Chapter 10 Lois
The dream I’m having is amazing. I’m strolling along a golden beach, in front of me is a man running by the water’s edge.
In my mind, it’s Kirk, even though the body and dark hair look more like Lane, which I’m kind of frustrated about.
I hear a door slam somewhere in the distance, and a faraway giggle as sand fills the space between my toes.
I feel good. I keep my distance from the lapping waves, and that’s weird, because I suddenly feel like my feet are wet.
The landscape retreats farther into the distance, the sun is fading, I can feel something pressing into me, and…
“Ow!” I scream as a weight crushes my ankles.
A whine stirs me from sleep. “There’s someone on the couch!”
“Ya think?” I mutter, slowly coming to my senses.
“Shit,” Lane breathes out. “I forgot about her…”
I blink to clear my vision, and I can see the outline of a girl’s face frozen in shock and Lane fumbling with his pants.
Suddenly, I’m blinded by light, and as my eyes refocus, I can’t believe what I’m seeing: a leggy girl standing by the couch, tugging her skirt down over her ass.
My toes are glistening in the half-dark, and as I look from them to her and back again, it all falls into place.
My feet are soaked, and it has nothing to do with my seaside dream.
“Oh. My. God!”
I jolt off the couch, nearly slipping, and start hopping in place.
“Come on, Lois. Don’t be so dramatic,” Lane mutters.
My mouth drops open. Screw the gratitude.
“Dramatic? Are you fucking kidding me, Lane?” I screech.
“Is this some kind of sick joke?” his hookup snaps, whipping around to glare at him. “Is she your girlfriend, Lane?”
“Wow, she’s not my girlfriend,” Lane blurts with his hands raised.
“He’s absolutely not my boyfriend,” I snap.
“Hey!” Lane looks actually offended.
The girl looks between us, then shakes her head. “You guys are messed up.” She snatches her bag off the floor. “Enjoy your little domestic disaster!” And with that, she storms out, slamming the door behind her.
As soon as she’s gone, I hiss, “Imagine if I were lying the other way around! I could have suffocated!”
Ignoring me, Lane throws himself on the couch with a frustrated groan. “Thanks for ruining my night, by the way.”
“You’re very welcome! I’m going to go wash my feet now. Actually, you know what?” I correct myself. “I’m going to bleach them. Maybe I’ll even cut them off!”
I shuffle carefully to the bathroom so I don’t slip, step into the shower, and turn the water on. Who cares if it’s still icy cold? I need to scrub that gunk off my toes.
“Unbelievable.” I shake my head.
I grab Lane’s shower gel and empty it without a second thought. I am usually careful not to use his stuff, but this time, he got what was coming to him.
When I step out a few minutes later, I decide to grab one of his towels. It barely reaches mid-thigh but it’ll do. No way I’m using one of the only two towels I own for this.
“I can’t find the bleach, but how about these?” I hear him drawl from behind me. “Make sure you get a clean cut around the ankle.”
I jerk upright, clutching the towel for dear life. Lane is leaning against the sink, a knife in either hand.
“You better keep those away from me.” I glare at him. “You might wake up one morning to find your balls have been chopped off in your sleep.”
“I’m shaking.”
I close my eyes and try to tap back into how peaceful I felt in my dream. No can do.
“Get out of here,” I sigh.
I start to turn toward the sink—very much prepared to ignore him until he leaves—but my foot goes sliding across the damp tiles instead. I flail my arms, expecting the worst.
“No no no!”
I’m falling at a dangerously sharp angle, but Lane rushes to meet me, the knives clattering to the ground as he clasps my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. I grasp his T-shirt for balance, panting hard against his neck. The guy deserves an A for reflex, that’s for sure.
“Are you trying to get rid of me?” I grumble, trying to wriggle free of his grip and quickly retightening the towel. Kill me now.
“Like it’s my fault you can’t take a shower unassisted?”
“Well, it’s your fault I’m half asleep in the shower in the middle of the night, don’t you think?” I press a hand to his annoying-as-hell lips. “Don’t answer that!”
I can feel him laughing against my hand, and I fight the urge to jab him in the tonsils.
“I know you can’t wait to see me leave.” My voice is coming quieter now. “I don’t need that kind of showdown to remind me.”
He frowns as he pushes my hand away and releases his grip on my shoulders.
“I swear it wasn’t intentional,” he says slowly. “I forgot you were there, and I still have no idea how, by the way.”
I take a deep breath in and ready myself to reply, but the look on his face says he’s telling the truth. Still, though…
“If that happens again, I swear I’ll make damn sure you never forget I was here.” The words come spilling out of me in one breath.
“Trust me, I won’t be forgetting this anytime soon.”
“Perfect!”
“Sweet!”
“Great! Now leave.”
“Okay, okay. I’m leaving.” His eyes drift down, then back up, lingering a second longer, before he steps into the hallway.
LANE SPENDS THE REST OF his Sunday in bed while I study.
First round of exams will be starting soon, and I haven’t exactly been a grade-A student the past two weeks, so I keep my eyes glued to my books and laptop screen, even when he busies himself in the kitchen and joins me on the couch to watch TV that evening.
We don’t speak, and that’s fine by me. Whenever we talk, it turns into a verbal boxing match, and I’m finding it harder and harder to bite my tongue.
In my study breaks, I browse rental websites, but still come up short.
Every now and then, I can feel his eyes on me, checking the screen over my shoulder, and I freeze up, but he’s decent enough to keep his comments about me failing to find a new place to stay to himself.
In fact, it’s been a while since he reminded me that the clock is ticking.
I SLIP INTO THE WATER in my curve-control one-piece, ready for my very first water aerobics class.
It’s just the right temperature, and I spend a few minutes bobbing around at the end of the pool, far away from the rest of the class.
I don’t even need to look up to know when Ethan arrives—there’s a flurry of excitement, and I swim my way over to the back row, gliding between two silver swim-capped classmates.
“Oh, a newcomer!” the woman to my right says, glancing at me.
I nod, smiling, as I tug my cap into place.
“Oh, a newcomer!” the woman to my left chimes in.
I smile at her, too, before frowning. They look so similar, it’s uncanny. I look back and forth between them. Might be the matching caps.
Ethan kicks us off, and by the time we wrap up the last exercise, my legs are Jell-O and my cap is cutting into my forehead. When Ethan finally calls it, I wobble off toward the changing room.
Think positive thoughts.
“Look at that perky little butt.”
I hear a voice whispering behind me as I towel down my legs. I glance at the speaker and her identical friend again. They’ve peeled off their caps, and other than their hair, they’re carbon copies of each other.
“And those firm breasts,” adds the other. “That was me sixty years ago.”
“The good old days!”
I stand there clutching my towel, gaping.
“What’s your name, dear?”
“Lois.”
“I’m Prudence, and I certainly don’t live up to my name,” says the gray-haired one.
“I’m Hope, and I certainly do.” The second one has an orange perm.
“Are you sisters?”
“Twins!” they cry in unison.
Now I get it. And they’re chatterboxes, too!
They disappear in a changing room to get dressed, and I take that as my cue to do the same.
Once I’m out of my swimwear, I check the time and sigh.
I need an excuse to stay out a little longer—it’s too early for me to go home.
I bumped into the Campus Drivers at lunchtime, and Lewis beamed a “See you tonight” at me, so naturally I’ve been trying to come up with evening plans ever since.
But in true keeping-with-my-lucky-streak: The library is closing earlier than usual and Becca is spending the evening with Carter.
I also don’t have it in me to go to the movies by myself.
These moments are the worst—when the loneliness becomes so all-encompassing I can feel the sadness catching in the back of my throat.
I breathe in and stare at the ceiling to hold back the tears that are starting to well in my eyes.
I dash out of the changing room before it all comes streaming out of me.
Cutting through the mall, I arrive at the main square by the entrance.
I sit on a bench, close my eyes, and lean my head against the wall.
Goddamn it, I’m starting to think that if I really can’t find a place to live, I’ll need to bite the bullet and get myself a hotel room.
“What’s wrong, my love?”
I blink. Without my even realizing, one of the twins from earlier has joined me. For the life of me, I can’t remember whether this is Prudence or Hope sitting next to me, but deep down, I’m wishing it’s the second. I could do with a little hope right now.
She leans into me. “You’re down in the dumps.”
“Maybe a little,” I sigh, rubbing at my eyes.
“Prudence, what are you doing?”
So Prudence is sitting next to me, and this must be Hope, then, limping her way over to us.
“You know every time you sit down, it takes you ten minutes to get back up!”
“Our new friend is having a bad day. Do we still have wine?”
“I hid two bottles when that old fart Agustín stopped by yesterday.”
“Excellent! Up you get, young lady!”
“I’m sorry?” I babble.
“I need a strong, young thing to get me back on my feet!”
“Oh!”