Well, so far so good, I guess.

I’ve survived my first week in the apartment… And this weekend, it’ll be two!

I won’t lie – it’s pretty exhausting. But fun too. And that’s the most important part, isn’t it?

Working down at the restaurant isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. I mean, it’s not the most glamorous job in the world, but it could be way worse. My coworkers are pretty nice, my boss is cool, and the people-watching during dinner shifts can be pretty interesting.

Being up to my elbows in gross dish water isn’t my favorite way to spend the evening, but meh. What can you do?

School’s the same as it’s always been, pretty much. I gotta get up earlier in the morning to make it there on time, so that part kinda sucks. But it’s nice not having Tante Joce and grandpa always bugging me about getting my homework done. My job’s been taking up a lot of my free time lately… So why would I wanna waste the precious hours I have left on homework?

Anyway, besides work and school, everything else is pretty awesome! I get to leave my clothes and trash around without anyone yelling at me to clean up. I can stay up as late as I want. I can do whatever I want. I can even eat whatever I want… More or less.

I mean, I’ve pretty much been living on takeout and microwave dinners. I can’t really eat anything else. I mean, I literally can’t, since the crappy stove in my kitchen doesn’t even work anyway. But even if it did… I can’t. I’ve never actually cooked anything on my own before. I don’t really want to.

Every time I even think about turning on a stove, I just kinda freak. Which I know is stupid, but…

Anyway, right now it’s pizza, Chinese food, and ramen… Not the worst diet ever, right? Tante Joce would probably flip if she saw what I’d been eating… But I don’t have to worry about that anymore. We’ve talked on the phone a couple times since I left, but she still hasn’t come over to visit, and I haven’t gone back home either. I really wanted to the first couple of days… But I got over that pretty quickly.

And I’ve been too busy seeing other people anyway. Dom’s come over to hang out a few times, and I’ve been over at Remi and River’s place a bunch too. I even got to meet a couple of their friends. They’re so cool! They don’t treat me like I’m a kid or talk down to me or anything. It’s awesome.

And I’ve kinda-sorta gotten to talk to my neighbors too. Well, two of them. Damion and Laurel live across the hall from me. Remi knows Laurel from one of his classes, and Damion’s her brother. I bumped into them on my way back from work the other night (still wearing my awful uniform of course. Talk about embarrassing!). But they seemed pretty cool. Really friendly.

It was a little weird when they started asking me about myself though… And I guess I panicked, and kinda-sorta lied when they asked if I was going to uni too… But how the heck was I supposed to tell them I’m only sixteen?! I couldn’t.

Anyway, while we were talking, that was when my other neighbor walked by… It was my first time seeing him in person, actually. He’s been pretty quiet, but I’ve heard him a couple times through those paper-thin walls… Either laughing along with a bunch of other guys, or hooking up with some girl (usually not the same girl, from what I can tell).

This time he had a guy and a girl with him… So that was different, I guess. And he wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. He was a lot shorter than I thought he’d be. Long hair, leather jacket — There was just something really… cool about him. But almost intimidating too, even though I have a good two or three inches on him. Laurel and Damion got really quiet when they walked by, but they didn’t say anything to me about it… And I didn’t wanna ask, so I didn’t.

Well, I guess that pretty much covers all the important stuff. Going to school, working, meeting my neighbors, not having to deal with curfews or rules… Definitely a pretty good couple of weeks, right? And once I get more used to my work schedule, I think it’ll be even better.

Tante Joce was wrong. I am ready for this. And I’m so glad she decided to give me the chance to prove it.