It was my first week in the city, I had just turned 17, and since I wanted to go to college in the city, my family thought it was best for me to start getting used to living there a year ahead and I enrolled in an online high school program for my last year, it wasn’t a big deal for me since I didn’t have more than 1 close friend, Eliza, who I knew since we were 5, and pretty much didn’t care about anyone else in my school. They arranged for me to rent a room in the house of my mother’s friend Carla who lived there, she was just divorced and her daughter Leah was already living on her own so there was plenty of space for me to stay. It was my lifelong dream to leave the little town and come to live in the city so I was in a state of pure excitement that whole week, if not the month.

Carla picked me up at the airport, and as we drove to the house she gave me the basic house rules of the house.

“I don’t want to be a pain to you Dan, and I don’t want you to be a pain for me, so I won’t be intruding much with what you do, as long as you follow some basic house rules: No loud music, tv or anything loud while I’m in the house, you have to clean your dishes, if you arrive late, don’t make noise, and please try to not arrive drunk, never leave the house unlocked and please don’t lose your key, if you arrive late and don’t bring your key you’ll sleep on the street because I won’t wake up to open the door for you, I know some rules may sound too obvious but I have already dealt with teenagers and I know that the obvious slips right through you at this age, If you follow rules I may allow for a party whenever I have to travel out, also I have a cleaning lady coming twice a week, she can do your laundry, just leave it in the basket that I left in your bedroom”.

I just smiled and promised I was going to follow rules, and that probably I would never need to throw a party since I’m not the party kind of guy.

The house was pretty big for the city that was mostly filled with apartment buildings, it had 2 floors, 3 bedrooms, and a backgarden, it was on a quiet street just 4 blocks away of the main avenue of the area, so it was a pretty neat accomodation for a guy that was in love with the city. Carla showed me my bedroom, it was the one they normally used for visitors, then she showed me her daughter’s bedroom which was connected to mine through the shared bathroom, since Lucia, her daughter wasn’t living there anymore that wasn’t going to be an issue unless there were visitors, Carla said.

“It’s that really all you luggage?” Carla asked amazed while looking at my small suitcase.

“Yes, my dad said it was better for me to buy new stuff here, because of the weather difference, so I just brought a change of clothes, some books and small stuff”.

“Oh my god, I’m so not used to that “boys” mentality anymore, if it were me or my daughter we would have packed the entire house” She said laughing “I hope, you do get to buying new stuff, because I don’t want to be smelling you after wearing the same outfit after a week or more”.

We both had a laugh, she seemed to be easygoing, wich made me feel relaxed. She then just left to work, gave me some advices about the public transportation and nearby parks, malls and places to hang out, it was a full month before I would begin the online classes, so there was plenty time for me to enjoy the city at full, so I decided to relax at first and lay on bed, I started scrolling through instagram and facebook, seeing what my friend and everyone else back in town where doing.

Flash forward two days later, I had barely left the house, and those few times was to go across the street to look for snacks, I wasn’t aware that I could actually miss town, but I did and I couldn’t stop scrolling through photos and posts of everyone I knew, I spoke a while with Eliza, we both missed each other, I lied a bit to her, saying I had already been everywhere and met some cool people, when reality was that I had only met Carla’s daughter once, and Sandra the cleaning lady this morning.

Suddenly out of nowhere came Leah marching through my door, she made direct eye contact and exclaimed “You’re getting up, and I’m going to take you to the store so you get your new clothes and actually see real people”.

I was paralyzed, I had barely talked to her when Carla introduced us, and since she was older (26) and way too hot, I really didn’t think we were going to bond in any way.

“My mom says that you haven’t left the house and Sandra just told me you’re wearing the same thing you arrived in, so you better get up and come with me, or I’ll never give you a chance again to hang with the coolest girl in the city” she added while getting closer to the bed.

I just nodded, which made her crack laughing.

“You got a long way to guy Dan, if you plan to make it in the city, you can’t be the shy town boy anymore”.

“I won’t” I finally replied, and got up in a jump.

“That’s the attitude!” she said and took me by the arm, almost crawling me through the house, to the street, the day was super sunny without any cloud, and since I had spent all day inside I immediately squinted my eyes.

“Put these on, you’ll look cool” Leah said as she put a pair of sunglasses on my face.

We got in her car and she started driving.

“So you’re missing your friends?”.

“Not really, well not in plural, i just have one friend”.

And so we started talking about my town, and she told me all the stories her mother had told her about my mom when they were young, and how she had always envied her mother about having such a great girlfriend when she was younger, while Leah never had a close girlfriend.

“I do have my girl gang, you know, but it’s nothing like what our moms had, they were almost like sisters, then our fathers came, then job, then your family moved and rest is history, so now you and I must get along, I’ll give up on getting a close girlfriend as long as you come up to be a good guy to hang out”.

“I’ll be a good guy” I just laughed.

“Ok, then I might introduce you to some pretty girls” she said and turned to wink at me.

Leah was really cool and outgoing, I was thankful she took me out of bed, and made such an effort to make me have a good time and forget about my town. We spent all day together, she took me for brunch to a hipster place, then she took me for clothes, I was too shy to try stuff in front of her, so I just rushed picking up stuff and paid”.

“Really?” she said “That’s why you don’t have any style you just took the first things up and didn’t even took a real look at the store”.

“I just want the basics, that’s all”.

She rolled her eyes, and then we moved on to a ice cream shop, we walked along the avenue eating our ice creams and talking about life, she had just got out of college adn was an intern at a fashion magazine, her dream job actually was more serious journalism, but that was all that she could find, and it was with help of her mom’s business partners that she got that job, so she was trying to make the most out of it, I told her about how I wanted to be a scriptwriter and/or novelist, and she encouraged me to follow my dream, we talked about the city, and how I imagined it would be, she told me that all that was true, but it also wasn’t as great as I made it out to be, she promised to take time later in the week to take me out and show me more of the city and meet new people.

“Ok Dan, so here’s your stop, see you later, you’re a nice guy don’t hide on that bedroom”.

She said as we reached her mother’s house.

I came to my bedroom with my bag of new clothes and threw them on the bed, to finally try them on, I started with a white button shirt.

It seemed alright

Then, a pair of jeans, these ones took a while to come up, a black t shirt.

Ok, this ones are way too tight for me

They didn’t come out easily, so I just left them on, while I tried another white shirt, I hadn’t noticed it was a V neck, and for my taste it was way too long a V neck.

Then hit it me, these were women’s clothes.