The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 3

Working his way down the hallway of a dormitory building, Joey searched for room number 1420. It was still clear in his memory the time he had spent his first and second years of college in this very building and met a curly-haired guy next door, Harley, who had now become his best friend. But since this junior year, they had decided to move out to a bigger place and now they were also roommates.

As Joey arrived at room number 1420, he knocked on the door three times. When the door was opened, a five-feet-three blonde girl in a white dress that fell right above her knees stood behind it and the look on her face changed as soon as she saw him at her door.

"Joey?" she asked in bewilderment.

"Hi, Kirsten," he replied. "May I come in?"

Kirsten stepped back to let her stepbrother come into her room. "What are you doing here?"

"Mom and Jack asked me to check up on you," he said casually as he walked in.

"Well, you could just text me," she responded.

"I had that in mind but then I thought I haven't seen your dorm, so maybe I could just stop by and visit my Little Kiki." Joey's eyes scanned the room, smirking suspiciously. "And hey, look, you did a pretty good job decorating your room as comfortable as yours at home."

Kirsten just stood there with her hands on her hips, watching him touch everything on her desk.

"Well, as long as you're not hiding pot or something," he joked as he plopped down on the bed which had some Polaroids hanging with twinkling LED lights above it.

She rolled her eyes. "Joey, seriously, what are you doing here? Where's Harley? Don't you always hang out with him at a bar on Saturday night?"

"He's busy with his new girl."

"How about you, then?" Kirsten asked after a moment.

Joey frowned. "What about me?"

"You don't have a date or something?"

"Well, my friends invited me to go hang out with them at this new bar in Queens, but I just don't feel like going." He shrugged then reached for a bag of Doritos on the mini fridge.

"Doesn't sound like you." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Wait, is it because you're kind of a thing with that goldilocks girl?"

"What girl?" he asked without turning to her, busy eating the Doritos.

"The one I met at your apartment last week. What's her name again?" Kirsten asked as she clicked her fingers repeatedly, trying to recall. "Ah, Ashley! Right?"

"I thought this dorm was the place I could get away from her, I was wrong," Joey muttered between his teeth.

"What?"

"You're all dressed up," he equivocated. "Going somewhere?"

"Yup, I'm going out for dinner with Liam tonight!" Excitement was heard in her voice.

"Oh, so I guess today is his schedule to visit you?"

Kirsten nodded happily. "Today is our second anniversary, so we're going to celebrate it at this fancy restaurant for a romantic dinner."

"Oh, congrats," Joey responded flatly but more like a mumble. "I don't approve the dress, by the way," he added after running his eyes up and down her body.

It got Kirsten look down on her dress, self-conscious. "What? Liam got me the dress."

"Well, now I see why he got you that dress with neckline a little too low for tonight."