She's Kind of a Disaster

2- Let Me Explain

The next day, my mood is uplifted because of the party. Everything is ready for a great night. Bella's mom bought us a crap load of vodka and beer, I party-proofed the entire house like I used to do in high school. I put away Mom's expensive vases and make sure Dad's hunting equipment is locked up. I hide anything that can be easily broken or dirtied so that there won't be any evidence of anybody being in the house when my parents get home tomorrow.

If they knew that Jesse and I had friends over while they were gone, they'd lose their minds. And if they found out that we've been drinking alcohol, they'd go absolutely ballistic. We had to be careful.

"Everything is ready to go," Jesse tells me after he's connected the speakers to my Spotify account. "When is Clayton getting here?"

"H had to run home for a few hours to make sure that he's ready to go back to campus on Saturday but he'll be back later for the party. Bella is on her way and I told everybody else to get here at eleven."

"Even the rugby guys? You know they're always late to everything."

"I told them ten," I assure him. Jesse and Clayton were on the same rugby team since they were thirteen, which means I've also known most of those guys for just as long. I know better than to expect them on time for anything.

"Kelsey just texted. She's bummed she couldn't make it," He says, looking down at his phone. He met his girlfriend at school and her hometown is four hours away from ours, which means they've barely seen each other all summer. Her texts and calls have been getting more frequent as the months have passed.

"Just don't post anything on social media so that she doesn't feel even more left out," I suggest before looking out the window. "Don't forget to close the curtains. You know the Hamiltons will rat us out if they can tell something is going on."

It was smart of our parents to befriend the neighbors across the street to keep tabs on us when they weren't home. Their list of rules for us was never ending in high school and they haven't let up now even though we're both adults. It would take an entire army of people watching us to make sure we never broke any of them.

No caffeine, only an hour of TV, no going out with friends, study for at least three hours every night. Even if we had nothing to study, we would just have to stare at our textbooks and pretend to be learning. And now in college, they even control what we study. It doesn't matter if we enjoy the subject, as long as it sounds cool when they're talking to their friends.

Jesse fell into place with pre-med. He wants to be a surgeon someday. Our parents are thrilled.

I wanted to go to culinary school, but that wasn't in their plans. After a couple of personality quizzes that didn't make any sense at all, they decided I'd make a great lawyer. 

Our older sister is a psychiatrist, which was a compromise with Mom, who wanted her to go into engineering. Out of the three of their kids, I feel like the odd one out sometimes because the thought of being a lawyer makes me want to dry up like a raisin and do nothing.

"Bella is here," Jesse tells me as I'm going through everything one last time just to make sure that it's all perfect. Just as he says that, my best friend walks through the front door of my house with a broad smile on her face.

"Those are definitely my shorts," She accuses me when she notices my outfit. "Maybe you should keep them, they look way better on you."

"They were in my laundry," I defend myself. Although we've been best friends since we were toddlers and we've been sharing clothes the entire time. It's almost like our wardrobe is one giant shared closet rather than anything really being mine or hers. "And that's my shirt."