The Wallflower Ch 01

"Can't wait till you get out my damn house!"

Lily sighed heavily as she once again heard her mom rant about her lazy, stupid daughter needing a place of her own. Even while said daughter was doing just that on the laptop. And had been doing that for the past week since she graduated from high school.

"All you do is eat up my god damn food, sleep, and shit! Ain't no better than a damn infant!" Ma continued to seethe behind her. "You think you better than me because you graduated ten percent!" she said mocking the final words. "You ain't shit! You a lazy ass bum!"

Lily wanted to scream what the hell did her ma think she was doing on the computer looking up apartments. Because it sure wasn't playing video games or shopping on Amazon. But Lily knew better. It was best just to let the woman rant instead of confronting her on it. The latter either resulted in a loud shouting match or a backhand across the face. Ma always said ignorant people were dangerous. Too bad she didn't realize she was one of those ignorant people.

In need of listening to some music, Lily reached out to grab her headphones to listen to Panic at the Disco.

"PUT THOSE GODDAMN EARPHONES DOWN WHEN I AM TALKING TO YOU!" Her mother's caramel skin started to turn a bright cherry red as her voice became louder than humanly possible. "ALWAYS BEING SO DAMN DISRESPECTFUL!"

Grinding her teeth till she felt as if they turned into dust, Lily put her earphones down. She just scrolled down the computer as peacefully as she could, but was no longer looking at the apartments and the prices. She finally decided to give up for now since there was no way she was going to find an apartment with this crazy woman screaming down her back. Lilly closed the laptop and turned around in her chair to face Ma's fury head on.

~~~~*~~~~*~~~~

"I can't wait to get out of here," Lily sighed while closing the door to her bedroom. She opened her laptop back up and continued her search for an apartment that was good but cheap enough to afford. Her job at the library only paid so much for her to pay for a basic apartment but in horrible neighborhoods. She wanted a basic apartment that was at least safe.

Growing up in the suburbs was a privilege that Lily never took lightly, but yet it had crippled her for the last eighteen years. The books her family was able to afford helped her be the best of the best in her classes. Even going so far as to help her become part of the top ten percent of her overall class. Her grades were her overall pride. The social class wasn't.

In fact the social class that she was born into disgusted her. It was full of close minded people who said one thing but thought another. The most close minded of all of them was Ma. She laughed with high pitched arrogance and had a painted on smile of a clown's. She was a well known upstanding physician who surrounded herself with people just as upstanding as her. But with all her outstanding degrees and knowledge, she was utterly ignorant. She spoke of things she did not understand and knew nothing about. Especially Lily.

Too many times Lily had sat there and listened to Ma belittle her in front of people and bring her name through the mud. Ma painted her just as her ignorant brain saw her. An immature child who could do nothing for herself. Lily was done with living with that lie. It was only time to move forward.

Lily held back the tears that threatened to stream down her face. Once she had composure over herself, she stared at the deal of a lifetime. A nice upstairs room in a townhouse that only cost $150 a month.

'There has to be some kind of catch.

'she thought as she clicked on the offer. '

Why would they rent a room for so low a price? In a townhouse of all places, at that."

She pushed her spectacles up as she narrowed her eyes at the description. It was a townhouse in a part of the city that had little to no violence. The address that was given was only a few blocks away from her job which would save a lot on gas. The picture of the room itself was beautiful with golden painted walls with white trim. The room was already supplied with furniture, a queen sized bed, and had a personal bathroom.

With a curious expression on her face, Lily wrote down the phone number and address to the townhouse to meet with the landlord about the room. She closed the laptop and prepared herself to go to bed. But the question of why the room was so low continued to plague her mind.

~~~~*~~~~*~~~~

'

Here it is. 760 Meridian Street."

Lily stared at the number on the side of townhouse door as she calmed her nerves with this big step she was going to take. A step to get away from the crazy suburban life she had lived with for so long. All she needed to do now was ring the doorbell.

With a heavy sigh, she walked up the steps onto the porch and pressed firmly against the doorbell. '

See...you can do something for yourself,"

she smiled to herself as the cheery ring resonated from within the house.

The door opened to reveal a frail woman who was nothing more than bones wrapped in a thin layer of skin. So thin, in fact, that the blue of her veins stood out prominently against the pail whiteness of her skin. Her face was as stern as stone with a pair of sunken in tired eyes that spoke of many years of living. Her hair went along side with the physical disparity she portrayed. It was all white and looked as if it had not been combed or brushed in years.

"Are you here to look at the room or look at me like a perv?" she said sarcastically, giving Lily a bored look.

"I-I'm...here to see the room, ma'am," Lily finally replied, feeling heat flood her face. The shoved opened the door and walked up the stairs. Taking it as her cue to follow, Lily stumbled inside and hurried up the stairs to catch up with her. The time it took to climb the stairs felt all the more awkward as the woman did not open any opportunities to make conversation.

"You'll be sleeping here," the woman said when stopping in front of the doorway of the room. Lily's face broke out into a smile as she remembered the warm golden colored room she had seen on the internet. But when she looked inside, the smile disappeared. Instead of a warm room, there was a cold desolate room that had significant amount of golden paint that was scratched from the walls and a queen sized bed that had lost all its comfort. But the bed wasn't the only occupant in the room.

"That is my son, Nicholas." The woman pointed to the brooding man lying on a well used bed adjacent to the other. "If you decide to take the room, you will have to share it with him. Before we get into all of the terms to living here, let's go down to the kitchen to discuss."

Still staring at Nicholas, Lily turned her body slowly while trying to get a glimpse of his face. She had a feeling he was handsome, but she couldn't see his face through the veil of hair he threw over his face. She finally gave up and walked back downstairs with her hopefully new landlord. She tried to piece together why the room cost so low all the while.

'The price would come down a bit if you have to share a room with someone else, but it wouldn't be THAT low. Even if the room is crap it still doesn't make sense."

On arriving at the kitchen, they sat opposite of each other at a table. As time ticked away and still no one said a word, Lily decided to speak. "Where's the lease for me to sign ma'am. I can give you the pay-"

"Not yet."

Another moment of silence passed by.

"What do you mean? Not yet?"

"I have a requirement for people who actually want to rent the room to stay in the room for the night before deciding to sign the lease and move in. I have too many people asking to leave the night after they signed the lease and moved in."

Lily sat there dumbfounded and lost.

'Honey, maybe you need to keep looking because there is something seriously strange with this house.'

But what other options did she have? She could leave this place and go back to her parents' house but she would have to deal with that crazy woman for god knows how long till she can find another deal on an apartment. Like that'll ever happen. Where was she gonna find a nice apartment in a safe area for this good of deal again? Never.

Exhaling a heavy sigh after her mind was made up, she said, "Okay. But at least tell me what is so wrong with that room that I can't even sign the lease?" The woman stared back at her with hard grey eyes for several minutes.

"You'll figure it out."