Page 8 of Hurry Up And Wait

I shoved my door open, refusing to listen to this anymore. I perched my sunglasses on the top of my head and grinned at our new old digs. It was perfect. “Come on, let’s check it out!”

I rushed up the sidewalk, feeling elated with my new circumstances. Riley would get used to it. She followed me anywhere. That’s what sisters did. Well, maybe not normal sisters, but we never liked to be parted. Yet another reason Shawn had to go. He never understood my relationship with Riley.

By the time I was standing in front of the door, I was giggling with excitement. I grabbed the lockbox and entered the code. The little door popped open, revealing the key inside. This was so exciting. When Shawn and I moved into our house, it was all his decision. I had no say in the matter. But this was all mine.

Well, mine and Riley’s. I knew she didn’t actually care about where we lived. As long as we were away from Shawn, that was all she cared about.

“Ready?” I called over my shoulder.

I heard her footsteps pound up the stairs and her heavy panting as she pretended that this was a hard journey she would never get over. She was so dramatic like that.

“Alright, let’s do this,” she said, rubbing my shoulders like she used to do when we were preparing for something big. I put the key in the lock and twisted it, sliding the door open. My eyes widened in amazement as I took in the old-world beauty. It was amazing.

“What a dump,” Riley said, shoving past me. She walked over to the built-in bookcases and swiped a finger over it. “It’s fucking filthy.” She brushed her fingers off in disgust, then threw herself against the bookcase and squealed in glee. “It’s mine! I call it!”

“I get to choose my bedroom!” I called out, running up the stairs.Her feet echoed off the stairs as she chased me up the wooden staircase, grabbing my ankle. I fell, hitting my chin on the edge as she climbed over me and scrambled to reach the top first. I hauled myself to my feet and raced after her. She went right and I went left. I squealed in glee when I saw how big my room was.

“I call it!” I shouted.

“No!” she yelled behind me, crumpling on the floor in a heap when she saw how big my room was in comparison to hers.

“Ha! Loser!” I called out, holding my finger and my thumb in an L shape on my forehead.

“You suck!”

I stuck out my tongue and tossed my head back, laughing at my victory. Blood coated my lip from where I bit it when I hit the stairs, but I didn’t care. I was the victor!

I slumped to the ground in exhaustion. “Let’s unload everything tomorrow. I’m exhausted from running up the stairs.”

“Grocery store?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow at me.

“Jujyfruits?”

“Hells yes!”

We both jumped to our feet, rushing down the stairs to get to the car.

“Should we unhitch first?” she asked, sliding into the passenger seat.

“What for?”

I slammed the driver’s side door and cranked the engine. Grinning, I turned on the radio, nodding to the beat asNever Gonna Give You Upblared over the speakers.

“RickRoll me!”

Although, technically, we weren’t RickRolling, we’d developed our own meaning. In fact, anytime a Rick Astley song came on, we considered it being RickRolled. That was mostly because we weren’t entirely sure what RickRolled even meant. But it worked for us.

“Should we lock the doors?” Riley asked.

I laughed. “Girl, we’re in Kansas now. What’s the worst that could happen?”

We took off down the street, hauling our moving pod after us and laughing as we shouted out the lyrics without a care in the world.

4

KAVANAUGH

“Where have you been?”Eli said the moment I walked through the door on Monday morning. “You were supposed to be here an hour ago.”