Rebirth Im a movie star

ABIGEAL

THE NIGHTMARES were the same as always. 

That didn't stop me from waking up,drenched in cold sweat. I pressed my fingers to my eyelids, trying to push the screams to the back corner of my mind. 

The dream was so realistic that I could taste the acrid smoke at the back of my throat, could hear the beeping sound of a bomb about to go off. 

I got up from my bed and stumbled towards the front door and the incessant pounding coming from it. I pulled the door open and was immediately confronted by my landlord's pot belly. 

For some reason, I couldn't look away from it. It fascinated me. How much beer does one have to drink to get a belly like that? 

He scratched said belly and burped. I held back a wince. 

 "I'm raising the rent," he said without preamble. 

"What do you mean you're raising the rent? For this dump? People should be living here for free." I was astounded by the audacity of the man.

"Lady, you should be grateful you have a roof over your head. Lots of homeless people out there, you're welcome to join them. Believe it or not, I have a waitlist on these apartments." He grumbled out of his bushy beard, beady eyes glaring at me. 

It should've been hard to believe that anyone would want to live in this woebegone place, but such were the living conditions in New York.

 "So what's the rate now?" I asked, resigning myself to my fate. He mumbled the amount, and I just stared at him as I mentally calculated.

"What? That's over 40% of the former rate. I should call the DHCR. You're robbing us at this point," I folded my arms.

 He shrugged. "Pay up four months advance by the end of the week or  clear out. This is why I wanted to tell your roommate instead. She's not as bitchy as you," he shuffled away. 

My eyes followed him as he walked to the stairs. For a brief moment, I wished he'd trip and fall.

"Anna, why didn't you answer the door?" I called out to my roommate as I headed to her room.

Anna, my roommate, was a textbook klutz. She was always involved in one mishap or the other yet kept up this peppy, sunny personality that grated on my nerves constantly. 

I distrusted people who smiled too much. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd somehow gotten tangled in her bed sheets and couldn't get out.

The door was open so I just looked in, catching her in the act of trying to stuff something under her pillow. She stared at me and I looked back at her, my gaze dropping to the papers still peeking out from under the pillow.

"What are those?" I asked, mostly because there was something weird about her body language. When she didn't answer, I walked over to her bed and pulled the papers out before she could reach them.

My back instantly went rigid as I scanned the documents, lifting my eyes to look at her. 

 "Annalise, what the fuck are you doing with my documents?"

I sighted the flicker of uncertainty in her eyes before she lifted her chin. "You refuse to tell me anything about you, so I took matters into my own hands. You never said you were in the military, and that you have-"

I held up a hand. "And you think that gives you the right to look through my things?" I demanded, my voice getting colder by the second. Before she could say anything else, the smoke alarm in the kitchen went off and her eyes widened. 

 "Oh shit. Our breakfast."  

We both left her room, Anna running into our closet of a kitchen while I paced the living room. This was why I didn't like people. They invaded your privacy and got to know things that were meant to stay hidden.