“No, you still have the shower head, you just aren’t . . . um . . . enclosed.” Ava was rubbing her hands on her jeans nervously.
“Sounds weird, why are you telling me?” I saw her guilt, and I slammed my Coke on the counter. “No.”
“Mee, I—”
“No. He doesn’t get to change anything else!” I cried in despair. “He’s been hereonenight.One night.”
Ava stepped toward me, and I made a sound low in my throat that honestly sounded like a growl. “We don’t know how long it has to be for. He’s a big guy, and he’s doing us all a favor. Can you blame him for trying to be comfortable?”
Was she kidding me? “Are you serious?” I squinted at Ava to make sure I was hearing her properly.
“Mia—”
“I didn’t ask him to be here,” I cut her off. “I don’t even know why he’s here. He can go back to his own room, in his own dorm, and leave mine alone.”
“Well, technically, it’s my room,” Ava muttered.
I wanted to slap her. “Your room? What aboutourkitchen,ourliving area,ourbathroom?” I saw the delivery guy hovering uncertainly in the hallway. “What?” I barked at him.
“We’re done, miss, ma’am. Um, we’ll, eh, we’ll be back in the morning.” With a nod to us both, he practically ran out of the apartment.
“Ma’am?” I said after him in disbelief. Did I look like a ma’am?
“I think you’ve scared them.” Ava snickered, but my look cut her off. “He said they’d only be a few hours with the installation tomorrow,” she said quietly.
“Where is he?” I asked as I leaned forward.
“Practice,” Ava whispered.
“How did they get into my home?” I demanded. “My home.”
“I don’t know.”
“They’re not gods!” I reiterated Ava’s words back to her — words she’d said to me in this kitchen only a few weeks ago.
“I’ll talk to them,” she assured me, and with my blank stare, she nodded eagerly. “I really will, I’ll let them know this isn’t okay.”
It really wasn’t her fault. It shouldn’t have been Ava that I was taking this out on. “He can’t turn everything upside down.”
“I know, I’m sorry. They act first, think later,” she told me with a small smile. “I mean, if you think about it, they caused Mayhem. Just a singular attack,” she added as she lookedaround our apartment. “And to be fair, the couch looks so comfortable.”
“You think a personal delivery of Mayhem to my home is a positive thing?”
Ava bit the inside of her cheek as she looked at me. “Want me to stay? I could, after all I need to go sort out my room.”
“No point, they took all your stuff away.”
It was with a small measure of satisfaction that I saw her sprint to her room and then start cursing colorfully. “Where the hell’s all my shit?”
I listened to the sound of the closet door banging off the wall and multiple curse words being strung into nonsensical sentences. When Ava came storming back into the kitchen, her cell was already pressed to her ear.
“Where’s all my stuff?” she demanded of Jett. Well, I assumed it was Jett. She listened, and I took another drink of my Coke. “What do you mean it’s at your place? I don’tlivewith you, Jett. I live with Mia.”
That’s exactly what I had been trying to remind her of.
“No, Jett, no. I want it back here.” I watched her as she paced. “I understand that.” A pause. “No. How can you say that? I know what’s happening, of course I know.”
I wish someone would tellme.
