Side Note: I Think I Love You (Side Notes Book 1)

Chapter 1 - Attie

I'm going to murder Jason.

Specifically, in his sleep. I'll choke the life out of him when he least expects it with one of his pillows and stuff feathers into his mouth as soon as he stops breathing.

Or, even better: I'll slip some hemlock in his water during dinner and he'll die in his sleep. But where could I get something that hasn't been used since Socrates killed himself a couple of millennia ago?

Side note: I don't know the answer to that.

Regardless, I still want to kill my brother for using that damn Sharpie on my walls. I don't mind a little harmless prank now and then. This, however, was not harmless at all. Do you know how much rubbing alcohol I've had to use to get it off most of my walls?

A shit ton of it. And I'm not even finished with it, yet.

I don't even know how he managed to not wake me up when he was doing this. I could easily applaud him because I'm not exactly what one would call a deep sleeper—even a drop of a hat could wake me up. But how did I not wake up to the sound of a squeaky Sharpie over my bedroom walls is way beyond me.

I wipe my forehead with the back of my hand as I finish up one side of the wall, standing on my tallest tiptoes. I've been at it for a few hours now and I have one more left to do. I definitely have better things to do than deep clean my walls on Labor Day, after a long-ass three-hour drive from my aunt and uncle's house.

One extra hour, another emptied bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a folding chair later, my wall is free of the permanent marker. Take that, Sharpies! Guess you're not as permanent as you thought you would be.

I take one breath in and immediately walk out of my room coughing because now my room reeks of rubbing alcohol. I leave the door open to let some of the smell out and I head to the bathroom to wash my hands. I should probably take a shower but I don't have any clothes I can change into.

All of my clothes probably smell like the strong liquid substance that was used on my walls only an hour ago.

Screw it.

I turn on the faucet and step into the shower. As the warm water runs down my body, I start to think of ways I can get back at my brother for this little prank. We've been at this little prank war since I got him back on April Fool's Day earlier this year for changing the password on my laptop. I could have lost this big project I'd been working on that entire school year because of him.

So I added bright orange dye into his three-in-one while he was at practice as payback. He looked like an Oompa-Loompa until the next morning when he had used Dad's instead.

An idea finally comes to mind as I finish washing myself up head out of the shower and put on my bathrobes. When I begin to towel-dry my long, dark-ombre hair, I spot the tube of toothpaste still sitting right in front of my sink from when I used it this morning.

Then an idea hits me fast as I begin to towel-dry my hair.

I head in and out of my room to grab some clothes to change into, making sure I hold my breath the entire time until I head to the bathroom. After changing into them, I grab the toothpaste and rush downstairs to the pantry. Jason just happens to be running out of his family-sized pack of Oreos. I don't know how many are left because I don't really like Oreos myself but they could definitely use a little TLC.

So I spend my time removing the cream in the middle and replacing it with toothpaste. I'm thankful that my toothpaste is white so the cookies don't look so suspicious.

I head back upstairs to my room so I can open a window because just leaving the door open isn't going to cut it. It fucking reeks but I want to remain as innocent as possible in the case that Jason enters the house at this exact moment.