The Rugby Player and Me

7. Excuse Me, That Is My Arm

On the fridge, there were photos, mainly of McKenna and Kate, and then the later ones of all three girls. There were pictures of the sisters at the beach, McKenna talking to a lifeguard while Kate chased a toddling Milly away from the water. My personal favourite was a picture of McKenna and Kate staring onto a cot, watching Milly sleep, taken just a few hours after she was born.

Kate looked up from the fridge. She closed the door, holding two yoghurts and a left-over burrito from the night before.

"Let's go." She said, and we made our way up the stairs to her room.

Her room was as messy as ever, clothes littered on the floor and make-up palettes lying open on the dresser. The room was painted a calm shade of lilac, and Kate's white bedspread matched the walls with lilac details. Her carpet was a dark shade of brown. I ran my bare feet through the softness.

Kate had flopped on her bed dramatically, covering her face with her arms. She chucked a yoghurt at me, which I opened and tilted into my mouth. I was glad Kate couldn't see me, she would have frowned at my behaviour. I was glad her arms were blocking her view.

To anyone else it would have looked like she was freaking out because of the arms over her head, but I knew she was only thinking. Probably of what outfits of McKenna's she could force me into.

Because inevitably, we would end up in Kenna's room. There was no way I was going to fit Kate's clothes. Kate was tiny. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't big – not by any stretch of the imagination. But I wasn't exactly small either. McKenna was more my size, so I knew that's where we would be headed.

I continued to slurp my yoghurt, licking the packaging when I was finished.

As if woken by a nightmare, Kate suddenly sat bolt upright. She leapt off the bed.

"Ouch!" I shrieked when she roughly grabbed my arm on the way out of the room.

"Oh, do be quiet, you." Kate replied airily, as she dragged me down the hall to McKenna's room.

Once inside, I looked around. McKenna's room hadn't changed a bit from when she was eleven years old. Her room was styled like she was a girl who dreamed of walking the streets of Paris, which she did. There were posters of famous Parisian landmarks on the wall, as well as paintings and even a pillow in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.

Kate made a beeline to her sister's expansive closet, throwing open the doors. Not wanting to witness the destruction that was about to unfold, I flopped onto the bed, face down.

Around me, I could hear the sounds of clothes as they were pulled out of the closet and then thrown into a pile. The sound was almost hypnotic. I found my thoughts drifting.

This party was going to be the first time I met Kate's new boyfriend. I wondered what he was going to be like. Kate said that he was "an absolute dream" which I thought was pretty corny, but whatever. It was clear Kate really liked him. He didn't go to our school, Kate had told me. Apparently, he went to St Patrick's across town.

When I had heard that, I had frowned. I had told Kate she was fraternising with the enemy. The look Kate had given me would have melted the remaining ice in Antarctica and I had earned a slap for that comment.

It was then that I realised that I didn't even know the mystery guy's name. Had Kate told me? I wracked my brains trying to remember. Eventually, I came up with nothing.

Lifting my head, I looked at Kate.

"What's his name?" I asked.

Kate whipped around angrily. "Olivia, its Jake. I swear I've told you this before. Maybe it's time to get your hearing checked. I don't even know why I bother-" I tuned her out by shoving my face back in the bed and covering my head with my arms.