Status: Discontinued
You Only Get One Shot Do Not Miss Your Chance to Blow
Twelve
The hot Vegas sun was scorching down on the neighborhood. My neighborhood, actually. Well, I guess you wouldn’t call it a neighborhood, more like my apartment complex.
“Um, Emily? Where do want this?” Ryan said while he and Spencer were struggling to hold up a couch with a bunch of crap on it.
“You can just set it over there, like I told you guys four times already,” I rolled my eyes and continued to unpack boxes. Ryan kept on saying he didn’t want to put it over by the window because he would have to end up moving it later. And I kept telling him that anywhere he puts it he was going to have to move it, but he just never gives up. I think he actually thought he was going to win this battle. I just wanted to get all our stuff in our apartment and then Hayley and I would organize everything.
“Guys just do what she says, and help me with this box!” Hayley was struggling through the door with two giant boxes stacked on top of each other as she made her way through the skinny doorway. I glanced at the box on top and it was labeled ‘Plates’. I cursed under my breath as I saw the top box start to wiggle off the unsteady bottom box that Hayley could barley fit her short arms around.
Ryan must have seen it too because as soon as he saw Hayley walk in through the door he set down, more so dropped the couch and tried to run over to Hayley and save the dreaded fate of the plates.
Too late.
Ryan looked at the fallen box and broken glass then looked at Hayley with a sparkle in his eye, leaned down to grab the other box from Hayley and pecked her on the lips before he set the box down.
“Aw shit, what happened? I leave you alone for one minute to go to the bathroom and you cannot handle my box duty?” Brendon joked as he walked out the bathroom breaking the silence that had fallen over the room after the china broke. At the beginning of the moving process, he was helping us move in stuff. But he mostly just got in the way, so I assigned him to ‘box duty’. This is pretty much nothing except handing us a box that Hayley, Spencer, Ryan or I would take up to my new apartment that Hayley and I would be living in.
Finally after many trips up and down the stairs, placement arguments, boys complaining, heavy lifting and broken items, we all managed to finish moving Hayley and my things into our new living quarters.
After living in a hotel for a little under two weeks, Brendon’s apartment and Spencer’s apartment were ready for them to move back into, and Ryan’s house was finally finished for him to move in. So it was pretty much an all week moving marathon!
My muscles were exhausted and I laid myself down on Hayley’s old familiar couch. I looked around the room and I finally concluded it looked pretty good!
We were four stories up and we had a pretty good view of The Strip. As you walk into the apartment, to the left we have our little TV area with our couch a couple reclining chairs and nightstands. The space you walked into as you walked in the door was pretty open and there was a little table off to the right with a mirror and a place to put our keys and such.
Further back into the apartment, there was the archway to the kitchen and another archway to exit the kitchen. If you went straight back into our apartment we had a dining table, and that’s where the big window was where we could see all of Vegas.
I had a feeling we would be spending most of our times out in the main room because the hallway to our bedrooms and bathroom was not that big, and either were our bedrooms.
---
I looked at the clock that was scattered throughout the junk laying on our floor in front of the TV. It was 10:36, which meant Hayley and I have been unpacking for at least four hours and organizing and setting up for at least two. Brendon and the boys left about an hour into the unpacking process. I was actually surprised they stayed as long as they did.
Considering, we spent Sunday and Monday helping Ryan move, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday helping Brendon and Spencer move and pack up a few things of Hayley. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent packing my things up from my house back home.
Hayley, Spencer, Brendon and I went back up to Minnesota to my house and packed up my room and took some of the things I needed.
I uncrossed my legs and stood up, making my way to the couch. Hayley finished putting away the dishes in the cupboards, “Emily?” she called.
“Yeah?”
“Will you come in here? Right now.” I was surprised at her tone. She sounded like she was annoyed, almost irritated, at me. I got up, a little paranoid and made my way to the kitchen. When I got in there, Hayley was sitting at the mini table with her chin in her hand, looking at me with humorous shame in her eyes.
“Uh, yeah?”
“What was that Emily?” Hayley dropped the act and now just sounded confused. Just as confused as I was, because I had no idea what he was talking about. So I took a seat and gave her a puzzled look.
“Oh don’t even give me that look Em. I want to know what went on at your house Saturday. Yeah, I know what happened, I want to know what happened! What was with you?” I cringed; thinking about that trip back up to Minnesota, it was not one of the best.
---------“Keep going straight, and then turn on the second left.” Brendon was driving me, Hayley and Spencer back to my house. Spencer and I were sitting in the back playing paper rock scissors, I was trying to keep my mind of actually stepping foot in my house. I haven’t been back to my home in Minnesota for a long while. Hayley and I have been traveling over the States, relieving our stress before stopping in Vegas, deciding that this would be our fate.
We were headed to my house to get my clothes and things around my house to put in our new apartment, just like we did with Hayley. Hayley spotted my familiar looking, blue and white trimmed house and Brendon pulled into the driveway. “Wait. Don’t pull into the driveway; can you park down the street a little?” My mom wasn’t home now, but if she came home I didn’t want her to see us and I didn’t want to see her. It would be easy that way.
“Is your mom home?” Hayley asked sticking her head out the window trying to see in the windows.
“No, she’s out, probably getting drunk or something…” I started trailing off and went deep into thought.
We quietly made our way into my house, up the stairs to my room. As I walked into my memory filled room, I paused and gasped silently. I guess I wasn’t expecting my room to actually still be there. I was expecting it to be, not there, or gone. I thought my mom would turn it into a guest room or a storage place, but it was still there like I had never left.
Hayley figured I wouldn’t move to start getting my things together so she went to my closet and pulled out some duffel bags. Spencer squeezed his way past me and the doorway, heading to my dresser to get clothes. Brendon pushed lightly on the small of my back and nudged me fully into my room.
The memories started flooding back. As Brendon sat me down on my bed I remembered back to all the nights a cried myself to sleep. I specifically remembered one night when I was young, I was coming down to fetch myself a glass of water and as I walked down the stairs I started to hear yelling. I crouched down and peered out between the pillars and the railing on the steps and saw my mom and dad in the kitchen, fighting.
At first I thought it was one of their regular fights, where a couple punches were thrown by my mom and a slap or two given from my dad. But as their voices started to escalate, so did their actions. The first thing I remember was seeing my dad pick up my mom with one hand under her side and another on her leg and slamming her into the cupboards and counters and such force that I heard all of our dishes in our cupboard shatter. My mom was instantly unconscious and the last thing I remembered was me screeching at the top of my lungs, as loud as I could and my dad’s head whipping around and his figure headed towards me.
The next morning I woke up in my bed with a bruise on the top right of my forehead and one on my upper arm.
“Emily?!” I was snapped out of my memories with Brendon’s voice echoing though my ears. I looked up at him and he was looking back at me with worried eyes. I broke my gaze away from him and I finally noticed how close I was to him. We were sitting my bed and I was leaning against him with his arm loosely around my waist and one of my legs was slightly draped over his legs. I loosened my death grip from his arm and quickly got up.
I looked around the room for some distraction to keep my mind off of what just happened. I went my closet and started packing clothes with Hayley, while Spencer was in the bathroom packing my toiletries.
Brendon remained sitting on my bed, rubbing his arm where my fingernails were dug in his arm with a hint of rejection in his eyes. Later as Hayley carefully ventured downstairs into the kitchen to gather a couple things for us, Brendon came over to me.
I was sitting cross legged in front of my dresser folding the last of my clothes, “Em, do you want to tell me what’s wrong?” He took a seat next to me and pulled his legs to his chest, “I know something is wrong, so don’t say ‘nothing’.”
I looked at him with taken aback eyes. I was expecting him to ignore my little flashback/zone-out phase earlier.
“Bren, please. Please don’t ask.”
“No, I will ask because obviously something is up. Someone doesn’t dig their fingernails into another persons arm and stop in place and get glazed eyes without an explanation.” Oh, so I was still standing and Brendon placed me on his lap? That makes more sense.
“Brendon, I said please let’s not talk about this.”
“Emily---”
“I said. Don’t.” Brendon let out a breath in defeat and stood up and offered his hand to help me up. We stood up and Brendon came toward me, going to hug me. As he hugged me I stayed stiff, not hugging him back, my eyes were still and I was lost in thought. He whispered in my ear, “Just know that you can talk to me Emmy, you’re one of my best friends and even though I’ve known you for only several weeks, I know you’re special.” He pulled away and his big beautiful brown eyes bore into my green ones, waiting for a response.-------
I wanted to leap into his arms and hug him back, telling him eventually this will all be figured out soon. But I couldn’t dig up a response, so I looked at him briefly and looked down at my socks and muttered, “Yeah.” I bent down and picked up a couple of my bags, keeping my head down as I walked past Brendon out the door and down the stairs.
We loaded all my bags and boxes of items into the trunk of the car and drove of to Vegas again.
“Oh, right. That night.” I said quietly. I looked at Hayley and she looked back at me waiting for a response, “I don’t understand you sometimes, Emily.” She threw her hands up and stood up from the chair and made her way to the living room and plopped herself down on the couch.
I followed after her.
“Um, Emily? Where do want this?” Ryan said while he and Spencer were struggling to hold up a couch with a bunch of crap on it.
“You can just set it over there, like I told you guys four times already,” I rolled my eyes and continued to unpack boxes. Ryan kept on saying he didn’t want to put it over by the window because he would have to end up moving it later. And I kept telling him that anywhere he puts it he was going to have to move it, but he just never gives up. I think he actually thought he was going to win this battle. I just wanted to get all our stuff in our apartment and then Hayley and I would organize everything.
“Guys just do what she says, and help me with this box!” Hayley was struggling through the door with two giant boxes stacked on top of each other as she made her way through the skinny doorway. I glanced at the box on top and it was labeled ‘Plates’. I cursed under my breath as I saw the top box start to wiggle off the unsteady bottom box that Hayley could barley fit her short arms around.
Ryan must have seen it too because as soon as he saw Hayley walk in through the door he set down, more so dropped the couch and tried to run over to Hayley and save the dreaded fate of the plates.
Too late.
Ryan looked at the fallen box and broken glass then looked at Hayley with a sparkle in his eye, leaned down to grab the other box from Hayley and pecked her on the lips before he set the box down.
“Aw shit, what happened? I leave you alone for one minute to go to the bathroom and you cannot handle my box duty?” Brendon joked as he walked out the bathroom breaking the silence that had fallen over the room after the china broke. At the beginning of the moving process, he was helping us move in stuff. But he mostly just got in the way, so I assigned him to ‘box duty’. This is pretty much nothing except handing us a box that Hayley, Spencer, Ryan or I would take up to my new apartment that Hayley and I would be living in.
Finally after many trips up and down the stairs, placement arguments, boys complaining, heavy lifting and broken items, we all managed to finish moving Hayley and my things into our new living quarters.
After living in a hotel for a little under two weeks, Brendon’s apartment and Spencer’s apartment were ready for them to move back into, and Ryan’s house was finally finished for him to move in. So it was pretty much an all week moving marathon!
My muscles were exhausted and I laid myself down on Hayley’s old familiar couch. I looked around the room and I finally concluded it looked pretty good!
We were four stories up and we had a pretty good view of The Strip. As you walk into the apartment, to the left we have our little TV area with our couch a couple reclining chairs and nightstands. The space you walked into as you walked in the door was pretty open and there was a little table off to the right with a mirror and a place to put our keys and such.
Further back into the apartment, there was the archway to the kitchen and another archway to exit the kitchen. If you went straight back into our apartment we had a dining table, and that’s where the big window was where we could see all of Vegas.
I had a feeling we would be spending most of our times out in the main room because the hallway to our bedrooms and bathroom was not that big, and either were our bedrooms.
---
I looked at the clock that was scattered throughout the junk laying on our floor in front of the TV. It was 10:36, which meant Hayley and I have been unpacking for at least four hours and organizing and setting up for at least two. Brendon and the boys left about an hour into the unpacking process. I was actually surprised they stayed as long as they did.
Considering, we spent Sunday and Monday helping Ryan move, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday helping Brendon and Spencer move and pack up a few things of Hayley. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent packing my things up from my house back home.
Hayley, Spencer, Brendon and I went back up to Minnesota to my house and packed up my room and took some of the things I needed.
I uncrossed my legs and stood up, making my way to the couch. Hayley finished putting away the dishes in the cupboards, “Emily?” she called.
“Yeah?”
“Will you come in here? Right now.” I was surprised at her tone. She sounded like she was annoyed, almost irritated, at me. I got up, a little paranoid and made my way to the kitchen. When I got in there, Hayley was sitting at the mini table with her chin in her hand, looking at me with humorous shame in her eyes.
“Uh, yeah?”
“What was that Emily?” Hayley dropped the act and now just sounded confused. Just as confused as I was, because I had no idea what he was talking about. So I took a seat and gave her a puzzled look.
“Oh don’t even give me that look Em. I want to know what went on at your house Saturday. Yeah, I know what happened, I want to know what happened! What was with you?” I cringed; thinking about that trip back up to Minnesota, it was not one of the best.
---------“Keep going straight, and then turn on the second left.” Brendon was driving me, Hayley and Spencer back to my house. Spencer and I were sitting in the back playing paper rock scissors, I was trying to keep my mind of actually stepping foot in my house. I haven’t been back to my home in Minnesota for a long while. Hayley and I have been traveling over the States, relieving our stress before stopping in Vegas, deciding that this would be our fate.
We were headed to my house to get my clothes and things around my house to put in our new apartment, just like we did with Hayley. Hayley spotted my familiar looking, blue and white trimmed house and Brendon pulled into the driveway. “Wait. Don’t pull into the driveway; can you park down the street a little?” My mom wasn’t home now, but if she came home I didn’t want her to see us and I didn’t want to see her. It would be easy that way.
“Is your mom home?” Hayley asked sticking her head out the window trying to see in the windows.
“No, she’s out, probably getting drunk or something…” I started trailing off and went deep into thought.
We quietly made our way into my house, up the stairs to my room. As I walked into my memory filled room, I paused and gasped silently. I guess I wasn’t expecting my room to actually still be there. I was expecting it to be, not there, or gone. I thought my mom would turn it into a guest room or a storage place, but it was still there like I had never left.
Hayley figured I wouldn’t move to start getting my things together so she went to my closet and pulled out some duffel bags. Spencer squeezed his way past me and the doorway, heading to my dresser to get clothes. Brendon pushed lightly on the small of my back and nudged me fully into my room.
The memories started flooding back. As Brendon sat me down on my bed I remembered back to all the nights a cried myself to sleep. I specifically remembered one night when I was young, I was coming down to fetch myself a glass of water and as I walked down the stairs I started to hear yelling. I crouched down and peered out between the pillars and the railing on the steps and saw my mom and dad in the kitchen, fighting.
At first I thought it was one of their regular fights, where a couple punches were thrown by my mom and a slap or two given from my dad. But as their voices started to escalate, so did their actions. The first thing I remember was seeing my dad pick up my mom with one hand under her side and another on her leg and slamming her into the cupboards and counters and such force that I heard all of our dishes in our cupboard shatter. My mom was instantly unconscious and the last thing I remembered was me screeching at the top of my lungs, as loud as I could and my dad’s head whipping around and his figure headed towards me.
The next morning I woke up in my bed with a bruise on the top right of my forehead and one on my upper arm.
“Emily?!” I was snapped out of my memories with Brendon’s voice echoing though my ears. I looked up at him and he was looking back at me with worried eyes. I broke my gaze away from him and I finally noticed how close I was to him. We were sitting my bed and I was leaning against him with his arm loosely around my waist and one of my legs was slightly draped over his legs. I loosened my death grip from his arm and quickly got up.
I looked around the room for some distraction to keep my mind off of what just happened. I went my closet and started packing clothes with Hayley, while Spencer was in the bathroom packing my toiletries.
Brendon remained sitting on my bed, rubbing his arm where my fingernails were dug in his arm with a hint of rejection in his eyes. Later as Hayley carefully ventured downstairs into the kitchen to gather a couple things for us, Brendon came over to me.
I was sitting cross legged in front of my dresser folding the last of my clothes, “Em, do you want to tell me what’s wrong?” He took a seat next to me and pulled his legs to his chest, “I know something is wrong, so don’t say ‘nothing’.”
I looked at him with taken aback eyes. I was expecting him to ignore my little flashback/zone-out phase earlier.
“Bren, please. Please don’t ask.”
“No, I will ask because obviously something is up. Someone doesn’t dig their fingernails into another persons arm and stop in place and get glazed eyes without an explanation.” Oh, so I was still standing and Brendon placed me on his lap? That makes more sense.
“Brendon, I said please let’s not talk about this.”
“Emily---”
“I said. Don’t.” Brendon let out a breath in defeat and stood up and offered his hand to help me up. We stood up and Brendon came toward me, going to hug me. As he hugged me I stayed stiff, not hugging him back, my eyes were still and I was lost in thought. He whispered in my ear, “Just know that you can talk to me Emmy, you’re one of my best friends and even though I’ve known you for only several weeks, I know you’re special.” He pulled away and his big beautiful brown eyes bore into my green ones, waiting for a response.-------
I wanted to leap into his arms and hug him back, telling him eventually this will all be figured out soon. But I couldn’t dig up a response, so I looked at him briefly and looked down at my socks and muttered, “Yeah.” I bent down and picked up a couple of my bags, keeping my head down as I walked past Brendon out the door and down the stairs.
We loaded all my bags and boxes of items into the trunk of the car and drove of to Vegas again.
“Oh, right. That night.” I said quietly. I looked at Hayley and she looked back at me waiting for a response, “I don’t understand you sometimes, Emily.” She threw her hands up and stood up from the chair and made her way to the living room and plopped herself down on the couch.
I followed after her.