Everleigh Michaels (fastmachine) wrote in summerview, @ 2019-03-04 20:28:00 |
|
|||
Everleigh & Cece
04 March 2019
Their Apartment
Low
Complete |
If someone had told Cece six years ago when she and her aunt fled Baltimore for Summerview that she’d ever actually enjoy her life there she would have probably scoffed and rolled her eyes at them because such a thing seemed highly improbable if not impossible at the time. This sense only got worse after she and her aunt had blown up at each other after being squashed in a too small apartment for a time. She still might not have believed it in the first few months of moving out of that apartment, striking out on her own for the first time ever in her late twenties to move into an apartment with another witch, that she’d actually grow to adore her crazy roommate and their weirdly symbiotic life. Earth Witches and Water Witches should clearly always hang out. But now they had a growing menagerie of plants and pets and the apartment that had at one point been perfectly comfortable for two 20-something year olds was now a little cramped. Between Eduardo spawning all kinds of little baby marijuana plants, plus the addition of Khoshekh and sweet little Percival, there wasn’t much room to move around. Even for Cece who spent so much time on the couch there was definitely a cushion that had conformed to the shape of her butt. “Alright,” Cece began before she’d gotten more than one foot through the door after work that afternoon, “I’ve got pizza, I’ve got $5 wine, and I’ve got a newspaper to do this thing old school, it’s time.” This was probably an ominous way to begin a search for a new home but, well, Cece preferred things that way. Her dream would be a haunted house, but since the Kings kept all the spooks out of Summerview, that was sort of off the table. *** If you had told Everleigh six years ago that she’d be living with another witch, helping her cultivate her weed garden, and collecting random animals, she’d have laughed at you. Now, however, she couldn’t imagine a different life. It had taken a lot of getting used to at first - the two of them were so different, it took a lot of adjusting to finally find their balance. Now? She couldn’t imagine a different life. The moment she heard Cece’s keys in the door, Ever saved and quit the game she was playing. They’d been tossing the idea of looking for a bigger house back and forth for a while now. With Eduardo spreading his seed, their ever growing collection of other plants, and penchant for adopting the weird, unwanted animals, their little apartment was getting a bit crowded. Standing from her spot on the couch, Ever stretched. “Excellent. Is it weird that I’m like, super excited about this? Like I’ve already started thinking about how we’re going to adapt the new place to Khoshekh’s special needs?” Having a part cat, part fish creature was interesting. *** Cece set the pizza and shopping bag containing wine down on the kitchen counter. “Uh, no. Why would that be weird?” Speak of the devil, Khoshekh jumped onto the counter, diligently inspecting the pizza box with her nose. “Get out of here Satan,” she said to the amphibious cat with all fondness, scratching behind her ears before picking her up and plopping her down on the tile floor. “Obviously our precious baby’s special needs are priority numero uno.” “So like,” she continued, pulling plates and glasses out of the cupboard, “We’re gonna need some aquarium space, maybe an extra bedroom for like… the inevitable hedgehog playground we’ll create,” because obviously, “and whatever other terrariums and cages we acquire.” Because there would definitely be lizards in their future. Or turtles. Or rabbits or… Oh she was already getting ahead of herself. She dropped a couple pieces of pizza on each plate, unscrewed the cap on the wine bottle, poured them each a really big glass, and brought it all out into the living room. “What else do we need?” *** Normal cats would've been sprayed with a water bottle for getting up on the counter. Khoshekh would enjoy that far too much. Amphibious cats were weird. “IDK? I'm overthinking shit.” She did that far too often. Everleigh’s headspace was a mess, most days. She did not envy anyone on the receiving end of her vocal thought process sometimes. “We'll definitely need a garage. And a back yard, because we're definitely getting a dog at some point.” It was on their agenda, new house or not. “And two bathrooms. I love you, but no more sharing. I need my space. So, we're looking for at least three bedrooms.” Taking her plate and glass from her dark haired compatriot, Ever settled back down on the couch. “I can check online listings, too, but let's bust out this newspaper first “ *** “Well one of us should.” Cece was most likely under thinking things. That was one of the many reasons they worked well as roommates. She sat down on the other end of the couch, pulling her legs up under her and leaning against the arm. Folding her slice in half--the New York way--she took a large bite and considered Ever’s wish list. “Totally with you on the two bathrooms. No offense taken.” Hell, she was way overdue for her own bathroom. She’d grown up sharing one with her aunt which got so cramped as she got older, and was a constant source of bickering. “Ditto on the yard, because duh.” Getting a dog was a given. “At least one dog. Probably the saddest looking mutt we can find.” Ugly dogs were the cutest dogs, in her opinion. “And tons of windows, because. You know. The plant babies.” Setting her plate down on the coffee table, she reached for the newspaper and unfolded it to the advertisements. “I figured this place is weird enough to still do most of its postings old school. There are definitely a lot of empty houses.” *** “Alright so, three bedroom, two bath minimum. Big backyard, lots of windows.” Balancing the plate on her lap, she grabbed her iPad. “I'm going to check the weirdness that is craigslist, too, because you never know.” There were things to look for in postings for their strange little island. It meant digging through some of the more sketchy things on the website, but Ever didn't mind the challenge. “It would be great if bc we could find something less … in the middle of town.” She was always paranoid about one of the animals getting out. “Y’know, this makes me wish Danny and I hadn't sold the family home after mom passed. It was perfect.” *** “There’s a Summerview page in Cragislist?” Cece asked, properly distracted now. “What do the missed connections say? ‘You: a seven foot tall lady gargoyle turned to stone on the roof of the library, Me: the three foot tall dwarf waving to you every Thursday when I come to exchange my books. Send me a passenger pigeon with a note tied to its ankle if you want to have a drink at the pub sometime’’?” She cackled. Now she wanted to look it up just to see how far off she was. But no. There were important things to deal with. “Yeah, I mean, I like being in the middle of town but I also hate people,” she said scrunching her nose as she took a gulp of cheap wine. “I think we should shoot for one floor if we can. Just in case we pick up some three legged dog who can’t get up stairs.” That was the dream. “Damn you and your brother! You’re both fired!” *** “Sort of? You’ve gotta dig deep to find the listings, and it means sorting through some weird shit to get there. Plus, sometimes it’s hard to tell what is legit Summerview from what is just people being gross.” She didn’t venture down this avenue often for a reason. With a nod, she bit into her pizza. “People are the worst. Animals are better than people, any day - Khoshekh, get away from my pizza!” Ever pushed the cat off of the back of the couch, where she had decided to jump and try and face plant into Ever’s plate of food. “Alright, we’ll add single story to the list of requirements.” The last thing she wanted was for one of their reject pets to have difficulty getting around their own home. “I’m sorry! But think of it this way! If we hadn’t sold the place, we wouldn’t be here, eating pizza and drinking shitty wine together!” *** Ever might not venture down that avenue, but Cece was just curious enough to poke the bear for her own amusement. “I’m definitely checking it out.” Not right now though. Too many things to do at the moment. She took a large bite of pizza and opened the newspaper to the real estate listings, chewing as she perused. “People are garbage.” She agree with a nod. This was, of course, somewhat hypocritical considering she needed people in order to peddle her wares, but still. She gave Khoshekh an extra death glare for good measure after Ever shoved her off the couch. Cats, man. “Well that kinda cuts things down a bit. There are a lot of little Victorians around here with more than one story. We need a cute little ranch or something.” Split level at the most. At least with those the stairs weren’t too bad. “Fine,” she conceded, heaving a huge sigh, but with a grin breaking her normal deadpan expression. “That’s legit. I’m glad you and your brother sold the house.” ** “Oh, definitely do. It’s hilarious, yet also terrifying.” As was most of the internet, if she was being completely honest. She supposed, of course, that was because of what Cece said next. People were garbage. It did make it a little more difficult. Summerview was filled with old, two story homes. “Seriously. Why can’t there be more, y’know, handicapped animal friendly houses?” Tilting her head, she pondered for a moment. “I wonder how hard it would be to incorporate a ramp onto a flight of stairs? Like, something small - just big enough for a dog to scamper up?” ** “That’s the best part of the internet,” Cece said as though that was a given. But seriously though. There was nothing like some creepy internet shit to really make her day. “Maybe we need to be looking at the beach houses. Some of those are one story?” Although many of them were also kind of small. Hopefully they’d still meet the bedroom and bathroom requirements. She pulled a red pen out of her purse and started marking up some of the listings on the paper. A star for the right number of bedrooms, double stars for the right number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Three if they were only one floor. “Probably not that hard. We’re smart capable, 21st century women, we can probably figure that out, right?” Right? Either that or find someone who did. ** The best, and the worst. It was strange how something could be both things. “I could get down with living on a beach,” She mused. Beach houses did have the drawback of being on the smaller side, but she had a feeling they could make it work, even if it ended up being two stories. “Damn right!” She’d seen some interesting pet friendly house ideas when she had been doing her research for Khoshekh’s habitat. ** “Oh man, same. We’ll have to put up some wards up to keep everyone from throwing beach trash in our yard though. Maybe have the yard throw it back at them.” She could just see it now: soda cans being thrown back at peoples heads by some tall grass or some beach heather. Cece starred a few more of the listings and then went back through circling the ones with the most stars, and came up with two that seemed promising and in their price range. One was a split level beach house with three bedrooms and one and a half baths--not ideal, since they’d still have to share the shower, but at least they’d have their own sinks and toilets?--one was slightly further out but had a large yard and one story, two full baths, but only two bedrooms, so common space would have to be commandeered for pet areas. “Alright ma’am,” she said, taking a sip of wine as she turned the paper towards Ever to look at. “Show your cards.” *** In all honesty, Cece had found more than Ever had, though she’d uncovered far more about their little island town than she really wished to admit. Turning her tablet around so that her roommate could see, she showed her the one listing that she’d managed to come across that would fit what they were looking for. It wasn’t much - a three bedroom, two bath place that seemed smaller in square footage than what they were already living in, which was impressive. “Not much here, though those you have look promising.” She was far more interested in what Cece had to share. “I like the large yard on that one, but the other one has three bedrooms. Ugh, Summerview, why you gotta be so … limited?” She knew they would have far better luck finding something on the mainland, in Atlantic City, but that wasn’t really an option, with an oddity like Khoshekh. *** “That can’t be everything, right?” There had to be something else. It wasn’t as if they were asking a lot. Or were they? She didn’t feel like it was. Pretty standard fare as far as houses went. Not like they were looking for something weird like a portal to another dimension. Just extra bedrooms and a nice yard. “Why aren’t there realtors on this island?” Wait, were there? Maybe that’s what they needed. Some person who had some kind of secret in. The lowdown on what was available in Summerview. Maybe they were holding onto all the good properties? “I can’t believe the internet is failing us.” *** There had to be more. “I mean, maybe we should put out a post on the network? Its possible someone has something that isn't being advertised?” That was the only thing she could think of. They weren't asking for anything crazy. “What is the world coming to, when even the internet fails? Is the world ending? Should we start trying to repent for our sins, before judgement day?” *** Hmm. That wasn’t a bad idea. It wasn’t impossible that there were some very old supernaturals on this island holding onto property they weren’t using. In fact, Cece was pretty sure the older you got, the worse of a hoarder you became. And if someone was hoarding property then it seemed only fair that they offer it up to two witches who needed some extra space. She folded the paper back up and took another bite of pizza. “That’s a pretty good idea actually. Let’s do it?” Cece snorted, swatting at Ever with her non-pizza-holding hand. “The world is always ending! We’re going out in a blaze of glory! No regrets!” *** “Doing it now,” She was already logged in, so why not? It wouldn't take her but a moment to do. Working quickly, she tapped out a network message, handing the tablet to Cece for review before she posted it. A look of mock hurt and shock crossed her face as her dearest and bestest roommate and friend took a swipe at her. Of course, it only lasted for a second, and was quickly replaced by laughter as Khoshekh hopped up into her lap again. She picked up the cat, planting a kiss on top his scaly head. “Hear that, bud? We're going down, guns blazing.” *** Cece glanced over the message on the tablet and gave it a nod of approval. “Beautiful,” she said, “Pure poetry.” Definitely much better than the snarky message she probably would have written. This, of course, was why they worked so well as roommates, clearly. She downed her glass of wine at the most inopportune time because it almost shot out her nose when she started laughing at guns blazing. “I definitely don’t want to see what happens when we give Khoshekh a gun. Also I think you mean wands blazing.” Because witches, naturally. *** Someone needed to balance out all of Cece’s snark, just like someone needed to be snarky on Everleigh’s behalf. It was why she was convinced that they were utterly perfect roommates. The laugh that left the young woman was enough to cause the cat to skitter off, glaring at her the entire time. “Oh lord, he’d probably be the worst of us all. Kill the humans, cats reign supreme!” That was an overly amusing though. Or maybe it was only so amusing to Ever because of the wine. Either way, she cackled at the thought. *** “Uh, I’m pretty sure cats already reign supreme,” Cece pointed out with a snort of laughter, “I mean, who are we really looking for a new apartment for? Us, or Khoshekh, our lord and master?” Against his will, Cece scooped Khoshekh up--he never could stay away long, not when there was pizza on the coffee table--and scratched him behind the ears. “Who run the world? Cats!” “We’ll find something, I believe in your writing skills. And if nothing else, if our menagerie gets any bigger, the sheer crampedness of it all will light a fire under our butts,” she said with a snicker. “It’s only a matter of time.” |