Salty Licorice

Chapter 73

Avery's POV

I jump awake at the sound of my alarm on my phone. I reach and fumble to turn it off quickly, and end up falling out of Marisa's bed. I lay there watching the ceiling fan turn at a low speed as I just lay sprawled out on Marisa's wooden floor, half on her rug and half on the cool wood. I take a deep breath and look at the time. Service starts in an hour.

"I guess I should get up and start getting ready huh?" Marisa grumbles half asleep, still in bed.

"Yeah we got a little less than an hour," I tell her.

I hear shuffling before I see Marisa with her crazy hair and red lines on her arm and cheek revealing how hard she slept last night. She yawns and rubs her eyes before sliding on her glasses and looking down at me on the floor. She raises one eyebrow at me and just huffs a laugh before stepping over my outstretched limps and walks out her room as she stretches her arms. I just follow her out of her room with my eyes before looking back at the ceiling fan. Should I wear a dress or not? I can't seem to make that choice, but ultimately I know my answer better than I'd like to admit. They will feel embarrassed but I can't knowingly wear a dress without feeling required or with the desire to want to crawl out of my own skin.

I slowly peel myself off the floor and dig through my bags for a pair of nice pants and shirt. I find the same slacks I wore to homecoming and another button down I have, a dark blue. I lay them out on her bed and remember I need my dress belt and start digging around for that for a while till I find it and I hold it up in triumph. I throw it over my layed out pants and walk out heading for the bathroom. I whip the door open half knowing and hear the shower running.

"I swear to god Mateo, if you're trying to go to the bathroom while i'm still in here-"

"Chill it's me," I say, cutting off Marisa's threat.

"Get out!" Marisa's head pops out from around the curtain as she pinches it under her chin hiding herself from me.

"Wimp, I have to brush my teeth and pee," I roll my eyes.

"So, leave." She glares at me.

"Not like I haven't seen it all before," I mumble as I put toothpaste on my brush and wet it. "Just go back to exfoliating, you don't fool me. You take way too long in there to just be doing a simple hair and body wash." I shrug as I lean on the counter and dramatically put my toothbrush in my mouth and brush it along my teeth.

The longer she stares at me the slower I brush. With a smirk I wink at her before she groans and goes back to her shower. I turn and spit and rinse my mouth out with mouthwash before spitting that out to and rinse with water to get the strong minty flavor to leave. Lean into the mirror and look at my teeth closer and slowly chomp my teeth and smile wide to look at all my teeth.

"You think I should try those whitening strips?" I think outloud.

"I think you should get out while I'm naked!" She snaps at me.

"You're so goofy," I point out as I look at my eyebrows. "You can't do eyebrows right?"

"Why are you so concerned about your appearance," She groans.

"Since my division tournament is this next weekend and there will be a lot of people watching, since word got out about the next Yellow Jacket volleyballer," I explain distracted by looking at my face checking for acne but give up at how foggy the mirror is and blurry it is even after I wipe it.

"So?"

"So press," I explained. "Plus I talked to a team that came in and they recognized me as the GT scholarship kid and told me I didn't exactly seem D1 material."