Paradise City

I didn't choose Vegas. Vegas kind of chose me. It's cliche, I know that.

After James and I had finished my parent's room, we started taking everything out of the den. I found a fold-up map in my dad's desk. I opened it up and spread it out on the floor; smoothing my fingers over all the creases, and all the little holes where my dad had stuck push-pins in it. James was in the corner going through the records, asking me every so often if he could have one.

I couldn't pry my eyes away from that map, though.

"What's up?" James asked as he joined me, dropping down to his knees beside me on the floor.

"See all these little holes?" I asked. He nodded. "My dad went to all these places. He met my mom here," I said as I pointed to Abilene, Texas. There was a circle around the small town in red sharpie. It was my mom's hometown, and he had stopped there on his way to El Paso. "He told me about when he graduated high school he went on this crazy cross-country road trip with all his buddies before he went to college. My mom worked at this diner that they all stopped at for breakfast, and he said that he knew she was his soul mate."

James smiled.

"He didn't even introduce himself, they only talked when my mom took his order, and he left the next day; not knowing if he would ever see her again." The story of how my parents met was an unbelievable one. "Two months later she's sitting in his first biology class of the semester. She was accepted into USC, too. Isn't that crazy? Like they met in a diner, in a totally different state, and then bam! they're going to the same college."

It brought a tear to my eye just thinking about it.

"How'd they end up here, though?" James asked.

Wallman, Tennessee was not the ideal place for two nineteen year old kids to end up spending their life. When my parent's moved here, the population was 256 people. There was a movie theater, an Applebees, McDonald's, Food Lion, Well's Fargo, and the bar that I would eventually end up working at, Miller's. If you wanted to go clothes shopping or needed to go to a Walmart, you would need to travel twenty minutes to Maryville, which still wasn't spectacular.

"They started dating three months after they 'met' in college, and in almost the same amount of time, my mom found out that she was pregnant with me. My mom had a scholarship, and she threw it all away for me. And my dad played football, and he threw that all away too. They couldn't raise a baby in a dorm, so they basically found a small town where the cost of living was cheap, and they moved here. They had me, they got married, and the rest is history."

I pushed myself up to my feet and picked the map up. James looked confused, but I just smiled at him and searched around my dad's desk for a couple thumbtacks.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

As I pushed the last corner of the map into the wall, I picked on of the darts out of my dad's dartboard. "Finding a place to move."

"First of all, Cal, you're not moving. Second, what if it lands in the Bermuda Triangle or something? You gonna go live with the aliens?"

"James, I'm not going to argue about this anymore. I can't stay here. It's too sad." I squinted my eyes, taking a few steps back from where I had been standing to give myself a wider range of places to choose from. London would be cool, Dubai, New Zealand... Anywhere but here.

"Cal-"

I squeezed my eyes shut and tossed the dart. As I peaked an eye open, I noticed that it had landed in the Midwest, Vegas to be exact. And not just around Vegas, the dart stuck out of the red dot like a bulls eye. "Vegas."

"I call for a redo." James crossed his arms over his chest.

"What? No."

"Best two out of three." I sighed, taking steps back to where I had been standing before. I squeezed my eyes shut again, flicking my wrist, and lunging the dart forward towards the map. When I opened my eyes for the second time, I noticed James' mouth hung open. The dart landed on Vegas again. "You're cheating."

"James! You of all people should know that even standing three feet from the dart board, with my eyes wide open, I'm terrible at darts!"

My parents believed in fate, and soul mates, and karma. And if they were here, they would tell me that something was pulling me towards Las Vegas. I had to go. Even after I explained that to James, he still tried to convince me that maybe this wasn't the best idea. I wasn't to be swayed, though. Even though I was terrified of the thought of leaving my hometown behind, and my best friend, and my childhood home, and all my parent's possessions, the thought of moving to a huge city thrilled me. What better place to re-invent myself than Vegas?

I had never traveled outside of Tennessee, much less been on a plane to a city with over 500,000 people.

I could see the busy streets from the plane as we flew over Sin City. My heart pounded in my chest as I gripped the arm rest, ready for the bumpy landing. As I stepped out of the double doors, I was shocked by the change of temperature. February in Tennessee was cold, not reaching over 45 degrees. In Nevada, it felt like a nice summer day where I was from. I immediately unzipped my jacket and stuffed it in my suitcase and stood at the curb, arms outstretched, hoping to hail a taxi; which I had never done before.

As I slid in the backseat of the yellow vehicle, I glanced forward at the driver. "Could you take me here, please?" I asked him as I handed him a crumpled up piece of paper with the address of my new apartment.

"First time in Vegas?" He asked.

I nodded, not able to tear my eyes away from the scenery around me.

"Visiting family?"

"No uh, no, I'm moving here."

"Moving here!?" He asked. "Where are you from?"

"Tennessee."

"Ahh, I see." I hated that joke. "Well, you're going to love it here! Warning, it does get very hot!"

I had found my apartment on Craigslist; a one bedroom on the top floor of a beautiful building that was about ten minutes from the strip. Everything was included, even an awesome pool and a fitness room. I emailed the woman immediately, and after a few days of talking back and forth, I sent her my security deposit and bought my ticket to Vegas.

When the taxi pulled up to the curb of the building I had familiarized myself with, a short, tan woman stood on the sidewalk with a big smile. I tipped the driver generously and slid out of the backseat of the car.

"Hi!" She was beaming from ear to ear. "Callie?"

I nodded at her as she moved to help me with my bags. "You must be Alisha, it's nice to meet you."

"Likewise! How was your trip?"

"The layover in Chicago was too long, but I made it."

"Well I'm glad that you did. Your furniture arrived this morning, and your car is parked in the parking garage on the first floor in your very own parking spot." She said cheerfully. I was thankful to hear that. "Now, if you look over to your left, you have your mailboxes. You're number 6B They're separated by floor. On each floor there is three individual apartments, except for the top floor, there are only two. And they're the biggest studio apartments you'll find in the area; nice and spacey."

"Yeah in the pictures they looked huge. Which is nice, because my hou- the house that I'm coming from was very small and crampy."

"Let's go tour the apartment and then I'll show you the fitness room and the pool, okay?" I nodded and followed Alisha to the elevator. She tried to make small talk, and asked me what it was like moving from Tennessee to Nevada, why I was moving here, and what made me choose Vegas.

"It's usually a vacation spot. People don't tend to actually settle down here."

The apartment was even bigger than portrayed in the pictures. The living room was huge, and overlooked the surrounding area; which wasn't much, but it was a nice view. Even with all of my boxes stacked in the middle of the floor, the room was still very large. The kitchen was small, but I didn't really do much cooking anyways, so I wasn't phased by it. There was a half bath in the hallway that led to the bedroom, across from the washer and dryer closet.

"And this is your bedroom. As you can see it's a good size." When Alisha said 'good size', she meant that it could fit three of my old bedrooms in this one bedroom. She walked over to a door and opened it, revealing a large walk-in closet that was equipped with a shoe rack.

I owned maybe three pairs of shoes; flip flops, flats, and a good pair of boots which I probably wouldn't be needing here. As for my clothes, I had what I could fit in the three suitcases that I brought with me. My style wasn't flamboyant. I wore a lot of jeans and plain t-shirts that you could buy in a three-pack at Walmart. When I was in high school, people used to say that's what they loved about me, "the fact that I didn't really try". I'm sure they thought that's what I was going for, 'the natural look'. I wasn't.

"I'm really not a clothes person." I said, looking down at my outfit; faded black skinny jeans and a grey v-neck. Meanwhile Alisha stood next to me in a white tank top with a flowing high-to-low skirt on. A big, chunky necklace hung from her neck, and her sandals had big glittery roses on them.

"Maybe you're a bathroom person, because this master bath is pretty spectacular." She offered. The bathroom looked even better than it did in the pictures. The marble counter tops were sparkling, the jacuzzi tub was huge, and the standing glass shower was bigger than I expected. "What do you think?"

"I love it." I replied.

"Good! I have a feeling you're really going to enjoy Vegas and all that it has to offer. Now, you do have a neighbor. He's a quiet guy, and isn't home very much. He travels a lot for his job, so you shouldn't be disturbed at all. Any questions?"

"Rent is due on the fourth of every month, correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And where is the closest Italian restaurant?" I asked. "I'm starving."

"Verandah is amazing, I actually just had lunch there yesterday." She replied.

"Thanks. I'll check out the pool and the fitness center a little later, right now I just want to hang out and unpack."

"It's no problem, I'll leave you to it. Here's your key to the apartment, and your key to your mailbox. And this little thing right here is a pass to the front doors, which stay locked at all times. If you lose that, it's a $20 replacement fee. Just swipe it across the little strip, and the light should flash green."

"Thanks, I got it."

Alisha flashed a smile and reminded me to call her if any problems came up.

I placed my new set of keys on the counter top in the kitchen and sighed at the boxes that I would have to unpack. I started at the boxes on top of the pile, the boxes labeled 'pots and pans' and 'books' were first. I stashed the kitchen ware in the cabinets and stacked the books in the corner where I would put a desk. I moved the TV, set the bar stools up next to the island in the kitchen, and hung up all my clothes. The records I left in the boxes until I could go out and buy a bookshelf to put them in, along with the DVDs and books.

My stomach growled loudly, pulling me out of the distraction that was unpacking. I swiftly swiped my keys from the counter and stepped out into the hallway only to come face-to-chest with a man in a black, leather jacket and baseball cap pulled over his forehead.

"I'm so sorry!" I gasped. He mumbled something incoherent and disappeared behind the door into the apartment next to mine. "Rude."

The strip was vibrant. I had never been so mesmerized in my entire life. There were so many lights, so many people, it was beautiful. I found Verandah, but it was a fourty-five minute wait, and the rude hostess badgered me for not making reservations. I spotted a McDonald's and settled on it. I wasn't in the mood to wait for over-priced, frozen Italian food, anyways.

When I got back to the apartment, James called, and I reassured him that I was fine, and would probably start shopping for more furniture tomorrow. After all, I was missing a couch, a mattress, desk, and entertainment center. It was too late to go out to the store to get anything. Tonight I would definitely be sleeping on the floor. I pulled out two blankets from a cardboard box. One I folded up and used as a pillow, the other I draped over myself. It was too quiet in the apartment. I was used to falling asleep with the sounds of my parents TV in the next room. All I could hear was police sirens every now and again.

I pulled out my phone and dialed James back on Skype.

"Hey, you okay?" I fought back the urge to cry.

"Can you you just talk to me until I fall asleep?" I asked and set the phone up against one of the boxes. "It's too quiet here."

"What do you want me to talk about?" He asked.

"Anything, tell me a story." James was a writer. He had always liked writing. I would always be the one to proofread his papers and school work. He entered a state-wide contest once to win a publishing deal, but he was beat by this sixty-eight year old English teacher from Gatlinburg. I always thought he was talented, though.

He smiled at me, the glare from the computer screen lighting up his face. "You'll love this one. Once upon a time there was an egg named Oscar. He woke up one morning, got out of bed, scampered across the floor, opened his door, looked up at the beautiful sun and said, "Ahhh, what a glorious day for a walk". So Oscar walked down the street to the corner, turned left, and walked several more blocks. While Oscar was walking, out in front of him strolled a little spotted kitten. The kitten was white wit-"