Treadmill

VI.II

3:09 AM. Tuesday. Rebecca had classes starting in seven hours. She was pretty sure Kennedy didn't even have classes with amount of time she seemed to be free, so that was something. But even after a five-hour shift and a full workout earlier in the day, Rebecca wasn't tired. Something about planning out this fake person's entire life made her feel like she could do absolutely anything.

Lyla, Rian, and Doug had gone to bed two hours earlier, none of them particularly interested in whatever the other two were doing. Which was just as well. Rebecca and Kennedy had been hard at work and didn't stop until the clock hit 3:10 and they both seemed to register the time.

They had spent the past four hours developing exactly who Drew Parley was: her likes, her dislikes, what she wore, how she talked, her backstory, where she was from...everything. Everything they could possibly be asked in a comment section that would require a rehearsed answer. They knew this fake person's entire relationship history, where she had gone to school since she was three, who she had been friends with at every stage in her life. They knew exactly who this girl was.

3:11 AM. Kennedy opened up her laptop again and created a fake email for Drew Parley, along with a fake phone number that she could access through her own phone if anyone tried to contact it. There were no ties to either Kennedy or Rebecca. That was the most important part.

Rebecca watched as Kennedy set up Drew's Instagram account with the new email and phone number. She watched as she made the profile picture an obscure silhouette of Kennedy in front of a gorgeous sunset and set the name as simply 'drew.' She watched as she paused on the username.

"I feel like this is the most important part." Rebecca commented as Kennedy's fingers hovered over the keys, "This is what the account is going to be referred to as for the rest of its existence."

"What about...@drewboo?" Kennedy asked, cocking her head to the side as she tried the name out on her tongue. "It's cute and it rhymes."

Rebecca nodded.

"I like it. Drew Boo. I think it's memorable."

Kennedy typed it in, and the green check mark appeared to let them know the username was available. She hit 'save profile' and the two girls looked at the blank account like two proud parents after a baby is born.

"There it is." Rebecca sighed, feeling the exhilaration beginning to be replaced by exhaustion, "@drewboo."

Kennedy nodded silently, still staring at the page as if in a trance.

"Well, I'd better get home." Rebecca sighed as she checked the time at the top of Kennedy's screen. 3:17 AM. Way too late.

"Why?" Kennedy asked.

"...because I have class in the morning?" Rebecca laughed uncomfortably, "I need to get some sleep before then." Some of us actually go to class, she finished in her head.

"Just sleep in my bed." Kennedy ordered, "I'm way too wired on coffee and this account to go to sleep anytime soon."

Rebecca thought for a second, staring at Kennedy's wide eyes as she considered the offer. It wouldn't hurt her to spend the night. She was probably too tired to safely drive home anyways, and Kennedy's apartment was just as close to campus as her own. It wouldn't cause her any extra time in the morning.

Although she probably would have to run home to brush her teeth and all that nonsense.

Still, a warm bed and not being required to drive home at 3:30 in the morning was highly attractive. So Rebecca nodded and thanked Kennedy for her hospitality.

"That would be great, actually. Thanks Kennedy."

"Anytime." The other girl smiled. "You're clearly exhausted. My room is right up the stairs and the middle bedroom."

Rebecca nodded again and stood up off of the couch, taking her phone with her. It was definitely close to dying, but she didn't want to be a bother and ask for a phone charger on top of a bed to sleep in. It felt like a bit too much for one night. Or morning. Or whatever time of day it would be considered at that point.

She trekked up the stairs while Kennedy stayed on the couch, her eyes glued to her laptop as she continued to undoubtedly search for ways in which the two could start this account from the ground up without being discovered as its creators.

Rebecca got up the stairs, dragging her feet along as if they were able to think for themselves and stay at the bottom of the staircase. She found the middle door of the top floor and opened it to find a room that could only belong to Kennedy Abrams. The room was far larger than Rebecca's own and the queen-sized bed took up barely a sixth of the space. There was a walk-in closet with clothes spilling out, a vanity across from the bed with more makeup than Rebecca had ever seen in one place before, and a dresser whose drawers were almost all open and overflowing with more clothes. The walls were decorated with different paintings and posters that all seemed to match while simultaneously not matching at all. There was a certain ordered chaos to the room that only Kennedy would be able to get away with...or make work at all.

Rebecca closed the door behind her and turned off the light before stumbling into Kennedy's bed. She pulled the black-and-white comforter up to her chin and plopped her head down on the matching pillow, feeling the warmth of the bed start to overtake her immediately.

4:47 AM. Rebecca felt herself start to squirm in her bed as a dim hallway light hit her closed eyelids. She hadn't been asleep for more than an hour.

Voices were giggling in the doorway as she slowly blinked her eyes open, fighting against their adamant desire to stay shut. The room came into focus slowly, everything just barely illuminated by a yellow glow coming from a half-foot crack in the doorway. Two voices whispered outside the door: a man and a woman. Rebecca forced herself to roll over and look at the crack in the door. She strained to hear their voices as they continued to whisper and giggle together, until the crack in the door widened and the two stepped into the room.

"Oh, shit." It was Kennedy's voice, "I forgot that Rebecca was sleeping in here. C'mon, let's find somewhere else."

The door closed swiftly but quietly as Rebecca heard a male voice mutter a response. Had Kennedy invited a guy over?

The door opened again quickly as Kennedy rushed inside and grabbed something out of her dresser drawer.

"Lyla will sleep for hours, don't worry about it."

"You're not the one dating her." The male voice replied worriedly.

Kennedy found what she was looking for and closed the drawer. Rebecca felt her heart start to pound; the male had to be Doug. She closed her eyes quickly and tried her best to appear completely asleep as she heard the sound of the door closing behind the two.

She opened her eyes again and flipped the comforter off of herself before walking over to the drawer Kennedy had been rummaging through. The drawer was a mess of a hundred different things: hair ties, lip balms, bobby pins...

And condoms.