CHAPTER 9

"Here she is!" Sanem yelled excitedly when I came out of the mirror. "We are gonna have so much fun together!"

Her presence automatically brought smile to my face and I hugged her: "Where is our room?"

"You mean the apartment we share? It's on second floor, on the left. It's really pretty." Sanem replied.

"And who are our roommates?"

"We share the bathroom and the kitchen with Naomi and Rosy, which is also amazing." She seemed so excited about everything and I couldn't help but feel the same.

"But isn't here supposed to be one more room?" I asked.

"Yeah, it belongs to some girl, but she's not here very often." Sanem got Sirius for a second. "I heard she was bullied a lot and therefore requested a one-bed room, poor girl."

"Ugh, people are just the worst." I said with disgust.

Poor girl. I felt so bad for her, what did she had to go through for not wanting a roommate.

I made a mental note to try and befriend her as soon as I meet her.

When we got to the light-wooded doors of our apartment Sanem gave me a key: "Ok, this door is a bit problematic. When you are trying to lock it, you have to push up the handle and pull the door towards yourself." She tried to demonstrate it, but the door didn't really listen to her: "It can be really annoying but we'll get used to it."

I giggled. The whole scenarioof Sanem slowly losing her nerves was just hilarious.

"Ok, finally." She sighed impatiently. "And when you're unlocking it, you have to put some extra push on the handle or it won't budge."

I couldn't help the chuckles escaping my mouth, which she awarded with annoying look: "Now, you try."

"Sure," I tried to lock the door she just unlocked and dammit I really needed to use a lot of force to lock them successfully.

"Not so funny now, is it?" She said, giggling.

"Oh, shut up." I said after I finally managed to get inside of the apartment.

Inside was beautiful. Paintings of the Proelefsi islands, the off-white cabinets and the hangers on the wall decorated the white hall perfectly.

"Welcome!" Sanem exclaimed. "Ok, so, this is the kitchen" she said after taking her shoes off, pointing to the room on the left.

The kitchen was quite small, equipped with a fridge, microwave, 4 cooking plates and some cabinets.

"Hey, take your shoes off!" Sanem said. "These kind of American customs are not welcome here. Everything is white and I don't feel like cleaning all the time, do you?"

"Sorry, just a habit." I apologized and went to take off my shoes.

"Ok, through here is the dining room," she said as we were walking past the squared table and six chairs, "and this is the living room."

This room was gorgeous.

And it had a TV!

Next to television was a coastal beige sideboard, with a small marble sculpture on top of it. Then there was this huge U-shaped couch, also in beige color that had about a dozen cushions on it. In the middle of the shape was a glass coffee table and on the floor was a big white carpet.

"Oh, my god. We have a balcony, too?" I half squealed.

The view from the balcony was amazing. The beach, the sand, the palms, the temples... unlike everything I have ever seen.

"Wow. It's beautiful." I half whispered.

"Gorgeous." Sanem agreed. "Now let me show you our room." She got all excited again. "This, on the far left is that girls' room. I think her name is Brianna, Brigitte or something like that."

"Wait, Afro-American, with braided hair?" I asked, recognizing the name.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I've met her. She seems really nice and chill." Sanem's words from before started ringing in my head again. Poor Brianna, she's really the last person to deserve any kind of mistratment.

"This is Naomi and Rosy's room," she said pointing to the middle door, "and this beauty is ours." She opened the door to a surprisingly spacious room.

The room had two beds next to the windowed wall, facing each other. Between the beds was just enough space for someone to walk to the window and open it.

Left to the door were two closets and right to it were two writing desks.

"The best part is, we can decorate it however we want to!" Sanem said, literally clapping her hands. "And I was thinking, maybe some lights on this wall...Oh, and I want a big mirror. Maybe like...over here? And then we could put some fake leaves over that." She paused to think for a moment. "And of course we will need a lot of pics, so this place will get some personal touch.

"Ok, ok. I agree with almost everything, although I have to tell you I don't trust mirrors anymore." And even though I was kind of joking, I meant that. I don't want a mirror and strangers coming out of it in my room.

"Look, if someone wanted to enter this room, they would have to know how it looks like. Besides, there is a spell that can lock the passage in the mirror." Sanem assured me, knowing exactly what I meant.

"Ok, fine. When will we go get those things though?"

"I was thinking today...if that's ok with you?" She said kind of unsure.

"Sure, no problem."

"Ok, cool. Can we go to Target, I always wanted to go to Target?"

"Ok, just let me find my wallet."

--

In about half an hour we were ready to go through the portal. I told Sanem about this place in Portland me and Elisaveth travelled through and we have decided to use it.

"Oh, burası karanlık." Sanem said, when we entered the sad-looking apartment, making me doubt my English.

"What?"

"Dedim, ..." She started again.

"Oh, my god. The spell." I realized.

Of course, the entire island is under a spell, so as long as we stay there, we understand each other, but as soon as we leave...confusion.

"Right. My English bad. This be funny." As she said this we both started laughing, her accent was so strong and her pronounciacion wasn't much better.

"You teach me English back home. Yes?" She asked.

"Sure. And you'll teach me Turkish." I said, still chuckling.

--

We spent the entire afternoon looking for things for our room and apartment.

"No, put that down. We don't need that." I said as Sanem picked up some ugly bowl.

"But it pretty?" She argued.

"It's really not, besides we don't have unlimited budget. Let's not waste money on pointless things like that."

"Fine." She sighed. "Look, the leaves." And just like that, her mood got lighter again. "I want this."

"Ok, sure."

As I watched her pick the right string of fake leaves, giggles kept on escaping my mouth uncontrollably. Honestly, all the products looked the same to me, but Sanem explained how we need leaves 'with personality', whatever that meant.

"We could get some food, too." I suggested after she finally chose.

"Yes, I hungry."

"Ok, cool. Let's take our things back to that place, go eat and then let's go buy some food for the apartment."

"Oh, that what you mean. Ok." She agreed.

I chuckled again, she just sounded so funny.

This was a really good day, full of laughter and good time. We even made some pictures to decorate our walls with.