STORM

-thirteen-

Gabriella stared at her phone, having an internal battle with herself. She was deciding whether or not to text Storm. Every time she got close to sending a message, she chickened out and deleted it. Her plan was to meet up with Storm and tell her how she felt, however, it was easier said than done. The mere thought of Storm rejecting her kept her from doing it.

For emotional support, she'd seized Penny, her old cat, from her parents' room and placed her on the bed beside her. She was absentmindedly petting her while debating if she should toss the idea out of the window and never let Storm know how she felt. It was tempting.

Someone knocked on her door, startling Gabriella and momentarily making her forget about her dilemma. She shouted that they could come in and waited. Joey entered her room.

"Ew, what do you want?"

He scoffed. "What a warm welcoming."

"You're not getting any of that from me, now, what do you want?"

"As you know, I'm moving out in three days-"

"Thank god for that," Gabriella muttered.

"-and I need your help."

"No."

"You don't even know what it is."

"Fine, what is it?"

"I need your help sorting out my clothes."

"Ask literally anyone else or do it yourself you lazy fucker."

"There are too many clothes, I suck at decisions, and you're the only one home. Motivation to do it struck me out of nowhere so I need to do it now. Please help? I'll give you ten bucks."

She groaned, stood up reluctantly, and made a show of dramatically dragging herself across the room. Joey thanked her profusely, she told him to shut up, and then they were standing in front of a pile of clothes.

"Was your goal to make mount Everest out of clothes? What the fuck is this mess?"

"It's all my clothes. But I'm donating, selling, or throwing away some."

"And you decided that throwing them all on top of each was the best way to go about this?"

"Yes and that is exactly why I need help."

"Why did I agree to this?" She grumbled, kneeling down and picking up a piece of clothing, then instantly letting go of it when she saw it was a pair of underwear. "I'm not touching your underwear or socks."

"They're clean."

"I don't trust that."

"Whatever. It's a deal."

She smirked. "Great. Shall we get started?"

***

An hour later, they were about halfway through all his clothes. Joey's phone buzzed and he fished it out of his pocket. He smiled at his screen and typed something.

"Eiji?"

"What? No. It's, uhm, grandma."

"Don't get me wrong, I love grandma, but I'm not dumb. You don't smile like that when you get a text from grandma."

He sighed in defeat. "Fine, it's Eiji."

"Knew it. So, you're like totally in love with him, right?"