Page 8 of The Time It Takes
Everyone else found this hilarious, but Ben threw a pillow at me. “Shower. Now.” His eyes darted to Oliver who was pressing his lips together trying very hard to look unamused. “Alone.”
I rolled my eyes as I reached for my bag on the floor. “Relax, I was only kidding.” When I rose, I pursed my lips at Oliver. “Sort of.” To my enjoyment, he let himself smile this time, shaking his head.
“Willow.” Ben’s voice was stern.
I stuck my tongue out at him and told Phoebe to follow me upstairs so she could change into some dry clothes while the guys ordered pizza. When we got up to my room, I fished out some clothes in my dresser for her to borrow. She pressed random keys on the piano I had in the corner of my room.
“I wish I could play piano or any instrument for that matter,” she said as I laid out the clothes on my bed.
“I’ve offered to teach you many times.”
She sighed. “I know, I’m lame.”
I let out a breathy laugh. “You’re not lame. It’s just not what you’re into.”
Her only response was a nod and running her hand across the keys, filling the air with a very cringy sound.
After I got done showering, I threw on a t-shirt and sweatpants. As I finished combing out my hair, I stopped in the doorway of the bathroom and found Phoebe picking up clothes off the floor and putting them in the hamper.
“Are you cleaning my room?”
She shrugged. “I got bored.”
“Well, thank you?”
She beamed at me triumphantly. “You’re welcome.”
I plopped down on my bed and reached for my phone, yanking it off the charger.
“Dylan and I are going out this weekend. You should come with us—with Tucker I mean,” she said too casually.
I let out a dismissing laugh as I scrolled through my messages and frowned when I didn’t find anything from my mom. Maybe I’d hear from her tomorrow. It’d been three days since I’d heard anything, and she hadn’t answered my steady stream of text messages.
“I’m serious.” She threw a dirty shirt at me, and I shut off my phone. I sat up and looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“I wish people would stop throwing things at me.”
She crossed her arms. “Go out with us. Please?”
“You mean go out with him.”
“He likes you.”
I stood and headed for the door. “Hm. I wonder if the pizza’s here.”
Phoebe groaned. “You’re literally impossible.”
I made my way downstairs, and I could hear Phoebe follow. All the guys were in total lounge mode with four boxes of pizza sitting on the coffee table. Phoebe glared at me sharply before grabbing a slice for herself and taking a seat in the recliner.
The spot between Dean and Oliver was open so I wedged myself in between them in an obnoxious manner. I grabbed a slice of meat lovers and threw it on a paper plate before grabbing the remote to change the channel. 50 First Dates was on, and I peered over at Ben for a reaction. It was his favorite movie.
Dean snatched the remote from me. “Excuse you.”
He changed it back to the game. Seriously, how long are those things?
“Whose house is this?” I reached for the remote and changed it back. When he went to grab it, I threw it to Phoebe. She caught it and tucked it under her shirt, grinning at him. He let out an annoyed growl but pulled out his phone to watch the game on it instead.
“Ben loves this movie,” I said to no one in particular. When I looked at Ben again, he was stretched out with his hands behind his head. “Don’t you, Benji?”
