NEVER SAY NEVER
By Sarah Wartman
PART ONE
“…and with that, I give you the class of 2003.”
And with that, everyone in the coliseum cheered. I looked down the aisle at my best friend, Nicki, and smiled. This was it, we had done it. We survived college. Barely.
I had met Nicki my freshman year, we were assigned as roommates. She had decided to come to Kansas State to study Mass Communications. She always dreamed of being a music video director, which I thought was pretty cool. From the moment we met, I knew we’d be close friends.
I had decided to major in journalism. The first two years of college, I had wanted to be in the music business industry, maybe doing some public relations work or something. But I quickly learned that you had to know the right people to get a job in that field, so I decided on journalism. I already had a lead on a job at a magazine, so I was pretty happy with how that aspect was going.
“Hey, Nicki, wait up,” I yelled as she raced up the steps to greet her family. I was almost envious, her mom and sister drove twelve hours to see her graduate. My mother lived thirty minutes away and refused to speak to me, much less come to my graduation. She was upset that I was moving to New York City in a week. She thought I should stay here in Kansas and get a job at a local newspaper or something. But getting away from Kansas was my only concern. And I knew NYC was where I wanted to be and nobody could stop me from living out my dream.
The awesome thing was that Nicki was going to New York with me. She didn’t plan on going out there for a couple of weeks, so I’d be there by myself for a while, but I was still ecstatic. Us two, sharing an apartment in New York City? The possibilities were limitless.
“Are you coming with us to dinner?” Michelle, Nicki’s older sister asked me.
I cleared my throat. “Uh, no, that’s okay.”
“Oh, come on Sarah Barah! You have to come,” Nicki screamed, throwing her arm around my shoulder.
I sighed loudly. I looked up at her, then at her sister and mother and they smiled at me.
“Alright, fine,” I mumbled.
~*~*~*~
“So, you all packed?” Michelle asked me.
I shook my head and swallowed my mouthful of salad. “Not even close.”
“Well, when are you going up there?” Nicki’s mom asked.
“I’m leaving in eight days,” I said, not being able to control the smile that spread across my face.
“Yep,” Nicki said, looking at me. “She’s gonna hold down the fort until I get there in two or three weeks.”
I nodded and Michelle looked at me with a quizzical look in her eyes.
“What are you going to do up there by yourself for two whole weeks? New York City is a pretty big place,” she told me.
“I know,” I said. “I have a couple job interviews. Trust me, I’m sure I can find something to keep me occupied.”
They laughed and Nicki turned to me.
“That’s right,” she said. “She’s gonna find us some men, aren’t ya?”
I laughed at her statement and her mother rolled her eyes.
“Oh, geez, Nicki. When are you going to get your head out of the gutter?”
“Never,” Nicki responded and threw me a mischievous grin. I returned it, knowing exactly what she was thinking.
PART TWO
“So, you ready?” Nicki asked as people started to board the plane to find their seats.
I nodded and looked around the airport one last time, hoping my mother had come to say good-bye. I had talked to my younger brother the night before. He was unable to see me off since he was at college five hours away. He wasn’t as angry about my moving as my mother was, but he still didn’t want me to go. He supported me anyway, and I was grateful for that. He knew how much this meant to me.
I sighed and looked at her. “Guess so.”
Nicki could tell I was upset that I my mother hadn’t come and she hugged me tightly.
“Don’t worry, SJ. We’ll show them yet, won’t we?”
I pulled away and smiled at her. “Damn straight we will.”
~*~*~*~
I was squished between an overweight woman that wore way to much make-up, and an old hippie who wore a beaded headband and had the sweet, familiar aroma of an illegal, yet popular vegetative substance. It was as if he had been smoking that stuff for days, the scent was that strong.
I sat there and prayed the flight went fast. And luckily it did after I put my discman over my ears and let the soothing sounds of Natalie Imbruglia enter my head. And before I knew it, we were there. I was asked to turn my discman off as the plane made its descent towards my destiny, towards New York City.
~*~*~*~
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I screamed.
I was standing in front of a boy, probably barely sixteen, in the lost and found department. Somehow, they had misplaced one of my suitcases. I had waited at the turn-belt for nearly an hour and my last bag never made it around.
“I’m sorry ma’am,” he mumbled as he leafed through some papers.
“A lot of good that does me,” I told him.
“The best thing for you to do is to go home and we’ll give you a call if we find it. If it doesn’t turn up in twenty-four hours, you will get compensation from us.”
“This is bullshit,” I said as I wrote my apartment number on a slip of paper.
~*~*~*~
I was waving for a cab out in front of the airport. It was as if I was invisible, the yellow cars driving right past me, one right after another.
“Shit,” I yelled as one drove past me yet again. I decided to pick up my bags and stand somewhere else and try to wave a cab down.
With my head bowed, I walked towards the other end of the long corridor. I was walking as fast as I could with three heavy suitcases when all of a sudden I bumped into somebody, hard, causing me to fall and drop everything I had on the ground.
I sighed loudly and attempted to recover my things. The man I bumped into stopped to help me.
“Sorry about that,” he mumbled as he gathered up some of my things.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said back to him as I picked my things up. I saw a cab pull up and I raced towards it. The cab driver threw my bags into the trunk and we were soon off to my new home.
“Here ya go,” the cab driver said as he pulled up in front of the apartment. I looked at the meter and quickly searched for my wallet, soon discovering it was missing.
“Oh my god,” I yelled as I frantically searched my purse and my pockets.
The cab driver sighed loudly and got out to get my bags out of his trunk. Luckily, I remembered to stuff some cash in my jean pockets and found barely enough to cover the cost of my ride.
“Welcome to New York,” I told myself as the cab drove off. I bowed my head and made my way into the apartment.
PART THREE
“How was your trip?” my brother asked me.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I said, slumping into a nearby chair.
“That bad, huh?”
“First, the trip here sucked. And then once I get here, the stupid airline misplaced one of my bags and then I lose my wallet. How’s that for luck?”
“Yeah, well, it happens,” my brother mumbled.
“Yeah, and usually to me. Anyways, how is school?”
“It’s school.”
“Yeah,” I muttered, getting bored with the conversation. “Well, I probably better go and unpack some of my stuff. I got to cancel all my credit cards and stuff now.”
“Well, have fun,” my brother answered sarcastically.
“Yeah, I plan on it.”
~*~*~*~
I decided to unpack a few things before calling my bank. I know I should have called them immediately, but for some reason, I put it off. I knew if I told them exactly what time I lost it, it wouldn’t be a problem, so I didn’t worry too much about it.
I grabbed a cordless phone and walked out onto the balcony. I quickly dialed Nicki’s number and leaned over the railing. We were up on the sixth floor, which gave us an excellent view of the city.
“Hello?”
“Hey Nicki,” I said, standing back up.
“Hey girl, how was your trip?”
“A complete disaster. The ride sucked, the airline lost one of my bags and I lost my wallet. Nice, huh?”
Nicki suppressed a laugh and said, “only you, SJ.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered. “But I must say, we have a remarkable view from our balcony.”
“Any cute neighbors?”
I laughed loudly. “Geez, Nicki, I’ve only been here a couple of minutes.”
“So?” she asked.
I sighed and said, “you’re a lost cause, you know that?”
“Yes, I know this. Keep your eyes peeled though.”
“I plan on it. But in the meantime, I probably should call the bank and cancel my credit cards and checks.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you later!”
~*~*~*~
I searched through my boxes for some paperwork and when I came across the bank’s phone number and I jumped up. I searched through the mess for the phone and finally found it. I blew a loose strand out of my hair and started dialing the number. But before I finished it, I heard our buzzer ring, announcing someone was downstairs.
“That’s weird,” I thought as I clicked off the phone and straightened my tank top and made my way downstairs to see who it was. I opened the door to the apartments and saw a gorgeous guy standing in front of me.
“Can I help you?” I asked him, curious as to what brought him to my door.
“Yeah, are you Sarah?”
“Depends,” I said, crossing my arms in front of me.
“Well,” he said, pulling something out of his pocket and I recognized my wallet. “You sure look like her,” he said, looking at my driver’s license.
“Oh my gosh,” I said, snatching it from him. I looked up at him and smiled warmly, “where did you find this?”
“I was the one that bumped into you in the airport. You dropped it,” he said and smiled. “I’m Josh, by the way.”
PART FOUR
“Wow,” I said, rolling the wallet around in my hand. “Well, I’d introduce myself, but you obviously already know who I am. That was really nice of you to bring me this.”
“It’s nothing, I’m visiting a friend that lives in this complex, so it was no big deal.”
We just stood there, not knowing what to say to each other. I finally cleared my throat and said, “I probably shouldn’t ask this, since I don’t know you. But not everyone would go out of their way to return a wallet to a stranger, so you must be a decent guy. Would you like to come upstairs for a drink or something?”
“How about I take a rain check on that. I’m taking my friend out to eat and we’re meeting up with some people. I have a cab waiting and all.”
“Oh,” I whispered and looked down at the ground. “Well, thanks so much, I don’t know how I’d ever repay you.”
He leaned in closely and said, “I’m sure I can think of something.” He winked at me and quickly walked up the stairs to his friend’s apartment. The second he disappeared, I smiled and pressed my wallet to my chest and slowly climbed back up the stairs.
~*~*~*~
It was a couple days after the Josh encounter and I was busy unpacking things around the apartment. The airline luckily found my misplaced bag. It was smashed, but all I had in there was clothes, so no damage was done, I guess. I was just happy that I got it back, Lord only knows what I would have done if they didn’t recover it. I probably would have gone psycho on their asses, and that would not have been a pretty picture.
I was talking to Nicki and moving things around at the same time, trying to keep from being bored.
“No, Nicki, it was so weird,” I said as I threw some clothes into a drawer.
“He just brought it by?”
“Yeah, and girl, he was SO cute. I mean, wow….”
“How old?”
“Hmmm….my guess would be mid twenties.”
Nicki shrieked and said, “perfect!”
“Dude, I know!”
“What was his name?”
“Josh. And see, the thing is, he has a friend that lives in this complex. Likeliness I’ll see him again is pretty good,” I explained.
“Kick ass. Well, my mom is yelling for me to help her. I better go, see you in little over a week.”
“Bye babe,” I said and threw the phone on the bed. A good song came on and I ran to the stereo and blasted it. I totally went into a trance singing and dancing around at the top of my lungs since I absolutely loved this song.
I was so into the song, I didn’t hear the knock on my door or hear someone come into the apartment. A pen in hand substituted for a microphone and I danced around the room, on chairs and on the balcony, most of the time with my eyes closed. I was dancing my way back into the room and looked up and screamed.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. The pen fell from my hand and landed on the floor in front of me.
PART FIVE
“That was….uh, nice.”
There was Josh, standing in my living room with a friend. His friend was tall with curly hair and had baggy jeans on.
Then it hit me. They had seen that. I was so embarrassed, I thought I was gonna cry. I couldn’t even think straight. I sat down on a nearby chair and put my head in my hands.
“I can’t believe this is happening to me.”
Josh and his friend muffled a laugh and said, “it wasn’t that bad. We’ve seen a lot worse.”
I looked up at them with a glare and said, “oh, shut up.”
Josh put his hands up in defeat and said, “okay, sorry, geez.”
I put my head back into my hands and closed my eyes. I prayed and wished for them to disappear, that it was just a bad dream that they were here.
I opened my eyes and looked up. Damn. “Yeah, well, can I help you with something? Or are you two just waiting for an encore?”
“Encore!” Josh’s friend shouted and Josh quickly elbowed him in the side. I rolled my eyes and stood up.
“No, really, I did come here for a reason,” Josh said, stepping in front of his friend.
I crossed my arms in front of me and said, “and what would that be?”
“I need a favor.”
I laughed lightly. “A favor? What kind of favor?”
“My friend needs a date,” Josh blurted out.
“Oh geez,” I said and threw myself back into the chair. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Afraid not. He’s a really shy guy and a whole bunch of us have been invited to this party and he’s too chicken to ask a girl out.”
"Oh, so you two go take pity on the girl next door who can’t sing? Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Oh, what would it hurt?” Josh’s friend asked.
Frustrated, I shot him an annoyed look. “Who in the hell are you anyway?”
His friend smiled and I felt my hard persona slowly dissolve. “I’m Justin.”
“Hi Justin. And no, I don’t do blind dates.”
“Oh, come on. Taking one look at this place tells me you’re new here. Do you know anybody here?”
I nodded and Josh shot me down. “Who?”
“You!”
“Besides me?”
“Justin. Look, I don’t have to answer your questions. I hardly know you.”
“You just said you did.”
“Argh!” I said, becoming irritated. “Why can’t you take no for an answer and go take your pity somewhere else?”
“It isn’t pity, it’s a favor. My friend is a nice guy. Besides, I think you owe me a favor anyway,” Josh answered, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
“Damn. When is this so-called party?”
“Friday. I promise you’ll have fun,” Justin added.
I folded my arms and blew a loose piece of hair from my face. “You won’t leave until I say yes, will you?”
Josh and Justin looked at each other and grinned. They both looked at me and shook their heads.
I sighed and said, “fine. Lord knows I don’t want you two here any longer than you have to be.”
TO BE CONTINUED