bipolar and changing all the time.

I was sitting on the charcoal colored couch in the living room, watching my DVR recordings of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, eating Ben & Jerry’s half baked ice cream. Monday mornings were always boring for me. I had school work to do, but couldn’t be bothered with it. I only had thirty five more credits left, so it wouldn’t take me that long to earn them.

My episode was over and my ice cream was gone. As I walked into the kitchen I realized all the stuff that we needed.

“I really need to go shopping.” I mumbled to myself. Deciding that’s what I was going to do for the day, I went and got ready. Shower, dress, hair, makeup. You can’t not go out in Hollywood without looking your best.

I hopped into my piece of shit car that was more than likely going to die on me any day and made my way out of the parking garage.

Target wasn’t busy; it was after all only eleven in the morning. So I got in and out with no problem.

As I drove home, my car began rattling. It had never done that before. Panicking, I pulled into a random parking lot and turned the car off, leaving the engine to sit for a minute or two. The rain was just a light mist now and I couldn’t be happier. When I turned the key in the ignition the car wouldn’t start. At all. It didn’t even chug.

“What the fuck?!” I cursed angrily. I tried again. Nothing. I tried everything I could before giving up and calling my dad.

“Hey Sweetie.” He answered.

“Hey, look, my car just died on me. I don’t even know how.”

“What do you mean it died?” He asked.

“I was driving home from Target and it started rattling, so I pulled into a parking lot to turn it off and let it cool down, but when I tried to start it, it wouldn’t. It isn’t even making a sound.”

He began asking me various questions about the car, trying to get it to start. Nothing worked.

“It sounds like you’re going to have to call Triple A.”

I groaned then began rummaging through my glove box to find the number for our insurance. “Okay,” I sighed. “Thanks for your help.”

It took Triple A thirty minutes to send a tow truck then it took another half hour to get to a body shop and get paperwork done. By the time I got home (by cab), it was almost one. I just wanted to get inside and lay down in my warm bed.

When I unlocked the door, loud laughter emitted from around the apartment. There was someone in my apartment. What the hell was going on?

The water was running in the bathroom, so I cautiously made my way towards the hall. I didn’t even have anything to protect myself. By the sounds of their voices, there were more than two people.

“This is so unsafe.” I thought to myself.

I stopped in front of the bathroom and looked in through the open door. A man wearing only one of the purple towels from the linen closet was standing at the sink, shaving. He had shaggy brown (wet) hair and was skinny.

“Uhm,” I cleared my throat. “What the hell are you going?” I asked angrily.

He turned and looked at me with wide eyes, “Who are you?” He asked.

I scoffed, “The question is who are you?”

He cleared his throat awkwardly, “Uhm, I’m Justin.”

“What are you doing here?”

He furrowed his eyebrows. “Who are you? One of the neighbors?”

I shook my head, “No. I live here.”

His eyes widened again and I realized that only half of his face was shaven, leaving the other half to be covered in shaving cream. “Hanley never said anything about a roommate, I don’t think.”

I rolled my eyes, “Well I live here,” I pointed to my room across the hall. “That’s my room.”

“Uhm, okay. Hold on.” He brushed passed me and walked over to Hanley’s room. I followed closely behind. “Hey Nick,” He said, standing in the door frame. “did Hanley every say anything about a roommate?” He asked cautiously.

“Uhm, yeah, but she’s in Arizona visiting family.”

“Yeah, no she’s not.” I said making my presence known from behind Justin.

I saw two guys lounging around her room. One was a brunette and had his mouth open. He was wearing a scarf/ascot thing around his neck and had dark wash skinny jeans on with a white v-neck covering his torso and chest.

The other was a ginger kid that wore his hair in a perfect mess. He was wearing a blue shirt with a cardigan I knew he got from Urban Outfitters because I had the same one and normal skinny jeans. On his feet was a pair of Toms shoes. He was attractive.

“Well I didn’t know you were going to be here.” The ginger kid said, standing up. He was pretty tall. “Hanley said we could stay here while she was away. We just got in.”

“Hanley never told me.”

“It was last minute and you weren’t even supposed to be here.”

I rolled my eyes, “How long are you here for and how do you know Hanley?” I asked agitated.

“We’ll be here ‘til the middle of next week and she's my sister's best friend from high school's cousin. She was always over at our house back when she lived in Massachusetts. She also has done some of my tattoos.”

“So she was just going to let me come home to my apartment being taken over by three boys?”

He shrugged, “You’d have to talk that over with her.”

I rolled my eyes, “Whatever.” I began to turn and walk towards my room.

“Hey!” The ginger yelled. “What’s your name?”

I debated on telling him or just ignoring his question and continuing toward my room.

“Sawyer. My name’s Sawyer.”