Love Me When I'm Unlovable

Chapter 12: LeAnna

"Hey, Rita?" I rap lightly on her open door.

She looks up at me and raises an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"I think it's time to decorate your room," I say, smiling.

Rita shrugs and sets her phone on the nightstand. "I guess, sure."

I pull the bag of decorations out from under her desk and set it on her bed. "So, what first?"

Rita shrugs. "I don't care. You're the one who wanted to do this."

"Well, it's your room," I retort.

Rita rolls her eyes. "I have no design skills. Just pull something out and do something with it."

"Okay," I say slowly. "But if I do something wrong, you have to tell me, okay?"

Rita nods. "Yeah, of course. It is my room, after all."

I roll my eyes. "You're impossible."

Rita flips her short hair. "I know. I pride myself on that."

I pull out the curtain lights first. "What do you think?"

"Those should go above my bed," Rita says matter-of-factly.

"You realize they're called curtain lights for a reason?" I question.

"Yes," Rita says. "They're made to go above my bed." She grins.

I bite my lip but nod. "If that's where you want them." I go get the little red step stool that's in the laundry room and return. "We've got to pull out your bed."

Rita nods, moving to the head of the bed. We both heave and pull, and eventually get it away from the wall. In between the wall and her bed is a teddy bear. The one that had 'family is forever' scrawled on its tummy.

"Sorry," Rita says quickly, grabbing the bear. She turns and tosses it in the closet. She looks embarrassed.

I force a smile, trying not to feel hurt. Family meant the world to me, but to someone like Rita, I guess, it just meant failure. I don't know how she was separated from her parents or siblings, but it couldn't have been good. I tried to remember that and not feel very hurt, knowing that she just shoved the bear where she couldn't see it.

"Let's do this," I say, setting the step stool down. Rita feeds me the lights and I use stick-on hooks to attach them to the wall above her bed.

When I'm done, we stand back to admire our handiwork. It doesn't look bad. It looks pretty cool, actually.

Rita sets the lights to fade and turns the lights on. It's beautiful.

"I told you," she says quietly. She flicks on the lights and grins at me smugly.

"Yeah, yeah," I roll my eyes and pull out the next thing. A neon sign that says 'be you'.

Rita points to the wall above her bed.

"You already have curtain lights there," I say, turning over the sign to see if it has batteries. It doesn't.

"So?" Rita cocks her head. "Screw it. Put it smack dab in the middle of the curtain lights. It'll be fine. And we can always change it with your little sticky hook thingy-ma-bobs."

I smile at her weird language. "Yes, ma'am," I say. "But batteries first."

"Right," Rita says. "Where?"

"Should be in the pantry, the little box on the third shelf on the far  left."

Rita nods and leaves to go get the batteries.