BLOOD LIVES HERE

Sitting on the edge of the bed I pulled my boots on and grabbed my jacket. "Brooke come on. I swear to God you have to be the slowest person on the entire planet." 

Glancing up I saw her stick her hand out the bathroom door and flip me off. Sighing I laid sideways across the bed. I was still sleepy and would have much rather been warm and comfy in the hotel bed. Brooke and I had been best friends from birth, our birthdays were only two days apart and we had been next-door neighbors our entire life. This year our parents had surprised us with tickets to fly to NYC for New Year's Eve, something I would have never thought they would do in a million years.

Brooke rounded the corner, "so here is an idea. Why don't we move up here after this last semester?" I frowned at her "uh, no way. I am not a city girl."

Rolling her eyes Brooke dug through her bags pulling out her shoes, "come on. We both graduate in May. You can start your masters here. I can get a kick-ass job, and best of all we can be roomies." 

Sitting up I cut my eyes at her like she was crazy, "I hate to break it you but we have been roomies since we graduated high school."

Brooke frowned at me, "Kennedy you are such a buzz kill."

Shrugging my shoulders I watched Brooke plop down on the bed opposite of me and begun lacing her shoes. We might have been best friends for almost 21 years now but we were complete opposites in almost every area. Brooke was tall and athletic, her warm mocha skin tone was set off by her shoulder-length curly hair. I on the other hand was short and curvy. My white skin begged me to get out in some sun and get it some color. My long brown hair was the result of me being lazy and not going to get it cut even though I constantly complained about it. It was hard to straighten as long as it was and ended up in a messy bun most of the time. As outgoing as Brooke was made me seem almost antisocial. Sometimes I wondered how we managed to get along so well but we made it work.

New York was a madhouse of people, it seemed as if the entire world had traveled here to watch the ball drop and had yet to leave. Last night had been an unforgettable experience, we had gotten to see some of our favorite performers live and had even managed to be seen by our friends and family on tv. As tired as we both were from staying up way too late last night we were determined to go out and have fun our last day in the Big Apple.

Brooke was known as the google queen and had found us what she said was the perfect spot to eat lunch. The restaurant was close enough to our hotel that we decided to walk. The place she had picked was more upscale than I had imagined and as we were seated I could only imagine the bill we would be receiving when we were done. As the waitress placed our lemon water down and handed us our menu I thanked her waiting until she had turned around before kicking Brooke under the table.

"What the hell, our damn water alone is probably 10 bucks. I mean check out this menu." 

Brooke looked up from her menu, "Kennedy, relax damn. You need a man in your life. You've been a little too high strung these last few months."

After giving her my best death glare I studied my menu in great detail until I found something I thought I would enjoy. After our order was taken Brooke tilted her head at me, "come on don't be mad at me. We are about to be 21. We need to start having fun. We have been so focused on our schooling that we, well you have become boring." 

I shrugged ignoring her, I mean she wasn't entirely off base. We both had taken as many classes each semester that we could fit in and still work full time. Of course, we both worked at her dad's insurance office making at least that aspect of our lives easy. All we were responsible for was greeting walk-ins and answering the phone. Right after graduating from high school, our parents had found us a cute duplex to move into and it was cheap enough that we didn't spend all of our money on bills and rent.

Plates in front of us I pushed my salmon with my fork. "I can't believe you are moving away from me this summer." 

Brooke looked up frowning, "not if we moved up here together, besides it's not like you couldn't move with me."

She was planning on moving out of our little hometown 3 hours to what I referred to as the big city. Taking a bite of my food I closed my eyes, "oh my God, this is heaven."

Brooke let out a breath, "fine ignore me." Taking a bite of her own food she looked up, "see if we moved up here we could eat this shit every day."

I snorted, "we would go broke." Brooke shook her head, "Your momma should have named you Debbie. You know as in Debbie Downer." 

I laughed at her, "you sound like a freaking grandma."

Our check had been expensive but not as bad as I had originally imagined. We left heading to some type of gathering we had heard about last night. It was several blocks over but once we got there I was amazed at all the street vendors. Walking closer I heard a familiar song being sung from a band that was on a little make-shift stage. "Ok well, I guess this could be cool. We can do all of our souvenir shopping here." 

Brooke nodded as we waited for the light to turn so we could walk across the street. "I know, maybe we should have eaten here, that food cart smelled pretty damn good."

An SUV passed in front of us pausing with the crowded traffic. The dark tent windows were down only a crack but before it lurched forward I caught a glimpse of the inside. "OMG, Seth Greer was in that car."

Brooke frowned at me, "what?  I seriously doubt that." 

I gave her a look, "he was in the car and he did perform last night so he is in town."

Brooke shrugged, "I guess."

I rolled my eyes, "I know Seth Greer, and that was Seth Greer."

Brooke shook her head, "you do not know Seth Greer."

Once across the street, I let Brooke drag me around from vendor to vendor. I even bought a couple of shirts for my family and myself. The place was crowded with people and I was quickly beginning to feel suffocated. When Brooke had finally decided it was time to go I was beyond relieved. A crowd had formed in front of us blocking our path so we decided to squeeze between two vendors. Brooke stopped only after a couple of steps, "I have to go to that booth, look they have those little spoony thingies my Granny collects." 

I sighed, "Brooke, so does the freaking airport." 

She cocked her head, "yeah for double the price, just wait here ok I'll be right back promise."

As she walked off I decided to walk in the opposite direction where fewer and fewer people were. Rounding a corner I saw a small group of people and Seth Greer was smack dab in the middle signing a shirt for a fan. I blinked making positive it was him. He looked up seeing me as he handed the girl back her shirt. "If you want me to sign something come on I need to go."

I quickly nodded, "yeah umm can I get a picture with you instead?" 

He shrugged his shoulders, "yeah, give him your camera to him and come here." 

I nodded handing my phone to a huge guy that I could only imagine being one of his bodyguards. "Thank you," I said as I turned back around to where Seth was. He quickly threw his arm around me pulling me into him and before I knew it I could hear my phone start taking pictures. 

"Ok, I'm out," he said as he walked away leaving me as dumbfounded as I was when I first walked into him. I held my hand out to get my phone and the bodyguard began to hand it to me. Suddenly he gripped my phone so hard I thought he would break the screen. I tried to quickly grab it but before I could he threw it down on the concrete laughing as he turned around and walked off.

I stood in shock for a couple of seconds, "Wow what an ass!" A girl beside me said.

I looked down at my phone face down on the concrete and tried to keep calm as I leaned down to pick it up. The front was completely shattered and I prayed it was just my glass screen protector and not my actual screen. Slowly I pulled my screen protector off and most of the cracks were indeed just the screen protector but I had one crack on my phone from top to bottom running straight through the middle of my phone. Swipping my phone it didn't' respond, my touch screen had been damaged.

Brooke came up behind me, "Oh damn, what happened did you drop it?" 

I shook my head in disbelief, "no I met Seth Greer and well his bitch ass bodyguard threw my phone down." 

Brooke frowned, "What! Are you sure? Did you trip and hit your head? I mean you're serious?"

I shoved her, "yes I'm for real, my damn phone is broke isn't it?" 

Brooke pulled her phone out of her pocket, "what an ass, come on you can use my phone to get your insurance claim started."

By the time I was off the phone with the insurance company I was even more upset. My insurance deductible had been over 200 dollars and it wouldn't be delivered until tomorrow to my duplex in Texas. I only hoped I beat the Fed Ex truck home because he would leave shit anywhere. 

Brooke and I were both silent the entire way back to the hotel.

Once in the room, I pulled my boots off. "I think this has been my worst vacation ever." 

Brooke sat down beside me, "Nah, I mean we were in NYC for freaking New Years', you met Seth Greer, and you have pictures to prove it. 

I rolled my eyes, "fuck Seth Greer." 

She busted out laughing, "he would probably let you!"