Tired of Dreaming (Original Roommates Revision)

Jacqueline

Just a normal September day. The rain was pouring. The wind was howling. Everyone was shut inside their homes for the day, doing meaningless things. In our house, we were making fluffy slime and listening to a Beatles record, saying slime was the new fad and we hadn't made it yet.

The wind slowly died down as we added our food coloring and shaving cream. Stir, stir, stir, add in the contact solution, and the effect was almost immediate. The glue-shaving cream-food coloring mixture formed together and got sticky. I made my fluffy slime green, Alanna's blue, Clair's red, and Cassidy's yellow. We decided to do the house colors.

As the rain finally stopped, and the drops starting sliding down the window into the grass, our doorbell was rang.

"I got it," Alanna said, pressing pause on the music.

A little while later, we heard her say, "Oh hi!" happy and after, what I guessed, was a quick embrace was Alanna said, "What are you doing here, Jacqueline?"

Wait- Jacqueline. Drop everything. What?

I headed over. Why would she be here? Why today? What? This neighborhood was new. Maybe she moved in somewhere? Maybe the house to the other side of the boys? That's weird. But why would she do that? How?

I rounded the corner into the entryway and yes, it was Jacqueline. The pretty girl with the waist-length blonde hair, and the tall, slim body.

Jacqueline and I had been friends since Kindergarten. She lived in my old neighborhood. I introduced her to the other girls one day when everyone was at the town's public pool.

Since then everyone's been acquaintances and me the bridge between them. Jacqueline and I also lived in the same neighborhood as Cooper and Nicolas. We used to ride bikes a lot, and were convinced Jacqueline's brother, Jacob, and my brother, Ryan, would get married, but Ryan goes on about how he's "not gay" so I guess that's out of the picture. Anyway.

I hug Jacqueline. After a while, I let go of her. "What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I should be asking what you're doing here!" she laughs. "I've been here the past year. You guys just moved here."

"We had no idea!" Alanna says. We had accidently cut contact with her 2 years ago, after she disappeared, when she left her abusive boyfriend.

Clair smiles, but her eyes say, 'I really don't want you here.' She says, "Well it's so nice to see you!"

Clair never really cared for Jacqueline much. She thought Jacqueline was girly and a bit of a prance. Jacqueline didn't really care, though. I think that Jacqueline can do whatever she wants with herself as long as she's not hurting others. But that's just me. Clair can think what she wants.

"Same to you!" Jacqueline says. And the conversation ends awkwardly. "Well, I've got to head out!"

"Same here," Cassidy says, blushing. "See you later!"

Jacqueline is gone and we head back inside.

We head back and continue making our fluffy slime. Alanna finished and was on her phone texting. I think Nicolas, she said. I was poking my slime, and out of the corner I saw Alanna smirk. She doesn't usually smirk.

"Hey guys," she says. "We should have a sleepover type night. But, like, not a sleepover."

"You mean staying up late and eating junk," I say, quietly.

"That sounds great!" Cassidy says, excitedly.

"Yeah, maybe this Friday," Clair comments, adding more contact solution to her glue-food coloring-shaving cream concoction.

"Okay then," Alanna says, and types more on her phone. I've got a bad feeling about this for some reason.