I whisper her name from the open door, but she doesn’t move. So I close the door and use the bathroom, trying to figure out why she’s here. As I brush my teeth I come up with four possible explanations:
It only looks like Sidney. It’s actually an elaborate pile of pillows, or a strategically placed mannequin or something equally creepy.
It’s some stranger she paid to lay in my bed, who will undoubtedly murder me.
I’m hallucinating. Or drunk. I haven’t cracked the beer sitting on my counter yet, so the first is more likely at this point.
She’sdrunk, and wandered into the wrong bed. Maybe I should pour some lemonade on her and even the score in the morning?
I look at the unopened can of beer sitting on my bathroom counter and shake my head. I sort of wish I was drunk right now, because any of these things seems more likely than the idea that Sidney Kristine Walters could actually be sleeping in my bed right now.Willingly.I’m tempted to open her bedroom door, just to confirm nothing horrible has happened in there.
I pull on a pair of gray pajama pants, because I don’t think talking to her in my underwear is going to help matters at all.
She’s sleeping right on the edge, which seems like a very Sidney thing to do. I don’t even know why, it just does. I squat down next to the bed and just look at her for a second. My annoyance over Caleb and the necklace, and the fact that she thinks I’m a total douchebag, has melted away. I set my hand on her shoulder and rub my thumb on her bare skin, trying not to startle her. She makes a little purring sound, and the crack of light slashing down onto the carpet illuminates the way her nose scrunches up. I want to laugh, but that feels like the absolute rudest way I could wake her up. “Hey, Sid?” My hand is still on her arm when her eyes slowly open.
She looks startled for a second, but she doesn’t make any noise. With a shake of her head she blinks up at me, scans her eyes around the room, and then opens her mouth in something between a yawn and a deep breath.
“Shouldn’t you be at the movies?” I whisper, and all of the anger from before has seeped out of my voice, leeched away by the shock of her in my bed. She’s still in the old T-shirt and cotton shorts she was wearing when I brought her into my room earlier.Has she been here the whole time?
Sidney doesn’t say anything; she just shakes her head. Honestly, it seems rude to show up in someone’s room and then refuse to answer their questions, or to even speak. But then she rolls onto her back, and then over again, until she’s facing me, but this time from the other side of the bed. I look down at theempty space where her body used to be, and then at her.I am so freaking confused right now.When she doesn’t move, I lie down next to her, hoping my bed isn’t as squeaky as hers.
Her voice is soft. “I didn’t go to the movies.” I can feel her breath on my cheek as my eyes focus on the ceiling.
“I see that.”
“Do you know why?”
I turn my head toward her. “Because you knew Caleb wouldn’t create a movie-watching experience half as awesome as I did?” I smile at her, and realize our faces are only inches apart. “Because you wanted to hide in my bed like a creeper and wait for me?” She scrunches her nose up like I’ve offended her, but a smile is pulling at her lips, so I keep going. “You were sitting on my bed, thinking about how awesome I am, and you suffered a narcoleptic episode. Am I getting warm?”
“You’ve had this necklace foryearsnow.” She puts her fingers to her chest where the necklace rests. “Two summers ago.”
“That’s the basic math of it, yes.”
“You suck at this.” Her voice is annoyed, but amused.
“What?”
“Talking about serious stuff.”
“Yeah, pretty much.” I don’t think it’s that I’m nervous to talk to Sidney about this stuff, it’s just that my head is spinning, and the room is dark, and she’s in my bed wearing way too little. It’s a lot to think about.
“I kind of like that you suck at this.” She smiles and rolls onto her back, and I’m relieved by the extra few inches it puts between us. “So if you’ve had that necklace for two years…”
“Do you have a question you want to ask?” I’m still looking at her, but she’s looking at the ceiling.
“Do you have anything you want to tell me?”
I roll my eyes and wish she could see it. “You suck at this, too.”
“Yeah. But you should have told me. I thought you hated me, and we could have had… we could have had less of us being dysfunctional and horrible.”
“Maybe I liked us dysfunctional and horrible.” She levels me with a stare and I let out a long breath. “What should I have told you?”
She doesn’t say anything, she just stares up at the ceiling. And after a minute, she closes her eyes, and I wonder if she’s just going to go back to sleep in my bed and hope she wakes up to find out this entire day was just a bad dream.
I take a deep breath, and decide that I don’t have much to lose; this is a game of chicken that Sidney is never going to willingly let me win. “Hey, Sid…”
She tips her head back toward me, her voice soft. “Yeah?”
