It took us the next maybe fifteen or twenty minutes to put together the furniture, and then another few minutes to clean up all the packaging. Once we did though, and Liz singhandedly moved the furniture where she wanted it, the room actually looked like it might be lived in.

“Alright,” I said into the air. “Now you’ll have some space to yourself while you’re staying here. And a place to sleep that’s hopefully more comfortable than the couch.”

Liz looked pensive for a moment, then responded. “Yeah…” Then a beat later she picked back up while looking over at me, “Thank you for doing this Sam, I appreciate you going to the trouble of getting a room put together.”

“No problem, I hope you like it.” I worry briefly about the way she reacted, but push it away from my mind soon after. I decide to move on to something else. “So, what should we do now? It’ll be a little while until it’s time to start working on dinner.”

“If it’s not a bother, I kind of want to get a shower before we move on to other things.” Liz stated.

I shrug. “No, that’s fine. There are some towels in the guest bathroom that you can use if you’d like.”

“Alright, thanks.” Liz said with a smile. She then made her way towards the bathroom, grabbing her backpack on the way.

With Liz heading off to bathe, I figured that I could start organizing the clothes that were currently sitting on my bed. I should also probably take some time to practice with the makeup I bought today at some point. It has been ages since I’ve used any, and it was a rather important element to the current plan at avoiding suspicion by wearing it. 

All that in mind, I made the short trip to my room. With my door closed behind me, I was confronted with the daunting pile in front of me. Before I could start overthinking too terribly much, I heard the shower kick on down the hall. I don’t have much time, so I should do what I can now.

I started with the underwear, which I thought would be simple enough so as not to cause any annoying mental roadblocks in organization, but instead I realized I also would need to get rid of all of the other underwear I had since none of it would fit anymore. Sighing at already getting sidetracked, I emptied the contents of my underwear drawer into a pile to be disposed of. 

While I was at it, I should get rid of the pair that I was wearing. It fit weirdly, and while it wasn’t outright uncomfortable it was kind of a strange feeling. 

And so I stripped. Down to nothing but my birthday suit, because I might as well take care of changing into something a bit more comfortable while I was at it. On with a new pair of underwear, which sparked a little jolt of joy into my brain. Then came the sports bra. I had to end up using the larger size of the two sizes I got. The smaller one simply did not work. Some leggings, a soft blue pair. A plain white undershirt and pink socks.

Finally, the piece that I have been looking forward to, the sweater dress. This was one that I picked out later on, and it ended up being my favorite. It was a nice shade of pastel pink. Throughout the upper portion was a pattern of some type that I couldn’t explain if I tried, broken by a solid band at the waist that then transitioned to vertical lines down the skirt that flared out a little bit.

All in all, ten out of ten. Very comfy, very cute, and plenty warm. 

I swished back and forth as I admired the outfit in the mirror, a happy and carefree grin plastered all over my face. Interestingly enough, my attention was brought away by the ringing of the doorbell.

Curious as to who could be at my door on a Sunday afternoon, I meandered downstairs. I was still in a really good mood, and the way my skirt swayed as I walked dramatically up to the front door was immensely satisfying. 

Practically humming, I unlocked the door and pulled it open to reveal…

“Hey girlie, how’re you do…ing?” inquired Jenny, her question petering out towards the end. “Damn, what did that Liz girl do to you?”

Of course, it wasn’t only Jenny. All of my other friends were also there, crowded onto my porch. Each of them were similarly looking at me standing just inside the door, expressions varying from intrigued to perplexed. I couldn’t really keep myself together in my panic, probably closely resembling a deer in the headlights.

“Um.” I uttered, completely at a loss for words.

“Wow,” came a quiet exclamation from Alex. “You really went all out on wooing her, that’s for sure.”

Shock started mixing with embarrassment, a blush warming my cheeks. I still couldn’t manage to form any coherent thoughts, stuck in the mental equivalent of flailing blindly at the light switch in a dark room.

Before anybody else was able to say anything, the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs drew my ears and subsequently my eyes. Still not really knowing what was happening, I mutely watched as Liz reached the ground floor and strolled casually over to stand next to me at the door.

“These the friends that you were talking about earlier?” Liz asked me, nonchalantly running a towel through her hair. She wore a gray tank top and black sweats, leaving her toned arms that worked the towel through her damp hair on full display. Not only that, but her scent was especially potent at the moment and accentuated with a hint of lavender. 

Overall, very distracting. The only saving grace for me was that I did actually manage to respond, even though it was only with a “Yup.” Not the most eloquent, but it was a word at least.

“Right in front of us, have they no shame?” Jenny complained with some mock frustration.

“Woo Sam! Get some!” Kevin’s cheer cost him dearly, with one punch in his shoulder from Alex and one in the gut from Jenny. Since they both came nearly simultaneously, he didn’t hardly know which way to bend.

Kevin’s groans brought me back to some sense of coherence. Okay, so my friends are at my door and they’ve met Liz now. That cat is out of the bag. Why did they have to go and open the bag?

“So,” I start. “What brings you all back early. I thought you weren’t going to be coming back into town until this evening?”

“Well, we originally weren’t. But then someone went off on their own and we decided to come back a bit earlier so we could check on you before we all head home.” Jenny sassed at me. “And more importantly, are you going to introduce us to the babe who’s drying her hair in your living room?”

Blushing, oh heavens me there’s blushing. I sputtered out meaningless noises for a moment in between glancing at Liz who was still toweling down her hair without any kind of reaction to Jenny’s goading. 

Liz stopped with her hair and lowered the towel. “Name’s Liz. Nice to meet you.” She stated neutrally.

The others went around and introduced themselves as well, cutting me out of the introductions entirely. I wasn’t upset about it at all. Glad for a moment to compose myself, really. I was a little worried about Lexi though. She was being oddly quiet. She is usually one of the most talkative in the group.

“Sam?” Amy called once introductions were over. “We also brought your bags back. You probably need some stuff in those.”

True enough, sitting off to the side where I hadn’t bothered looking was my rolling travel case. “Oh, yeah. Thanks. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get my ID back until I saw you all at work tomorrow.”

“You’re welcome.” Jenny belted out with a sass to rival even the greatest of the sass council. “Now go ahead and take it. We don’t want to keep you from your alone time with Liz.” 

Once again, the blush strikes. “It’s- We- No-”

“It’s okay, I understand. We’ll leave you to it.” Jenny waved as she stepped away from the door. 

The following round of very awkward goodbyes before we all saw each other at work tomorrow was rough. I practically slumped against the door after I pulled my bag inside and locked up.

“Well, that just happened.” I muttered.

MegaSuperKami

A rather short chapter. I had to cut this off short because I simply didn't have time to do another scene. I hope that y'all still enjoyed the shorter snippet!

That leads into the next thing. I am going to be taking the next two or three weeks off. I have a lot that is going to be happening this month. Moving, changing jobs, and a great deal more. So, I will be taking a break while I get situated with all of the stuff getting taken care of. I'll probably be back in late June for more!

Until next time, thank you once again for reading and I hope you have a sifradicrunktious day!