Take Me to Infinity

It was a little after six-thirty when Kandi came home. Autum almost fell out of her seat when she heard the front door of the apartment fly open, the metal of the doorknob making a loud clank! against the thin wall.

She secretly wished that her roommate would take the time to knock instead of just dramatically bursting in, but it was Kandi’s apartment too, so she guessed she didn’t feel the need to knock on her own door.

“How was work?” Autum asked, trying to mask the tension in her voice.

Kandi’s dark eyes glanced at Autum and James as she rushed into her room without a word. It wasn’t long before Autum heard a loud thump against the floor. It must’ve been Kandi’s new alternative to flopping onto her bed.

“Stupid!” she heard a muffled shout moments later.

James glanced sideways at Autum from under his shaggy bangs, but she could only shrug in response. At least if Kandi was cranky, she might not be able to pick up on any weird vibes between them.

It was incredibly hard to successfully hide anything from someone Autum had been friends with for so long. Autum could read her best friend’s face like a book, and she had no doubts that Kandi could do the same. Plus, she was an awful liar.

It wasn’t long before her roommate reentered the living room, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Her fingers tugged at the beige threads, her eyes focused on the task at hand as she spoke.

“I looked so ridiculous. Everyone else was wearing jeans, and I showed up in this,” she sighed, one hand sweeping over her black pencil skirt. “Then I hung up on some people accidentally, got lost showing a man to one of the offices, and messed up my boss’s coffee. Oh, and I slammed my thumb in the car door this morning, so that was throbbing like a bitch all day. Worst of all, I couldn’t text anyone.” Her bottom lip automatically jutted out in a frustrated pout.

Autum tried to stifle her laugh. “I’m sure things will be easier for you tomorrow, I mean, it was your first day. You can’t be expected to be perfect. So you screw a couple things up, it’s understandable. If it wasn’t, they would have fired you already.”

“True. I just really wanted to go in there and just blow their minds, just didn’t work out the way I thought it would,” Kandi sighed, smiling a little to herself. “So what have you guys been up to today?”

Autum shot James a look, silently daring him to say something about the kiss. His eyes were watching the cars whiz by on the streets below them.

“Nothing really, just sort of hung around and watched a ton of daytime television,” she chuckled.

Kandi’s lips tightened. “You guys should really get a life. We’re in Los Angeles, not Spartanburg. You don’t have the ‘there’s nowhere to go’ excuse anymore.”

“Well, neither one of us really has a car right now,” she laughed, looking towards James.

It was a valid excuse. They had left Autum’s Mustang behind during the move because it chugged gas, and James’s car was still being worked on.

“Whatever, call a cab,” Kandi shot back as she leaned back onto the heels of her palms. “Oh yeah, I checked the mail on my way up. We got an IKEA catalog, and you got something from Judy.”

She popped up from the floor and grabbed the blue envelope from the counter, placing it on the coffee table in front of Autum.

Kandi rocked back onto her spot on the floor. “So have you guys seen Logan today?” she asked, wrapping a strand of chestnut-colored hair around her index finger. She was one of those girls.

“Nope. It’s not like we hang out minus you or anything. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever really spoken to him…at all,” Autum laughed as her eyes wandered towards the window. “I like to keep my relationships with your boyfriends nonexistent. If I get attached, you’ll probably end up dumping him.”

The sky turned to a dusky violet as the sun began to set. Slowly, the streetlights began to flip on, flooding the city with a new source of light. Autum had never lived in any city. She and Kandi had both lived in the middle of different nowheres back home. She was trying to grow accustomed to the bright lights and the constant drown of cars that came with city life.

“Eh, who knows?” Kandi shrugged it off because she knew that it was probably true. “So what did Judy send you? It’s not your birthday or anything.”

“Hmm…I’ll check it out now,” she replied as she reached for the envelope. She couldn’t think of any reason that Judy would send her a snail mail letter instead of just calling her cell phone.

“So James, when are you guys filming again?” Autum could hear Kandi ask as she slid her thumb along the seal. Of course, the seal didn’t break easily, so the entire top half of the envelope was torn in the process. Typical.

“We start shooting again after the fourth. You should come visit the set, it’s really neat.”

Autum didn’t really listen to Kandi’s response, her eyes were too busy skimming and trying to decode her grandmother’s cursive scrawl. Of course Judy would break the news that she, Brad, and Kandi’s mom and brother were all coming to visit next week in letter form. Autum couldn’t exactly protest to a letter. The more she thought about it, the more she realized what a genius move that was on her grandmother’s part.

“Bad news,” Autum announced, interrupting Kandi and James’s conversation. “Judy, Brad, Janet, and Mark are paying us a visit next weekend.”

“Wow…that’s definitely going to be awkward,” Kandi replied coolly. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly the response Autum was looking for.

“You seem really chill about this.”

“I can deal with Janet for a weekend. Hell, I can even deal with Mark; he’ll just get drunk and try to hit on you. I’m not the one that has to tell my old boyfriend that I went and upgraded.” She jokingly winked at James.

All of the air in Autum’s lungs gushed out in one heavy sigh. “First off, we’re not dating,” she said as her fingers frantically pointed between herself and James. “Second, me and Brad broke up before I even crossed the city limits, so who I date honestly isn’t his business anymore. I don’t even know why Judy’s bringing him along.”

“Yeah, whatevs.”

James was suspiciously silent through the entire conversation. Autum couldn’t help but feel like they were alienating him.

“What about Logan? Your brother is going to tear that poor boy apart,” Autum laughed.

There were only two things Kandi’s older brother Mark excelled in: getting wasted and running his mouth. He’d gotten involved in several bar fights in the past; one resulted in the loss of his front tooth.

“Pssht,” Kandi scoffed as she waved the matter away. “Logan isn’t coming anywhere near this apartment when they come. My family will just convince him that I’m complete white trash.”

Laughter echoed against the paper-thin beige walls. “What are you going to do, just be like ‘you can’t come to my place this weekend?’ That sounds kinda rude.”

“Yup.”

Autum tucked her legs beneath her as she shifted her weight on the couch. “He’s gonna think you have something shady going on.”

“I don’t care,” Kandi said as she rose to her feet. “I’m going out. I’ll try not to come in late, but I’m not making any promises.”

“Oh okay,” Autum mocked her. “You’re the one that has the job. Don’t lose it.”

“I won’t,” Kandi beamed. “I actually know how to balance my social and professional lives.”

Autum replied with a roll of her syrupy eyes.

She could make out Kandi’s silhouette illuminated by the warm glow of the refrigerator. Her roommate grabbed a couple of the stolen beers along with her purse before darting out the door.

“So what was all that about?” James chuckled as he sunk back into the sofa.

“Apparently our families, along with my ex, are flying over next weekend. Surprise!” Autum laughed before running a hand through her bob self-consciously.

“That’s fun stuff.”

“For real,” Autum sighed. Her eyes quickly bounced from the floor to his face. “Thanks for not mentioning anything about…earlier…” She flashed him a faint smile.

“No problem,” he laughed. Autum could have sworn she saw the blood flush to his golden face.