Grace

three - the pizza dilemma

          The kids succeeded in their little evil plan.

           “I can’t believe this!” Grace exclaims, pacing around her new room in the Walter’s residence in disbelief and frustration—though she’s sort of relieved since she’s finally gotten all kinds of weird stuff off of her face, hair, and body. She just came out of her own bathroom that’s inside her new room. She forgot to bring a hair dryer from her own house so she’s now stuck with drying her hair with a towel.

           “Right?” Arabelle agrees in a huff. “You’re lucky you’ve already showered and cleaned yourself, you know? I still have to drive home, which I really don’t feel like doing right now, especially when I’m literally covered in whip cream and other kinds of crap everywhere.”

          Grace glances at Arabelle at the corner of her eye, and then smirks a little. “True.” But knowing herself, she won’t let her friend suffer anymore—Arabelle has been standing in her room ever since, because she doesn’t want to risk making her bed dirty—so instead of shoving it in her face, Grace tosses the towel that she was using a while ago toward Arabelle.

          Arabelle swiftly catches it, and then raises an eyebrow. “It’s wet.”

          She shrugs, and says, “It’s all we’ve got.”

          With an eye roll, Arabelle trots over to the door, and says, “I’m just gonna ask Drew then. See you later!”

          Confused, Grace murmurs, “I wonder why you couldn’t have asked that”—but the door’s already shut after Arabelle walked out—“. . . before.”

          With a shrug, she turns her back to the door, and wonders what she’s supposed to do now. Should she be tucking the kids in goodnight? Scold them for doing that horrible act, especially when food was involved in it? Walk over to Drew to at least ask if he’s okay? She lets herself fall onto the bed in front of her, face first. Unsurprisingly, it’s quite soft and comfy, even better than the one at home.

          The thought of home doesn’t even make her feel homesick. In fact, she’s always wanted to get out of those four walls that cornered her every night, taunting her to feel completely alone—which she was back there.

          She hadn’t exactly been happy in a household with her two parents and younger sister, which is why she decided to buy an apartment just for herself as she graduated college. Just the thought of her parents makes her blood boil in anger. However, her younger sister is a different case. Instead of having any negative feelings toward her sister, she feels pity and sadness for her. How is she doing right now? she wonders. Is she still suffering? Has she found a way to escape from them?

          Suddenly, she hears the door open.

                    Hastily, she turns over in her bed to finally face up. When her eyes set on who’s standing by the door, they widen. And within a second, she gets off of the bed and stands on her bare feet. Not daring to look at a flustered and surprised looking Drew, she looks at the door next to him.

           “I—uh—um,” he splutters, causing her to glance back at him, taken aback. Also, she notices his cheeks getting pinker and pinker by the second. She tries to hide a smile as he continues to stutter, “Your—you—do you usually wear—you know what, never mind.”

          Just as Grace is about to ask what’s wrong, she catches what he has been staring at. She follows his gaze, and realizes that it’s her bow patterned light blue nightie that doesn’t seem to cover her chest properly and ends at only her mid-thigh. Her eyes widen as she realizes how revealed and exposed she feels especially when Drew’s just right in front of her. Her arms quickly cross above her chest, glancing up at him with an embarrassing look.