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“No,” Nathan said. I was grateful he answered because I wasn’t sure how to say no to her after being so nice. I didn’t want to bother her any more, either. He patted at my foot. I dropped it to the floor and he stood up. “We should get home. Homework.”
Erica laughed. “I love you guys. I never have to remind you.” She hugged Nathan, wrapping her arms around his neck and plopping a kiss on his cheek. Nathan’s cheeks tinted red but he seemed used to this attention, patting at her arm in an awkward way to hug her back. “Make sure Sang gets home safe.” She turned to me. “You should come over this weekend. We’ll have a fun night together.”
I felt my heart racing with happiness. “Really?” I asked. It had me confused when she said night. I wondered what exactly she meant. She wanted me over for dinner?
She smiled and nodded. “And we may let the boys come, too,” she said, glancing at the others. “If you all will behave and keep her out of trouble.”
“We’ll see if Trouble can keep herself out of trouble,” Gabriel said, hooking an arm around my neck.
I pulled a face at him. How much worse trouble could I get into now?
N aked
That evening, I got back later than I normally did since my dad was gone. Nathan was going to take Gabriel home as soon as Kota got back. Luke followed me home and climbed up the back wall to the roof to get to my window and wait.
I walked in and paused when I spotted Marie in the kitchen. She huddled over a pot of macaroni, stirring in cheese mix and milk. I caught how she looked different with the makeup she was wearing. Wasn’t she worried about wearing makeup in the house? Our mother would see it and she’d be on her knees for sure. I wasn’t sure if the guys would pull her out, too.
There was something else off about Marie, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. She ignored me as she stirred so I didn’t stop to ask. I wasn’t sure what to say.
I padded my way up the stairs and pushed the door open. The door caught on something behind it and stopped short. I had to shove to squeeze myself inside.
A clump of clothes collected right behind the door. I hurriedly shut the door and locked it. When I turned, Luke was already inside, the window open behind him. My heart thundered, worried because of the concerned look over his face.
He slipped to the open closet door and looked in. I closed the window behind him. I came back to puzzle over the haphazard pile of clothes on the floor. Did Marie go through my things again? It wouldn’t have been the first time.
My heart stopped. I went for the attic door. It was closed but I peeked in, checking for the cell phone. It was still there where I hid it in the wall.
I breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Your clothes are gone,” Luke whispered to me, still standing inside the closet door.
My eyes widened. “What?” I shifted away from the attic, closing it and stepped up behind him.
The closet had been emptied out, some remnants piled on the floor at the bottom, mostly underwear and bras that were previously piled up on the shelf in the closet.
Luke helped me as I picked up the spilled clothes on the floor, dumping them on my bed. It looked like Marie’s clothes but there were some others mixed in that I didn’t recognize. I separated the t-shirts and jeans in an effort to shuffle through them. My blouses and skirts were missing. Nathan’s and Luke’s shirts that they’d given me were gone.
Luke shifted on his feet, rubbing at the back of his head. “Did your mother do this?”
I bit my lip, my brain churning but I shook my head. “No,” I said. It didn’t feel like something my mother did. My mother wasn’t interested in what we wore usually. My father bought clothes in bulk once or twice a year, from places I didn’t know but I had guessed were garage sales. He bought a variety of sizes and Marie and I sorted out what we could wear between us.
Luke leaned into me, finding my hand and squeezing it. “Who?”
I shook my head again, blinking. “Marie, I guess,” I said, blushing. “I don’t know. She doesn’t really like the clothes I wear and they don’t fit her. She’s downstairs. I’ll go talk to her.” It surprised me. She once in a while borrowed a shirt but it seemed odd she would take out all of my own clothes and leave hers in my room.
He nodded. He couldn’t follow me now. “I’ll wait in the attic,” he said. “But come get me as soon as you can figure out what’s going on. Don’t bother your mom about this, even if this was her.”
I thumped my way back down the stairs to the kitchen. Marie had her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail away from her narrow eyes. She sat on the counter, swinging her legs as she ate from a bowl of macaroni and cheese. I realized she was now wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt I’d never seen her wear before and that was what was bugging me earlier. The t-shirt was a simple soft green, with a low scooped neck and looked too small on her frame and the jeans were tight.
“Where’s my clothes?” I asked her. “Why are your clothes on my bed?”
“I traded you,” she said. “You can have the stuff I left you.”
“You can’t trade clothes if I don’t want yours. Yours won’t fit. Where are mine?”
“You have to trade,” Marie said. “It’s not your clothes. It’s our clothes. Mom said...”
I left the kitchen, not willing to hear what she was saying.
“Don’t go through my stuff,” she called after me.
I ran back up the stairs and used the push pin to unlock her door and enter her bedroom. This was really weird. She snapped at me about my nerdy clothes all the time. Why the sudden interest in what I was wearing? And the clothes she was wearing now I didn’t recognize at all. So where did she get them?
Inside her bedroom, I yanked open the closet door. A collection of more t-shirts and jeans were hung up. There were small piles on the floor, underwear, crumpled t-shirts and unwashed jeans. Nothing inside looked like mine.
Marie marched in behind me. “I said don’t come in here.”
“I thought you said you traded me.” I reached into the closet floor and pulled one of the t-shirts out. “Where did this come from? And where are my blouses?”
“I traded them.”
Something in the way she said that struck through me. “Marie, who did you trade with?”
“Danielle and I went through each other’s closets.”
I felt my jaw drop. “And mine?”
“They’re mine too. We went through and sorted them. She...”
“Has my clothes.” I finished for her, dropping the t-shirt in my hand to the floor. I pressed my palm to my forehead. “Why would you do that?”
“Just get out,” she said, her mouth twisting into a horrible frown. “It’s none of your business. Why do you care?”
“You can’t give away things that don’t belong to you. Why would Danielle want my skirts?” My voice rose. I couldn’t help it. And Nathan’s shirt! And Luke’s! Where were they? “How did she get into the house?”
“I let her come in,” she said. Her sharp nose crinkled. “You always wear the same nerdy clothes in the wrong way. Everyone thinks you’re a dork. Just wear the jeans.”
I pursed my lips. I didn’t have a way to combat her further. I stalked out of Marie’s room and across the hallway.
Marie knew I couldn’t go to our mother to complain. It would break the thin veil of
a pact we’d managed to forge between us. She could easily tell our mother I was out with the boys today, or that I had a key to the house, or a few other things that would get me into trouble. Did she know the boys came into the house? Is that why she thought it was okay if Danielle showed up? Her bedroom was right above our parents’ room. How could she get away with Danielle talking with her? The only way I thought the boys and I got away with it was because I was on the other side of the house.
There was no one to turn to. Our dad was gone with no way to reach him on his business trip. I couldn’t tell my mom without starting a fight and risk getting a strange punishment. With Luke there, he would pull me out and it would be a complete mess. I was stuck without recourse against this. If I fought Marie on it, she’d go to our mom and I’d end up in a punishment anyway.
I retreated back to my room, closing the door behind myself and locking it. I pressed my back to the frame. I swallowed, frustrated and biting my tongue to restrain words burning behind my lips. Nothing I could say would help. There was no room for negotiation right now. I didn’t even know Danielle and she had my clothes. It creeped me out.
I slipped over to the attic, gently knocking at it. Luke emerged, pushing his blond locks behind his ear. “What happened?”
“Danielle was here,” I said. “Her and Marie ‘traded’ clothes with me.” I went to my bed to go through the assortment again, hoping the boys’ things were at least there and I missed them the first time through. No luck. “Danielle took my clothes. Marie has hers and gave me whatever they didn’t want for themselves I guess.”
Luke frowned, approaching the bed and tracing a finger over a pair of jeans. “Can’t you get them back?”
“I don’t know how,” I said. “I can’t complain to my mother.” I picked through the pile, holding up a pair of jeans to my waist. It wasn’t much use. Each one of them appeared too big for me. The bottom hems pooled around my feet.
Luke sat on the bed. “You can’t go to school naked,” he said. “We should get your clothes back. Let’s go to Danielle’s. We’ll confront her.”
