Distance / Gilinsky

Chapter 6

The pounding at my door made me jump awake. I pushed the hair of my face and untangled myself from my comforter and faced my door.

"Come in." My scratchy morning voice rang through the room.

Levi came in with Matt trailing behind him. I pulled the blanket back up to my chin because I felt indecent.

"What the fuck happened to the house? We were going out to pick up some breakfast and it smelled like shit. Then we saw eggs everywhere. Did you do that?"

I looked at Levi like he was mental. It was a force of habit from hearing him say stupid things over the years.

"Why would you even ask me that? Of course I didn't egg our house. But I know who did. Has our moms seen this yet?"

He pushed the door open a little further. "No. Who did it? You saw them?"

"Yeah, it was your "friends". I went down there and they all hauled ass."

"My friends?"

"The guys from the pier? Oh, and Jack was there, too." There was more irritation in my voice than I meant there to be.

Matt was leaning against the door frame, hands in pockets, with a sly look on his face like he knew something the rest of us didn't.

"I know why." Matt spoke up, wearing a face with pride all over it. Like he was better than us because he knew.

"Oh, and why is that?" I gave him a venomous look. For some reason he had a tendency to rub me the wrong way.

"Calm down there, tiger. It's just a prank. We pull it on all the new guys of the group."

"New guys?" Levi questioned, turning to face Matt. "I've been hanging with you guys for two years now. I'm not new."

"She is." He jerked his head over to me, and when their eyes landed on me I blushed.

"I'm not part of your stupid group though." I was beyond annoyed with Matt now. Half of the stuff he was saying didn't even make sense.

"Everyone seems to think you've got a thing with Jack." He spat the words like he was taking about something disgusting. "So yeah, you're part of the group."

I made a disgusted face. "I don't have a 'thing' with him. And about the egging, what the fuck? This is like some dumb college ritual, or hazing. It's stupid, what's the point?"

"The point is," Matt sighed like I was a two year old who didn't know how to read, "is that it's a joke. We're just kidding. You take everything way to seriously."

"I'm sorry, would you like to scrub rotten eggs off of your house in the sweltering heat? Wouldn't be very fun then, would it?"

"Lex, calm down." Levi burst into laughter, Matt shortly joining him. "We just wanted to freak you out."

"We?"

"Yeah, I was in on it. Would you just calm down?"

"What the hell? No will not 'just calm down'! This is so annoying and pointless. I'm not cleaning it up. Now get out." My voice was as solid as concrete.

Levi got a serious look on his face. "I didn't mean to piss you off."

"Well you somehow managed to, so get out. Now."

They backed away and closed the door, and I flopped on to the bed with a loud sigh. Was everyone going fucking mad or was it just me?

-

Drea and my mom had freaked when they saw the house, as expected. Levi told the truth right away, saying that he was just joking around.

"That was a dumbass joke," Drea sighed. All day Matt and Levi were scrubbing the sides of the house. To reach the second story they had to get a long pole from the shed and attach cloths to them. I watched them from the porch, which wrapped around the whole lower level of the house.