16. Moving In
16
MOVING IN
MALLORY
People hate me. God hates me. The universe hates me, and Patrick at Patrick’s Perfect Plumbing , hates me. He must. There is simply no other reason for the outcome of this conversation.
“But I don't understand what’s wrong with the pipes,” I plead as Abi and I trudge around in the swimming pool that is now my apartment.
“We can’t see anything wrong with your pipes, but something must be if one suddenly bursts overnight. We’ll have to take a look at the whole thing, which means you’ll have to stay out of the apartment for a little while.”
“How long?”
“Around four weeks. Maybe more, maybe less — it’s hard to say at this time. ”
Abi sighs loudly nervously biting her nails as she looks around at our drowned apartment. We both stayed with friends last night, so neither one of us was in the apartment. We thought we left a tap on or something because when we came back to our apartment, it turned into Covington’s newest waterpark attraction .
They say that one of the pipes under the kitchen sink might have come loose. Luckily both our bedroom doors were closed, and they’re heavy doors, so nothing in those rooms got damaged, which is where we both keep our valuables anyway. But still, looking over at Abi, I can practically see the cogs turning in her brain, and hear what she’s thinking. Money.
This is going to be expensive to fix, and Abi doesn’t have it.
Abi’s from a small town in Massachusetts, she’s here on a scholarship. She has a job working at the bookshop in town – Athena’s trove – right next to the flower shop we frequent so much – Persephone’s bouquet. Abi works so she can pay rent here, but even then, I lied. I told her that I pay for the apartment yearly, which is a lie. I own it. But I didn't want her to worry about it, so I told her they gave us a good deal because we’re students. So she pays me whatever amount she can, and I put it in an account for when we graduate, so I can give it back to her to use for whatever she needs. I take money from it when she wants to go home but can’t afford it, saying that we overpaid on rent that month, excuses like that. I hate lying to her, but I just want to help, and she’s too stubborn to let me. She’s working overtime at her job to send money back to her parents, so she barely has any left over. And now this? I’m no plumber, but I know it will cost a few grand for them to look at all the water pipes.
I walk over to Abi, soothingly rubbing her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay, nothing was damaged.”
“It’s going to cost a fortune,” she says, rubbing her eyes with her palms.
“It’s my fault.”
“It’s not Mallie, I just– ”
“Hey, it’s going to be okay, at least at Courtney's we won’t have to pay rent.”
We’re standing outside our apartment complex, with what looks like a million suitcases when we see the boys approach us. And, like always, my eyes fix on the boy with green eyes and a devastating smile. I’ve seen him a few times since the whole spin the bottle incident.
I don’t know what came over me. When the bottle landed in between Cory and Ollie, my first thought was just to kiss Cory on the cheek. A quick one second peck, over and done. Lame I know, but when I looked over at Jules, I just couldn’t. She likes him, I know she does. She’d never say it out loud, but the feelings there. And she looked at me like kissing any part of his body would kill her, even if it meant nothing. So then I thought about the forfeit.
But there were quite a few lacrosse boys sitting in the circle, and the lacrosse team is known for having the most outrageous dares. Then I looked at Ollie. There’s something just so perfect about him, I just can’t stop myself from getting sucked into his orbit. It was supposed to be a quick peck, like three seconds max. But it lasted longer, like neither one of us wanted to stop. Then I felt his tongue edge into my mouth, and it took everything in me not to moan out loud.
It felt good. I wanted to keep going.
But then he pulled away.
The game ended, Gus walked me back to my door and I felt like a slimy sleazeball.
I like Gus, I do. But Oliver is… well, Oliver. There’s nobody out there like him .
“We heard there was a new water park attraction.” Tommy says, laughing while riding his skateboard. Snapping me out of my thoughts.
Ollie approaches, raising a hand to grip my forearm. “Did they say what happened?” He asks with curious eyes.
I shake my head. “Something to do with the pipes. They need to check them all to see if there’s any damage anywhere. We’re out for at least a month.”
“But hey,” Courtney says, coming up beside Abi, swinging her arm around her shoulder. “Now you two get a month–long sleepover at Casa De Courtney!”
“You’re staying with Courtney?” Ollie says, never breaking his eye contact with me.
“Yep, but she only has one spare guest room, so we’re alternating between the bed and the couch for the next –”
“Stay with me.” He interrupts.
He – he just said – what?
“Ollie,” I shake my head.
“I have a very comfy bed,” he protests. “Trust me, it’s hard to get up in the morning, you’ll see.”
“She’ll see something else that’s hard in the morning too.” Says Tommy, earning an elbow to the ribs by Shawn.
“Anyway,” he says, breaking his eye contact for a second to scowl at Tommy before returning back to me. “I don’t mind taking the couch or the floor if it makes you more comfortable.”
“Ollie, don’t be an idiot. I’m not going to ask you to sleep on the floor in your own house.”
“I’m not asking.” He replies, just as I’d finished my sentence, maybe even before. I narrow my eyes at him, searching for something, anything, that could tell me that this isn’t real, this is a trick or something.
Before I have the chance to even formulate a response, he’s grabbed my suitcases, and is already wheeling them to his truck. I feel the phantom mark of his hand still burning on my forearm.
“You could stay with Gus?” Juliana asks, trying to help. Bless her innocent soul. To an untrained eye, Ollie looks unaffected by Juliana’s question as he lifts my suitcases into the back of his truck. But I know him. I noticed the very moment his back stiffened when she said his name. I have no idea why Ollie seems to be… I'm not sure, intimidated? By Gus. If he even is? Maybe it’s because I've been spending more time with Gus after practice and in the evenings, but I haven't been cancelling Ollie or blowing him off, so I really don’t know what his problem is, but I know there is one.
“Gus lives in a frat house,” Ollie says, wiping the dust from his hands. “I’ve been to it. No way in hell either of you girls are going in there,” He looks at me. “Especially you.”
This is a bad idea. This is a bad idea. This is a bad idea.
This. Is. A. Bad. Idea.
Sure, I have feelings for him now, and they’re small feelings. Okay not small, per se. But they’re manageable right now. If I live with him for an entire month, they might grow. And there’s the small, insignificant detail of me moving states soon. Which he still is in the dark about. Then there’s the whole bet thing.
OH MY GOD. The bet.
“The bet!” I shout, gathering the attention of not only my friends, but all the surrounding people too. I narrow my eyes at my best friend , pointing a finger at him, storming over and jabbing it into his chest. “You don’t want me in your house” Jab “You only want me there” jab “because it makes you the better friend ” Jab “so you” jab “can win the bet!” Double jab .
He stares at me, brows knitted. “Okay, first of all, ow,” he lightly rubs the spot on his chest where I jabbed my finger. I know for a fact it didn’t hurt because I've seen him without a shirt on. “Second of all, this isn’t about the stupid bet right now okay? Your apartment is basically an aquarium. You’re staying with me, end of discussion.”
“And staying with him means spending more time with him before you–” I widen my eyes at Abi, begging, pleading , that she doesn’t finish that sentence.
“Before you what?” Ollie asks.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Before I go away for winter break,” I blurt out, way too quickly. “Henry has too many games and can’t come, so my dad is taking advantage and booking us somewhere hot. We’ll be gone for most of the break, so I won’t see you.”
That was a lie, did that sound like a lie?
A believable lie?
“Oh.” He says, his voice quieter than it was a moment ago. Am I sweating? Because I feel like I'm sweating. “But you’re still coming to Frankie’s wedding, right?” He asks.
I frantically nod. So fast that I was scared my head would fall clean off. “I told him if he wants to pay for an all inclusive luxury hotel somewhere far away and warm, then it has to be before or after your brother’s wedding. It’s the least he could do.”
This perks him up, making the corner of his lips tilt up into a smile. A beaming smile. An Oliver smile. God, he’s so cute.
Yeah, I definitely can’t stay with him.
“Maybe I should just go to my dad’s, stay in my old bedroom at home.”
Oliver’s shoulder’s sag, his whole body deflating. “Right, yeah, that’s… an option. I uh, didn’t think about that.” He rubs the back of his neck, sticking one hand in the pocket of hi s hoodie. His lips curve into a frown, the skin around his lips crinkling. I hate this. I hate it when he frowns. I don’t know why, but my entire body goes into a chill when I see it. Like a need to punch whoever made him frown. Only this time, it’s me.
“But then again, if I do go home, I'll have to tell him about the pipe and he’ll never let me move back out, so…” Oliver perks up, but doesn’t speak, doesn’t say anything. “Sleeping on your floor sounds good.” I smile.
“In my bed, not on the floor,” he corrects.
I shake my head, heading to the passenger side of his truck. “Not a chance, Ashby. I’ll sleep on an air mattress, and don’t even try to fight me on it.”
“As you wish.” He says, bowing as he opens the door for me.
“Don’t quote excellent movies to me, it won’t work.”
It most definitely will work.
I’ve never minded having a best friend who’s so positive, so sunshiny, so flirty. Except for when he does it with me, and I can’t tell if it’s his golden retriever energy, or if it’s him flirting. Which just makes things so hard.
But that was before we kissed. He didn’t kiss me the way I saw he kissed Anissa.
He kissed me like he was hungry, like he wanted more. He kissed me like the very first time that summer.
And I want him to kiss me again, but he can’t. Because we’re friends.
So yeah, to sum up: I’m screwed.