This Is a Wasteland

*Vic’s POV*

“I think it’s perfect,” Kellin said, as we looked over the floor plan. We sat across from a lady in the leasing office of an apartment complex not too far from campus. It seemed a little small, but the fact that it was so close to school without being a student housing unit was beyond convenient.

“Are you sure? We haven’t even seen it yet,” I reminded him. He just shrugged as the lady stood up and led us out of the room so she could show us the apartment we were thinking of leasing. To be honest, I was so nervous. Living with Kellin was a huge step for both of us and it kinda of scared me. On one hand everything was going well in our relationship so far, but on the other, living independent of my parents sounded stressful and I didn’t want that stress to affect us.

“This is the apartment here,” the lady told us as she unlocked the door to the second-floor apartment. We followed her inside and well, I was right. It was really small. The kitchen was narrow and the living and dining rooms were pretty much conjoined. There was a very short hallway which led to one bathroom and a small bedroom. Besides that, it was pretty much all there was to it.

“Where does the washing machine go?” Kellin asked. I hadn’t even thought about that.

“Oh, we have a laundry unit downstairs,” she explained. “There’s a room on the first floor that I can show you on the way out if you want.

“We have to go all the way downstairs to do laundry?” I mumbled. Kellin sighed.

“Can we have a minute?” he asked her. She politely excused herself and stepped out of the room before Kellin turned back to me.

“What?” I wanted to know.

“I think we should get it,” he said, stepping closer and grabbing both of my hands.

“Are you sure?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, it’s great. It’s just the two of us- what more do we need?” he pointed out. I sighed and caved. This was the best deal we’d received all day . . . it would have to do.

“Alright,” I smiled as he gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I wanted to hold him there, but then I remembered that the lady from the office was still waiting outside.

“Let’s go,” he said. I followed him over to the door where we met with the lady and told her we would be interested in leasing. From there she took us back downstairs and into the leasing office once more. We went over a bunch of paperwork and signed a bunch of papers before finally setting up a move in date for exactly a week later.

*Kellin’s POV*

I was so excited about getting an apartment with Vic. It was perfect. I was finally starting to feel independent about the whole situation I was in. I wasn’t going to be bumming off of anyone anymore, and I could feel secure in a place that was all mine with a guy that was all mine.

About a week after we signed the lease to the apartment, we were moving in. We didn’t have a whole lot to bring over, but it was enough. Vic’s parents were kind and bought us a futon couch for the living room, and gave us a small dining table they had in their basement. We spent the entire day moving things up and down stairs, but with everyone putting in work, it didn’t take as long as it could have. By late afternoon, we had everything moved and Vic’s family was already hanging out.

“Now for the fun part,” Vic chuckled as we sat back on the couch, surveying all of the boxes that surrounded us.

“Unpacking,” I groaned, leaning to the side so that my head was resting against his shoulder. He let out a long sigh and rubbed his hand against my thigh.

“Or we could just start tomorrow,” he shrugged. I smiled, liking that idea a little better. I was necessarily the most physically fit person out there, so moving boxes and furniture all day had left me exhausted.

“I like the sound of that,” I laughed, sitting up straight.

“All we really need to do is find the box with the bed sheets in it so we can make up the bed for tonight,” he explained, giving my thigh a light squeeze. I glanced at him as he grinned devilishly. That told me that he probably had something up his sleeve, which excited me.

“Yeah,” I breathed, not able to take my eyes off of him. I didn’t know how he did it, but he somehow always managed to leave me mesmerized. He had the best smile.

“And you know since we don’t have to worry about my parents we can be as loud as we want,” he suggested, which got me even more excited.

“And we can leave the door open,” I added.

“Fuck, we could even do it right here,” he said, sitting up straight. I bit down on my lip, images flashing in my mind of Vic just bending me over the couch at that moment-“But not right now. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

“Y-yeah,” I stammered, taking a deep breath. I needed to calm myself down before I got too excited. I liked the idea of spur-of-the-moment sex, but to be honest I was pretty hungry. We hadn’t eaten since earlier that morning, and it was almost dipping into the evening. He smiled again and kissed my forehead lightly before standing up.

“What are you hungry for?” he asked, going over to the kitchen counter where he had set his keys down.

“Are we going out?” I asked.

“Um, yeah, we don’t exactly have food yet,” He pointed out, nodding towards our empty refrigerator.

“Right,” I muttered.

“Maybe we’ll go grocery shopping tomorrow,” he shrugged. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, let me just slip my shoes on,” I said, as we both did the same. We got outside the door when Vic let out a moan. “What?”

“I forgot to put the house key on my key ring,” he said.

“I’ll go get it, I think I have it in one of my bags somewhere,” I told him, pressing my lips quickly against his cheek. I loved how casually we had started doing things like that- sneaking in kisses. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

“Alright, hurry,” he smiled, returning the gestured before taking off downstairs. I went back inside and into our bedroom (our bedroom!) and found where I had placed the house keys. After I found them, I ran back outside and turned my back to the hall so I could lock up. The first key I stuck in was the wrong one- probably the mail box key. The next one was the right key, but the lock was sticky so I was having a little trouble-

“Oh, hello there, did you just move in?”

I froze as I heard the shockingly familiar voice behind me. Not knowing how to react or what to do, I just turned around to see a lady who had just stepped out of the apartment directly across the hall from us.

My mother.