I try to appear like I don’t care but Alice narrows her eyes.
“What things?”
“Dunno.” I shrug. “He said he’d be away tonight and tomorrow.”
Just then, like it was timed in a cosmic feat of crappiness, I hear a girl’s voice bellow: “Zeeeeeekkkkeee!” down the hallway, like it isn’t midnight and people aren’t possibly sleeping.
“Hey, babe, I thought you’d be still out,” I hear. And while for a split second there was the slim possibility that there were other Zekes in the dorm that I had yet to meet, that voice I’d recognize anywhere. Even in English.
“Want to come hang out?” Cloy Voice asks, and Zeke laughs.
“Hang out, eh?”
“Oh yes,” she whispers, her voice all breathy. Though unfortunately for me and Alice, the fact that she’s directly in front of our door means that even if she was in our room we couldn’t possibly hear them more clearly.
“Please kill me,” I mouth to Alice, conscious that if we can hear them from in here, they can hear us from out there.
“Your Zeke?” she mouths.
I think of shaking my head because there’s no my Zeke, but that seems like splitting hairs.
Alice presses her lips together and then opens them wide. “Abby!” she shouts. “I’m not going to hang out in the common room and wait for you guys to finish making out. I want to go to sleep, and I’d rather be able to do it without listening to you guys suck face all night.”
Her speech is so shocking, from the lie to the fact that it’s Alice bellowing it out, that I don’t even think to stop her until she’s looking at me triumphantly.
“And I can’t believe you guys are watching that movie together. I mean, get a room. Not my room. A room where you can be alone.”
“Alice!” I squeak, not knowing whether to high-five her or slap my hand over her mouth.
“Rawr,” I hear Cloy Voice say, which makes me want to go out there and pull her off of Zeke. Because what kind of girl says rawr in real life?
“C’mon, we should get out of here,” Zeke says, and he doesn’t sound nearly as flirty and happy as he did before.
And suddenly I’m quite sure that as utterly humiliating as Alice’s speech was, high-fiving her wasn’t nearly enough to thank her.
So I tackle-hug her.
SEVEN
I HAVE A RAGING HEADACHE when I wake up.
Which is unlikely the reason why Alice is upside down. In the middle of the room. And she’s not in a headstand like the ones I struggle through in gym class, arms wrapped around my head, praying I won’t fall over and hurt myself. Or kill someone else. Nope. She’s actually standing on her hands, legs straight and perfectly still.
“Are you—” I try to formulate the question but the truth is, I’m not sure if I’m totally awake or if this is somehow part of my dream.
“One sec,” Alice stutters.
Well, at least it’s evidently not quite as effortless as she makes it out to be.
It takes another fifteen seconds before she flips down, one leg at a time, as controlled and graceful as she was in the position.
She rolls her shoulders back and forth and stretches out her wrists.
“Do you do that every morning?”
“Yup.” She smiles. “Only usually you’re gone before I start my yoga routine.”
“Why?” My eyes are only open a crack because the light seems especially bright this morning. Like it’s shining from the sun directly into the back of my eyes. Which seems to be impossible, but this morning? Anything’s possible.
“Because usually you’re up before nine?”
Nine?
Nine?
My eyes screw shut. Not because of the blinding light or the epic eye pain. But because class starts at nine and—
Merde. Merde. Merde.
“Relax,” I hear Alice say as I whip off the covers and desperately try to find something—no, anything—to wear. Wednesday’s jeans? Fabulous. Don’t care if they have a coffee stain on them. The sweater I wore Thursday night to the dorm eighties party? Not a problem.
“Abby!” There’s clothing falling everywhere, and I know I should be one of these people who hangs up her clothing, but this week totally owned me. Next week I’ll be better, I promise myself as I try to shove both my feet in the same skinny-jean leg. If I can just get to class before Marianne notices I’m not there, I’ll hang up all my clothing before I go to sleep and even video chat with my grandmother this weekend and—
“Abby! It’s Saturday. Breakfast isn’t until eleven because we’re doing that