Date: Thursday, June 1st / 2:00 PM Location: The Pier Towers: 1537 4th Street, Santa Monica, CA
Dialogue Color: #005722
Christopher was shocked that his flight from Boston had actually went smoothly. He wasn't a very frequent traveler, maybe flying once or twice a year for local vacations when he had the money, but that didn't stop him from thinking that airlines always somehow fucked things up. For someone who had access in involvement in drugs to an extent where getting Xanax wouldn't be that difficult, it's shocking that Chris still flew sober, because he hated flying. He felt like he was cursed when it came time to do so, as if all of the few times he flew things were delayed for one reason or another. Thankfully, his flight touched down in Los Angeles at around noon, and though it took a little while to get his bags, and then to deal with some traffic on the roads (as he expected, given LA's notoriety for it), he arrived at The Pier Towers at around one o'clock. Luckily, he was one of the last to arrive, and the Murrays were already there, which meant that they were able to get their keys and start the move in process with little time wasted on the cheesy and unnecessarily emotional "oh my god, I missed you!!!"s that could be expected with a group like this. Chris had missed (most of) them too, but he was glad that everyone seemed keen on getting their heavy bags into their apartments and getting settled before actually catching up. Even if the three hour time difference wasn't catching up to him quite yet in terms of feeling tired since it was only three o'clock on his body's time, he was hungry, and that was what gave him the motivation to actually unpack his things once he got to his room. If he didn't have food as the thing pressing him to get settled so he could move on and address it, then it wouldn't have been even slightly surprising for Chris to live out of his luggage for the next two and a half months.
After hanging what he didn't want to wrinkle in the closet, and shoving everything else into drawers in his dresser, he took a few minutes to arrange the rest of his things. He was surprised that he was going to get to have his own bathroom, but then again, it was the Murrays who had arranged this whole thing. He knew that they lived a different quality of life than he was used to, even if they weren't always obnoxious about it. Additionally, he reminded himself that he knew that this was going to be a sick deal when he walked into it. Mr. and Mrs. Murray had always been generous, but allowing them to rent a few of the apartments in the new building that Mr. Murray's company had just finished remodeling was on a whole different playing field than letting Chris tag along on one or two of their summer vacations years ago, or allowing him to take home all of the leftovers when Mrs. Murray cooked her famous chicken parm dish. Even if nothing else worked out, Chris had already decided that this summer was going to be a good one, because he was living in a nice apartment at a price that seemed dirt cheap, even compared to what he was used to back in Massachusetts, where things already cost less than California.
This was going to be a summer of renewal for him. A fresh start. After his breakup with Eida, it was no secret that Christopher had hit rock bottom. For the two years that they had been dating, he had miraculously rid himself of the excessive habits he had in drinking, partying, and the likes. He recognized that they were all empty habits with no benefits, but he had become addicted to them over the years of engaging in them. It was more than an addiction, really. Those things had become a part of his personality and identity, and abandoning them had meant abandoning hobbies and friends that went along with it. He had been so head over heels for Eida, that somehow, none of that mattered then, like it had mattered the many other times that he had tried to get his act together before. She was the first girl that he had fallen for, and he was just as surprised by it as anyone else. Even with their breakup being civil, and somewhat expected, Chris found himself feeling like he had lost his new identity. And what did he have to fall back on? The only other "him" he knew, fit with coping habits that he knew would numb the pain quickly. He was jobless, and back to drinking excessively and partying on the regular within a few weeks of the breakup. It sucked, and Chris was embarrassed that he let things fall apart so easily, but he also was trying to cut himself some slack. He had time to mope and hit rock bottom, and that was fine, as long as this summer, he picked himself up again and moved on. Doing so while spending basically every day with that ex-girlfriend right in his vicinity would be hard, and he knew that, but at this point, he had no other choice. Doing this surely beat spending the summer in his parents' basement, since his lease had just recently ended up his apartment, and he had no money to secure a new one back in Boston any time soon anyway.
Living in the same apartment as Greyson Murray was going to be awkward, and Chris was willing to admit that. He felt bad for what had happened years ago, when he was nothing short of a dick, and drunkenly beat the kid up for what he interpreted as him hitting on him. It was a bad thing to do, especially given how close he was with the Murray family at the time, and though it was no excuse, Chris could only blame it on him being young, and beyond stupid. He wouldn't deny that he was a complete asshole when he was younger, though he wasn't as willing to see that his personality hadn't changed
that much since then. At least as much as he liked to act like it had. Other than Greyson, though, Chris didn't mind Delilah and Moriah as his two other roommates. With a closed fist, he banged on Moriah's bedroom door, saying,
"Come on, sunshine. Let's go see if Sabrina's finally D-T-F this summer. I need a good wingman in my corner, because you know that nothing goes better with a summer in California than a pretty blonde," he said, with that not-much-has-changed showing through in his personality with that remark, especially considering that he knew that Sabrina's brother was possibly within hearing distance.
