The Boy from New York City

I wake up to the smell of…well food. This was definitely not something I was used to. In confusion I roll out of bed and into the living space where find no other but Alexzander slaving away at the stove.

“Good morning,” I say, walking more into the room. He turns around and hands me a cup of coffee, “um, thanks.”

“No problem. Breakfast should be down in about five minutes.”

I take a seat at the table and watch as he gets out the dishes and serves the food. He looked so natural doing this even though he’s never used my kitchen before. Minutes later a plate is set in front of me and Alexzander takes the seat across the table. I look down at the plate full of food and wonder how he made all of this. I have food in the apartment but I never thought something like this could come out of it.

“You don’t like it?” he asks, sounding slightly disappointed.

“Huh? No, I love it. I just didn’t think this could be made from the minimal food I have.”

“You’d be surprised what you can make with just basics.”

I take a couple more bites of the delicious food. I wasn’t one that usually ate breakfast, but if it was going to taste like this I might start, “when did you learn how to cook?”

He chuckles, “what? You think I was raised with a chef?”

“Uh, duh.”

“Yeah, well Jean Luc taught me a thing or two. If I didn’t want to take over my father’s business so badly I’d become a chef.”

“Well you’re definitely going to be the one cooking at home. When you’re not working of course.”

“You don’t cook?”

I shrug, “I’m able to follow a recipe and not burn things, but nothing like this.”

“Well then, I’ll just have to teach you.”

“Good luck with that,” I tell him, laughing, “we should start packing if I’m expected to be moved into your house by tonight.”

He stands up and grabs our dishes, “I’ll wash these and you get started. Obviously you won’t need everything so it shouldn’t take that long.” I nod and head off to my bedroom to pack some clothes. I just put some essentials in a bag and left the rest. None of my clothes were really appropriate for where I was going, so it would be useless to pack them. Along with the clothes I pack some small knick knacks, memories from the years. “Hey Alexzander!” I call and he appears in the doorway almost instantly. I guess my apartment isn’t really that big but still, I wasn’t expecting that, “I’m finished packing.”

He glances down at the medium sized duffle bag and then back up at me, “you sure?”

I nod, “I don’t have much that I need or want with me.”

“Okay, well what should we do with the rest of the stuff?” He asks, looking around the room.

“I’ll just let Doug know; whoever gets the apartment next can have whatever.”

“Sounds good to me,” Alexzander pulls out his phone and dials a number, “let me just call my driver. How about you go and deal with things with Doug while I do this?” I nod in agreement. I really should talk to Doug since I hadn’t seen him and told him about any of this. He’ll most likely be mad about what I’m going to do.

“I’ll be right back.” I toss on a sweatshirt before heading across the hall to Doug’s apartment. I don’t bother to knock, since that wasn’t the type of relationship Doug and I had. Instead I just walk right in, crossing my fingers that it was a safe idea to do so.

“What’s up Sam?” He asks as I enter the room. Doug was sitting at the counter reading some magazine.

“I, uh, have some news for you,” I say, suddenly becoming nervous. Though I wouldn’t exactly call Doug my friend, we had always been there for each other. It would be weird to not have him in my life. “Remember that guy I stopped from buying the other night?”

“You mean the deal you ruined? Yeah, I remember perfectly.”

I scratch the back of my neck, “uh, yeah, I kind of ran into him a few weeks ago.” I waited for him to respond in some way but he just stared at me, expecting me to continue, “And, well, one thing led to another and I’m going to be moving in with him.”

This time I got a response from Doug, and it wasn’t a pleasant one. “WHAT?!”

“Well, he proposed this idea about how I’d help him with the even side of things, as his girlfriend and he’d pay my way through college. I couldn’t toss up a free education Doug.”

He shakes his head like he’s disappointed, “they’re not our type of people Sam, he’s just using you. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“It’s actually quite the opposite. I know exactly what I’m getting myself into. This was my life before the streets.”

Doug rolls his eyes, “good one Sam, next you’ll say you’re in search of your family, your missing puzzle piece.”

“No, that’s not it. Doug I want you to support me in this! I get to go to school. I get to move out of this lifestyle, get a job I don’t feel disgusted out, have money to live on not just survive on.”

“I just don’t think you understand the dangers-”

“Dangers? You want to talk about dangers? What about every night I hear gun shots in the street? What about walking home from work at 4 am in the morning with drunken guys all over me? What about having to worry about stepping outside because I might get attacked?” I question, glaring at Doug who obviously had no idea what I went through on a daily basis, “you want to talk about dangers than I will gladly do so. But moving in a house with a guy that has treated me better the few times I’ve met him than any other guy in my life, does not fall under a danger.”

“Fine. Go! Leave and never come back.”

“I won’t dream of it!” I yell slamming the door behind me when I leave.

I stomp back into my own apartment in a foul mood. I wish I could tell Doug everything about me, that way he would understand why I need to do this.

“You okay?” Alexzander asks, noticing the change in my mood. Which if seen through the right perspective could be good in the sense that he’s observant and paying attention to me.

“I’m fine; Doug just gets on my nerves sometimes.”

He nods, respecting my decision of not going into more detail, “you ready to head out? The car should be driving up at any moment.”

“I’ve never been more ready to leave this hellhole.” I say, following Alexzander out of the apartment. He was right about the car driving up soon. Practically the instant we stepped onto the sidewalk did the car pull up. Alexzander, being the gentleman that he is opened up the door for me before tossing my bag into the trunk. I could tell the driver did not like driving around these parts of town. “Hello, my name is Sam. Sam Rose.”

“I’m Cody.” The guy says, looking around to make sure we were still safe. I smile politely at him as Alexzander slides into the seat next to me.

“Okay Cody, you can get out of here now.”

“Thank you,” Cody sighs making both Alexzander and I chuckle.

The drive took longer than I expected. Turns out Alexzander doesn’t live in New York but outside of it. Which makes sense, that’s where my family lived, but I guess I never pegged that type of neighborhood for a single guy.

“So I should probably get my license…” I say more to myself than to Alexzander as I start to realize how far this house is from everything.

Alexzander shrugs, “you can always just use the driver. But if you feel the need to, we can get you a license.”

“I think I’ll just get my license.” I reply, looking out my window. Everything seemed so familiar but different. I remember the scenery as if it were in a movie or a photograph.

“Hey, we’re pulling in now,” Alexzander nudges me, taking me out of my trance, “welcome to my, well now our, house. Of course if you want to move we can work that out. I know some great-” I cover his mouth with my hand while staring out the window.

“Alexzander, shut-up.” He nods and I remove the hand, “The house is perfect. I would never want to move away from this area, it’s beautiful. Now the real question is why one of the most eligible bachelors in New York City doesn’t even live in the city.”

“What can I say? I really, really hate the city.” I roll my eyes and slip out of the car, staring up at the house that was once shoved deep into my memory. “Everything alright?” Alexzander asks, seeing the look of shock on my face.

I shake my head to get the thought out of my mind. This couldn’t be my old house, I’m just imagining things. “Um, yeah, just a gust of wind I guess.” I turn to him with a bright smile, “this house is seriously amazing Alexzander.”

He chuckles and I follow him inside, “this isn’t even close to everything.” He says, motioning to our surroundings. “There are 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, and a kitchen large enough to cook absolutely anything in. There are a couple acres of forest in the back yard area. I have horses if you enjoy that, or four-wheels, whatever your liking is I probably have it and if I don’t I can easily get it.” Before he could continue I interrupted with one of my very random outbursts.

“A unicorn,” I say, making Alexzander stop mid-tour.

“What?”

“I want a unicorn. You said you can easily get it. I would very much love to ride through the back forest on a unicorn.” I tell him in all seriousness. It came to shock even to me that I could keep my face straight during this. And the fact that Alexzander was totally buying it made the whole act definitely worthwhile.

“A unicorn?”

“That’s what I said, yes.”

Instead of an instant no, or softly telling me they don’t exist, Alexzander just grins, “I’ll see what I can do. In the mean time I hope you can find one of the horses to suffice.”

The need to laugh almost took over but now that he said he’d try I really wanted to know if he’d actually get me a unicorn. This could get really interesting. So I just nod, “I think a horse will do. Now, let’s continue with the tour.”

He nods and guides me into the living room. Through there you could see the field and then the forest. “It’s quite a magnificent piece of land really. It’s a shame that it couldn’t be kept in the hands of the previous owners.”

I take my eyes off the view, “what do you mean?”

“Well, since the Charleston’s got kidnapped, and their kids are nowhere to be found, the house went up on the market. It’s been in the family for almost a century now so it sucks that there was no one to keep it up.”

I grab onto the edge of the windowsill, gripping it tightly. Nausea overcame me, along with the feeling of becoming faint. Every emotion rushed through me as I looked out over the yard once again, now seeing it as my own and not just some similar looking place.

“You want to unpack first or eat lunch?” Alexzander’s voice brings me out of my trance.

“Um, lunch. Lunch sounds good.”

He smiles and grabs my hand, pulling me into the luxurious kitchen, “well then let’s make lunch. I’ll show you a couple things even you can cook, so you’re not relying on me all the time.”

I laugh, “I’m a hopeless case Alexzander. I burn water.”

“You can’t burn water Sam, it’s not possible.”

“You say that now, but just wait until you have to eat my cooking. You will then be asking how it’s possible, not if.”

“Don’t doubt yourself so much. Now come over here and learn how to cook.” I do as he says and walk over to where he was standing at the counter. We started with basics of making a sandwich. But by the end of making lunch, about an hour in total, Alexzander couldn’t stop laughing uncontrollably. He was of no help and I kept screwing up lunch that much more.

I hand him a plate of burnt bread, probably undercooked meat, and something that I think was supposed to be a salad, “here’s lunch honey,” I say mockingly.

Alexzander sobers up and looks from the plate to me, “what is it?”

“Whatever you told me to make. Now aren’t you going to eat?” I watch as Alexzander takes a bite and swallows, showing a smile that was so fake Barbie would be ashamed.

“It’s great Sam.”

“Really? Cause even I wouldn’t touch that food.” I say, taking the plate from him and tossing it into the trash, “I’m going to repeat what I told you earlier, you’re the one making food around here.”

He starts to laugh again, “how can you not make a salad?!”

I playfully slap him, “shut up. I’ve never really had to do my own cooking. I usually eat the crap they serve at work.”

“And what about before? I recall you saying something about having a lifestyle like mine. Didn’t you ever cook with your mother?” He walks around the kitchen like a natural and produces two quick, edible looking, sandwiches.

“Not really. Our chef did most of the cooking and I was usually off getting in trouble. I didn’t have time to learn.”

Alexzander starts laughing again, “you? A trouble maker? I highly doubt that.”

“How about you stop laughing at my expense and give me a tour of this place. If I’m going to live here I might as well know my way around.”

Once we got the kitchen tidied up a bit, Alexzander shows me around the house. Everything was a faint memory in the back of my head. It had changed, of course, yet somehow stayed the same. And as he opened the door to the room I’d be residing in I couldn’t help but wonder; did someone finally find me?