Nineteen. Finally out of my parents’ house and on my own. Too bad when you're all alone, nobody is around to help you move in. Well I’m lugging the last brown box into my apartment so I guess I don’t have much to complain about anymore.
New York…wow. I’m no longer the little girl that was picked on and over protected by her two older brothers. I’m finally on my own. I close my apartment door and take a real long look at my new home. Wooden floors, painted shut windows, brown boxes everywhere, a crack on the wall by the window that looks like it couldn’t be covered with paint. I walk over to the window and can see the buildings that tried hard to cover my view of the sky. I look down and can see the busy streets, the honking was heard through the closed windows and it really made me feel at home. Strangely I was waiting for my brothers to walk into the room and grab me into a headlock. Old habits die hard I guess.
I sigh and walk over to my black bag. Purse or bag, whatever you wanna call it. I searched through it and took out some bubblegum. My secret addiction. I popped some in my mouth and quickly blew a bubble. It popped when I heard my cell phone buzz. I looked to see it was my brother, I hit ignore call. The last thing I want right now is to be brought back home by force. I barely got out of the house alive and I wasn’t about to relive those eye watering, head noogie goodbyes. I rubbed my head and still could feel my brothers strangle me into one of their “love hugs”. I sighed and continued to chew my gum. Time to unpack.
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A week has passed and now I have all my necessities out but I still have a lot more to unpack. Leave it to the number one procrastinator to unpack this slow. I stand in my room and look at the lame posters that I slapped onto the walls to give this blank room some color. Still though, it looks dull. Whatever, I’ll get around little by little to fix it up. I walk out after finally getting dressed. I look in the mirror in my hallway and see a strand of hair sticking out from the back of my head. I sigh and retie my high pony tail. Seeing that my jet black hair was so short, the pony tail dangled high above my shoulders and hardly looked like a pony tail at all. More like a short amount of hair that stuck out from behind my hair if you ask me. But me being me, I liked it and was in too much of a rush to care. I had on my rosy reddish pink hoodie and black skinny jeans; all that was left was my shoes. I searched the apartment to find where I had last left them and finally find them by the sofa. I sit down and slip them on, as I do this I get a glance of my small dusty television in the corner of the room. Sucks not having cable, getting someone to come out and help you in this town was almost impossible. Then again, I barely have enough money for rent so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. I walked on out of the apartment building and made my way down the street. Job hunting I guess. One thing about this city is that it’s so crowded and noisy. I suppose you have to get used to it. My dad told me how not to look like a tourist. I remember it clearly. “Only tourists look up at the sky and buildings when they’re walking. People who’ve lived there they’re entire lives had already seen it and usually don’t look up or around when walking through the streets.” His voice rang in my head and so I tried to look casual and not so…amused. A week here and I’m still tempted to run into every store and examine every single inch of the city. I guess I can do that later though; right now I have to find a place to work. Sure I had money but I wasn’t gonna wait until I was flat broke to go look for a job. I might be a procrastinator but I sure did know what the word responsibility meant. I hid my hands in my hoodie’s pocket and warmed them up as I walked. I waited with a group of strangers to cross the street. The sound of cars honking didn’t really occur to me, not like the night I first slept in the city. I hated it! My first night here was like trying to sleep in the middle of a raging stadium filled with racecars. I hadn’t tossed and turned in bed that much since I first lost my pet cat when I was nine. Pet cat. Wait, what’s that? I look over to the street that I wait to cross and see a grey looking…cat dog animal thing right in the middle of it. Was it trying to die? I looked and saw that it reminded me of my old pet cat and then saw how a car was racing passed traffic to get through. The animal was so small; I bet the driver can’t even see it. Oh my God. It’s gonna get hit! I see all the people around me, talking on their cell phones or reading the paper. I can’t believe this. I was the only one who saw this? I shoved some people out of the way and fought to get to the front of the crowd as quick as I could. My anxiety grew even higher as I saw the car get closer to the animal. It didn’t look like it was going to stop either.
“Move!” I say before finally reaching the front of the crowd.
I almost slip but catch myself before seeing the grey animal look at the car coming towards it. By then I knew for sure the car didn’t see it; or the driver didn’t care. I ran and jumped forward, scooping the animal into my arms before rolling onto the street. The driver barely missed me by a couple inches. I grip the animal tightly and look up to see the driver cursing me out before driving off. The light changed and the crowd began crossing, not even acknowledging me. I don’t care; I never liked being stared at anyway. I try to stop myself from panting and finally look down at the animal in my arms. Pretty big to be a cat. And the colors… they’re different. Wait a minute. What is this? This isn’t a cat. Sure isn’t a dog either…It’s a… a. What is this? A pony?