The fresh air sailed through my hair, it felt nice to be free for the first time. No parents telling you how to live. Finally I was able to live my life.
My two best friends with me, Suzette, only six months older I, and her younger sister Samantha, which she will only spend the summer with us, then she has to go back to Maryland to finish her sophomore year in Highschool.
The year being 2001, nearly just a week ago I finished my senior year in Highschool, now I'm off to College. Big ol' Tulsa University, with Suzette joining me. We could hardly wait to get on our own. We don't actually start for a couple months, but that should give us time to put our new apartment together and find decent jobs.
We could've gone to any college of our choice. Why Tulsa University? I really don't know. We've mainly heard that Tulsa was a party school, but we decided to come to it anyhow, because we felt that we needed time to just enjoy ourselves, still studying, but still have fun. Also, Oklahoma is the only state that we've never been to, therefore it seemed appealing when the time came, plus we're not use to large towns. Although I'm not a country music fan, I'm learning to enjoy it.
Passing corn fields and oil derricks in my new VW convertible Beetle, for the first time I noticed there is really nothing in Oklahoma (except for the really hott guys on the side of the road, hot sweat running down their muscular stomachs, in which they were shirtless, and their tight blue jeans that hugged every part of their lower body. They were obviously taking a break from working on the oil derricks, in which they were eating popcorn, we pulled to the side of the road and they turned to us and very seductively said "Here would you like some popcorn....but be careful it's very...hott..." ......sorry I got carried away). Yes, there really is nothing in Oklahoma, especially coming from a sate like Colorado. My father bought me this car since I was able to get a basketball scholarship. Many schools offered me the scholarship, but I still wanted to go to Tulsa, just like Sue and I had always planned.
We actually took two cars, my car wasn't large enough for the three of us, so it was my Beetle, and Suzette's little blue car.
Five miles to Tulsa, almost there. I'm not sure exactly what to feel, I'm excited but scared all at the same time. I wonder what could possibly await me in Tulsa.
I parked my car in the parking lot, in front of my soon to be new home. I got out, stretched and looked over to where Suzette and Samantha were, getting out of their car. "Well, this is it." the words seem to amaze me, although I had said it. It was almost like living a dream I never thought would come true.
Suzette(Click here to see what Suzette is wearing) looked around showing the same amazement as I, "Yeah this is it." She gave out a sigh, then smiled. "Come on Sa, help me get the stuff out of the trunk." Samantha obeyed her sister, as always, but still complained just the same.
"I'm going to check inside, meet you guys there." With that I went up to the fourth floor, which was at the top. Apartment 417. I unlocked the door and stepped inside, new carpet and fresh paint filled the room with distinctive aroma. As I looked around I was surprised at how large it seemed to be, but knowing soon enough, it would look smaller once all the furniture was in. The large windows made a bright effect to the room as it reflected off the white walls and light gray carpet. This might actually start to feel like home, or at least I hope it will.
Something running to the side of me caught my gaze. "Sa what are you doing?" I asked, as Samantha ran to the other end of the apartment.
"I want to know what room is mine."
"I want to know what room is mine..." I raced to a big white door and opened it. "Whoa! This room is pretty big!!!" I turned around and went back to where Ariana and Suzette were. "Man, did you guys see the rooms yet? They're not so small...and their not too big...their JUUUUUUUUUUUST right. It's just like that Goldie Lox person with the 3 beds!" Ariana and Suzette both gave me a weird look. Then, I looked around the room and just to change the subject I said, "Sooo Air, can I like...watch whatever is on your mini TV!?"
"Uhhh...ok, let me get it out of my backpack." Ariana said as she reached for her back pack.
While I was watching Ariana's mini TV Suzette looked around the apartment and said, "You know what guys? It seems as though there's something missing in this place. Something...something like...oh I don't know...FURNITURE!!!!!!"
"Yeah, I think so too, " Ariana agreed.
I kept changing the channles, but found nothing. "Well, Air, there's nothing on this TV but CRAP, CRAP, and more CRAP! I think I'm going to go for a walk, wanna come!?"
"Nah, I'm think I'm gonna stay here Sa" Ariana said. Then Suzette turned to me and said, "Yeah, I'm staying too. Don't go off into some weird place, ok? NOW TAKE A HIKE SAM!"
"FINE! I'll just.........go!" So then, I approached the door swiftly. My shoe laces were untied, but I didn't know. Then, my laces went under my other shoe and I tripped and fell on the floor. "THAT WAS ALL PLANNED OUT I TELL YOU!!!" Then I heard giggling behind me. And with that, I left the apartment.
Walking out of the building I looked around and said, "Man, there's not much to see here! Hey, I think I see a Safeway, and one of those...those...things! This place is weird. Ooook, there is NO sign of any people my age around here!" I found nothing interesting in the first block, so I walked farther.
"Hey! A pet shop! Maybe I can work there to earn some bucks!" I ran towards the pet shop and opened the door. A man and a woman were behind the counter.
The man asked, "Hello there! May I help you?"
"Ummm...no thanks. I'm just...looking around!" I saw lizards and birds in big cages, kittens in a bigger cage, and puppies in an even bigger cage! "Oh my gosh! You guys have lizards and dogs!!!" I exclaimed.
"Yep, " The woman answered, smiling.
"So, are you interested in buying one?" The man asked.
"Well, I would buy one if I could. I saw a 'HELP WANTED' sign on the door...do you think that I could maybe work here? I just need to raise some bucks, you know."
"Well, we could use a third person to...give the dogs a bath." The woman replied.
"Hey, I'll do it! Thanks! What time do I have to be here?"
"Just come at 2:00p.m. and stay until 4:00p.m. tomorrow, alright?" The man answered.
"Ok, I'll be here tomorrow! Bye!" Then, I ran out of the store. I quickly raced to the apartment and knocked on the apartment door.
"Hey, you're back early, " Ariana stated.
"Yep! And guess WHAT!?" I wailed.
Suzette barged in the conversation and asked "What?"
"I got a job! It pays like $10 an hour or something, I forgot, but it's at a pet shop! I get to give dogs a bath." I said excitingly.
"Wow, what a......nice......job! You get to bathe dogs for a living!" Suzette said.
"Well at least you get to earn some money, you can help pay the rent and stuff!!!" Ariana told me.
"Oh, yea! I get to pay RENT EVERYBODY!!!" I yelled.
"Well, it's pretty late, I think we should like, go to sleep." Ariana commanded.
"Yeah, I'm pretty tired. Wonderful, we get to sleep on the comfortable and hard floor!!!" I said sarcastically.
"Hahaha, shut up Sa." Suzette said.
"Well good night!" I said, and walked to my room. Then we all went to bed.
Earlier this morning I went to my "Victoria's Secret" job interview, while Samantha and Ariana waited for the cable and phone guys to come, but only the phone guy showed up. So now we have a phone, no TV or cable, but at least we have a phone.
Now I'm sitting by the phone, waiting for my beeper to go off, so I know if I got the "Victoria's Secret" job. I'm by myself waiting for the cable guy to come. Samantha is at the pet shop and Ariana is at a job interview at IBM, something about networking computers together. At least I have this bowl of ice cream to entertain me. As I shoveled a spoonful of ice cream into my mouth the doorbell rang. That must be the cable guy.
"Umm.....who is it?" I said with my mouth full of ice cream.
"I'm with the Tulsa cable company." The cable guy said behind the door.
I opened the door to see a tall rather nice looking man, probably in his late twenties. He had short brown hair and soft brown eyes. I let him in and showed him to the cable outlet in the living room.
There was this weird tension between us. I had to speak up. "So....umm....the cable business must be really exciting. You get to meet all these different people, and umm, go into all these different houses...yeah, and umm....yeah." I was kind of trailing off. I was hoping that he didn't hear me, but unfortunately I knew he did.
He laughed. "Yes, the cable business is a thrill." I could do nothing but give a small laugh. The he spoke again. "Actually, this is just a part time job. I'm actually really into music."
I smiled. "So what do you do? Are you a singer?"
"Well actually I do a little bit of everything. I own my own recording studio." He said looking up at me for probably the first time during our little conversation.
"Whoa, that must be neat."
"Oh. Yeah I enjoy it." He said looking back down.
My beeper beeped me. I looked down at it. This is the call I had been waiting all morning for. I looked at the cable guy. "Excuse me, I have to use the phone." He nodded his head.
I quickly rushed to the phone and dialed the number on the beeper. "Hello, I'm Suzette I just got a message telling me to call you guys back."
The voice on the other line said, "Yes, we just wanted to welcome you to the wonderful world of lingerie."
"Oh my gosh. Thank you so much!" I was so happy I had actually gotten the job.
"You're welcome." The lady replied.
"Ok, when do I start?" I asked.
"Well, we were hoping you would be able to come in tomorrow morning at nine."
"Oh, yeah, I'll be there. Thanks again."
"You're welcome. Bye." The lady hung up, and I did the same.
I turned around very excited and yelled, "I got the job!" I turned to the cable guy. "Isn't that great!?"
He looked at me with a confused expression on his face. "That's great. Really it is."
I was so excited I didn't pay much attention to what he had said. I ran over to him and threw my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. Then it finally hit me of what I had just done. I'm hugging a complete stranger! I jumped down off of him. He looked at me kind of stunned and gave me and awkward laugh to break the tension that had just occurred, and he blushed.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I guess I just got a little carried away."
"Oh no, that's ok. I can understand why you're so excited. Hey, this is my last job for the day. I know of a great coffee shop down the street. Would you like to go down there and celebrate?"
I thought about it for a moment, then replied. "Sure, what the hell. Let me just get my wallet." Then off to the coffee shop we went.
Lets leave this scene of Sue and the strange cable guy that she just met, and lets take an intermission and go over to Ariana and Samantha. Ariana and Samantha open the apartment door right after Sue and the stranger leave, and lets just pretend that Samantha and Ariana come in with flashy Broadway type clothes and do the Macarena for about five minutes.
Now that's over with we go back to the quaint little coffee shop, appropriately named "The Coffee Shop" where Suzette and the could be phsyco raper have been talking for approximately ten minutes. They had been making small talk about the weather, cars, and the fact that Ariana and Suzette had just moved to Tulsa.
I was starting to run out of small talk subjects, so I decided to ask him about his friends. "So, are your friends in music too?" I asked as I took another sip of coffee.
"Well, yeah. I guess most of them are in music."
"That's cool."
"What about your friends?"
"Mine? Well, I guess not. They're just regular people. Although, I do play a pretty good triangle."
He smiled at the last thing I had just said, and took a sip of coffee. "Yeah well, I'm a regular person too you know."
"Yeah I know.....I didn't mean to say you weren't one.....never mind I don't know what I'm talking about."
He gave a small chuckle and said, "You're pretty funny."
"Yeah, well you know, I try."
"You know what? There's something I've been wanting to ask you ever since I met you."
"Oh? And what would that be?" I said with a sly grin.
"Yeah. What's your name?"
"Oh, right. It's Suzette."
"Well then, my name is Ashley." Ashley, hmmm....isn't that a girl's name? He lifted up his coffee cup. "A toast to your new job."
"And to cable." I joined in.
"And to the beginning of a beautiful friendship." He added on.
"Sounds good to me." Then we drank what was left of our coffee.
I looked at my watch and said, "I better be going. I'm sure Ariana and Samantha are probably back, and they're probably wondering where I am." I stood up. "Well, goodbye."
I started turning around and then he grabbed my hand. "Can I see you tomorrow?"
"Well, I'm working tomorrow, but I don't see why you can't stop by. Here, I'll give you my number to "Victoria's Secret" so you can call me and tell me when you're coming." I wrote the number on a near napkin.
He looked up from the napkin and said, "Ok, I'll call you."
We said our "goodbyes" and I started heading from home.
