Strawberry Fields Forever

Amelie Richter moved slowly through the nightly streets of Huntington Beach on her bike. The wind was colder than she'd expected it to be in Southern California in May, but at least she was almost at the hostel she'd booked herself in when she arrived there some days ago. She'd come to this particular city mainly because someone on the greyhound bus she'd taken from her last station, a one-horse-town in Arizona, to Los Angeles told her it was beautiful there. And he'd been right.

Still, the work at the strawberry fields didn't pay off well. Amelie had used up her savings from her bartending job in Vegas almost completely just for the bus tickets and the hostel. That didn't include food or anything else that she needed like toilet paper and toothpaste as well as shampoo and the laundry service.

She knew she had to find a new job and soon. Old man Rutterford would need to hire someone else, someone who was willing to put up with him and his stinginess. Five dollars an hour were just too little to live on, even if you didn't care for comfort too much. If she continued until the end of the season, she would be broke. No Hawaii for her.

As she turned her key in the hostel door, she wondered if it was wrong to turn down Matt's offer to dine with them. But after all, she was sure he'd only asked for his sons and she didn't want to interfere in his family. Now, she already regretted that decision, not having had a real talk to someone besides some FaceTime calls with her parents in weeks.

That man, Matt, was good-looking. She'd definitely noticed. She had been mesmerized by the sight of his buff muscles playing underneath his tight grey pullover when he carried his hurt son River into the car. He looked younger than he was, too. Her mom always said that a man gets better with age, just like wine. Maybe that was true for Matt.

Amelie bit her lip as she thought about the encounter. She wished she'd asked him more about himself. How long had he been a widower for? What was his profession? What did he do for fun? Still, it was none of her business anyway.

For a second, Amelie wondered if he had a girlfriend, but he would have mentioned her, right? He'd been so open and easygoing, after all. On the other hand, he was too old for her and she wasn't looking for a commitment anyway. He surely wouldn’t be interested in someone as unexperienced and young as she was. She'd be back in Germany in a few months to start studying, though she wasn't quite sure yet what subject she wanted to take.

A part of her had always wanted to go for architecture and later specialize on garden designs. That way, she would feel connected with her grandma, a gardener. She’d taught her so much about gardening.But truth be told, no-one actually hired a garden designer, especially not in the rural south of Germany, where she was raised and planned on living. It was a different life style there, things rarely ever changed and people were mostly old-fashioned and traditional and very catholic with stay-at-home wives and patriarchic structures. It was nevertheless very beautiful. You could have a lot of space to yourself and you rarely ever walked through “downtown”, which was really just half a mile between the church and a town tower, without meeting at least five people you knew.

No-one in their right mind would hire a garden designer. The women were bored anyway, so they put their effort into their gardens, and word traveled fast in a small town. If the town doctor ever hired a garden designer, everyone would say he had too much money for such a luxury and that he was showing off, and they’d stop going to that doctor. It was insane, but that was how her small town worked.

Another field she could see herself going into was law, especially international contracts or something in that direction, but then again, she would have to move to a bigger city, which she didn't neccessarily want.

Or she could become a vet, which was her parents' dream for her, since both were vets, too. Her path was already evened, she could just start working with them, and then later on take over their office. It seemed easy, didn’t it?
Amelie loved animals to death and they seemed to love her, too. She just couldn't bear the thought of having to put down pets. Also, she knew how annoying pet owners could be. She'd noticed them bothering her parents on so many occasions, claiming their darlings were on the verge of dying when they were really just tired or bored. And that was nothing she really wanted to put up with.

At home, Amelie owned a beautiful, old Haflinger horse named Billy. She didn't ride Billy that much anymore due to his age, but she loved to take him for a walk.

Most times, she took along her dog Shiba, a young shiba inu full of mischief and youth, too. When she moved out to university, she planned on taking Shiba with her. Her family also owned two black cats, Schnurri and Kitty, as well as some other animals her dad had saved from the meat industry or from being put down despite still having years to live.

She'd chosen to travel around the US for herself, despite her overprotective parents' warnings: During that time, she wanted to decide on her future and gain some self-confidence. It was working so far, at least the latter part. She was starting to think she would never be able to make a decision for later, seeing as it was May already and she should be applying for college, seeing as the deadline was always the first of June.

Her time abroad was equally beneficial for her parents. They finally learned that they needed to let go sometime, despite her being their only child.
Amelie hated to leave her high school sweetheart Daniel behind, but as the two of them rarely spoke at that time, Amelie figured that they were pretty much done. Strangely, she was okay with that. She knew he wasn't meant to be a part of her life after high school, seeing as he was going abroad to Bulgaria for his studies anyway.

Daniel and her had only been dating for a little more than a month, so it was nothing serious, but it could have been. She’d already made the arrangements and booked the flights, and he didn’t mean enough to her to cancel the trip. They didn’t even sleep together, something Amelie was glad about, seeing as she'd probably regret it.

Finally, she reached her room. The shabby door opened with a loud click, revealing an even shabbier inside. There was a wooden bunk bed that looked like the bald owner's mom already slept in it, a mini fridge and a broken TV. At least she had WI-FI.

Suddenly, Amelie was startled. Her body tensed. There was a movement in the top bunk of the bed. Am I in the wrong room? She felt the blood rush into her cheeks.
"Hello?" she asked. Her voice was shaking.
"Oh mon dieu you're home," a woman's high pitched voice sounded from under the blanket before a head full of afro curls appeared.
"Uh, hi I guess?"

"I am Lucile, we share this room now," the French girl said with a smile. "Alright, cool," Amelie responded, sounding off. She had enjoyed the alone time in the hostel so far. "I'm Amelie. I'm from Germany."
"De l'Allemagne, cute. I'm from France," she said, overly giddy.
You don't say, thought Amelie, wishing for a way to escape the situation. Yeah, she'd wished for company just minutes earlier, but now she'd give about everything to make her leave.

"Amelie, what brings you here?" Lucile asked. Still, Amelie wasn't exactly keen on her, but since they were to share their room in the future, she did her best to appear nice and interested.
"I'm here for a gap year. I'm going back in October. How about you?"
"See, I'm a big fan of a metal band called Avenged Sevenfold. Their drummer, Jimmy, died some years ago and I'm only here to put flowers on his grave. It's got to be here somewhere, but I still need to find out."
Lucile threw her an uncertain smile.
Having never heard of the band, Amelie didn't know what to respond.

She was almost glad her phone signaled an incoming FaceTime call. That way, she had an excuse not to talk to Lucile anymore. She seemed nice enough, yet Amelie had been looking forward to a quiet evening. She'd been on her feet since half past five in the morning.
She quickly excused herself and went into the bathroom to take the call. She noticed that she hadn't spoken to her parents nearly in a month, so she had a lot to tell them.

After that, they drank a beer in their room before Lucile headed out to party. Amelie was glad she could finally go to bed, falling asleep within minutes.
The digital clock on Amelie's nightstand displayed 3.50 am in broad numbers as she heard Lucile coming back. She sighed at the thought of how hard it would be to fall back asleep before she had to get up for work, turning around.

Suddenly, she was wide awake. Lucile wasn't alone. She heard mouth sounds, and Lucile moaned quietly. Then, the sound of a zipper. "Yeah, Darren," Lucile let escape. Oh hell fucking no, thought Amelie. What kind of weird dream is this? Please tell me this isn't happening right now...

But it was. When the top bunk of her bed started moving in a steady rhythm, Amelie knew she had a long day in front of her.

Notes

Guys, thank you so much for all the support I've been receiving on this story, it's great to hear that you guys seem to like it to.

GUESS WHO SAW AVENGED SEVENFOLD LIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME YEAH ME