Penny closed the door and leaned her slim back against the scratchy frame. The room smelled like cigarette smoke. She closed her eyes and inhaled the obnoxious scent.
"Home, sweet, home," she said quietly. The old apartment was bare save for her mattress on the floor in the the room she optimistically dubbed "the suite". The closet-size "suite" was the nicest room in the decrepit place. Only one wall had a hole in it and there was still some paint from the previous tenant visible. The rest of the apartment wasn't quite so lucky. The kitchen walls held the stains of nicotine and burnt food. The bathroom wall... She didn't want to know what those stains were from. Brown nicotine covered the walls of the front room and there were various sizes of holes scattered throughout the room.
"But," she whispered to the nicotine walls. "It's mine. All mine. I can do this." She smiled at the grungy home.
Moving to New York to follow her dream of becoming a Broadway actress motivated Penny's smile. Who cared about stains and holes in the walls when the shiny stars of Broadway were calling? She could stand this apartment for a year. Next year, it would be the Ritz!
"First order of business, clean this blasted place!" She popped her yellow rubber gloves and reached for the disinfect. "This apartment won't know what hit it!" And the scrubbing began.
