"Jessi, how are you?" My mom answers the phone without even letting it ring a full time.
"I'm great Mom. How's it going?"
"I'm just on my way to work." I can hear that she's in a car. "What are you doing?"
"Getting my books together to go over Will's house. I was just calling to say hi. I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever."
It really has felt like forever. I used to talk to my mom and dad everyday, now it's barley once a week. Granted, they used to act like my best friends because I didn't have very many friends. That has changed a lot this year.
"Make sure you call your father too. He's been dying to talk to you. I think he's still at home."
"I'll make sure to a little later."
"You won't believe who I ran into yesterday." My mom could have run into anyone she's had a past conversation with and think it's a monumental occasion.
"Who?" I ask trying to sound interested.
"Travis's mother!"
The world hates me.
"Oh that's cool."
"You and Travis used to be the best of friends." She obviously has a delusional idea of what's considered a friend. I would say that we maybe talked once a week, on a good week we would have an actual conversation. It was mostly 'what was the homework last night?'
"I guess," I say not wanting to burst her bubble.
"And she said Travis just transferred to the same college your at! I'm sure you'll run into each other. Entrepreneurship and Business are very similar majors. Maybe you'll have some classes together."
"Maybe..." It probably wouldn't be that bad to try and be friends with him. It just seems like boy/girl friendships almost never work out. Someone always wants more, and that someone is not going to be me. He's not in any of my classes, but if I see him around, I could at least be friendly.
I'd love to move off the subject of Travis.
"How are all the girls?" I ask and Mom automatically switches gears.
"They're good, especially Madison. It's amazing how much she has improved since Christmas. She can actually tolerate strangers and doctors in the same room as her. There can be no more than one at a time and she can't go longer than an hour without fussing, but it's so much better than it was."
Oh, Madison. I miss her so much. I need to make a trip home again so I can see her, and all of my other sisters.
"That's so great to hear. I knew she'd get there eventually, and I'm sure she'll continue to get used to it."
"Me too. I wish you were here to talk to her. She misses you a lot, we all do."
"I miss you too, Mom."
For the first time, I'm feeling homesick. It's almost March, meaning I've lived on campus for about seven months. I'm been having such a great time, that I sometimes forget about home.
"Maybe I can come visit next weekend."
"That would be amazing! Tell your friend Will he can come too."
I love how much my family has taken to Will. I don't know what I would do if they didn't like him.
"Okay," I say with a little chuckle.
"I have to go now, Darling. Have fun at Will's house!"
"Sure thing. Bye, Mom."
"Goodbye, Darling."
Kira walks through the door as soon as I hang up the phone.
"Hey," she says putting her backpack down. "You going to Will's?" She looks down at my shoes. It's actually pretty funny that anytime I leave the dorm room, Kira and Avery think I'm going to hang out with Will. Most of the time they're right.
"Yeah. Not for too long, though. He's busy this afternoon." He has to go into work, but I never know how much to disclose about Will's personal life, so I leave it vague.
"Need the car?" She tosses me the keys, but I toss them right back.
"He's going to be here any minute. But thank you."
When I texted him and told him that I'd be able to come over as soon as Kira got back with her car, Will insisted on picking me up. I told him that he didn't have to, but he just texted back "on my way" about ten minutes ago.
"Are you guys dating yet?" she says rolling her eyes and jumping onto her bed.
"Umm, not quite." Still no status on Jack's quitting. Will thinks he'll quit sometime in March, which is coming up. I can keep us a secret for that long.
"Well, you damn well should be. I'm going to personally smack him if he doesn't make you guys official some time soon."
I laugh and swing my bag over my shoulder. "I'll give him a warning."
"Enjoy your gorgeous boyfriend!" Kira yells as I make my way into the hall.
"Bye, Kira!" I yell back. It's probably a good idea that I keep my relationship with Will a secret from both Kira and Avery, for now. They have the biggest mouths I've ever known, but that's why I love them so much.
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I spot Will's car the second I step outside. I didn't grab a jacket on the way out because the weather is significantly warming up. I'm still surrounded by cool air and an even cooler breeze, but my jeans and thin sweater keep me warm. Will is wearing a short sleeve t-shirt, of course.
"Good morning," Will says in an overly cheery voice as soon as I get in the car.
"Good afternoon," I counter.
"It's definitely still morning. I'm sure you just woke up."
I didn't just wake up, but for me, it still kind of is morning. I don't know why Will always wake up so early.
"It's 12:14. It's literally after noon."
"Rosie, if you're going to fight me on the logistics of mornings and afternoons, then you can leave the car right now. I'm not going to have my girlfriend fight with me when I take her on a date."
My stomach flutters every time he calls me his girlfriend. It's an involuntary reaction that I'm not sure will ever go away.
"A date as in your house and pizza, or a date as in a date?"
"Which would you prefer?"
"Although I quite like your house and overpriced pizza, we haven't been out in a while. But what about the whole work situation?"
"I've already got the place picked out. No one should see us," he says with a devious smile. "They don't do construction on Saturdays."
"Construction?"
"Don't ask questions, Rosie."
He always kills me with the 'don't ask questions' thing. He can't just say stuff like that and expect me not to wonder what he's talking about. I swear, he just likes knowing something I don't. I need to learn how to surprise him for once. That could be fun.
We drive the exact path back to his house, but pass up the long winding trail that his house is off of and turn down the next street. It's not like we're going to a restaurant or anything logical. We're just driving down a street with houses on either side. They are huge houses, but just houses nonetheless.
"Will, what are we-"
"Shhh, we're almost there."
A few seconds later, he slows and pulls into a driveway on the left completely surrounded by trees. The driveway turns once and leads to a massive construction site. The whole frame of a house is built, but not much else. There's a giant bulldozer to the right and some other equipment to the left. Will parks the car half way to the house and looks over at me.
"Is this the house you're going to move into?" I ask taking in the size of it. It's about half the size of the house he lives in now, but still looks like it could fit ten bedrooms.
"No! This house is way too fucking big."
"Just like how the paintings in that room we're actually yours."
Why else would he be taking me to a construction site?
"Ha ha," he says getting out of the car. I follow right behind him. "I had a good reason for that little lie. Do you really think I would move into a house so close to Ethan?"
That's a good point.
"Then how did you even know this was being built?"
He takes my hand as we walk up to the wooden framed house.
"If you were to walk through those trees, you'd end up right in the backyard of my house. You can hear these construction vehicles all the time."
Now that he mentions it, I think I do remember hearing construction every now and then. I just didn't think anything of it.
"So why are we here?" I ask as we stop in front of the enormous project.
He lets go of my hand and runs into the first room. He spins around once and then plops down on the floor with his hands on either side of him.
"Because we stay inside too much."
I cautiously walk in and sit down next to him. It seems like the whole thing could collapse on top of us at any moment.
"Do you know who is moving in here?"
"No."
"Then this is illegal!"
"Rosie," he's been calling me Rosie a lot lately. He must be in a really good mood, and I'm not complaining. "There are two kinds of illegal. There's the robbing banks and threatening people with guns illegal and then there's the writing your name on the back of a building and hanging out on construction sites illegal. The first one is logically illegal, the second one is more of a suggestion for people who aren't very smart. I think we're pretty damn smart."
"You have strange ideas for dates," I say laughing.
"I'm new to this. A movie and dinner sounds boring."
"Something tells me with you it wouldn't be."
"You're right," he says winking. "Now," he gets up off the ground and walks around the wooden framed room. "What would this room be?"
"What would it be?" I ask confused.
"Yeah. If you were to live here, what would this room be?"
I look around the incredibly large space. It's hard to imagine it as anything but a construction site.
"A living room," I suggest.
"Come on, Rosie. This is way more of a kitchen. The room to the left seems a lot more like a living room. Look." He grabs my hand and brings me into another room that looks exactly the same. "Living room," he says patting one of wood poles.
"You're crazy." I try to switch my perspective and picture us in a fully built house, but how am I supposed to picture myself inside when I can hear birds chirp and feel a cold breeze?
"Try this." He walks right up to me and places both of his hands over my eyes.
"Will-" I bring my hands up to try and push his away so I can see, but he doesn't let me.
"Just try it." I don't want to ruin his fun, and his mood is very entertaining. So I place my hands back at my sides. "Dark brown carpet, like the a mixture of milk and dark chocolate. Light brown walls, like the color of wood. We'll make that one easy. White leather couches and matching chairs. There's a table right in front of the couch. It has a glass rectangle in the middle. There's books on top of it, textbooks, and a bowl of goldfish crackers. There's a TV over a fireplace It's a big flat screen and the fireplace has bricks around it. It's homey, but modern. The designer convinced you to get these paintings from the store that are supposed to match the room perfectly, but you replaced them right away with-"
"Claude Monet," I interrupt. I can see it perfectly. My mind fills in the details that Will hasn't mentioned and I suddenly want nothing more than to live in this imaginary house.
"I was thinking the same thing." Will removes his hands from my eyes, and the wooden walls look like they've transformed. It's no longer just wood, it's the beginning of a project.
"Monet would look great on this wall, don't you think?" Will says walking to the other side of the room.
"Yes! And the fireplace would be on this wall, and the couch over here, and the table over here." I walk around the bare floor pointing out where all of the furniture would go.
"I would cut off that side of the house," Will says after we finished the living room. "It serves no purpose being there."
He's right. The house cut in half would still be twice the size of mine.
"Warhol would look nice in the kitchen," Will moves into the next room.
"The appliances would all be black and sleek. It would complement Warhol's work. And maybe another contemporary artist on this wall."
"Gerhard Richter."
"He would be fun. Maybe the whole kitchen would be Richter."
"And Warhol could go in the next room."
We went through the entire house like this, mostly talking about which paintings would look best in which rooms. We must have finished each other's sentences at least ten times. We have the same mind when picturing each room. He would mention a red couch after I was already imagining it.
"Wait," I say when we've finished the second bathroom. Will stops and looks back at me. "Where would the Tomas Sanchez waterfall painting go?" It's still one of my favorite paintings and I can't believe it's sitting in my dorm room right now.
"Easy, that would go in our bedroom."
Both of us pause.
This whole time I thought I was designing my perfect dream house, But we've been designing our perfect dream house. I hadn't realized it until Will mentioned our bedroom. He'd been thinking of this as our house, or maybe he just realized what we've been doing too. Would we ever move in together? I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I'm still at the public girlfriend/boyfriend stage. I don't know if I would ever move in with someone who is just my boyfriend. It's something I thought people were crazy for doing when I was younger, but the thought of spending every day with Will sounds so appealing. This is my problem, my imagination moves too fast. It's all Will's fault! He's the one that put unrealistic thoughts about living together in my head.
"I didn't mean to imply..." he trails off.
"We're just playing a game, Will. Of course Sanchez would go in our room."
Will's smile returns and the slight bit of awkwardness fades away in an instant.
"The walls would be light gray."
"And the floor would be black."
We finish the whole house as if we were moving in together; and even though we're just pretending, there's this slight bit of truth that hangs in the air.
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Why did the picture go to jail?
Because it was framed.
HAhAHHAHAah
My jokes are starting to get cheesy, but I still enjoy them:)
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