Before It Rains

When I woke up, I felt like I was in a dark hole. Woah. After turning my head a couple times I finally realized that somehow my sweatshirt hood had gotten on. Pulling it off and watching the room grow light, I heard voices coming from across the room. Ruben. I sat up and turned away from the wall.

“Ruben, what the...?” I started. And then I stopped. There was another guy in our room and boy, was he hot. “Um... hi?” I said, not knowing what else to say. They looked at me. Ruben rolled his eyes, but the other guy looked surprised.

“You’re Sam?” he asked looking puzzled.

“Yeah, I’m Sam. Who else would I be?” I looked back inquisitively at Ruben.

“Austin this is my twin sister Sam. Sam this is Austin.” Austin kept staring at me. I glared at him.

“What?”

“I... just...” he started. It took him a minute. “Ruben said he had a twin Sam. And since this was the boys dorm, I kinda assumed that Sam was... well, a guy. And obviously,” he gestured, “you’re not.”

“Thanks for the news flash. I think I figured that out,” I muttered. Then it registered. “This is the boys dorm?” I squeaked. He nodded.

“Yup. The girls are in A and the boys are in B. How’d you end up here anyway?”

Realizing that I was answerless at the moment, he turned to Ruben for his answer. Ruben, having been practically in a coma since the minute we got off the bus, looked back at me. I sighed.

“Sorry, he’s clueless. He was pretty much asleep until six, and that includes the walk up here, checking in, and the elevator ride.” Ruben made a face at me and I returned it. I explained to Austin what the secretary had told me when we had arrived. “I just didn’t know we ended up in the boy’s dorm.”

He laughed. He had brown hair like Ruben’s, only longer, like skateboarder style. When he laughed, his eyes laughed too. He was amazing, as far as I was concerned. And, well, how long had he been here? Come on, Sam, get a grip.
It was then that I actually started thinking straight. Here I was, just having woken up at a boarding school to my brother and his new friend hanging out. And his friend was cute, and I was still wearing my bus clothes. Sweatshirt, jeans, the whole nine yards. So, my family didn’t have a lot of money. But I could afford to dress better than this!

I grabbed my suitcase and zipped it open. What the heck had I packed? I found a pair of dark washed jeans and blue tank top with a white one to go underneath, and flats. By some miracle, my best friend Layla had given me a hair straightener for my sixteenth birthday three months ago and I grabbed that too. Was it possible to make a bad first impression on a guy and a great second impression? Well, I sure as hell was going to try. I got up, taking my change of clothes, toiletries bag, and straightener with me, and dashed over to the bathroom door, revealing as little of myself as possible until I actually looked decent. I called out to them on my way,

“Taking a shower!” and closed the door behind me.

Realizing only then that they had probably started to talk about me as soon as I was gone, I pressed my ear up against the door, hoping some of the sound would leak through to my side, but apparently these walls were soundproofed or something, because I couldn’t hear a thing.

Quickly giving up on my eavesdropping, I undressed and got into the shower. It felt terrific, and even better when I remembered I hadn’t taken one in over twenty-four hours. I’m sure I was in there well over twenty minutes, and when I got out I immediately wished I hadn’t. Oh, well. Austin was waiting. Ha ha, Sam, you wish. I put on the clothes, did my hair, and stared at myself in the mirror. I hadn’t looked this good in days, I thought to myself. Nice.

I put my ear up to the door again before I went back into the room, but there was still nothing. I don’t know what I was expecting. So I picked up my bag and other clothes and walked back into the dorm room. Both Austin and Ruben looked over at me as I entered. Ruben rolled his eyes. Damn, if I had a dollar for every time he’d done that in the past twenty-four hours, I’d probably be a millionaire by now.
I dropped my stuff on my bed and sat down on it, turning to look over at the guys. Both were staring, Ruben’s a little different than Austin’s. The silence was a little weird. I decided to break it.

“Hi, I’m Samantha Lynn Prindle from Florida. And you are?” I asked sticking out my hand, and okay, maybe flirting a little bit. Hey, if I was going to make a good second impression, I might as well start out fresh. It took him a minute to catch on.
When he did he smiled (God, was he cute) and his right hand met mine. We shook. He followed my lead.

“Hello Miss Prindle, I’m Austin Carter Philips from New York,” he said, making a little bow. I giggled. Did I seriously just giggle?

“Call me Sam,” I told him.

“Sam,” he said.

“Austin.”

“I’m Ruben, in case anyone cared,” said my brother, waving his arm in the air.

Usually I would have been ticked at him for interrupting my moment, but Austin put me in a good mood. Instead, I tackled him on the bed and hit him with his pillow. “Mmph... get... mmph...off...” he muttered in between hits. I laughed.

“What’s the magic word?” I taunted him, whacking him again.

“Please get the hell of me, Sam,” he said. I moved.

“Good enough.” I heard a laugh behind me. Austin was doubled over completely red in the face.

“Which one of those was the magic word?” he asked still laughing.

I stared back at him. “It depends on the day.”

Ruben was back up and about, leaning against the wall. “So, what do y’all want to do now that you’re properly acquainted,” he said with sarcasm and finger quotes around “properly acquainted”. I thought for a minute, and then looked at the clock. 12:39? Already? My stomach growled.

“Well... I’m ready for lunch... does anyone know where to get some food around this place?” I asked. Come on, say you do, say you do a little voice in the back of my head chanted. I looked over at the guys.

“Yup, I do,” said Austin. Score! “You wanna come Ruben?” I shot my twin a glance. For a minute part of me thought he was going to come, but instead he went over to his suitcase and shook his head.

“Nah, I’m gonna take a shower. I already found the cafeteria this morning.”

“Okay, if you’re sure,” Austin said. “See you later!” And he grabbed my hand and took off for the elevator. He grabbed my hand!