Page 26

Kota

T his was it. The day it was all going to end.

A special thank you to El for helping me plot it out.

It was a little embarrassing how much time I spent on this prank, considering how many other productive things I could’ve been doing, like cleaning my messy room or writing my stupid bio essay.

But I kept telling myself this was necessary, even though it most definitely wasn’t.

There was an inflatable pool filled with ice cold water that had replaced Crew’s mattress. His comforter was carefully covering the top of it, hiding it in plain sight like camouflage.

Crew’s birthday was yesterday, and after seeing the pictures and videos of the wild party the hockey boys threw for him last night, I wasn’t surprised that it was already noon and he still wasn’t home.

I’d been checking Lane’s location occasionally, waiting to see it move to know when they were on their way back.

I was growing impatient, considering I had class in an hour and a half, and I wanted to be here when Crew got home.

The minutes were ticking by, slowly and painfully, and my patience was shrinking with it. I could hear husky voices down the apartment hall, growing louder and louder. And to my delight, the two idiots in question finally burst through the door.

“I don’t fucking understand,” Crew fumed, clutching tightly onto his phone as if he was about to crush it in his hand. “This has been going on for years and they won’t fucking stop. They wreck my birthday every goddamn year, and quite honestly, every other holiday for that matter. I’m fucking tired of it!”

Lane remained quiet, peacefully closing the door. His mouth formed a hard line as he looked at me, his eyes shooting me a loud, strained warning to stay quiet.

My throat went dry, the type of dry where you tried to swallow a knot of uncertainty and it wouldn’t go down.

I had not a single clue of what was going on, but when Crew’s ice-cold glare hit everything in the room, including Lane, I knew I might’ve been in trouble.

“This is fucking bullshit!” Crew screamed, slamming his phone on the countertop and stalking towards his room.

Uh oh.

Panic latched onto me, inviting regret to join it. I’d seen Crew pissed, annoyed, confused, the list went on and on, but I’d never seen him... hurt?

Sure, his angry outbursts weren’t foreign to me, but this felt different. There was pain behind his words, a deeper reason for the sudden eruption than just being mad on a surface-level.

Within a millisecond of Crew rounding the corner, I shot off the couch and tiptoed over, screaming in a whisper. “Lane!”

He shook his jacket off, shooting me a look that said You don’t even know the half of it.

“Lane,” I hushed again, sounding more urgent.

He spoke quietly, my face becoming hot from distress as he explained. “His parents practically ruined his birthday... again.”

“You’re not understanding!” I yelled in a whisper.

Looking at me in a daze, Lane finally registered what I meant. His eyes widened, practically popping out of their sockets. “What did you do?”

I scratched my head, grinding my teeth together. “Um, I—”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Crew roared.

Lane’s eyes snapped shut, his head falling backwards like a disappointed dad that was about to ground his children. “Kota,” he scolded, his tone eerily calm.

Small droplets of water trailed behind Crew as he stomped towards me. His clothes were soaked, his hair wet and messy like a dog with damp, shaggy fur. He had almost the same look on his face that he had when he got rammed by an opponent during a hockey game— eyes on fire, jaw unhinged, muscles tensing one by one.

And suddenly, this prank was no longer amusing.

“Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me right now, Kota?” he spewed, running a large hand through his dripping hair. “You know what? You win! You fucking win! I’m over this stupid war. I forfeit, alright?” he yelled, his arms wide. “Is that what you wanted to hear today?”

Well, it originally was .

Now I wasn’t so sure.

Clearly, I hit a wrong nerve with the timing of this prank, and although I got what I originally wanted, my regret was only growing.

Every breath leaving Crew’s lungs was like a puff of smoke rushing out of his mouth. Staring directly at me, he was probably waiting for a snarky comment, or really, anything at all.

But I stood there, silent and expressionless.

He shook his head at me with enough hatred to burn down our apartment building. “Fuck this,” he seethed, swiping his hand through his hair and flicking water onto the floor before twisting around and stomping off.

My eyes fell, staring at one of the many small puddles of water that I was now responsible for cleaning up.

Frozen beside me, Lane’s lips were so tight that it looked like they were glued together.

By no means was I expecting Crew to be in a good mood when he got home, but I was more so just expecting a rough hangover and some exhaustion. Obviously, I knew the prank would piss him off, and I’d been preparing for him to civilly surrender, but I was not at all expecting that explosion. I didn’t think Lane was expecting it either.

Maybe I took it too far this time.

***

I didn’t see or speak to Crew for the rest of that day, other than when I cleaned up his room and put his mattress back. But even then, he left the room while I did it, refusing to be within five feet of me.

I wasn’t good at expressing my feelings, and I especially wasn’t good with apologies, so I’d kind of just been hoping this whole thing would blow over as the days went by.

But it seemed like each passing day made the air in the apartment staler, and all four of us were reluctantly breathing it in.

It was no secret that Crew and I never got along. We’d been playing games this entire time, testing each other, waiting to see who the first to crack would be.

But it felt like we’d— or rather, I’d — crossed a line.

And now we were all paying the price.

Both Lane and Bridget were upset. They kept saying it had less to do with me and more to do with the situation. I knew the timing of the prank was shitty, but in my defense, I didn’t know the timing was going to be shitty. I still wasn’t entirely sure what Crew’s relationship was like with his parents, and by the sound of it, it didn’t seem like a great one to me, but I did feel bad for making his already-bad-birthday a little bit worse.

After talking more about it with Bridget, I decided to swallow my pride and try to apologize.

My steps were slow and reluctant, like gravity was trying to drag me further and further away from Crew’s bedroom door.

Standing there quietly like I was lost, I stared at his door for minutes on end as I tried to gather up the courage to knock.

Just get it over with, Kota.

My fist clenched and unclenched various times as I raised it, blowing out a strained breath. I gave three solid knocks, tapping my foot against the floor in anticipation.

When the door swung open, a dissatisfied Crew stood in its wake, eyeing me with the intimidation of a great white shark.

“What?” he greeted me with.

I ignored his gaze as I spoke, feeling a swirl of embarrassment. “I know you don’t wanna talk to me right now, but I just wanted to say that maybe I took it too far and...” my voice dropped to a quiet mutter, “I’m sorry.”

His harsh gaze branded me for a moment, and when he finally decided that I was being genuine, his stance softened. “I’m sorry too.”

Blinking at him, my mouth parted. That was definitely not the reaction I expected him to have. I’d pretty much been expecting him to slam the door in my face.

“For what?” I questioned.

He shrugged against the doorframe. “Maybe I overreacted a little bit.”

Head bobbing awkwardly, I stood uncomfortable. We’d never had an interaction that wasn’t filled with annoyance, disgust, or malice, so I wasn’t quite sure how to act at the moment.

Crew sighed subtly. “Alright... can we agree to pretend like neither of us apologized to each other?”

With eyes widened in gratitude, I nodded. “Agreed.”

He gave a tight-lipped nod. “Cool.”

“Cool.”