As we pulled onto the street, I immediately fell in love with whatever house my Realtor, Jennifer, was taking me to. The feeling this neighborhood gave me was enough to make me want to make an offer before we even reached the driveway. All of the yards were pristinely manicured, and the houses had a grandeur feel to them, even though they weren't large homes. It reminded me of those TV shows where perfect families lived on perfect streets with their perfect dogs and landscape, all hugged by a perfect white picket fence.

The thought of actually owning a home and not renting an apartment anymore excited me. I had worked hard for this, though, and felt like I deserved it, especially with all I had been through this year.

As we drove into my future, the past floated through my mind like a ghost, haunting my memories. I hated myself for letting one person have so much control over me, even after he was gone. One guy had put me on a pedestal only to knock me off of it, causing me to shatter into a million pieces.

When I'd met Billy after one of his concerts, I thought he was the one. But then again, I'm sure a lot of girls feel that way about a lot of guys; I just never had… not before Billy. When he and one of his friends came over to where Kim and I sat on one of the curved couches in the corner, I thought they were just hard-up for a place to sit, since the club was really crowded that night. But instead of just asking if the seats were taken, he asked to join us. Billy Jakes, the guitar player from Black Magic, wanted to join us? Sure, why not.

We talked into the morning hours, only to exchange numbers and go out for lunch the following day. We talked on the phone every day after that until the following weekend, which we spent most of together. Yes, I definitely thought he was the one.

It took a month or two for me to know for sure, though, especially since he had so many girls—groupies—who followed and stalked him after each set. I even went to one of the venues his band was playing at and watched him afterward, just to see what he would do. To my surprise, he was nice to the girls who crowded around them, but that was it. He talked to his friends, and even when some random girl would throw themselves at him, he would just pass her off to someone else. I had left without him seeing me and with a new-found trust for him. It's sad that after a year together that he would totally obliterate that trust.

When Jennifer turned into the driveway, pulling me out of my memory-clad thoughts, I was immediately in love. The small, stone house was at the end of the street on the edge of a cul-de-sac. Even though the yard was grown up and the landscaping had gotten a bit out of hand, it was still charming. I knew that Kim, who'd been my best friend since middle school, and I could take care of the yard in one weekend, especially if Eric, a friend from work, helped.

As Jenn unlocked the door and let me in, she kept pointing out features of the home that she thought I'd like, but all I kept thinking about was how I was going to do my furniture. I wanted this house.

"I can't believe it's so cheap," I mentioned as we walked down the hall and into the second bedroom. It wasn't a huge house, but it was a lot of house for the price. "And it seems fairly updated, too, especially considering the year it was built."

"Yes, it was remodeled two years ago and has only rented to one family since then. It has been vacant for the past eight months," Jenn replied.

"It's such a cute house, I wonder why it's been empty for so long?" It made me curious but didn't deter my want of owning it.

"I'm not sure. The owners have left it empty for a while and only recently decided to sell."

"Lucky for me, I guess," I boasted as we finished our walk-through of the house.

It had two bedrooms and one and a half baths, which was perfect for me, now that I was living alone. The floors were bamboo and the kitchen had updated appliances, as well as shiny, new granite countertops. It was move-in ready and so was I.

"I want to make an offer," I sang as I walked out onto the back deck, which was just icing on the cake. I would have to buy some patio furniture as a house-warming gift to myself.

"Are you sure? I still have a couple of houses for you to see if you want to check those out, too, just to make sure."

"Nope, I want this one. I love it. And the price is unbeatable." That made me think about the reasons it might be so cheap. "There is a house inspection included, right? If the inspection turns out bad, I can back out, can't I?" I in no way wanted to walk into a money pit.

"Yes, all offers are dependent on the inspection. If anything comes back as needing repairs, you can either offer less for the house or put in that your offer stands, contingent that they fix what needs to be fixed."

"Okay. Where do I sign?"

***

I don't have much furniture, so it didn't take long for me to move into my new home. Katrina, one of the girls from the salon, was nice enough to ask her boyfriend if we could use his truck, which got it all moved across town in two trips. And as planned, Eric, Kim, and I worked on the yard one Sunday, mowing the grass and trimming back bushes, and had the yard looking just as well cared for as the others.

"I can't believe you got this house," Eric boasted as we sat on my new patio furniture and sipped some iced tea. "My little Jacynda is growing up."

Eric was a really cute guy, tall and thin, who dressed impeccably, even when we were just moving furniture. I asked him why he did that, and he'd told me that you never know who you might see. Aside from the way we dressed, we were so much alike, right down to the kind of guys we were attracted to. Thankfully, we never had to fight over them.

"I know. I can't believe it, either," I admitted as I pulled my legs up against my chest, running my hands up and down the stubble that had popped out on my shins overnight. "I figured I'd get stuck with some fixer-upper or some dump. When Jenn said there was one in this neighborhood in my price range, I jumped on it."

"Well, you made a good jump," Kim said. "It's perfect."

I agreed with her, proud of my new home. “Maybe karma is on my side for once.”

This was going to be my first night in the house, so we decided to go out and celebrate. Going out on a Sunday night meant we were less likely to run into Billy. It had actually been several months since I had seen him, so I wasn't even sure if he was still in town. He seemed to run my life more now than he did when he was in it, making us avoid our usual hang-outs just so I wouldn't risk running into him. He was to me like beer was to a recovering alcoholic and I wasn't going to put myself in a situation where I would be tempted. I normally wasn't a weak person, but Billy made me weak, and I despised him for it.

As we got ready to leave, I stood in front of the mirror in the half-bath that was connected to my room, wrapping my long, dark hair into a messy French twist. I left some hair hanging out at the top and around my face and started wrapping loose strands around my curling iron. My bathroom was small, and I kept hitting my elbow against the wall next to the sink. I wish I had a full en-suite off of the master instead of this small one, but then again, any size bathroom was better than none. When I finished curling my hair and leaned across my sink to unplug the iron, I heard my bedroom door shut. Thinking that Kim was ready and had come in, I started talking about where they wanted to go.

Kim was the quieter one out of our trio. She looked a lot like me, except she often wore her hair up in a simple bun and her eyes were brown, not blue. We were the same size, so we often shared clothes. Well, she shared my clothes; I wasn’t really allowed in her house, since I was a germ carrier. The only reason her mom let her in was because she gave birth to her, which probably made her immune somehow. I think that’s why her parents got divorced; he just couldn’t stand her spraying him with Lysol every time he walked through the door. It was almost funny looking in from the outside, but I’m sure Kim hated it. I told her she needed to go ahead and move out, but she wouldn’t. She tried to say it was because she didn’t want to leave her mom alone, but I think deep down she was afraid to be alone, herself.

"Wherever we go, there has to be food 'cause I'm starving," I said as I walked out of the bathroom and into an empty room. "Kim?" I opened my bedroom door but didn't hear either of them. "Kim? Eric?" As I listened, I heard voices coming from outside. I put my shoes on and walked out to where they sat on my back porch. "Why did one of y'all shut my door on me?"

"We didn't shut your door. We've been out here for ten minutes waiting on your butt to get ready." Eric stood up and looked me up and down. "But it looks like you spent those ten minutes very well, my dear, 'cause you look fabulous. Now I feel under-dressed."

“The only way you could be under-dressed is if you were naked,” Kim half-joked.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “and probably not even then.”

As we headed out for a night on the town, nothing else was said about my bedroom door shutting by itself, but I still thought it was odd. But then again, the house was new to me, so I'm sure I'd learn all of its imperfections and loose door hinges as time went on. So, tonight, I was just going to focus on where my life was now and the fact that I had great friends that were a part of it.

Tonight was a night of celebration; not just a celebration of a new house, but new beginnings. My life was finally in a place where I was content and happy with the direction it was going in. It was usually at this point when something would happen to remind me that life is never easy; if it were, we'd never learn the lessons that we were meant to learn. Needless to say, tonight became one of those nights of learning as soon as Billy Jakes walked through the door.