L. Trinity Michaels. Op. 17

Chapter 5

"Thank you Ms. Sam. Dinner was really good." Gabby smiles at Mom while she rinses off her plate and places it in the dishwasher.

"You're very welcome. You were smart to stay the night on a Friday. It's the only night that I actually make dinner."

"I guess I am lucky then. Thank you for having me." She turns around to face me.

"Can you rinse mine too?" I hold out my plate and smile at Gabby as Mom scolds me for requesting 'a guest' to do work. Gabby is like a third child in the house. She basically lives here. She doesn't count as a guest.

Gabby just rolls her eyes and rinses my plate.

 "We're going upstairs."

"Ok. Have fun, girls." She looks down at her dish of spaghetti and then whips her head up again with a concerned look on her face. "Don't dye your hair or anything."

"Have we ever done anything crazy like that? Mom, we don't even own any dye." I see her expression soften and I turn on my heel ending the conversation. I run up the stairs with Gabby at my heels.

"How would I know that? Your seventeen!" she yells. I roll my eyes and walk down the hallway to my room ignoring my mother.

I flop onto my bed and say, "So."

Gabby flops next to me, rolls over and props up her chin with her hands. That position means that she's getting ready to make a big scene. I've learned to prepare myself from many years of dramatic outbursts and scoot away. "Ok. We have an hour before you have to head to the library. You are in sweats and your hair is a mess. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! WHOOP! WHOOP!" She hops up and sprints for the closet.

She looks around for a minute, fingering through my sunken ship of a closet coming up clean. After looking through my drawer of jeans for a minute she whips out a pair of skinny jeans. They were one of my newer pairs, almost black they were so dark and with pre-ripped holes down the front. These are all observations I made while the jeans were traveling through the air on the way to my face. Gabby has an interesting way of picking out clothes.

It's better than mine, though so I just sit tight and expect to be the flying clothing target of the night.

I catch the pants and set them down next to me and when I look up Gabby is shaking her head at me disapointedly. "Your top selection is impossible."

"Sorry. All my tops are either hand-me-downs or gifts, basically. I hate clothing shopping unless it's online."

"That's ridiculous. And I'm your best friend so I've known that. That's why I brought a sweater for you to borrow." She grabs her bag and pulls out a gray and purple sweater.

"Oh, thank God!" I collapse on the bed in true appreciation. I guess it doesn't really matter if I look trashy because it won't matter once Elizabeth finds out about the tutoring. But still.

Gabby comes over with a knowing smile and pats my head. "It was just in case. And this is the case. And a very severe case of the case. So you are very welcome, my dear."

She sets the sweater down on top of the jeans and heads back to my closet.

The sweater is surprisingly soft so I rub it between my palms as I say, "You won't find anything in there that matches this at all. Purple is usually Elizabeth's color."

"Well I'll go get something from her closet." She leaves the room and comes back with a purple Aeropostale shirt. Elizabeth is at a friend's house but will be back later. They have a soccer game tomorrow so Elizabeth isn't allowed to have a sleepover and stay up all night. Gabby only has an exception because Mom knows we will go to bed at a reasonable time. Gabby is more of a morning person and I just like to sleep.