"Hey Mr. Bojing," she muttered at her landlord, as she walked into the reception, he was somewhat of a mystery and usually kept to himself. He had a sort of not my problem philosophy and didn't necessarily care about the condition of anyone's rooms as long as they paid up. Nonetheless, he was a kind sort and had maintained a friendly relationship with Ash, and her with him. After all, he was the one who had helped her study for the final Chinese exam last year.
"Ach! My favorite resident!" he replied, a slight accent coming from him as he looked up from the book he was reading, a soft smile on his face "How was uh..." he paused, a puzzled look on his face as he tried to remember the correct term "School! How was school?" he asked
"It was fine, oh we finished reading the book I told you about!" she eagerly replied, opening her purse to get her house keys
"Oh, the one about love and all yes. You know, back in Vietnam we have this story called Con Rong Chau Tien. Unbelievably beautiful. " he nodded. Mr. Bojing was a sort of expert on all sorts of Ancient Asian mythology and was apparently quite the historian back in his homeland, which made it frankly, a little strange why he decided to come to New York and become a landlord of all things.
"Hm really? You have to tell me it sometimes" she asked, fairly interested in the topic, our protagonist wasn't the superstitious sort but any sort of mythology did intrigue her. "Well I gotta get going, have to finish up some stuff." she continued, giving a little wave to her landlord as she left to ride the elevator
"Bye! Rent's due next week!" he shouted as the stained grey metal elevator doors closed
"Yeah I'll uh, I'll pay that!" she shouted back a little hesitantly, her voice a little muffled by the doors that stood in front of her, she wasn't exactly in the best financial spot at the moment. She always had thought of publishing some of her songs somewhere but always decided against it, they probably weren't even that good.
"She's a nice girl, wondered what happened to that friend of hers." our lovely Chinese landlord muttered to himself as the elevator doors closed and Ash went up to her room.
If there was one good thing to say about her place, it was that the view was spectacular.
One could stare into the dark inky night, the sunset of myth, or even the sunrise that brought life back upon the world.
Aside from that, however...
Well, her apartment wasn't exactly very luxurious. But while maybe poor by design and in practically everything, it was rich with memories of joy, sadness. An empty house with the fullest of life.
She opened the keys to her apartment and made sure to clean it up a little, taking a few clothes off the floor, and made the place a little tidier than it usually was.
She headed off to the shower and got out, a slight migraine and wanting nothing more than to wear her pride-themed pajamas with maybe a hoodie on top, and have her friend over so they could marathon a movie series all night long.
Well maybe not all night long, staying up till 8 am would be somewhat pushing it.
With a towel wrapped around her hair, she left the shower and grabbed her phone from the kitchen, and texted Sofia
"Yo, wanna come on over?"
She waited a bit for the reply, she was probably doing homework. Or doing math for fun. Well, those two were somewhat related for her, but not necessarily the point.
"omg YESSS!!!!! I'll be there in like 20 minutes!"
"Aight see you soon, you better come gurl" Ash finished off, a little smirk on her face as she got dressed up and made some popcorn for the both of them, the cheap microwave kind which, frankly, wasn't even that bad.
A few moments later she heard the bell ring from the reception, it was probably Mr. Bojing telling her that Sofi was downstairs, she hurried on over and touched the button, the irritating ringing sound ceasing to a stop.
"Ash? Sofiá is downstairs, can she come up?" he asked, he had seen her quite a few times but they weren't exactly the most acquainted, a little to her dismay considering that she was a friendly sort.
"Oh yeah of course! Send her up Mr. Bojing" she replied before getting the popcorn from the microwave and setting it up in front of the TV, she turned it on and hoped Sofi had an idea for what to watch.
Moments later she heard a knock against her oak door, at least she didn't ring the doorbell, to put it simply, Satan's roar from hell wouldn't come close to the pain that bell brought.
"Come in!" Ash shouted as she walked over from the living room "Hey Sofi." she said as she pulled her in for their handshake
"Hey Ash!" she smiled as she got pulled in for the handshake, wearing a grey sweater with a cartoon rocket and the words "Space Rocks" on the image. If anything, it was the most adorable thing you'd ever put your eyes on, and it was a perfect match for the nerdy aesthetic and glasses Sofia held.
"So, what do you wanna watch? I got some popcorn!" Ash said as she let go and plopped down on the couch, reclining her legs a little and glancing over at her phone for a quick second
Sofia followed quickly after and sat down on the couch, she felt perfectly comfortable, after all, this was practically her second home considering her actual home was empty most of the time. Swedish Rock Bands practicing on the floor upstairs tended to get annoying. Interesting to listen to at first, but at some point, you'd get fed up with them and have to end up taking their songs out of your playlist.
"Well, I've got a ton of science movies I've been meaning to watch OR uh we can watch like... Uh. Harry Potter?" she suggested trying to figure out something they'd both like. Ash wasn't exactly the biggest science fan, although she did tend to have a somewhat interest in the various social sciences, the more philosophical part, not the brain itself, however.
"Honey I've watched Harry Potter to the point I can remember every line Ginny says, and I still think she should've gotten together with Luna." she sighed, JKR HAD been her idol, once in a blue move but goddamn that girl was doing horribly on Twitter. "What typa science movies you got?" she continued before passing her the remote
"Umm..." she hesitated as she thought about the main movie she wanted to watch. There was one about social trigonometry... And one about nanoparticles in physics...
"Oh I know!" she blurted out, the idea striking right at her head as she snatched the remote from Ash's hands "No, promise you won't judge cause this is probably gonna be the nerdiest and most boring movie you'll ever see. And don't worry, it won't be a documentary"
"Well, I mean" Ash replied, trying to find a comeback to that "I'm sure it won't be TOO boring. Nerdiest of course, but I'm sure it'll be an interesting movie." she continued, a smile on her face as she did her best to support her, clearly very enthusiastic, and slightly nerdy friend.
Who knows? Maybe she'd love it!
"Okay but if you end up falling asleep, I won't hesitate to give you an hour lecture about the importance of biology in sociology." she teased as she clicked a few buttons on the remote and got onto the film
"Jokes on you Sofi, I'd fucking love that." she teased back with a little smirk on her face as she scooted over to her on the couch before grabbing a handful of popcorn.
"Oh Ryan Goslings in this, great choice." she laughed, noticing the title card of the movie. He was certainly one of her favorite actors, and honestly, she sure as hell wasn't gonna complain if the movie showed some abs, cause pecs are pecs, regardless if they got a dick or something else.
"Is that even scientifically possible??" she asked, Sofi rolling her eyes a little as they saw the incredibly complex engineering process of the plan they were designing.
"No, it isn't. Everyone knows that quantum teleportation depends on a vector of light and quantum matter! But, I guess that like depending on the sub-electronic particles it could be possible?? Kind of??" she replied hesitantly, not sure if that statement was entirely correct or not.
"Honey no... What the fuck are you doing??" she groaned out as the classic horror TV trope came upon the movie and a lone lady was investigating a sound that came from the basement
"I know right??? She isn't even using the subatomic death particle ray! And to think she was an award-winning scientist..." she muttered annoyed, quite a little disappointed in the lack of common sense found in a noble prize winner.
Well, to be fair, it's not like any of the other characters would do much better.
The night passed as hour came upon hour of cries of annoyance, and laughter, and cheers of joy as the movie continued. Stars light the up sky like snowflakes in the night, yet they appeared still, like an old photograph, longing for days of old, the sky was a black tranquility, married to a poetry of stars as they shone upon a world tired of the sun that came to haunts nights of love and tears.
"Well, I can successfully say that this movie, is the most beautiful shit I've ever seen. That scene where they had the shootout at the cliff??? FUCKING ICONIC" she laughed, setting the remote down as the credits began to roll
"I knew you'd enjoy it!!! Well, not really. But that's not the point!" Sofi giggled a little as she grabbed another handful of the popcorn.
"Either way yes, it certainly was quite the film. Especially the uh... You know. " she teased, smirking a little as she tried to hold back a laugh
Ash's eyes opened wide open, revealing her dark hazel as she pointed a finger at Sofia "Don't you dare mention that part!!!" she shouted, an embarrassed grin on her face "Look, it's not my fault, if anything, blame capitalism."
"As much as I indeed do love to blame capitalism for everything, I'm not sure that what you did was a product of capitalism honey." Sofi teased, a little amused at her reaction
"I uh... Well I mean like..." she stammered out, trying to think of a valid excuse for that
"Okay uh... Maybe it wasn't cause of capitalism," she admitted, a little ashamed as she rearranged herself on the couch, her legs crossing each other as she refused to conform to society sit properly.
"Don't worrryyy!! I'm sure uh tons of other people have gone through the same thing," she replied playfully, they probably hadn't but the words were a sort of comfort nonetheless.
"That's definitely n-" a little scream came from one of the girls as a phone on the table, vibrating furiously, begging to be picked up from its eternal torture
"OH FUCK WHAT WAS THAT???" screamed Sofi, just a little startled from the phone call that happened just about a few seconds ago. It didn't help that the ring tone was "Dancing Queen", an amazing song yes, but slightly alarming when there was total silence except for two fairly calm voices, especially when the sound blasted at full volume.
Ash quickly composed herself and grabbed her phone "Relax genius, it's just my phone." she said trying to calm her startled friend "Fuck I should really lower this" she muttered, a little amused as she muted her phone
"Well like who is it?? Phones don't ring like that by themselves! Well, usually, I'm pretty sure ghosts can like possess things?"
"It's V. Should I pick up? She's probably gonna rant about Jesse again." she laughed, as much as she loved V, she was certainly a little of a hopeless romantic. Well, a little was understating it. She was as the young ones call it, a "simp", and it was easy to admire how hard she simped over one single non-binary pal.
"Of course you should!!! I totally wanna hear her rant about how Jesse sending her a goodnight text is actually them being in love with her!" she said, without a single trace of irony as she rolled her eyes at the very thought, Sofi thought the whole concept of romance as a whole was a little bizarre. Although that most definitely didn't stop her from geeking out whenever her favorite characters got together.
"I'll pick up just cause you said that, only I get to insult my girl V like that!" she teased, sticking out her tongue like a little toddler.
She clicked on the green button and accepted the call, putting her on speaker to make sure Sofi could listen
"Yo V, what's up?" she said, sticking out her phone on the palm of her hand as she heard a slightly infernal sound coming from the background
"ASHHHHH WAS GOOOD???" she screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice coming ever so slightly distorted from the audio feedback on the phone, a little painful for everyone's ears
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