~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 2: Home Run

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reaching the apartment, I paid and thanked the taxi driver and rushed to climb the exterior steps. The building looked old and somewhat plain. I ran my fingers along a crack in the aged brick before buzzing up to the room.

"Hello?" a male voice answered.

"Uhm, sorry, I must have the wrong room. Do you know what room a girl named Lisa lives in?"

"Yeah, this is Lisa's room. She should be here any minute. You Alice?"

"Uhm, yeah, I can wait-,"

"I'll buzz you in. Come on up." With that the door clicked, and I found my way up to the room and knocked.

The guy who let me in was around 5'9" with reddish-brown hair. He looked to be in his early 20s, maybe younger, wearing an oversized sweater and jeans that hung on his thin legs. He smiled at me as I entered, a friendly smile that relaxed me a bit. It was the first smile I had received since arriving in the city.

"Come on in. Make yourself at home." I did as he suggested and sat down on the couch.

Finally, a chance to set this luggage down.

The apartment was small and neat and fairly normal from what I could tell, but something about it made me uneasy, and I slightly jerked when the stranger sat down beside me.

"So I hear you and Lisa may be roommates soon."

"Mhmm," I mumbled a bit uncomfortably at his close proximity. The stranger seemed the complete opposite of me, relaxed and fully confident.

"So you two have never met?"

"Not in person, no. We have FaceTimed a bit."

He nodded, "I remember the first time I met Lisa. We were just kids back then. I guess a lot has changed. So you're really going to start living here?"

I nodded and smiled.

"Hmm," he sighed, "that's too bad. I guess I won't get to stay over as often." His eyes looked off into the distance as if some solution to his problem was floating in the air in that direction.

"What do you-?,"

"Unless, of course, you're cool with it."

"Cool with what?" I looked at the stranger with a puzzled expression, and he laughed bringing his face down to mine and whispering so close to my ear that his breath tickled my skin.

"You know what I..." I started to stand up, but just as I began moving the door to the apartment clicked open, and I heard a crashing noise as objects fell to the floor. The stranger stood up instantly and stared at the direction of the door.

"What the hell?" I