So I lost the bet. I gave it my best effort but one of the days it was really cloudy and ultimately, I just couldn’t compete with Becca. Not to say I don’t have a good tan cause it’s awesome. But at the end of the week, I wasn’t anywhere close to Becca’s color. And the gloating Justin did…I should never make bets with him because I always lose and then I don’t hear the end of it for months. I really thought I could beat him this time but I was once again wrong.

And that’s how I found myself ringing the doorbell to Justin’s house on Saturday morning. He threw open the door a minute later with an obnoxious grin all over his face.

“Maid Baxter, you’re five minutes late.”

I pushed past him into the house. “Don’t even start. You’re lucky I’m spending my day off cleaning your stupid house when I could be sleeping.”

He shut the door I had left open. “You want some cheese to go with that whine?”

I directed my most deadly glare at him and he merely laughed at me. What an annoying jerk.

“Come on, Chief. You know you’re excited to mop my floors and clean my toilet.”

I began to shake my head. “I am NOT cleaning your disgusting toilet. You’re living in a dream world.”

He laughed again. “Wow, you are grumpy today.”

I frowned and sat down on the couch in the front room. I leaned my head against the back of the couch and covered my eyes with my arm, heaving a sigh.

Justin flopped down beside me. “What’s eating you?”

“Lola and Mitch kept me up for half the night,” I mumbled.

“Why?”

I turned my head and raised my eyebrows at him. He began to laugh.

“Maybe you should get some earplugs,” he suggested, still laughing.

“Maybe I should get a new roommate,” I replied.

“Maybe you should get your own sex life and then you wouldn’t be so bothered with Lo getting some.”

“Yeah, well find me a guy and I can get on that.”

“Alright, I’ll help you out. Come on, let’s go upstairs to my room.”

A smile was threatening my lips. “Shut up, Justin.”

He gave my shoulder a push. “Come on, Chief. You know you wanna smile. You can’t stay grumpy all day.”

I tilted my head up to stare at the ceiling. “If you make me some coffee I’ll wake up and be in a better mood.”

“I’ll do you one better and go get you something from Starbucks.”

My eyebrows rose and I smiled. “Really?”

“But you have to clean my bathroom.”

My nose wrinkled. “Justin…”

“Starbucks,” he reasoned.

I sighed. “Fine. But if I find anything disgusting, it’ll take a lot more than a cup of coffee to make up for it.”

He stood up from the couch. “All the cleaning stuff is in the bathroom down here.”

“Fine.”

“I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

“Yeah.”

I stood up once he had left and wandered to the bathroom down the hall. My arms full of cleaning supplies, I went upstairs to his bathroom, yawning as I went. Maybe I really should invest in some earplugs. I seriously slept like maybe three hours last night. Okay, so maybe it was a little bit my fault. There was this ER marathon on TV and I couldn’t resist watching it. Sometimes you just have to choose Noah Wylie over sleep.

I dumped everything on the counter in the bathroom and then went back into Justin’s room. He has this big loungy chair thing that’s super comfortable and I sat down on it just to take a minute before cleaning. I swear I only meant to sit there for a minute but as soon as I kind of reclined back, I knew I was a goner. When you’re running on three hours of sleep, it doesn’t take much to knock you out.

I’m actually surprised Justin didn’t wake me up in the five hours I slept for but when I woke up at two, I was in the exact same position and everything was where I left it. It took me ten minutes to fully wake up and once I actually got up, I wasn’t about to get on the bathroom. Maybe Justin didn’t wake me up because he felt bad about my lack of sleep and realized I wasn’t up for cleaning.

Have I mentioned yet how massive Justin’s house is? You know a house is too big when it takes a full seven minutes to find the person you’re looking for. I should have known I’d find him downstairs in the den where all his videogames are. It also wasn’t too much of a surprise to find Trace with him.

Both were too engrossed in Grand Theft Auto to acknowledge me when I entered the room. I sat down in an empty chair and sighed. Justin’s eyes moved to me briefly and then back to the TV.

“Your coffee’s still in the kitchen.”

I smiled and stood. “Okay.” I reached my hand down and rubbed the short hairs on top of his head. “Thanks, dude.”

Sure enough, sitting on the counter in the kitchen was a large cup from Starbucks. I popped the lid and stuck it in the microwave until it was in all it’s steaming glory and then went back downstairs.

The moment I walked back into the den, the conversation Trace and Justin were having stopped immediately and I got this look from Trace.

“Talking about me?” I joked as I sat back down in the chair. The silence I got as a response made me raise my eyebrows. They had been talking about me. I should have eavesdropped. “What about me?”

Once again, silence.

I reached out my foot and pushed Justin’s leg. He looked over at me long enough to smirk.

“Not everything’s about you, Chief.”

I snorted and pulled my legs under me. Maybe not everything but whatever these two were talking about seemed to be about me or they wouldn’t have stopped talking when I came into the room. These guys will talk about anything around me. I once had to endure a five minute conversation about their preferred underwear on girls. So when they won’t say something around me, of course it’s about me.

“So how’s the cleaning going, Em?” Trace asked, without taking his eyes off the TV.

I took a sip of my coffee. “Almost done.”

Justin laughed. “You’ve done nothing but sleep since you got here.”

I sighed and leaned my head against the back of the couch. “Justin, you aren’t seriously going to make me clean your house, are you? It’s so big and it’s not even really dirty.”

“That’s cause Elsie does a good job,” Justin said.

“Then why do I have to do it?”

“Cause you lost the bet.”

“Barely. And it was an unfair bet.”

“You agreed to it though.”

I moaned and closed my eyes. “Justin…”

He said nothing so I tried again.

“Justin…” Still nothing and I cracked open an eye to see that they were both ignoring me. I took a deep breath.

“Juuuuuuu-”

“Damn, just call of the bet,” Trace interrupted me. “I can’t take her bellyaching.”

I gave Justin a hopeful look and he sighed. “Fine. You clean my bathroom and we’ll call it even.”

My nose wrinkled. “Your bathroom? Really? What about the kitchen or something?”

“Bathroom.”

He had that stubborn ‘nothing is going to make me budge so don’t even bother’ look all over his face so I relented.

“Okay, I’ll clean your bathroom.”

Trace laughed. “Have fun with that, Em.”

I frowned and took another sip of my coffee. “You just like to torture me.”

“You’re right, I do,” Justin replied.

“So what are we doing for the rest of the day?” I asked. “I was thinking we should get some Chinese food and have a board game night.”

“I dunno, Em,” Trace said. “We might be TOO cool if we do that.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. You know you like board games. Don’t even pretend you don’t get excited whenever we whip out Scrabble.”

Trace snorted and flipped me off. Whatever. That kid can’t even hide what I huge nerd he is so I don’t know why he even bothers.

“Justin?” I turned my eyes to him. “Chinese food and board games?”

“Yeah sure. But you have to have my bathroom done first.”

“It’s not going to take me three hours.”

“You would think.”

I groaned. “This sucks. You suck for making me do this on my first day off in-”

“Clean, Woman,” Justin interrupted me. “Go, go, go.”

I scowled as I stood and left. I hated him. This was definitely the last time I ever made a bet with him.

* * *

“Can you grab that?” Lola yelled from her bedroom two days later when there was a knock on our apartment door.

I got up from the computer desk. “Yeah.” I walked across our slightly messy apartment to the front door and opened the door. I was greeted with a large covered platter being pushed into my hands.

“Take this.”

I took it from Becca and stepped to the side as she came into the apartment. “What is it?”

“My pants have been falling down ever since I got out of the car but my hands were full and I couldn’t pull them up,” Becca said, ignoring my question. She pulled up her scrub pants and retied the drawstring. “Those old people that live down the hall got a show when I walked by.”

“Maybe if you weren’t such a slut,” I said, putting the dish down on the counter.

“I can’t help it.”

I pried open the top covering the mystery inside the dish and smiled. “You made a cake?”

“A three layer devil’s chocolate cake,” Becca corrected, pulling it away from me and securing the lid back in place. “It was slow at the hospital today so they sent some of us home early and I decided to make a treat for CSI night.”

“Lola’s going to love you for this. She’s been going on about chocolate craving’s ever since I got home.”

“This is the best kind of cake ever,” Becca said, going over to the computer and loading up the Internet. “I used to get my mom to make this every year for my birthday. Is Charise coming over?”

“No. She has a midterm tomorrow,” I said as I picked up some dishes laying around the apartment. Lola and I kind of live like pigs.

My phone started ringing just as Lola came out of her room and started fawning over the cake and I moved away from her and Becca to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Chief. What are you doing?”

“Stupid question, Justin. It’s eight fifty on Thursday night. What do you think I’m doing?”

He laughed. “Oh yeah. You guys have your CSI happening tonight.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t remember.”

“Hey, I have a big favor to ask you.”

“What?”

“Rachel came into town today.”

“Really? I love Rachel.”

“I know. So she’s here but I’ve got this thing I’ve got to do tonight. I didn’t want to just leave her all alone all night so can she come hang out with you guys?”

“Sure!”

“She’s not all weird about CSI like you guys but she likes it.”

“We’ll get her into it. And Becca made cake too.”

“Really? Can I have some?”

“It’s supposed to be for those of us watching CSI.”

“It’s not like you’ll eat an entire cake.” He stopped when I laughed. “Okay, you guys could. But just send a piece home with Rach, okay?”

“We’ll think about it.”

“So I’m leaving my house now and I’m going to drop her off cause I’m going that way.”

“Okay.”

“Great. Thanks, Chief.”

“Rachel’s coming over,” I said to Lola and Becca when Justin hang up.

“Justin’s cousin?” Lola asked.

“Yeah.”

“Cool,” Becca said. “Rachel’s awesome.”

“So…we don’t have to wait for her to eat the cake, right?” Lola asked. “Because I REALLY need some chocolate.”

Becca stood. “We can eat it now.”

“Justin wants us to save him a piece and send it home with Rachel.”

Becca gave a long suffering sigh. “That boy always has demands. Did you tell him that I made the cake for those of us participating in CSI night?”

I gave her a look. “Do you know how big of a baby he’ll be if he doesn’t get some?”

With a roll of her eyes, Becca cut out a piece of cake and put it on a plate off to the side. “He owes me.”

We had all just sat down with our cake when Rachel arrived. I let her in, gave her a hug, and talked to her briefly but catching up really had to wait until later because CSI was starting and you can’t miss the first few minutes of it.

Lola and I had started CSI night when we had realized our mutual love of the show a couple years ago. We had gotten Becca and our friend, Charise, hooked on it last year and ever since then we’ve gotten together on Thursday nights to all watch it together. The original, not Miami or New York. I’ll watch those if nothing else is on but nothing beats the original.

Lola had been trying to get Mitch in on our Thursday nights for months and Becca and I have been working on Trace forever. They just don’t understand how amazing the show is. They’ll sit there and watch it but then make fun of it after.

And Justin? Don’t even get me started on him. He won’t watch the show simply because we all love it so much. He has no reason to dislike it, he just does it to annoy the rest of us. I’m determined one day I’m going to break him though. Sometimes I’ll ‘accidently’ leave my CSI dvd’s at his house to tempt him but he never touches them. One day.

Becca left soon after the show was done since she had to work early in the morning and Mitch called so Lola went to her room to talk to him, leaving me and Rachel alone.

“So what are you doing in LA?” I asked. “Just visiting?”

“Yeah. School and work were just kind of getting to me and I needed a break so I booked off the weekend at work and came out here to see Justin.”

“And then he ditched out on you.”

Rachel laughed. “Pretty much.”

“What’s he doing tonight anyways?”

“He’s on a date with some girl Trace knows. He was going to cancel when I showed up but I wouldn’t let him. He needs to get some outside connections. You would think he’d have tons but he’s becoming kind of a hermit.”

I laughed. “Sometimes.’

“So I heard you and Ben broke up.”

“Yeah.”

“That bastard cheated on you?”

“He sure did.”

“I hope he got gonorrhea.”

I laughed. “See this is why you rock, Rach. Cause you’ll just say that stuff. Everyone else won’t come outright and say it because they’re all friends with Ben.”

“Well he shouldn’t have cheated on you. People who cheat suck.”

“Yeah.”

“So do you ever see him?”

“I feel like I see or hear about him all the time. But we were all friends with everyone so I can’t really escape it.”

“Have you talked to him?”

“Once when I first got back from Ohio.”

“Oh right. I forgot you were in Ohio for a month. Justin was freaking out while you were gone. I remember him calling and being convinced he’d never see you again.”

I rolled my eyes. He’s such a drama queen. “It wasn’t my most well thought out plan, that’s for sure. I didn’t think it would be such a big deal.”

“I would have done the same thing,” Rachel shrugged. “Sometimes you just need to get away.”

I smiled. I knew there was a reason I liked this girl so much. “Exactly.”

It was close to ten thirty when Justin called Rachel to say he was almost at my place. And because we’re girls and we can talk forever and we weren’t anywhere near done catching up, she told him to come in for a bit. He was knocking on my door five minutes later and I pulled myself up from the couch to let him in.

“Did you save me some cake?” were his first words to me when I opened the door.

“Becca didn’t want to but I stuck up for you and said you’d be a baby if you didn’t get some,” I said, going to the kitchen. He followed and took the piece of cake and a fork from me. “Plus I knew if we saved you some cake you’d come next week for CSI night.”

He laughed as he raised a forkful of cake to his mouth. “You wish, Chief.”

I sighed and began to walk to the living room. “So how was your date?”

“My date?”

“Rachel said you were on a date with some girl Trace knows,” I said, sitting back down on the couch.

“It wasn’t a date, Rach,” he said, sitting down beside me. “I never said it was a date.”

“Then why did you douse yourself in cologne?”

“I didn’t. I put on the same as I normally do.”

Rachel rolled her eyes and I laughed a bit. “He’s probably telling the truth, Rach, because lately he’s been like bathing in cologne everyday so he always smells like that.”

“Oh whatever,” Justin sputtered. “Get your nose checked.”

Did I mention he can get defensive really easily? “Oh, okay, Justin. I’ll go get my nose checked.”

“And it wasn’t a date. It was just dinner. I hardly even know her.”

“Ugh, no one cares if it was a date or now,” Rachel said and I sent her a silent thank you. If she hadn’t stopped him he would have gone on about it forever.

He sighed and got up with his empty plate and disappeared back into the kitchen.

“So what are you doing this weekend?” Rachel asked me. “Do you have to work?”

“Tomorrow and Saturday I do but I have Sunday off. We should do something.”

“Totally. I need to do some hardcore shopping. I need more clothes.”

“Sure, let’s do that. What day do you leave?”

“Sunday night. I have to be back for school on Monday.”

Justin reappeared with a glass of milk and sat back down. “I told her to skip out on school and stay longer.”

I smiled. “You should! Spend the whole week out here.”

Rachel laughed. “Like I already told Justin, I can’t my classes.”

“Tell your teachers you were hanging out with your cool cousin,” Justin said.

“Yeah, they really won’t care,” she replied. “You’ll just have to enjoy me extra for the next three days and spend all your time with me. You know, if you can stop going on blind dates long enough to do so.”

Justin let out an exasperated sigh. “It WASN’T a date.”

I, in response, groaned. We’re seriously going to argue about this again?