I Probably Hate You

Nine

I fell asleep on the couch soon after Gaten had left, the almost inaudible sounds from the television lulling me into a peaceful nap.

Well, peaceful at first. Not so much when I heard a rapid banging at the front door maybe ten minutes after I'd fallen asleep.

"Really, Gaten?" I yelled groggily, "What now?! Or is it Ed and he just remembered he needs to go potty?"

"Uh,no. It's me actually. Mallory."

I opened the door and was greeted with Mallory clad in her Cleopatra costume, only this time there was a giant coat thrown over it and her makeup seemed heavier.

"Oh. Why aren't you at the party?" I asked.

She looked taken aback "don't be a hypocrite"

"What?" I said, knowing fully well 'what' she meant "How do you even know where I live?"

"Gaten"

"Of course" I leaned my head against the doorframe "did you want something?"

She raised her brow "yeah. Are you gonna invite me inside?"

I moved aside to make room for her to enter.

We went to the living room. Mallory looked around but made no move to sit down.

"You wanna take a seat?"

She didn't reply, eyeing my appearance instead.

I was in my grey sweatpants that had three holes in them and an orange hoodie. My hair was probably frizzy, too, considering I hadn't combed it since this morning and I'd been sleeping on it this whole time.

I made no move to adjust my appearance and boredly waited for her to stop analysing how I looked.

I mean, after all, she was the one who had insisted to come inside and view me in my natural habitat.

"Are you done judging me?" I asked.

She waved her hand dismissively "I'm not judging you. It's just- you're not going like that, are you?"

"Going where?"

"To the party, obviously"

I scoffed lightly "I'm not going"

She nodded "Yes you are, we all are"

"I'm busy tonight"

"Doing what? I went to Denny's earlier, turns out you don't have any shifts tonight"

Now I was genuinely curious "how'd you find out?"

"Ford and I go way back" she said simply

I sniffed "why are you so hell-bent I went to this party"

"Because, I'm not going without you"

"That's touching, it really is, but I'm still not leaving this house tonight"

"I'm pretty sure Errison will be there"

"I don't care"

"Gaten will be there"

"Hell no!"

"Diane?" Eleanor called from upstairs, a moment later she peeked her head into the living room "what's going on? Oh. Hey, Mallory"

Mallory waved at my sister

"Nothing's going on" I said, but I already had a bad feeling. Whenever Eleanor was involved, things seemed to go differently than I wanted them to.