The Los Angeles Airport was as busy as she remembered it. Each of the times she had needed to escape the bitter winter in Providence, this was the first destination that came to mind. Even though it was pretty bare and old, unlike the beautiful airport back in Singapore that had been voted best in the world, LAX was still better than the tiny thing that was T.F. Green. Although, if she was being completely honest with herself, the size of T.F. Green had saved her from missing her flights time and again. All she had to do was walk straight to the TSA screening with her carry on, line up behind two other passengers, and stroll ten steps to her gate despite waking up an hour before her departure time. She would never get away with that in Los Angeles.

Stepping out of the airport, she relished in the coolness of the air. Every time she took a plane, she found it interesting that all she had to do was shut her eyes only to open them in a completely new place. A day ago, she was complaining about the slick sweat rolling down her back in Singapore, and now she was enjoying the perfect weather of Los Angeles. It was modern day teleportation. However, she hated flying from sunny Singapore straight into a winter storm at Providence, and she detested the reverse even more. Truly, anywhere to Los Angeles was the only welcome change after a flight.

Even though she had landed in the middle of the morning, the weather was chilly but not cold. The sun was nice against her skin but not scorching hot. She was convinced that Los Angeles was the perfect weather for fashion. The boys back home wore slippers and tiny shorts so small that you could see their leg hair and the boys in Providence wore ugly snow boots and thick over coats so thick you could never be sure if they were fit or just fat. The boys in Los Angeles however were both fit and fashionable. As this thought crossed her mind, so did a boy her age sporting a neat pompadour, a stylishly ripped pair of denims and sneakers she had once seen on Mr Porter. His outfit made her look for her own reflection in the sliding glass doors of the terminal, and she thanked the Lord that her brother got her this pair of NMDs.

Speaking of whom, she looked around at the cars driving into the terminal and when the grey cars that drove by her did not stop, she checked her watch. It was so like him to be late. On every single occasion, her brother was always punctual, as her mom liked to brag. But of course, in her better experience, that was false. She was the punctual one and her mom just entertained a selective memory. If her brother was landing at the airport at 9.30am, she would have left her home at 9.15am to make the 20 minute drive, park at the airport and wait excitedly at the gate to see him. But as she was dealing with her brother, she was stuck with the opportunity to wait for a half hour or more for her brother to come get her at the gate. It was either that or a 15 dollar Uber to his place.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar grey BMW X3 not only speeding but also weaving in and out of all lanes with law abiding drivers. Her brother always prided himself in being a good driver, but she always thought he was more reckless than skilful. With no signs of slowing down, the grey car tore down the inner lane and just as it closed the final 100 meters to where she was standing, it screeched to a halt. While the middle aged couple beside her winced and their toddler plugged his ears shut, she sighed in an awkward place in-between exhaustion and embarrassment.

Her brother lowered his blacked out window. She saw his signature wavy black hair peek out first, followed by the high cheekbones that propped up his blue RayBans. Growing up, he had always been the good looking one in the family and he sure acted like it. His confidence rolled out of his car and he offered his little sister his killer watt smile, "Hey sis."

"Hey bro..." She greeted him, and because she knew he was not going to get out of his car to help her... "pop the trunk for me?" Grabbing her oversized luggage, she lugged it towards the back of the car and heard the little pop sound. Not many girls her age and size could lift the luggage tagged 'overweight' five times in red tape, but not many girls hit the gym every single day either. Being careful not to awaken the back injury she had sustained from a fateful sneeze in the vulnerable deadlift position, she bent the right way and hoisted the luggage up into the boot before rounding the side of the car.

She tugged on the door handle and it snapped back on her fingers hard. "Ow!" She exclaimed, giving her brother a glare.

He laughed and she heard the familiar click. More carefully this time, she pulled and heaved a sigh of relief when the door opened. She climbed into the passenger's seat, twisting to get herself fastened securely in preparation for her brother's reckless driving.

"How are the parents?" Her brother asked, checking his blindspot before slamming on the accelerator.

She felt herself being thrown back into the seat, but was barely rattled by the impact. In fact, she rested her head comfortably against the head rest, watching idly as her brother weaved in and out of traffic, narrowly missing cars and trucks alike. She was at peace for if God had wanted her life, He would take it in this very car. She had not died in any of these car rides, so she was convinced it was not her time to go.

"Dad's chill as always and mom did her usual guilt tripping number." She narrowed her eyes at her mom's habit of making her children feel bad for trying to live abroad.

"Oh, yah?" He laughed, a sour laugh as he shared her memory. "Complained that all you ever do is meet your friends even though you go out once a week? Accused you of treating the house like a hotel? Reminded you of the verbal contract of returning home she forced you to sign when you left for college?"

"Yup, yup, and yup."

"Hah. Mom."

They rolled their eyes in unison, but this was a rare overlap for the Lee siblings. Despite their common upbringing, they grew up extremely dissimilar to each other. While he enjoyed going out every single day, she loved spending her time cozied up in her bedroom with a book. While his teacher called their parents to inform them of his bad and disruptive behaviour in class, her teacher called to persuade them to convince her to run for student body president. While she was standing in front of a crowd in the middle of a debate competition, he would be out in front of an even bigger crowd trying to score a touchdown for his Rugby team. While she spent majority of her life trying to please her peers and get into their good books, he spent majority of his life with a tight tiny ring of close friends who shunned bootlickers. So it made sense that when college came around, she chose the East coast and he chose the West.

As they hit the I-405N at a frightening speed, she checked his navigation system. "You know you should really use Waze."

"Why?"

"It always tells you when there are police."

"Yeah, GoogleMaps does that too."

She shrugged. "Not the same."

He turned to look at her behind his shades, sparking a fire of anxiety through her chest. His bad driving was one thing, but this was a serious challenge to fate itself. Yet, she could not find the words to scold her elder brother. "You just like Waze because it has a girly interface."

She shrugged once more, hoping her lack of response would make him disinterested in the topic and more interested in the road before them. She was right, and he refocused his attention . She did the same and as her eyes looked ahead, she saw the horizon before her. A beautiful amalgamation of city and mountains, Los Angeles was a sight to behold. Even though it lay right smack in the middle of a desert, the palm trees lining the roads made up for what it lacked. Perhaps, the glorious clear blue sky of Los Angeles distracted from the darker sides of the city.

Los Angeles had not always been her top choice. She did not fall in love with it at first sight, and she did not fall in love with it the second, third, or fourth time she visited. Maybe she had learned to like it, but more likely, Los Angeles had quietly grown on her. In fact, her top choice had always been to return to Singapore upon graduation because she knew it to be the most optimal choice for a steady life. Yet, here she was, her entire essentials packed up into a single luggage and ready to start a brand new life in a place she had repeatedly been merely a tourist.

Sure, she liked wandering down the street of Abbot Kinney looking into cute little boutiques with price points too high for a nameless product. And of course she loved Salt and Straw with their many exotic flavours that she always sampled but never ordered, never failing to decide on her undefeated favourite of sea salt vanilla with caramel ribbons. She had an itinerary set, the same exact one, for every time she came to visit. After a week of Los Angeles, she would return to Providence for school.

It was a little scary to think that now her trip would not come to an end. She was now a resident of California who had to actually live here. What would she even do in Los Angeles past her usual seven and a half days?

"The new apartment is just about set up." Her brother informed her. "Hannah and I tracked down a queen sized mattress for you and moved it into your room, but everything else you and I will do this weekend."

"Oh, thank you. How is Hannah?" Hannah was her brother's closest female friend in California. She was also an architecture graduate and for some reason, her body was incredibly built. If humans were designed like buildings, Hannah would be one of the top designed buildings in the world. Hannah would stop you in your tracks like Sydney's Opera House, demanding your attention and appreciation for the many curves she had.

Her brother paused, and if it was anyone else in the world, it would have gone unnoticed. But because they had spent eighteen years like two peas in a pod, she knew that something was at the back of his mind. After another minute or so, he pursed his lips and settled with a simple, "Hannah's good."

In juxtaposition to her mom, she would never push for an answer. Whether it stemmed from the core of her personality or from an expert understanding of her own brother, she would wait patiently for the answer to reveal itself. The funny thing was that while she practiced non-interference with her family and really close friends, this concept did not exist when the person or situation did not matter. She recalled pestering Emily in school repeatedly to tell her the secret Emily's own mom had told her not to say, and until today, she could not recall the insignificant secret. So, she let the silence roll through the car, even though it made her slightly uncomfortable.

By the time their car pulled out of the highway, she had remembered to always be at peace, because her brother's driving was just a taunting red cloth in front of the charging bull that was death. It made her wonder if she would drive like him when she got her license here, and on that thought, she made a mental note to figure out how to apply for one. She had been driving in Singapore since she was 18, but by the looks of it, driving here would be an entirely different ball game.

Their car slowed ever so slightly, jolting her to the realisation that they were at their destination. She leaned forward against the dashboard to have a better look at the apartment before her. While it appeared to only have a handful of storeys, it looked modern enough and more importantly, newly renovated. As they pulled into the garage, she noticed the selection of cars around them. A white Mercedes, a couple of BMWs and a Chrysler. She was certain the other cars were of brands too, but she had run out of her car vocabulary, just as she would never be able to name a model of any car in the world unless it was explicitly spelled out on the car itself.

"These are our spots." Her brother announced, gesturing to the two empty slots he was parking in and then he jabbed a finger towards the back, "and that spot's Hannah's."

She turned to see a shiny new red BMW parked. In that moment, she could not recall Hannah's socioeconomic status. But if she could afford one of those right out of college, she had to be either from a wealthy family or working an extremely well paying job. Although, her collective interactions with Hannah made her feel like the former was more likely than the latter. That conclusion made her feel a little stuck up because she had somehow made a judgment on Hannah's intellect. She felt bad because Hannah had been nothing but nice to her.

Hannah was her, but in a different life. As much as her brother hate to admit it, Hannah seemed to be a substitute for his little sister. She was sporty, funny, a little chubby. It did not help either that they both bore an uncanny resemblance of each other, not in the sense that they shared features, but rather their general vibe. While her brother went for classes, Hannah would take her to try things that she had not either. Whether they attempted to boulder but ended up gawking at toned muscle men boulder instead, or drinking pretentious cocktails at Catch and really just craving military lattes from Loit Cafe, there was never a dull day with Hannah. There were not many girls she could get along with, but Hannah was definitely one of them.

When they got into the lift, she realised she had no clue which button to press. Her brother leaned around her and hit the PH button, "We're up on penthouse."

"Oooooo, fancy." She said mockingly.

He laughed. "Ya, it just means we pay more rent."

"How did we even choose this place anyway?" Prior to moving here, she had spent her last semester at Brown researching for apartments to no avail. Most of them that were reasonably priced were rundown, so perhaps the only explanation for this affordable apartment was that it was...haunted. Even though it was just a light hearted joke that she herself had cracked, mind you, she felt a chill run down her spine.

"Hannah did all the work while we were back in Singapore. She crashed at a friend's place around here and drove by this apartment then decided to check it out."

"Oh yeah? She didn't go back to Thailand for the summer?"

"No... I don't think so. Her OPT expires in a year anyway, so she best spend all her time here."

"That makes sense but I'm sure her family must miss her."

"Yeah, she Skypes them all the time."

"Imagine not coming home for a full year. Mom might just die."

"Nah, she'd fly here to kill us herself for being unfilial."

They both rolled their eyes as he pushed her luggage towards the door. He fumbled for the key and then finally got the door open. Excited, she peeked in around him, trying to see if it was as pretty as the video Hannah had sent their group chat. As they walked through the corridor, she imagined a shoe rack right by the door and as they hit the kitchen, she smiled at the potential it held. They would be doing so much cooking in a kitchen as beautiful as this.

Across the kitchen with its stunning open design concept was a cozy living room and bay windows. Oh, it was the bay windows that won her heart, as she felt a strange pulling towards it. You could tell a lot from a house through it's windows; just from its windows you could guess if its inhabitants were warm or cold, if its interior was modern or antiquated. Windows came in all shapes and sizes but her favourite kind were the clean vast panels of pure clear glass and she wondered sometimes what that said about her.

All of a sudden, she saw a whip of hair in the air and movement from the door closest to the kitchen, and skinny arms fastened themselves weakly around her body. "Hello!" The surprise girl chimed, "How was your flight?"

Oh. She turned to stare blankly at her brother, who had once again neglected to tell her one of his girls would be here. He could have at least told her his girl's name, that way it would not be awkward. In fact, if she had her name it would make things even better for him because then it would seem like her brother talked to her about his girl. Yet, here they stood awkwardly. What's in a name? Juliet had asked. Everything, apparently.

"Hi! It was good." She replied, remembering her polite smile.

The girl stopped hugging her, dropping back to really just grin at her. Wow. She thought, just staring at the girl. She had seen her brother's girls before, but this girl was in an entirely different league of her own. She wrapped her slender figure in a body hugging black dress, which every girl should have... the dress, not the figure... though every girl would desire both. But it was her face that drew people in, and then with a few more glimpses, she felt her mouth fall.

"Hannah?"

Hannah, or Hannah 2.0, turned to stare at her brother in a wondrous agape fashion. "Kaden, I think I've broken your sister."

"Aw, take it as a compliment. She hasn't seen you in a while." Kaden told her before disappearing down another corridor with the luggages.

"Hannah." She repeated once more, trying to coax herself out of the shock she had found herself in. Hannah, her Hannah, never looked like this. She cocked her head to a side to get a really good look. Yes, she lost some weight... a lot of weight... but to look this different? It must be the dress, the hair and the face. Hannah's face looked so... different. She felt a pang of jealousy, but fought against it from containing her. Be happy for Hannah, she told herself.

"Yes, my love?" Hannah beamed.

"I have missed you!" She exclaimed, before throwing her arms around this stranger. Damn. It did not even feel like her anymore. This Hannah was so leaned out that it was disorienting. It made her feel hate for herself, and maybe the resentment came because she had felt so comfortable with the previous Hannah. With the previous Hannah, she never had to feel competitive because they had been at an equilibrium, which was now tossed widely in Hannah's favour. As she ran her hands down Hannah's back, feeling the layer of fat that only one of them still had, she came to acknowledge that Los Angeles really changed people.

She sure hoped Los Angeles would change her too.