Preath: Head In The Game [Complete]

15: The Roof - Part Two

"I'm sorry!" Sammy flung her hand back behind the door to slam it, hitting Mal in the jaw.

"Ow!"

"Sorry!"

I broke from a shellshocked Christen's tense grip and lunged toward the closing door, but I was too late.

"What're you guys doing here?" I shouted, but there was no answer, only stifled giggles and a Sammy saying, "Guys, what did we do?" When I opened the door, the three of them had almost reached the stairs.

"What just happened?" I asked, just loud enough for them to hear.

"Well we were trying to get you for the meteor shower!" hollered Sammy, voice echoing through the stairwell. "Remember, we told you like a week ago? It was quiet so we thought we had to wake you."

Now that I thought about it, I remembered them telling us the night before the game. With so many things between then and now, it had never crossed my mind since.

"Could you not yell?" I said. "You're going to get Carli and who knows who else out here."

They looked at each other, almost wary, before slowly walking back my way.

"Wait," Rose began, her finger ping-ponging around, a physical manifestation of her confusion. "So, you guys are a thing?"

I looked over my shoulder at Christen, who stood awkwardly behind the door, having reverted to the shy girl again. She didn't say a word, but her eyes seemed to be anticipating my answer.

"I-" I started, only to be interrupted by Rose.

"Oh my God!" she said, hands outstretched and moving like she was holding a living ball of secrets. "How did we not know?"

"Rose," said Mal, chasing Rose's arms down and out of the air. "We're going to miss the start of the shower if we don't go soon."

"Right!" Rose nodded and smiled sweetly, but her eyes were still bulging.

Christen came out and shut the door behind her. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"We're going to the roof," Sammy said. "Kelley and Emily are coming."

"They're probably there already," Mal said.

"And everyone else who's not coming is lame," Rose added.

I glanced at the stairwell, then said, "Wouldn't the door to the roof be locked?"

"We got the assistant guy to unlock it for us," Rose continued. "You know, 'cause we're cute."

While the others filtered out of the hall and I turned to look at Chris again, I was surprised to find that she was already watching me.

"People need to learn to knock, huh?" I whispered. "That includes you when you scared me earlier."

"Or maybe..." she began, fixing my hood on my neck, "you just need to learn to lock this stupid door."

"We only have one key. I didn't want to lock you out."

"Well then, I could've just made those three use their cuteness to unlock it for me." The crappy hotel light made her smile even brighter as she put her hands on her back and stretched.

"You have enough."

A lionlike roar called out from three floors up. "Are you coming!?" Emily yelled.

"Yeah!" I shouted back. Their bugging made me less keen on going.

"The sky will be so pretty up there," Chris said. The redness that was in her cheeks a few minutes earlier had faded into a pink which covered her whole face. Suddenly, the meteor shower didn't feel like such a bad interruption after all.