Time and Consequence

I woke up the next morning in the same boring bedroom, in the same boring basement, in the same boring house, in the same boring neighborhood. The room was dark, provided by no sunlight since we were underground. I grabbed my phone off my nightstand. It was almost seven AM. I had a text from John.

Hey beautiful, I hope I don't wake you up with this text. While Anna's at school, want to go to lunch? Your choice. :) which dated about an hour ago.

I texted him back quickly, telling him that I'd love to, and that I had an idea in mind. I thanked autocorrect for making me sound like I could actually speak English.

I woke up Anna, got her ready for school, brought her to school, and then came home to get ready for our little lunch date.

I took a long shower upstairs, since the basement didn't have a shower. I pondered the whole touring situation, but I mostly sang loudly and obnoxiously. Once I got out and dried myself off, I walked through the living room, my mother sitting on the couch, reading the paper.

"Where are you going?" she asked, some tension between us still.

"Out," I mumbled, opening the door to the basement. She was trying to talk to me, but I wasn't listening to her. I wasn't going to let her ruin my day with John.

I picked out a pair of white jeans, sliding them on. I looked through my closet, and after putting on a bra I put on a sleeveless, blue blouse. I grabbed a beige cardigan and slid it over my shoulders. I decided to be spontaneous by wearing high heels, too. I usually didn't wear high heels, but I always felt short compared to John, and they matched my cardigan. I did my makeup and my hair in twenty minutes, and then I looked at my phone, a text from John saying he was outside waiting for me. I grabbed my purse and a pair of sunglasses and walked upstairs, trying not to trip. My mother watched me as I walked out, not a word shared between us. I slid the shades over my eyes and walked out into the Arizona sun.

John was sitting on the hood of his car, wearing a pair of black faded jeans with rips at his knees, a black Death Cab for Cutie shirt, and a red flannel. His head was covered by a black beanie.

"Hello, my beautiful," he said.

----

"John, I can't understand what you're saying," I laughed after taking a sip of my water.

John finished chewing on his pasta and swallowed. "I was trying to say that I have a surprise for you, after we finish eating."

I leaned back in my chair, pushing my ponytail off of my shoulder and onto my back. "I don't like surprises!" I pouted. "Just tell me, I hate surprises, you know that!"

He laughed, picking up his soda and taking a sip. "Are you sure?"

I nodded eagerly. He reached into his pocket, taking out a small, silver key. He placed it in the middle of the table.

"What's this?" I asked, picking up the small key.

"The key to our new house," he said with a huge, doofy grin on his face.

"Our house?" I said, my eyes wide open as I ran my fingertips against the cold metal.

"Well, not house," he said quickly. "It's an condo. There's two floors, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a huge kitchen, a living room. I bought it for us."

I kept my eyes down on the small key, and then I looked up to him. "Will we have time to move in?" I asked.

He leaned forward, shaking his head. "While we're gone, I'm hiring people to move in for us. We just pick out the furniture, appliances, colors of the walls we want painted. When we come back from tour, it'll be all done and then we can move in."

A look of delight crossed my lips as I nodded, handing him the key. "Can we go see the place?"

He pushed the key back into his jeans pocket and nodded. "Yeah, after I finish this sex in my mouth," he said as he shoved a forkful of shrimp scampi into his mouth.

----

The condo was in the middle of Chandler, Arizona. It was about a five minute drive to his parents' house, and on the main street we were on, there was a bakery next to us and across the street there was a high end clothes store that I would definitely be going to.

John parked his car in the spot right off of the street. We got out of the car, the humid air bringing a heavy feeling to the air. In the distance, there was the Arizona mountains; red, orange, brown beauties they are.

"Look at twitter lately?" he said once he got the key out.

I shook my head. "I'm kind of scared to see what everyone's saying about me. Do they think we're dating?"

"Yeah, they think we're a thing. I mean, I've never followed anyone on twitter before, so I guess it's a big deal to them."

John put the key in the front doorknob, pushing the door open. He reached into his other pocket, taking out his phone.

"Take a picture with me," he said as he swiped up the small camera button, the image of us live popping up on his screen.

"For what?"

"Because I want people to know that you're my girlfriend," he said.

I put my chin on his shoulder, and he took a few pictures of us smiling.

While he uploaded the pictures to Instagram and Twitter, I walked around our new home. The living room had light wooden floors with beige walls, a modern fireplace on a wall in the middle of the room, the other side would be the dining room. Near the fireplace, there was a built in area with bookshelves aligned on the wall. Behind the half wall the fireplace was on, was an empty area where the dining room table would go. There was a shelve area parallel to the half wall, and perpendicular to each wall was a glass door that led to a balcony. In the middle of the empty room hung two brown lights. Connected to the dining room was the kitchen. It was small, but yet roomy. The countertops were black, the cabinets underneath, gray. There was a small island that contained an electric stovetop on one side and on the other side was an area to put two chairs to sit on the island. Parallel to the island was where the fridge was, stainless steel, that was in the wall. Random cabinets aligned the same wall, and within that wall was the oven, microwave, and separate freezer.

I walked out of the kitchen area while John was walking into the kitchen area. "Do you like it?" he asked, taking my hands and pulling me closer to him.

"I love it," I answered as John put his arm around my waist, his other holding my hand up near our shoulders.

"Dance with me," he said, slowly twirling me around as he started to hum.

We danced slowly around the apartment for minutes, but the only thing on my mind was that John said I was his girlfriend.