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“I never thought of that,” she admits. “Because I don’t think about them. At all. Okay? You know what, you have my permission to go makeup free and dress how you want to for this if you even want to keep going. They’re not going to notice. I promise.”
I seriously doubt that, but it does make me feel a little better.
“If you’re still cool with taking that flight for me, I’m still okay with cleaning for you,” I tell her.
“Are you sure?” she asks. “Take your time, Saph. Maybe it isn’t the best time for you, and I’ll be fine with that …”
“I’m all good,” I confirm, sounding a little firmer about the choice.
“You’re more than good,” she tells me. “You’re the best sister ever, and I promise, after this week, I’m going to take some time off work and we can go do something cool together. Whatever you want. It doesn’t have to be my kind of cool. Okay?”
I smile at the thought of actually taking a vacation and spending time with my wayward sister.
It’s been a long damn time since we did anything like that.
“That sounds great.”
“Good. I’m looking forward to it already.”
I feel a lot more relaxed once I hang up the call. I take off the yellow Converse sneakers and lie down on the bed, feeling like I need to rest my eyes for a second. That second becomes a few minutes, and those few minutes become a lot longer.
I’m startled back awake by a knock at the door, and I see the room has gotten dark while I’ve been sleeping. I switch on the lamp beside the bed, and I stretch as I sit up.
“Scarlett, are you alive in there?” Karma’s bemused voice floats through the door.
“Sorry, I was napping,” I call back as I get to my feet.
“Well, dinner’s getting cold downstairs,” she says. “So, hurry up.”
“I’ll be there in a sec,” I tell her, not opening the door.
I really don’t want her to see how clean Scarlett’s room is.
If anyone can match my sister’s level of messiness, it’s Karma.
She’s always posting selfies on her socials that have been taken in her bombsite of a bedroom, and it looks way worse than Scarlett’s room did before I organized it.
Karma would definitely think something strange was going on if she saw this room right now.
It probably wouldn’t take her too long to realize Scarlett was just in the city, where her identical twin happens to live, before she came back acting a bit off. Apparently, she knows we did this kind of thing in high school. She might work out we’re doing it again now.
I go into Scarlett’s bathroom and clean up for dinner.
I remember what Scarlett said to me about makeup and clothes, but I take a few minutes to reapply the lipstick because her friends are not her neighbors. Those women would be asking what was going on if I went makeup free. Scarlett never usually leaves the house without her signature bold lip. I really need to make sure her girlfriends’ don’t find anything else to question about me.
They already noticed my lack of a tattoo last night, which I told them I had to cover up to meet my mother in the city for a coffee yesterday. Luckily I shrugged it off in exactly the right way.
I head downstairs once I look a bit more Scarlett.
There’s Mexican food on the table tonight, and it doesn’t look half as good as the lunch Bishop made earlier today. The takeout containers are all open and half the food is already gone. I guess it really is going kind of cold, then. I get myself a plate and re-heat a burrito in the microwave before I get a soda out of the fridge and take my meal into the living room where my housemates are gathered around the TV.
“Naps are nobody’s friend,” Karma tells me after a brief glance at my face.
Cleo rolls her eyes. “Oh, don’t be silly. The poor girl has been cleaning her behind off next door. She’s bound to need a rest.”
“I still can’t believe you decided to honor that stupid bet,” Karma says.
“If you don’t have honor, what do you have?” I ask, sitting down on the couch next to Cleo.
