You and Everything After

“Hello?” I say, my heavy backpack now clutched to the front of my body, like that’s going to protect me. I kick the closet door open, and it ricochets off the back wall, shutting closed again. It’s empty, as is the room.

I toss my bag on my bed and sit down looking at the strange mess of Rowe’s things across from me. Curious. I stand and tug on the top drawer of my dresser, and the second I do, I feel the tickle of my socks and underwear slide down into a mound around my feet.

“Son of a bitch!” I pull the next drawer, and the heavy thud of jeans and sweatpants follows where undergarments went. I’m about to pull open my third drawer when I hear Rowe come into the room behind me.

“Damn it, Rowe! I didn’t want to be a part of this war, but looks like I’m in it now!” I pull the third drawer out carefully, my hands doing their best to hold my clothing in place, but it’s useless, and shorts and workout clothes land in the heap too.

“Who’s messing with you?” Paige asks, hooking her book bag over her desk chair and sliding her shoes from her feet.

“Ty! And Nate! They flipped our drawers,” I say, stuffing—not folding—clothes back into my drawers so I can slide them in. Paige brushes by me; at first I think she’s going to help, but instead she starts pulling on her drawers to see if she’s been pranked too. When nothing happens, and her clothes all stay in place, I feel a little bad. I can see the hurt on my sister’s face over the fact that Rowe and I are part of something she isn’t. But that’s how this was supposed to go, wasn’t it? Paige finally gets her life, and I get mine? Yes, that’s how it’s supposed to go. But I still don’t like seeing my sister slighted.

“Okay, tell me what you girls need me to do. Let’s get those assholes back,” Paige says, and I know this is just her way of joining—of finding a way in on the attention. My gut instinct is to tell her not to worry about it, but then I look at Rowe, and I can see my new friend is happy to finally have my sister’s approval, in some small way, so I let it slide. I’ll let Paige be a part of this, even if she has nothing to do with it.

“I have an idea, but we’re going to need to go to a hardware store,” Rowe says. I can tell this has Paige losing interest right away.

“Yeah, I’m not doing that,” she says, sitting back down on her bed, and pulling her phone from her purse.

“Hey, you wanted in. Either you’re in or you’re out,” I say, taking the phone from her hands and tossing it a few feet away. I stare Paige in the eyes, challenging her to just drop her damn better-than-everyone complex for now. My sister is being a bitch because she doesn’t want to like Rowe, she doesn’t like taking orders from Rowe, and I know it’s just because Rowe has the attention of Nate. But my sister needs to get over herself, because Rowe is nice. I need Rowe. And that should be enough.

“Fine,” she says, blowing the bangs from her face with a dramatic huff of air. “Let’s go to the hardware store. But I’m borrowing a car. It’s too hot to walk anywhere,” she says, grabbing her purse and leading us out the door. Out of habit, we follow.

Pain in the ass or not, my sister is good at getting things. Within minutes, she had a car borrowed from some frat guy, and she also managed to get us two gallons of free paint from the guy working the counter at the hardware store in town. We hid the paint and supplies in our closet overnight, and I woke up extra early this morning to set our plan in motion. Now, I just need to catch Ty before he is really ready to leave.

Rowe’s long brown hair is all I can see hanging out from our doorframe down the hall. One more step, and she’s out of sight. I know she’s still listening, though. Somehow, I was nominated for this job—the inside job, as Rowe called it. I feel like a criminal, and I’m really bad at things like this. But Rowe got really excited when we picked up the supplies, and she was the first one awake this morning. For some reason, I feel like I need to pull this off for her. I take one more deep breath and knock softly on their door. Ty has a business class early this morning, so I know he’s up. I can hear him making his way to the door. When it opens, I lunge at him before he has a chance to make conversation. I sit on his lap, kissing him until he lets the door fall closed behind us.

Phase one: complete—I’ve made it inside.

His kiss is intoxicating, even at seven in the morning, and I almost forget the real reason behind my mission. I hate that my next real kiss with him isn’t really real at all. Ty pulls away begrudgingly and lets his eyes wash over my body before he speaks—his attention tuned in to my workout pants and bare stomach, a tactic I have to give Paige full credit for. My sister knows men. I may have slept with more of them, but she’s had more of them chase her.