American Sweethearts

4

"I'll have a caramel latte, thanks."

"Wait, I'm sorry. Did you just say Lena?"

"Yeah, that's my name," Lena nods, a scowl on her face.

"Lena Benali?"

"Yeah..."

"Owens sister?"

"You know Owen?"

"Yeah, we're friends," he explains. "I'm Christian."

"Oh, hi," Lena smiles. "It's nice to meet you."

"Sorry about that. It's just, Owen told me his sister was moving here and you look so much alike."

"We're not that similar, are we?" Lena laughs.

"Yes, you are," I tease, but then turn my attention to Christian. "I'm Sarah."

"Sarah and Lena," he smirks. "I'll have to remember you two. Drinks are on me."

He turns away before we can protest. I glance at Lena, laughing at her expression. Her eyes are wide, her mouth dropped open.

"He's so fucking hot!" she whisper-yells.

"Shush!" I laugh.

"His smile! His hair! I just want to keep staring at him

"Don't. He'll notice."

"We can be sneaky."

"As if he doesn't notice us ogling him!"

"He probably gets that all the time."

"I should've worn lipstick today."

"Girl, tell me about it," she snickers. "If I had known we'd run into California's Sexiest Man, I would've worn a full face of makeup."

"You look hot, though."

She always looks good. She's been blessed with clear skin and a perfect bone structure. Meanwhile, I have pores the size of pancakes.

"Do Owen and I really look that much alike?" She asks.

"Oh yeah," I nod. "He looks older though. And you're way more feminine."

"I'd hope so," she laugh. "You and your sister look nothing alike. Your personalities are completely different, too."

That's true. She's the confident one, I'm the quiet one. I'm working on it, though.

"She got mums genes. I'm stuck with dad's," I say.

"Your dad's hot though."

"Lena! Ew!"

"I'm just saying!"

"Stop!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just teasing," she laughs. "Your face is so red."

I drop my head into my hands, covering myself up. I hate this conversation.

"Can we talk about something else?" I grumble.

"DO you want to tell me what happened with you and Owen this morning?"

I look up at her. All the humour has been wiped from our faces.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't think I didn't notice you two whispering this morning."

"That wasn't anything inappropriate," I tell her.

"Then what was it? Because you looked pretty cosy."

"He was just telling me..." I hesitate.

"Telling you what?"

"Something happened last night."

"With my brother?" she gasps. "Already?"

"No! Oh my god," I scold. "I couldn't find my headphones last night, so I went to the kitchen, and Tyler was there."

"Oh, you met him?"

"Yeah, but it didn't go well. We got into an argument."

"Sarah!" she scolds.

"I don't even know what happened! He was just such a dick!"

"What happened?"

"He was bleeding, and I wanted to help. Next thing I know, he's kicking me out of the apartment."

"What?!"

"But it's okay!" I assure her. "Owen heard and told him to back off. So, this morning, he was just checking in to see how I was doing."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?!" she grumbles.

"I don't know, I just didn't want you to worry."

"Of course I'm going to worry! We don't need to move out, do we?"

"No, I think it's okay. We'll figure it out."

"God, I can't wait to meet Tyler now," she says. "What was he like?"

"Tyler Thompson?" Christian asks, returning to our table. He sets out drinks down before us.

"You know him?" I ask.

"Everyone does. He got kicked out of the dorms in his freshman year."

What the hell? Owen told us they got their own place because they just didn't like the dorms. Did he lie?

"What did he do?" Lena questions.

"He set his room on fire."

My mouth drops. "He what?"

"Almost burnt the place down," Christian explains.

"He didn't get expelled?"

"Everyone thought he would, but he kept showing up to classes."

"Was he charged?"

"Yep, he's still on probation."

Oh, great. We're living with a criminal.