Los Angeles >> a.i

The weather was hot and humid as I drove down the highway. My elbow was resting on the ledge of the open window, and Def Leppard blasted through the speakers of my car as I sung along to the lyrics of my favourite song, All I Want Is Everything. Today was the day I escaped it all. The day where I moved out of the cramped two bedroom house I had shared all my life with my father and 10 year old brother, Troye. Where I quit my boring and tedious job as a checkout chick at the dollar store. Where I leave my old life in Carlin, Nevada, to start a new life in Downtown Los Angeles. Yes, I love my dad and my brother, but I hated Carlin too much to bare the thought of living there a second longer. So after 3 years of finishing high school, 2 years of finishing a course in creative writing and one year of working at the dollar store, I decided I needed to get out of this dead end town and make a life for myself. Somewhere I didn't have to share my room with a 10 year old; somewhere I could make friends instead of being lonely all the time; somewhere where there was always inspiration to write about anything and everything.

I had been apartment hunting for months now, on the search for the perfect place to start my new life. It took time, a lot of time, but in the end I found an amazing place. It was on the 6th floor and had a huge window in the front that overlooked the whole of Downtown Los Angeles, 2 bedrooms and a mint green, retro-styled kitchen. It looked amazing on the website, but after I drove almost 10 hours to look at it in real life, there wasn't any other place that could compare. I bought it right then and there, not wanting anyone else to even look at it.

I'd also been on the search for different places that were hiring, but nothing had caught my eye. There were many places like Starbucks or Walmart, but I was sick of working in such a tiring environment. I wanted something different for once. New city, why not a completely new job?

As the songs slowly changed from the Slang album and into AM by Arctic Monkeys, my throught process also changed. I had been on the road for 8 hours now, meaning it was 5 in the afternoon and I still had almost 2 hours of driving until I reached Downtown LA, and I was going slightly insane by having music as my only source of company. I only had 1 friend back in Nevada, Carrie. We had planned for her to come with me on the drive and take the train back, but her manager insisted that she just had to work today. We'd met on my first shift at the dollar store when my manager made me clean up a tin of paint that she tipped over. She had crazy, curly blond hair, the singing voice of an angel and a personality as big as the moon, and I loved every inch of her. When I'd told her I was moving to LA to make a new life, she simply said, "I know you're going to make it, Tilly," and that was it.

So there I was in my grey Hyundai i30, driving down the highway with the speaker blaring out music, the wind coming in through the window and messing up my hair and only my dreams on my mind.