Before It Rains

Ruben was lying on his bed when I walked into the dorm room. Well, his legs were on his bed. Everything from his waist down was hanging upside-down off the side of his bed and he had his headphones in, listening to his iPod. When we were nine, he tried to get me to hang in that position with him, but all the blood rushed to my head and I ended up falling off anyway. He looked up when I came in and pulled himself right side up.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey."

"How was lunch?”

“Good. They actually have good food here if you would believe it. And I met some of Austin’s friends too. They’re cool, you’d like...” I didn’t get a chance to finish before there was a pounding on our door. I could here voices outside.

“It’s open!” I yelled from my bed. The door banged open and Shane bounded in, followed by Austin, Max, and Kai. Seeing as Shane knew me, and not my brother, he chose to do a belly flop onto my bed. Austin sat next to Ruben on his bed, and the other two just kind of stood a couple of feet away.

“Sure, you can share my bed,” I muttered to Shane. He just laughed.

“What time?” I smacked him.

“You... you jerk!” I screeched, grabbing my pillow and hitting him with it. He actually fell off the bed. “Hey Shane, weak much?” I asked him. He pulled himself up and sat with his back against the wall next to the foot of my bed. I looked over at Austin who was doubled-over with laughter. Ruben was smiling. I turned to Max and Kai.

“Hey you two, that’s my brother Ruben, and this is Kai and Max. Friends of Austin,” I told him.

“What about me?” Shane whined from next to my bed. I tilted my head and looked at him.

“Who are you again?” I asked.

The laughter started up again. When it died down, Austin spoke. “Yeah, so we were going to go into town so we have enough before off-campus hours end. You guys wanna come?” Ruben agreed. As much as I wanted to go, I knew I had put my family off long enough, and I could use the time to unpack and check my email.

“I’ll pass,” I said. “Maybe tomorrow or something.”

“Come on, Sam!” Shane whined again. “Pleeeease?”

“Nope, I’ve got to do some stuff around here. We’ll hang out later.”

“All right. See you, Sam. Come on guys,” said Austin leading them out the door. Shane was the last one out and he closed the door loudly behind him. For the first time while I had been here, I was alone.

The first thing I did was unpack. Most of my clothes I’d had for years, but they hadn’t really gone out of style yet and I put them in the drawers. When everything was out of the suitcase, I shoved it under the bed, and grabbed the box with my new laptop in it and pulled the computer out. It was shiny, and definitely not a used one. Wow. I pressed the power button in the right corner and the blue screen came to life. The first thing I did once it loaded was set a log in and password on the thing. Who knew what could happen with all those guys running around this building?

I found the icon to open my email and double clicked.
FIVE NEW MESSAGES popped up on the screen. Were we taking bets on how many were from my mom? Oh, why bother? My inbox opened. Three from Mom, one from Hanna, one from Layla. Might as well get my mom’s over with. I opened the oldest one, sent yesterday afternoon. For God’s sake, Mom, we weren’t even of the bus yet!

Ruben and Sam,
I know you are probably not off the bus yet, but I just wanted to let you know that I love you both very much and if there was a way to have you here, I would have it in an instant. We are looking forward to having you here in November. I love you. Mom.

Well, Mom if you miss us that much you can have us back any time now. I opened the next one. She had sent it this morning.

Ruben and Sam,
I presume you are nearing the school now, or are already there and resting. Email me when you get a chance to, darlings. I love you. Mom.

And the last one, probably sent while I was eating lunch.

Sam,
Ruben has emailed me, and so where are you? I do hope you’re making some nice new friends, but please don’t forget your dear old mother every once and a while. Email me... now! I love you. Mom.

Darn it all, Ruben had probably emailed her while I was gone. Yes, his computer was on top of his dresser. I wanted to move on to the emails from my friends, so I typed a quick message back.

Mom,
I’m sorry I didn’t email you... I was eating lunch with some friends and I didn’t sleep well on the bus so I slept while Ruben had the time to email you, okay? Things are okay here... I’m rooming with MY BROTHER as I’m sure you well know. Maybe a minor detail you left out before you sent us here. Whatever. I’m going to check the rest of my emails now. Talk to you later. Love, Sam.

Having gotten that over with, I clicked on Hanna’s email. It had been sent earlier this afternoon.

sammy!!!!
I called your house today to see if you wanted to hang out and your mom said u were at boarding school!!!! i cant believe it she said that it was last minute but i cant believe you didnt call me!!! Ahhh!!!! pleeeease email me or get on messenger and talk to me. i miss you lots! <3 hanna

And the other from Layla...

Sam!
Hanna called me while she was having a panic attack. She said your mom sent you and Ruben to boarding school??? Yes??? I can’t believe this! Email me soon Sam! We miss you here! Love, Layla

I wrote them both a joint email.

To my bestest friends,
My mom sent Ruben and I both here at veeeery last minute... like she told us and sent us on a bus early the next morning! I can’t believe she actually did this to us! I’ll ask the headmaster what the policies on having visitors are though!
On the plus side, there are lotsssss of cute guys here! My brother met this one and he is so hot! And all his friends too! I’ll see if I can sneak some pics or something for y’all. Love you, miss you, Sam.

I considered going on to see if either of them were on messenger, but thought better of it. Once I got on, it would be a while until I could tear myself away. So I closed my laptop and grabbed my iPod, letting the music fill me up.