Somewhere else to live

Emily didn't wait on Anessa to respond before she angrily swung open her door and pounded her fist against the door across from her apartment.

The towel hung low on Steve's waist and water dripped from his hair to his sculpted body. Anessa's mouth went dry as she stared at his physique in awe. Her eyes hungrily devoured his frame as she greeted him while twirling a lock of her raven hair around her finger, "Hey Steve."

Steve quickly smiled at her before returning his ocean green eyes to the pissed brunette beside Anessa.

What Steve feared more than anything and everything was making Emily angry and while he didn't know why she was pissed at him, it was obvious to him that she wanted to cut his head off.

Emily pushed the notice on Steve's naked chest, "This was all your idea?"

His eyes widened when he realized what she was talking about. "Emily, I can explain," he pleaded, but when she gave him the opportunity to do just that, he only gaped at her with his mouth opening and closing like that of a fish.

Emily didn't bother to yell at him for his selfish stupidity and instead returned to her apartment.

"I swear I'll fix this," Steve promised just as she closed the door. His plan backfired, but he was confident he could convince the Belle family to drop the rent again and return to Emily's good books.

Steve hit his forehead multiple times with the palm of his hand while cursing at himself for being an idiot.

Meanwhile, Emily was drowning her sorrow with a huge tub of chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Anessa furrowed her brows as she brought the spoon of ice cream to her mouth, "This tastes weird."

Emily took another big scoop and placed it in her mouth, "That's because it's been expired for like two months now."

Anessa gently put down her spoon and rubbed her tummy through her dark blue denim dress, "I think I've had enough."

Emily shrugged and continued eating the ice cream with her much too large spoon. "I'm 99% sure Steve won't be able to convince your parents to drop the rent," she commented.

Anessa sighed, "Wish I could say you're wrong." She looked sympathetically at her best friend, "What are you gonna do now?"

Emily put the tub of ice cream aside and started looking through apartment listings on her phone, "I'll just find somewhere else to live."

The university Emily got into via scholarship is a prestigious institution for the rich and the privileged, so similarly, all the apartments near the school including Belle Complex was for the rich and the privileged.

Emily flung her phone on the table and ran both her hands through her messy hair, "All the cheap and affordable apartments are out of the city, maybe I should ask my aunt if I can live in the basement of her cafe for a bit."

Anessa shook her head, "No, you know what the assholes in this shitty place will say if you just pack up and leave to live in your aunt's basement."

Emily sighed, "I don't really have a choice, it's my aunt's basement or the streets."

"You could still live with Steve for a while, I'm sure his offer is still available," Anessa suggested.

Emily's face darkened and a frown formed on her lips as she heard the name of the guy whose fault it is she's on the verge of becoming homeless.

"I'd rather live with wild, mutated possums in the middle of nowhere," she responded with a straight face.

"How about you live with me?" Anessa suggested. "Only for a little while of course," she added.

Emily ran her hands along her face in utter dismay, "That's even worse!"

Anessa furrowed her brows, "Worse than living with Steve or the wild possums?"

"Worse than the both of them combined," Emily confessed in horror as she recounted the first time she saw Anessa's apartment.

Emily was no clean freak, but she thought Anessa could at least separate her dirty clothes from her clean clothes that were scattered all over her bedroom.

Anessa's apartment was always a mess and would probably be infiltrated by creatures of all kinds if it wasn't for her maid who cleans her room once a week.

Anessa puffed her cheeks and looked away as she mumbled, "If you didn't want to live with me you could've just said so. You didn't have to be so mean about it."

Both women sat in silence as they went over ideas in their heads.

Emily was inwardly calculating how early she'd have to wake up to commute to school in the morning from the other city, while Anessa was thinking about how she could get Emily to stay in her family's apartment complex.

Emily brought her fingers to her chin, "I'll have to wake up at maybe 2 or 3 in the morning to catch the first bus into Urban City."

Anessa got up from the couch and marched over to the door of the second bedroom, "No, you're not moving away." She opened the door and looked into the room that has been empty since Emily moved into the apartment.

"The apartment has two bedrooms, you could get a roommate," Anessa hopefully suggested.

Emily slumped down on the couch, "You know how I feel about sharing my space."

Anessa took out her phone and typed something, "Well, that's too bad." She showed Emily her phone and grinned, "Because I already posted roommate needed on my Instagram."

Emily glared at her, "Delete that post right now."

Anessa stuck out her tongue at her and the chase began.

"Give me that phone!" Emily yelled as she chased Anessa around the center table.

"No!" Anessa rebutted.

"Girls!" A voice suddenly interjected and they stopped to look in the direction of the door.

"What are the both of you doing? Sit down and stop behaving like children!" the mature woman commanded.

Emily and Anessa quickly shuffled to the long couch and the middle-aged woman sat in one of the single couches.

"Hey, Mom."

"Hi, Mrs. Belle"

Anessa and Emily greeted at the same time.