Finally, the door swings open, and I’m hit in the face by the overpowering smell of weed coming from inside. Fighting the urge to cough, I smile at the skinny girl standing in the doorway, who’s staring at me with glazed eyes and an unamused expression.
When she doesn’t say anything, I thrust my hand out. “Hi, I’m Violet. You must be Sarah. So great to meet you in person.”
Her eyes scan over me and she reluctantly shakes my hand. “Oh, yeah. Hey.”
“And this is Eli,” I tell her, pointing to the man beside me. “He’s gonna help me move the mattress.”
Eli attempts a smile, but it comes out as more of a grimace.
I wait for her to say more, to sayanything,really, but she doesn’t. Instead, she steps to the side, allowing us room for entry, and I see that she’s not alone. A couple guys and a girl lounge about the living area—there’s not really enough space to call it a livingroom—watching TV and taking hits out of a bong.
“This is Violet,” Sarah tells the group. “She’s renting Jade’s old room.”
“Hi, nice to meet you all,” I say, giving an awkward little wave. No one waves back.
“Want a hit?” asks the guy in the corner, nodding to the bong.
I force a smile. “Oh, I’m good.” I have nothing against weed, per se, but getting high at ten on a Tuesday morning seems a bit excessive. “Thanks.”
The guy smirks, his eyes roaming over me in a way that makes my skin crawl, and I shift uncomfortably. “Let me know if you change your mind,” he says, and beside me, Eli tenses.
Sarah points to a closed door at the back of the apartment. “That one’s yours.”
“Thanks. Come on, Eli,” I say, dragging him down the short hallway and into the bedroom before he can comment. The room is empty, save for the old, yellowed mattress in the corner, which sits on a cheap bed frame that’s going to be a bitch to move.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Eli looks around the room before shutting the door and turning to face me with his hands on his hips. “Yeah, you can’t stay here, no matter how much pepper spray you’ve got.”
I shrug. “It’s the only place I can afford that’s not thirty miles away from Golden Palm and that I can move into this week. It’s…fine. Could use a bit of a deep clean, sure, but it’s notthatbad.”
“That sink had roaches in it,” says Eli. “I swear to God.”
“It did not,” I say, though I didn’t get a good look.
“That bong water was growing mold spores.”
“Well, I don’t smoke weed anyway.”
“That’s not the point. Violet, come on. I wouldn’t make my worst enemy live here.”
“Not even your father?” I throw out, raising my eyebrows.
He hesitates, then shakes his head. “No, not even him, and that’s fucking saying something.”
I look around the room. “You’re being dramatic. Once we get this shitty mattress out and I order the new bed, this place will be fine. I’ll put up some twinkle lights, add a coat of paint, get a pretty embroidered rug to go in the center.” I stride over to the window. “And look at this view. You can see the ocean.”
Okay, you can see a sliver of the ocean way, way off in the distance. But still. It’s theocean.
“Barely,” Eli mutters. “Landon’s not going to like this.”
I blink at him, confused. “Landon? Why would he care? He’s happy to be rid of me. Plus, if Landon and Mel hadn’t let me stay with them, I’d be living in a place much worse than this right now. So, just look at it that way.”
And it’s better than moving back home and admitting that this whole life change was a total failure. Anything’s better than that. Even roaches.
“Violet, it can’t get much worse than this.” He pulls out his phone and starts turning in place, snapping photos of the room.
“What are you doing?” I demand, lunging for his phone, but he holds it above my head, far out of my reach.
“Nothing. Definitely not sending these to my brother.”
