Mark My Words

38 | Pittmen Party Crashers

       

Of course Jamie-Lee wouldn't betray his best friend by inviting Rosalie, so thus commenced his query to Joanna, who barely managed to slide onto the party group chat list by means of Jamie owing her a favor.

    The following night, just an hour before the party, Sami came knocking on her door. Though, when Rosalie opened the door, she was met with Joanna at his side. Her level of devilish tendencies seemed to have skyrocketed since the day before because that night, her grin came with a set of stick-on vampire teeth. She came wearing a pair of high heeled red boots and a maroon-and-white lettermen jacket, and for a moment, Rosalie forgot the weirdest part—the fact that Joanna stopped by with Sami at her side.

    Joanna knocked on the doorframe and said, "Knock, knock. Ready to party?"

    "I, um—this is the plan?" Rosalie said, looking to Sami for clarification. She gestured to Joanna and said, "Lennie doesn't even like Joanna!"

    "He loves me in a fearful way," she said, which earned her a scowl from Rosalie, and a sigh from Sami.

    "The problem with Harper is that you are not off the market, so we're gonna pretend that you two are an item by matching your costumes," he said. With that, he hefted up a Target bag and pushed it into Rosalie's arms. Rosalie wasn't given the chance to blush and flounder, because before she knew it, Sami was turning her around and pushing her across the foyer to the stairs. "Now hurry! I gotta get changed too, you know."

    "Why is it that nobody clued me in on this plan!" Rosalie cried, staggering up the stairs.

    "Because you woulda freaked," Joanna called after them. Rosalie turned with a scowl, an insult on the tip of her tongue. She stopped though as Joanna shut the front door behind her and stepped forward to linger on the rug, hands in the pockets of her lettermen jacket. She went to investigate the one photo on the foyer wall when Sami dragged Rosalie off and out of view.

    The tension in Rosalie's chest popped the instant they were behind the closed door of her bedroom. She turned to Sami in a panic and said, "I can't do this, Sami."

    He halted mid-step into the room. He stared at her in shock before his brows furrowed and he hissed, "What do you meant you can't do this? I thought you liked Joanna—"

    "I do! That's the problem!" she whisper-shouted. Sami donned a terribly confused look that had Rosalie groaning and shoving him in the arm. "I'm in crisis mode, for Pete's sake! Joanna talked to me in the hallway today and I almost vomited."

    "Okay, that sounds like more than a crush problem—"

    "I'm serious, Sami! I have to get over all this before I can consider pretend-dating her, let alone actually—" Rosalie dissolved into a groan, stomping her feet in frustration. She threw the bag down so she could put her hands to her forehead and say, "What's the point of this anyway? I don't even have to go to the party—"

    "Yes you do! There's a bigger plan than all of this," he said, thrusting his arms up. "Blake says that you, Joanna, and Jamie-Lee are gonna blow this whole thing up."

    "Blow what up?"

    "Harper and Lennie!" Sami said, hands in the air.

    "I'm not out here trying to being a home wrecker, you know! That isn't in my job description here," she said, jabbing a finger to her palm with each word.

    He clasps his hands to his hair and handled them into fists with a ferocious scream. Rosalie jolted, only to burst into laughter when he went in and tackled her around the middle, hefting her into the air on his shoulder. She screamed when he heaved her onto the bed where she rolled back and gathered momentum to get this over with.