I am floating in a sea of silence, darkness, and complete void. My senses are in a frenzy and I am grasping for something, anything that can signal life. I fall on a floor and cover my eyes from a bright, white light. 

I thought it was a light. It is instead the intensity of four bright white walls reflecting off of each other. I feel like a trapped animal. Im not even clostraphobic. I claw at the walls, trying to find an escape, but there is none. Brighter is my white jumpsuit and tennis shoes. What am I doing here? Where is anyone else? Why cant I get out?

Suddenly a color leaks through the clean walls. Green. An invisible door forged in the confines of this bright prison. I am drawn to it, but suddenly pulled back by thick, heavy chains. I didnt notice them before. I yank at the metal chains, but it is no use. Im locked in here. The door opens fully and reveals a faceless woman in a business suit. I cant make out much features because she is glowing. I look past her to the green outside door that leads to a field of flowers.

Suddenly, in my peripheral, I can see another color emerge. Black. The black outside door, adjacent to the green outside door is filled with giant pods. I cannot make out what is inside of them, but it is like some weird sci-fi nightmare. These pods are linked together to a huge machine. I cover my eyes as the glowing woman  walks closer to me.

"There is only one way out. Choose wisely." She whispers.

Then it all goes black.

I force myself awake and catch my breath. That was a freaky dream.

I rub my eyes and look around at my still new bedroom. I have to get used to all of this. My first order of business? I need to get a job.

I walk into the kitchen where Mom has made a fresh cup of coffee. I see her running to make breakfast in her new business suit and smile.

"Mom. You look great! Ready for your first day?" I ask, excited.

Mom shakes her head, clearly not sharing the excitement.

"Im late and my coffee isnt done, I forgot to shop for breakfast food last night and... its just stressing me out Bun." She says, desperate.

"You're gonna have a great day despite all of that! Cmon think positive! The coffee is almost done, you can make toast since we have bread, and they wont get you for being a few minutes late." I try to reason with her.

She nods and fixes her coffee while I make her and I some toast. I pour myself some orange juice as I pull out the newspaper, looking for jobs that Im qualified for.

"I can be a babysitter or a cleaning lady..." I talk aloud to myself.

"Oh no. No way. If you're going to get a job I want you to go to college first." Mom says sternly.

"But Mom. We cant afford college. Not even a community college. I will get a job and then if I have enough money I will take some classes." I say.

"I dont want you cleaning houses!" She says angrily.

"Fine. I will get a decent job where I dont have to clean houses and then consider applying at a community college. Okay?" I compromise.

She nods and kisses my forehead. 

"Have a great day Mom."

"You too honey." 

She runs through the door and down the street to the building that she works at. I flip through the pages to find a job that fits me. There is a clothing store that's hiring. That seems like it could be nice. I circle all of the places that I would like to work and I take a shower. Before my hair dries I put it in a tight bun. I put on a black and white blouse with jean capris and black chuck taylors. I grab the newspaper while grabbing my pieces of toast and head out to the stores. I need some sunglasses as I have to shield my eyes from the bright sun beaming onto me. The sun is never this hot back home. All the trees and forestry shield us from the sun, but here... I look up. Nothing but skyscrapers. I cross the streets, heading into the string of stores Mom and I explored yesterday. I sigh and look at my newspaper of circled places and walk into the first one, a clothing store. Abercrombie & Fitch. I look around at all of the shoppers and the weird lighting and try to find a worker. A well dressed lady comes over to me and smiles. 

"How can I help you?"

"I umm, I want to apply for a job here." I say nervously.

"Well, as long as you're over 18 you can apply. We dont give out paper applications anymore so you will have to apply online." She explains.

I nod. I dont have a computer. 

"Could you write the website down for me please?" I ask.

"The website is at the bottom of the newspaper ad. Can I help you with anything else?"

"No. Thank you." I say simply.

She smiles and turns on her heels, off to help another customer. I guess I will try another store. I walk a few stores down into Staples. I look around. This store is HUGE. I cant even see to the back. An employee walks over to me in a bright red shirt.

"Need any help?" He asks.

"Do you have any applications?" I ask.

"Sorry. They're all online."

"Thanks. Do I need to know about all of these paper products to work here?" I ask.

He laughs. "Not at all. You will get trained for all of that. Retail experience is a good start."

I nod. "Okay. Have a good day."

I walk out and decide to go into one more store. I guess I will have to go to the library to apply for all of these jobs. I walk into a store called Chuck E. Cheeses. I wonder what kind of restaurant this is. I go inside and I realize it is far from a restaurant. My eyes get wide when I see all of the children running around and the loud music and strobe lighting. I cant even bring myself to go to the desk, I know I cant work here. One of the employees wearing a weird hat runs over to me yelling.

"Hey! Welcome to the #1 kid friendly party place in the world! Ready to have fun??"

"Umm.. you dont have paper applications here, do you?" I ask quietly.

"No ma'am! You will have to go online! And hey, perk it up a bit for your interview! You cant work here without a little bit of personality!" She yells and goes to a table.

I walk out of there, definitely not about to even apply there. This has been such a waste, but a nice exercise. I turn around, looking for another store and I see the Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I suppress a smile and walk into the gas station across the street. I go to the counter and the cashier looks at me.

"Yeah?" He asks.

"Can you give me directions to the nearest library?" I ask.

"About.. five minutes away. Make a left, then a right and it's on the left side. It's huge. You cant miss it."

"Thank you."

I walk out of the gas station and start walking towards the library. A lot of people are walking everywhere today. Im guessing everyone is always outside here. It's just so many people, Im not used to having to share the sidewalk with twenty-five other people with overly expensive clothing. Multiple cars drive past honking their horns and whistling with the windows down. Im sure its directed towards the glamour girls with their large bags and high heels. I just put my head down and keep walking. One left and one right away, I am standing at the front doors of the biggest library I have ever seen.

"Whoa." I gasp.

I slowly open the heavy doors and the smell of paper fills my nostrils. A cool breeze hits me and I look around at the people packed on the computers and in the aisles looking for books. I'd like to find a book, but first I need to reserve a computer. I walk over to an open computer and click the mouse to get the screen back on. It has a screen asking me to type in some PIN. I frown and go to the front desk.

"Need some help?" The librarian asks.

"Yes. The computer is asking me for a PIN. I dont have a PIN."

"It's the PIN associated with your library card." She explains.

"I dont have a library card. I mean, not one for here anyways."

"We will have to get you one before you can use a computer. I just need to get some information from you." She says while she is typing away at her computer.

Ive never had to use my library card for the computer back home. You just went on if it was open and got off in a few hours. Nothing more, nothing less. They want to make it so complicated here. She hands me my library card after getting all of my information and I go to the computer. I type in my PIN and it displays on the corner of the screen that I have one hour left. I pull out my newspaper and type in the websites in different windows. I read the instructions for applying.

This will take 45 minutes to complete..

The knowledge portion will take 15 minutes to complete. Do not refresh window...

You cannot go back after you have finished a portion so make sure all questions are answered...

I rub my forehead. This is already stressing me out and I havent even started filling them out. It's so involved. I begin the first one that will take the longest and the questions are so repetitive it's annoying me. I look around at the other people on the computers. Some of them are working hard and some of them are playing games. I stare up at the ceiling until something pops up telling me that if I dont press a button it will exit the page. I roll my eyes and finish the questions. I look in the corner.

Fifteen minutes left.

I will do one more then go home. I can fill out some more later. I start on the second one and I get distracted again by someone blasting music. I jump and look up. The guy puts on headphones and continues with his loud music. Dont they kick people out for being loud in the library? I look at the librarians and they are just minding their own business. I guess not in this library they dont. I stare at the guy for a minute, believing I know him. A box pops up yet again telling me I have five more minutes. I fly through the set of questions and a confirmation that my application is done pops up. I exit out of the tabs and cross off the places that I have applied to on the newspaper. I look back up at the guy and recognize the hair and oh, the large tattoo on his right arm... and the muscles. 

I stand up after the computer logs me off and look at Roman, wondering if I should go over and say hi. Im sure he wont hear me. I will just embarass myself if I go over and talk to him and he cant hear me. Everyone's computers are facing forward and he's in the front. Im starting to really dislike this place. I find a reason to walk in front of the computers. I see a magazine and I walk towards it. I feel like everyone is staring at me when I grab the magazine. When I turn around for a split second I see that no one is looking at me. Alright, they are actually into their work. Especially Roman. I lean on the table as I am partially reading the magazine and partially waiting for Roman to look up so I can say hi. I feel the table fall under me and I fall on the ground. I dont think it was as dramatic as I thought it was, but I was pretty embarassed.

I get up and brush my clothes off. I see Roman and a lot of other people looking at me now. Great. Now they're distracted. The librarian comes over.

"Are you alright? Please dont lean on the furniture."

"Yeah Im fine. Sorry."

I look over at Roman and he is smirking at me. I look down and walk over to his computer.

"Quite a show you just put on sweetheart." He says, amused.

I bite my lip nervously. "Yeah.. I was just trying to find a magazine to read."

"Did you find one? Because Im sure you dont need any Viagra." He says raising his eyebrow.

"Viagra?" I say weirded out.

He looks at the magazine and I open it to the page I had been staring at for ten minutes. Wow. Viagra ad. I laugh nervously.

"I thought I would find something nice. Im not really a magazine person." I say, setting it down on the computer desk.

"So you read books?" He asks curiously.

"Yeah I like books. All kinds of books. Do you? " I shrug.

"Great. Yeah I love em. You know, you should join my book club one day. We're gonna be discussing Jane Eyre this week."

"You.. you have a book club? I mean, I'd like to join." I shrug.

Roman smirks. "I was being sarcastic. I do like books though. Good escape from all of this craziness."

The librarian walks over to us. "You two can take this conversation outside please."

"Sorry. I was just leaving." I say to her.

I look at Roman and blush. "Well, it was good to see you Roman."

"You remembered my name." He says, maybe a little surprised.

Ive only been thinking about him a lot since our first meeting.

"Of course. I mean.. Im good with names. Did you remember mine?" I ask.

"Of course. My guardian Angel. How could I forget?" He says, flirting.

I blush and wave him off as I walk out of the library smiling like a dork. 

I make my way back home as the sun is starting to go down. Mom walks through the door as I am finishing up dinner. She lays on the recliner and I bring her a plate of food.

"How was work?" I ask.

"Tiring. Very tiring, but I like it. It is very interesting. I could see myself working here for a while." She says while eating her food. "How was your day? Did you find a job?"

"Everything is online. I only got through two applications, but I will do some more tomorrow."

"Did you see that long haired beauty again? Did you go on another date?" She says smiling.

"Mom! It wasnt a date.. he was just showing me a nice place to hang out.. yeah I saw him at the library. He must live close or something.." I ramble.

She smiles big and I roll my eyes. "Mom stop. I told you, Im not his type. We're just... acquaintances."

"Mhm. Sure." 

"Hey have you seen the downstairs neighbors yet? I havent heard them or seen them at all since we moved in. In fact, I dont even see a car in the driveway..." I say, going deep in thought.

Mom shakes her head. "Nope. Maybe they're on vacation or maybe they walk like we do? Gives us some privacy I guess."

I watch t.v. in the living room until Mom falls asleep and I turn it to Family Guy. I hear it storming outside and cant believe how bad the weather has gotten in a few short hours. I hear a knock on the door, actually a banging. I dont want Mom to wake up so I rush to the door to open it. I forget to look through the peephole first and I open the door quickly, my mouth almost dropping to the floor. 

"Roman.. umm.."

"Can I come in?" He asks, water dripping from his extremely long hair. Wow that's why he would never let his hair down. His clothes are drenched in water and I move aside so he can come inside.

"I didnt wake you up, did I?" He asks, concerned.

"No. My Mom is just sleep so you can go into the guest room." I whisper.

I lead him upstairs and past my bedroom to the guest room. He shakes his hair out and I offer him a hair tie.

"Thanks." He nods at me and puts his hair in a bun. "Sorry about just barging in. My power went out and your address was the first place that popped into my mind. I hope it's okay for me to stay the night."

"You're welcome to stay here." I smile. 

He smiles. "Well thanks."

I nod and go into the closet to get blankets and pillows and towels, anything he would need for the night. I walk into the room, the blankets blocking my view of the room slightly.

"We dont have any clothes that can fit you, but you're welcome to wear a robe until we can get your clothes washed and dried." I say behind the pounds of cotton products in my arms.

"I guess I have no choice." He answers.

I drop the blankets and Roman starts to take off his shirt. I cover my eyes. "Oh God.."

"Im sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?" He asks sincerely.

"No. Its okay. I just.. I know you're a guy and.. I will let you shower and all of that. If you want some food there is dinner on the table..." I ramble and scatter out of the room and into my bedroom, shutting the door. I take a deep breath. I dont know if I can even make it through this night...

~~~.~~~