~Joey~
Heather and I lie on the balcony outside our room with our faces coated in avocado masks and with chilly slices of cucumbers on our eyes, courtesy of Stella. She's not joining us because she's currently inside, reading 'Credence' by Penelope Douglas— and squealing about it. We can hear her through the open screen door.
"Oh my god she's sleeping, Kaleb!"
"I think she's reading the part where Kaleb finds Tiernan in her sleep," Heather says. "She reads fast."
I shake my head. Nobody reads that fast. "I think she's just skipping to all the fun parts."
"Fun?" Heather grimaces. "That book ruined me. It is not fun."
She's so full of shit. "Err, you brought it with you anyway so I think you must've really enjoyed it, Heather Bogart."
She laughs in busted. "It's a bad book, I was making sure no one else would get their hands on it."
"And yet, look where we are." I laugh as Stella yelps from inside.
"Logan! Come see this!" She calls for her boyfriend.
Heather and I both yelp, the horror in her voice as huge as the excitement in mine.
"She can't be serious."
"I hope she is! How cool would it be if they recreated a scene?"
"Too bad," she says. "At this rate, we'll never find out."
If my eyelids weren't weighed down by vegetables, I would roll my eyes at her jab. We've both been single for the longest time and while I don't particularly mind it, I know she's starting to worry. From what she's told me, she doesn't have the best history with relationships. She went from a guy who only used her for her brains to a guy who didn't understand the meaning of consent. It makes sense that she'll be hesitant to get serious again, even though she wants to. "You could just fling anyone off the trip, you know. Doesn't have to be serious."
She tsks. "Have you forgotten who and who we have on the trip?"
"You and Wyatt seemed real cosy during dinner last night," I note.
"He was just telling me about their group dynamic."
Said group involves Keenan, so I carefully lower my voice to reduce my apparent interest level. "Really, what'd he say?"
"That him and Brett have known each other for almost two decades and then they met Tayo when he newly arrived the states."
"Cool."
"Keenan wasn't pledged, but he lived at their frat house for a while and they just let him cause he had connections with the president. When Brett and Wyatt were getting booted from Bowen, Keenan was leaving too, so he offered to get them all a new place and pay half the rent so they all moved out and then in together."
"He was in Bowen?" I ask, remembering it being said sometime in the past.
"Yep for about two years. He refuses to talk about why he left, but they all think he was kicked out."
"He could've graduated early," I suggest. "It's possible."
Heather laughs. "Joey he's a drug dealer. Chances are he got kicked out. He's not that close with them, but they're all living as friends cause he has this older brother who manufactures drugs. Keenan deals the drugs to college students and they split profits at the end of the day. They've been doing it since Keenan was in highschool."
I frown at the new information. "What about his parents?"
"No idea what happened to his parents, it's just him and his brother."
"And sister," I add, recalling his mention of Ashley.
"He has a sister?"
"Yeah, she's younger than him. I don't know anything about her, though."
Heather huffs. "That's odd, Wyatt never mentioned her. Though, he did say Keenan's not the most open of people so I'm not surprised he'd keep secrets. The only thing else they know about him is that he doesn't take the drugs he sells. At first they thought it was because he didn't want to wreck his own business, but later they found out he wouldn't even do weed."
"Shouldn't that be a good thing?"
"Seems a bit hypocritical, don't you think?"
I shake my head, even though she can't see me. "No, it's just ironic. The drug dealer who doesn't do drugs."
"They don't see it like that. Oh yeah, and another thing they know is that he doesn't date. He used to have a thing with this desi girl, but she left him for Brett, then left Brett for Wyatt and now she's with Tayo."
"Yikes," I mumble.
"Hard to believe, honestly. But they're all still friendly...well, as friendly as Keenan gets."
I peel my cucumbers off my eyes and swing my legs over to the side of the lounge chair, getting up to go wash my mask off my face.
"You're leaving?"
I pull my robe over my shoulders, adjusting the collar as I answer, "yeah, I think I'm done for today. I'll try again another time."
Thankfully, she doesn't read much into it and shrugs. "Sure."
I tie the strings and bend to pull my slippers on. When I'm done, I gingerly head into the house to find the bathroom. My sudden change of mood is not unprovoked. Heather talking about Keenan reminded me—very vividly—of his apology last night. Though he's gone back to ignoring me as of this morning, I can't get it out of my head. I'm finding it a bit hard to pit the Keenan she's describing against the one I met that morning, and again last night. Something just doesn't add up to me, and I know I should leave it alone, especially since he probably won't want me in his business, but I'll be lying if I say this isn't confusing the hell out of me.
I finally get to the main bathroom and close the door behind me. I used the smaller, way more familiar one downstairs the first time, so I still don't know how most of the things in here work. I'm careful as I try to navigate the controls to turn the tap on.
I push a button and scream as hot water suddenly descends on my head from the showerhead above me, burning my scalp like fire from a blowtorch. I let go of the button and hurriedly comb my fingers through my hair, which burns my skin as the hot water passes through. I throw my hair forward and squeeze to wring out the water, but scream again as the heat burns my hands. Shit. The burn is still throbbing, so I grab a bottle of conditioner and hurriedly squirt it over my head, sighing in sweet relief as the cold liquid seeps through my hair to quench the flames.
"Joey?!" Kevin yells from the other side of the door. "Joey what's happening in there?"
I turn and note the twisted lotion bottle lying on the floor by the toilet and pink conditioner dripping from my soaked hair, down my white robe.
I probably could've handled that better.
"Joey! You okay?" He yells again.
Finding my bearings again, I find the real knob and turn that one to release cold water. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Go away."
"What happened?" It's Vincent this time.
"Nothing, freak accident."
"Be careful!" My brother shouts, yet again.
"Yeah, got it." I touch the top of my head with one finger and wince at the pain. I only hope it doesn't cause damage to my hair or head, seeing as I just fried my last two braincells.
Oh God, spring break had better go well after this.