Page 12 of When The Rain Falls

“Payback for the time you puked on me in the movie theater.”

“That was like ten years ago,” Julie groans. “And you’re the one who let me eat a jumbo box of Skittles. I was five. If you put candy in front of a five-year-old, she’s just going to eat it all until it’s gone.” I roll my eyes at her. Yeah. I know thatnow.

“My shirt looked like it was covered in unicorn piss,” I grumble, before clamping my hand over my mouth. Pretty surepissis on the list Alicia texted me this morning. The list of words I’m not allowed to say in front of her kids. Along with half of my vocabulary. This is going to behard.

I wiggle my extended fist in front of Julie’s face, telling her not to leave me hanging.

Julie reluctantly brings her fist against mine. We pull our fists back slowly, uncurling two fingers and circling them in the air to replicate Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. Then we do jazz hands. Or, rather, I do these things. Julie flops her arms around unenthusiastically like a dying fish.

It’s a really stupid fist bump. One I let Julie make up when she was five. It was fun back then. It’s even funnier now that we’re older.

“Girl,” I chide her. “That was lame.”

Julie’s about to answer when another girl enters the room. She looks the same age as Julie, but she has gorgeous dark features and curves that some adult women only dream of. She'stwisting a lock of long, black hair around her finger and staring down at a bright pink phone in her hand as she walks towards us.

"Oh my god, Julie," she squeals, oblivious to her audience, eyes glued to her screen. "Rocky posted about taking me to homecoming!” She bumps into a side table and automatically turns ninety degrees before she continues walking, like a Roomba being redirected by a wall.

“This is Ruby,” Julie makes the introduction. “She lives across the street.”

Ruby stops walking and looks up at me with complete and utter disinterest. Like it's inconvenient that I exist in her proximity.

"Hey," she says dismissively before returning her attention to her phone. But then she does a double take. “Wait,you’rethe aunt? Like the homeless one?”

“Homeless? Guys, come on. I’m not homeless. I just don’t have a place to live right now.”

“Isn’t that the definition of homeless?” Ruby asks. I don’t know if I like this kid.

“Ok, maybe. But I have a job. So, I’m not really homeless. More like, homeless-ish. Or housing challenged,” I offer. “Yeah. Housing challenged.”

“Or homeless.” Ruby shrugs. “Wait. Do you have a car?”

“Oh my God,” I sigh. “Yes, I have a car.”

“Cool, you wanna take us shopping for ho-co dresses?”

“Only if you want to,” Julie chimes in. “No big deal.”

“If she doesn’t do it then we’re stuck with my dad.” Ruby throws Julie a harsh glare.I feel like I’ve seen that glare before. But where?“And he’d probably make us buy pilgrim dresses.”

“I’ll totally do it. I love shopping. That sounds like fun,” I offer quickly. I have the sudden urge to prove to Ruby that I am neither homeless nor a lame aunt.

“If you think that sounds fun, you clearly don’t spend enough time around teenagers,” Alicia’s voice cuts across the room. I look up the stairs and see her making her way down with a sleepy-faced infant clinging to her chest. When I see her, it strikes me just how different our lives are. Here she is, in the defined roles of mom and wife. Walking comfortably around a home of her own. In a life that she’s built. Arms wrapped around an infant as she walks in front of a wall full of framed family photos. We exist in different worlds.

When we make eye contact, it feels like spiders are crawling around in my chest.

“Hey, Alicia.” I try to sound casual.

“Hey, Aimes. Didn’t hear you come in, sorry about that.” She bounces Logan against her chest.

“Thanks so much for letting me crash here.”

“Sure, no problem.” She nods up the stairs. “Come on up. We fixed the guest room for you.” I climb the stairs behind Alicia and follow her to the guest room. Logan gives me a chubby-cheeked grin over her shoulder. When I boop him on the nose, he belly laughs. I've never really been a huge fan of babies, but he's a cute one.

"Here you are," she says, walking into the room at the end of the hallway and flipping on the light. I throw my suitcase onto the bed and set the duffel bag on the floor. It's a small room, but it's clean and conveniently located next to the bathroom.

Alicia walks over to the window and raises the blinds, still bouncing Logan as I join her. Our reflections appear side by side, but in two separate window panes, exaggerating the distance between us. We watch the world below in silence. The quiet streets. The perfect row of street trees. The well-maintained houses with flower beds out front. No dumpsters. No traffic lights. No trafficsounds.

"How was last night?" Alicia asks. Her reflection in the window disappears as she walks across the room and takes a seat on the bed. She settles Logan in her lap as he sticks a chubby hand into his mouth.

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