Chapter 21: Cucumber and Chill
My knuckles barely graze Sabrina’s door before it swings open like she’s been crouched behind it, waiting. She stands there with her black hoodie pulled up, casting shadows across her face that can’t hide the crimson flush spreading across her cheeks.
"Get in here, quick," she whispers, glancing nervously down the hallway.
Before I can respond, her small hand darts out and grabs my wrist, yanking me inside with surprising strength for someone so petite. The door slams behind us with a definitive click as she throws the deadbolt.
"What’s with the rush?" I ask, watching her press her back against the door like she’s barricading it against zombies. "Are you hiding from someone?"
Sabrina tugs at her hood, pulling it lower over her face as she peeks up at me through her lashes. Her green eyes are bright with a mixture of embarrassment and excitement that makes my heart do a weird flip in my chest.
"No, I just..." She fidgets with the drawstrings of her hoodie, twirling them around her finger. "I thought it’d be funner if I was all swift about it. You know, like in spy movies."
A laugh bubbles up from my chest, unexpected and genuine. This girl is so wonderfully, unapologetically strange. The nervous energy I’ve been carrying since leaving Mom dissolves, replaced by something lighter, easier to breathe through.
"’Funner’ isn’t actually a word," I point out, unable to help myself. "I think you mean ’more fun.’"
Sabrina rolls her eyes dramatically. "Grammar police! Are you going to arrest me?" She grabs my hand again, tugging me toward the suite’s small living area. "Come on, I promised you Netflix, didn’t I?"
I let her lead me to the couch, a surprisingly decent one for a dorm room, with only a few mysterious stains that I decide not to think too hard about. She pushes me down onto the cushions with playful force, then bounces over to the TV, fiddling with the remote.
"Make yourself comfortable," she says, her voice pitched slightly higher than normal. "I’ve got something special queued up."