"What if you start singing?"
My eyebrow quirks up as I send her a bemused glance,
"You're dreaming, Nina"
"It will distract them," she whispers hurriedly, "and if you also start dancing-"
"I'd rather pay ten fines than sing and dance on a train," I whisper back, pulling her towards the next carriage,
We freeze when we see two ticket inspectors making their way towards us. They're closing in on us from both sides of the train,
"Pretend you're hurt" she says,
"Huh? What do you-" I don't even finish my question, the inspector's voice cuts me off,
"Ladies," I look up at him, feeling like the biggest criminal in the world, "tickets please" he says,
"Tickets?" I repeat, he nods politely, "Oh, yeah, uh, tickets... of course," I mumble, biting on my bottom lip, I push my hand into my purse, searching for the ticket I know I don't have. I can't believe we got ourselves into this mess. Nina thought I bought the tickets and I thought she did. We only realised we were ticketless once the inspectors walked in..
"Ouch!" Nina cries, I look over at her, "Ow!" she cries again, my hand goes to her arm,
"You okay?" I ask,
"Are you all right, ma'am?" the ticket inspector asks,
"No, no!" she says, her hand lands on her chest, "I don't feel good!"
"Take a seat," the panicked inspector points to a seat, Nina stumbles towards it, breathing hard. My eyes follow after her. Stunned, I've come to the realisation that she's acting. Badly. Very badly. I have no idea how the ticket inspectors believe her,
"I need fresh air," she says,
"The next stop is in less than two minutes," the inspector assures her,
The two minutes that follow feel like the longest two minutes in my entire life. Finally, the train doors open. The ticket inspectors help Nina walk to the exit and to the nearest bench. With my head bowed I exit the train too, not coming near her until she convinces the inspectors that she's okay, and they leave.
"You're crazy" I say, walking up to her. Though I want to, I'm unable to hide the huge grin on my face,
"I'm a genius" she corrects,
"I could strangle you right now. My hands are still shaking!"
"Be thankful I saved you from a hundred dollar fine"
"You should be an actor"
"I was good, wasn't I?" she gives a crooked grin,
"I'm glad you're feeling better sweetie," an old lady says as she walks past us, she was on the same train as us. Nina smiles and nods, but once the lady leaves, we both start laughing. What a way to start our new life in North Sley.
We follow the map on our phones all the way to the building. It's three-story, crammed right between two larger buildings. The university is within walking distance and the theatre, where I will be spending a lot of my time, is only a thirty-minute bus drive plus a short walk. Location couldn't be better. It's sharing the space with two male strangers that I'm not so sure about.
"We're on the second floor" she says, we walk in, at the entrance is a narrow staircase,
"No lift I assume,"
"Nope, there's no way we'll get these up there," she nods at our luggage consisting of two large bags.
"If we managed to fool the ticket man with your acting skills, we can definitely get these up" I haul my bag up the first step,
"You didn't even thank me" she says, joining me on my slow way up.
"For forgetting to buy tickets?" I haul my bag another step,
"That's on you, Sofia! You were meant to get the tickets and you know it!" she's wrong, the tickets were definitely her responsibility. I haul my bag another step, then another.
"What if we don't like them?" I whisper, referring to the new roommates,
"We run?" she offers,
We're both puffing by the time we get our bags all the way up. On our floor there are only two apartments, ours is the big four bedroom one. I knock on the door, a moment later a guy opens. He's tall, dressed in a sleeveless shirt showing off his toned arms. Now that we're here, I'm questioning our decision even more. How could we ever think two girls sharing an apartment with two unknown guys was a good idea?
"Hello, I'm Phil," he extends his hand,
"Sofia" I say, taking it,
"Nice to meet you Phil, I'm Nina" they shake hands as well,
"Nice to meet you too," he steps back, "come in, take a look around"
I walk inside, pulling my big bag behind me. Nina follows. The apartment's old but huge. Much larger than what I expected. Just by looking, I can tell it's two guys that live in it. It isn't overly messy, but it is scarce. Not much stuff, and the stuff that is there, is randomly scattered all over.
"That's a big open space" Nina notices,
"Yes, so, as you can see that's the living space," he gestures towards a worn brown sofa and TV, "that's the dining room," he gestures towards a wooden white table with four chairs, "and then there's the kitchen" our eyes follow his forefinger to the kitchen,
"It's nice" Nina says, glancing at me for approval, I nod. I mean, it's not like we have much of a choice. We're moving in whether we like it or not. The only deal breaker would be if our roommates were weird, but judging from Phil so far, that might not be an issue,
"And it all works?" she asks,
"What works?"
"Like the stove, the oven, the fridge..."
"Oh, yes, well, the fridge works. The stove and oven I'm not a hundred percent on. We haven't lived here too long to use it"
"How long have you been here?"
"I'd say just over six months" Phil says, Nina glances at me and we both hide a smirk. Six months and they haven't checked if the stove works. Typical.
"And you said there was another roommate?"
"Yes, Daniel. He said he'd be here. I know you want to meet us both before you make a final decision. He should be here soon, hopefully. Feel free, have a look around, the bathroom's that way, and then the bedrooms are all along the back wall. The one furthest left is mine, and the one furthest right is Daniel's. So you two would get the two rooms in the middle"
As he speaks, Nina and I make our way to the bathroom. That's probably the messiest part of the house. It's not as dirty as I feared, but it's definitely neglected, to put it nicely,
"What do you think?" Nina whispers, and I know she's not referring to the apartment,
"He seems okay" I shrug,
"Hopefully the other guy's normal too"
"We won't know if they're normal until we start living with them. Let's check the rooms out"
We open the room next to Phil's and look inside. Just like the add said, it's quite small. I think the two middle rooms used to be one in the past, someone wanted to earn more money and split it in half. The room next to it is even smaller, but it has a larger window. Nina wants the larger space and I want the nicer view. So we quickly agree that I take the second room.
"You happy?" he asks us when we turn towards him,
"It's nice" I say, "you said the rent was 400 a month?"
"Yes, 400 for both of you"
"How come it's cheap compared to some others in the area?" Nina asks,
"The rooms are quite small and we figured not many people would like sharing a single bathroom. But I promise, both Daniel and I aren't here much. We keep pretty busy throughout the day"
"Can I ask what you do?" Nina asks,
"Boxing"
"Boxing?" we ask at the same time,
"Yes. Both of us. It's been paying our bills quite well, so..." we must have both looked a little unsure because Phil paused, he looked from me to Nina,
"Is that maybe an issue?" he asks
"No" we both respond a little too quickly. The thing is, it's not an issue, there's no reason for it to be one. I don't think the sport itself is bad, it's just that I've never been around anyone in fighting, and, well, we both expected our roommates to be students.
"Not at all," Nina adds after a pause, "I think we just weren't expecting it"
"What, I don't look like a boxer?" Phil asks with a grin, pretending to be offended,
"No, you do" Nina laughs, both Nina and I look at his toned arms, it's an automatic reaction. Too late, I realise that's exactly what Phil wanted, when I look back up, he's smiling. We were caught looking, what a great first impression.
"Good morning," a male voice startles us from the door. I turn to see the newcomer and all blood leaves my face. I'm not joking, I literally feel my face go pale.
"I'm Daniel," he steps inside, leaves his gym bag on the table. He walks over to where we're standing, extends his arm to Nina,
"Nina" she says, her voice unusually quiet. She must feel it too. The masculine energy, the vibration in the air. Daniel is huge. If I thought Phil was tall and well built, well, Daniel is a whole other level. He's at least a meter ninety of pure muscle. His arms are ripped, his shoulders broad, his posture straight and commanding. He turns to me, offers me his large hand,
"Daniel" he says, his dark eyes meet mine, they're so confident... overly confident,
"Sofia" I say, placing my hand into his then too quickly pulling it away. It's the briefest handshake I ever had. His eyes stay on me a moment longer. A moment too long. I look away. Lord, now I'm going red. Pale to blush in a matter of seconds. What has gotten over me?
"Sorry I came a little late, lost track of time," he speaks, "what do you think of the place?" he's looking at me,
"We like it" I respond,
"Really nice location" Nina adds,
"Sounds like we've got new roommates, then?" he asks, I meet eyes with Nina, we have a silent agreement,
"Yes, seems like it. We're happy to go forward with the contract if you are" Nina says,
"Why wouldn't we be?" Phil laughs, "I think we'll get along fine. Come, let's sit at the table. I've got the papers ready"
"Here's the rent agreement," Phil places a paper in front of us, "it's a six month contract to start off with. If everything goes well, we can obviously amend that later. Have a read through, the solicitors prepared it so should be all good"
"What do you guys do?" Phil asks while Nina and I skim through the contract,
"I'm studying law" Nina says, "fist year"
"Oh, wow! So, no law breaking while you're here?" Phil jokes. Nina and I glance at each other and giggle, remembering our experience at the train station,
"What's funny?"
"Oh, nothing," Nina says, "I'm definitely a good, law-abiding Samaritan"
"That doesn't sound convincing," Phil laughs,
"And you?" Daniel asks, looking at me, forcing me to make eye contact with him once again. Get a grip, Sofia, get a grip! It's just an attractive guy, just another guy in a whole bunch. Nothing to get worked up over.
"I'm studying interior design" I say,
"And she's a dancer" Nina adds, "she signed up a contract with a theatre nearby"
"What dance?"
"A mix of styles, it's just a hobby" I respond,
"You'll have to show us, we're both useless at dancing" Phil says,
"Maybe one day" I smile,
"Apart from boxing, do you two do anything else?" Nina asks,
"No but it keeps us busy. Don't worry, you won't see too much of either of us"
"In fact, I have to leave now" Daniel gets up, "nice meeting both of you, hopefully you'll like it here" he'slooking at me again but I avoid the eye contact, we say our buys and he leaves.
"He's got a pretty big tournament coming up, so doing a bunch of training" Phil explains. We chat with Phil a little longer then Nina and I head to one of the rooms. I shut the door; Nina sits cross legged on the bed.
"Thoughts?" I whisper,
"Daniel's ripped" she says, I nod, finding it funny that that's the first thing on her mind, "Phil too. Won't lie, now I'm rethinking my decision to get back with George" George was her boyfriend in high school, then they broke up for a few years, and only a month ago got back together,
"Yeah right, you've been day dreaming about George for months!"
"He'll be jealous when he sees who I'm living with" she says with a satisfied grin,
"Who would think we'd end up living with two random guys, and boxers of all things"
"They do seem nice, though"
"I just hope they stay that way"