The tall, brick apartment building loomed in front of me, staring me down like I was just a small, trouble-making child. I was intimidated, and I kind of just wanted to scurry away with my tail between my legs and beg my parents for forgiveness.

Instead, I took a deep breath, adjusted my backpack strap, then pushed the door open. I lugged my bags up the two flights of stairs to the third floor, struggling the entire time. By the time I knocked on the door of apartment 321, I was out of breath, disheveled, and a little sweaty.

The door swung open, revealing a tall, attractive brunette. He appeared amused, as he watched me catch my breath and attempt to fix myself. He had an adorable smirk on his handsome face, his brown eyes staring down at me, as if I was a source of entertainment for him.

"Hey, Vienna?"

"Uh, yeah. Hi, nice to, uh, meet you," I breathed out, trying my best to appear as normal as possible. The strap of my backpack slid down my arm, and I sheepishly fixed it, before shooting him a smile and reaching out my hand to shake his.

"Yeah, you too. So, why are you so out of breath?" He leaned against the door frame and tilted his head at me, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Lots of stairs. Lots of things to carry. Not athletic at all."

"There's an elevator, you know," he laughed.

"Yeah, I know, I just like exercise," I said, rolling my eyes. He lifted an eyebrow, obviously not believing me. I sighed. "Alright fine, but I know now. Can I just come in already?"

"Oh yeah, right. I'm Bishop, by the way. We talked on the phone." He opened the door, and I followed him inside. The room was relatively large, with a long couch on top of a gray carpet pointed towards a TV showing a football game. Against the far wall in the living room was a small piano, which made me happy, though I didn't know how to play. Just the prospect of one of them may be musical was exciting.

Connected to the living room was a small kitchen, with a peninsula and bar stools. There was one brick wall, with the TV mounted on to it, and the other three were a shade of light blue. Between the kitchen and living room was the doorway to a hall, with several doors on each side of it.

Three boys sat on the couch, their bodies tense and their focus zeroed in on the screen. "Guys! Hey, guys!" Bishop called, trying to get their attention. "She's here."

All of their eyes snapped towards me. "Hi!" I said, a little too loud and eagerly. I cleared my throat. "Uh, I'm Vienna." A little calmer this time. I gave a little awkward wave.

"Told you she was gonna be hot," the boy in the middle said, elbowing the boy to his left. "Hey baby." He winked at me. He was shirtless for some reason, wearing only a pair of gray sweatpants. He had blue eyes and messy brown hair, with a smile that made it seem like he was in on a joke and you weren't.

"Keep it in your pants, dude," Bishop chuckled. He picked up a pillow and chucked it at his roommate. "So, that's Zane Leonard, he, uh, he's just like that, sorry." He pointed to the boy in the middle that had just spoken. "On the left is Finn Jett, and on the right is my brother, Danny. He's still in high school and doesn't actually live here, but for some reason, he's always around."

Finn had curly brown hair that hung just above his shoulders. He was dressed in all black and looked at me judgingly, as if I just wasn't up to his standard.

"Shut up, you know you love me," Danny said, turning back to the television. He had a bed head of light brown hair and charming boyish features. "It's good to meet you, Vienna. Why are you named after the capital of Austria?"

"Yea, nice to meet you guys. My name is Vienna, because it's where my parents met. So, do you have any other questions to ask me or something? Honestly, I'm completely unprepared, and I have no idea how this works," I said.

I surveyed the four of them. I don't know what water they were drinking, but all of them were very good looking. At this point, I was thinking about how I might have just struck a gold mine. I mean, living with three very attractive college boys? Sign me the fuck up.

"Yeah, I don't know either. My job is done. Danny, you're up," Bishop flopped down on the couch on his stomach and left me standing there, defenseless.

Danny jumped into action, like a switch was flipped. He led me to the wooden peninsula, told me basic information about the apartment and rent, then asked me a long series of questions about me.

"Okay, that is all of my questions," he said, once he was finally finished, and I was thoroughly felt out. "We have a bunch of other applicants, so wait here, and we'll discuss and get back to you, as soon as possible." He gave me a business-like nod, before heading back to the living room.

I wasn't sure what to do, so I just stayed seated and waited for further instructions, kicking my legs in the wooden stool, like a child.

"Dude, why'd you say that? Literally no one else wanted to live with three college guys. We need her and her money, since someone blew most of the rent money on a pool table," Zane whispered, though he was still plenty loud enough for me to hear him clearly.

"Yeah, and that someone was you, Zane," Bishop said, shoving his shoulder lightly and laughing.

"It's a business tactic, wow, you guys are so lucky to have me. Fucking clueless, all of you, every last one of you," Danny said, rolling his eyes. Compared to the other boys, I would have thought he was much older than seventeen, based on his demeanor and actions. "Anyways, what do we think about her?"

"She's hot," Zane said, as if that was the deciding factor. He nodded affirmatively and began to break from the huddle, before Finn grabbed his arm and yanked him back in.

"She's practically still a stranger, she could be a murderer for all we know," Finn said.

"Look at her, does she look like a murderer to you?" Bishop asked. "She's about like five four and a hundred pound, I don't think that she's going to kill us."

"Okay, what about a witch? She could be a witch and start doing some voodoo shit, you don't know. Crystals and shit, girls are like that these days."

"Hey, Vienna?" Bishop called, looking over his shoulder at me.

"Yes?"

"Are you a witch?"

"Not that I know of, but my letter from Hogwarts could have just gotten lost in the mail," I joked awkwardly. Unfortunately, they all stared back at me blankly.

"See what I mean?" Finn said, after a couple moments of silence, they all turned away from me again.

Bishop shook his head and rolled his eyes. "She's joking, it was terrible, but she's joking."

"Hey!" I exclaimed, but they ignored me and kept talking.

"Dude, don't be stupid. She's hot," Zane stood up again. "Vienna, if you can pay your share of this month's rent up front, you're in."

"Zane!" Danny whispered, pulling him back down to the couch and smacking him upside the head. Now it was his turn to stand. He cleared his throat. "What he said."

"I have the money," I said, rushing back into the living room, like I was volunteering for tribute. I had worked at an ice cream stand over the summer, so I had a bit of money saved up. However, I was going to need to get a job real quick, if I was going to be able to keep paying rent, but they didn't need to know that. "And I have no place to stay tonight. Please?"

Happiness bubbled up inside of me. I had a place to live! Though my world had shifted to a gloomy gray, because of my parents, it was now starting to look a little brighter. I was where I had always dreamed of being, New York City, and I was ready for all of my wildest dreams to come true. There was still so much that I had to do before that happened, but step one of getting here and finding a place to live was complete.

Maybe it wouldn't be so hard after all.

"Sweet, you're in," Bishop said. He held up his knuckles, and I fist bumped him.

"Just great, let's let a complete stranger move in," Finn muttered, turning around and going to his room.

"You'll grow on him," Danny reassured, brushing past me to go back to the football game. Zane winked at me, then he and Bishop followed him to the couch.

"Your room is the one on the end," Bishop called, as he jumped onto his backside on the cracking brown leather couch.

I sighed, happy that that was over, before dragging my hefty suitcase down the short hallway towards my new room. There were two doors on each side of the hallway and one on the back wall. I dragged my suitcase into that room, took a glance inside, then stepped back out.

"Uh, hey guys?" I asked, peering down the hall and into the living room.

"Yeah?" Bishop asked, the side of his head peaking above the couch.

"There's a billiards table in my room."

"The fuck is a billiards table?" Zane asked Bishop, lowering his voice slightly, as if that meant that I couldn't hear him.

"That's rich talk for pool," Finn said loudly, exasperated with the situation and my vocabulary as well.

Bishop turned to face me. "Do you not want it in there?"

"Well, I mean, there's no bed or room for anything else."

"Man, you guys really didn't think this through," Danny said, laughing. He leaned back and crossed his arms, as if getting ready to sit back and watch the show.

Looks of concentration passed over Bishop and Zane's faces, and I could practically hear the gears trying to turn in their heads, as they wracked their brains for a solution.

"You know," Bishop said slowly, a look of realization dawning his attractive face. "We don't really need a kitchen table."

"That's true. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Zane asked, raising his eyebrows and smirking. They nodded at each other, before scrambling off of the couch and towards the beaten up, wooden kitchen table.

They immediately started taking it apart, working like a pit crew. "What is going on?" I asked, tilting my head like a puppy.

"Your guess is as good as mine. They don't use words to communicate," Danny said, eyes still on the television, like this kind of stuff happens all the time around here.

My gaze drifted back over to the boys, who had now removed the legs from the table. Zane gathered the four pieces of wood in his arms and strategically placed them on the couch. "There, now they're throw pillows."

Bishop laid the round, flat piece of wood in his hands on the kitchen floor. "And this is the pool table holder. Problem solved."

The pair surveyed their work proudly, before disappearing into the hallway. They reappeared moments later, this time carrying the large, green felted billiards table between them.

They placed it onto the dining room table. For a second, the small part of my mother in me came out, and I opened my mouth to yell at them about ruining the perfectly good table, but then I took a deep breath and realized that I'm not my mother, and I don't want to be my mother. "Go with the flow. You're big city Vienna now," I muttered to myself.

"Stop talking to yourself, weirdo," Danny called, without turning to look at me.

"Noted," I replied, as Zane and Bishop collapsed back onto the couch.

Bishop said something about a job well done and fist bumped his friend, while Zane slowly blew air out of his mouth, like that little bit of exertion was the workout of the century.

"Uh, I still don't have a bed," I said, hesitantly.

The boys all threw their heads back and groaned. Oh boy.