Page 11 of Tapped By My Roommate
He dropped it to pick up another, and another. Each one of them had been destroyed. Tess had clearly taken scissors to them. I thrust the phone to him and started digging through the pile. Surely she hadn’t cut upeverything.
“She ruined all the T-shirts,” I said, sounding pitiful even to my own ears. Rhett put his arm around me, and I leaned into him. I was wobbling on my knees. I needed his support for balance, I told myself. Truthfully, it just felt good to have a sympathetic shoulder to lean on. Not to cry on, because I wouldn’t give Tess the satisfaction.
“The jeans look okay,” he said.
I picked up a couple of pairs. They were dirty but otherwise unharmed. I dumped them into my box without much enthusiasm. A little more digging revealed a few button-down shirts that Tess must have deemed acceptable. But when we got to my bowties, it was another massacre.
My hand clenched tight around the mangled material. “My grandfather gave me these,” I said. “Sheknewthat.”
Rhett stood so suddenly I nearly fell over. He handed me my phone and charged out of the shed without a word. I hurriedly dumped my bowties into the box, unable to leave them even if they were ruined. I picked up the box and wedged my way through the opening.
Rhett was pounding on the back door to the house. Tess and Dan hadn’t bothered to supervise us at the shed. Probably because they knew what we’d find.
“Hey,” Rhett called. “Hey, open the fucking door!”
The door opened, and a glaring Dan stood framed in the doorway. “You went through the house. You got everything. So go.”
“I want to talk to Tess,” Rhett said.
“No.”
“Do you know what she did to his things? She fucking cut up his clothes.” Rhett leaned to the side, peering over Dan’s shoulder. “Tess, I know you’re in there! What you did was childish and despicable. Cutting up things hisgrandfathergave him? That’s fucking heartless.”
Tess, unable to resist a confrontation, appeared behind Dan. “He shouldn’t have left my house full of his crap, then!”
“That does not give you the right to destroy his things. Especially sentimental belongings.”
I shouldn’t let Rhett fight my battles for me. I edged forward, trying to find the words to tell Tess how cruel she’d been. But what came out of my mouth instead was, “Where’s Zilla?”
Rhett shot me a confused look.
Tess scowled. “I told you, she’s mine. I bought her.”
“She was a gift to me.”
“I bought her, and you never appreciated it,” Tess shot back. “Youlecturedme about how I shouldn’t have bought her, so no. She’s mine.”
It was nothing we hadn’t already said to one another in half a dozen text messages. But I’d really hoped once she let me in to take my things, Zilla would be included.
“What are we talking about here?” Rhett asked.
I shot him a nervous look, hoping he wouldn’t balk. “She has my lizard.”
“Mylizard, you mean,” Tess said, not giving an inch.
“Come on, you don’t care about her,” I said desperately. “You’re just keeping her to hurt me.”
“So what if I am?”
“Just give him the lizard,” Rhett said, sounding exasperated. I couldn’t blame him. Bad enough I had to argue with Tess. He shouldn’t be subjected to the conflict too.
“It’s not happening,” Tess said, and I knew by the look on her face she wouldn’t back down.
Dan stepped forward. “You heard her. You’re done.”
“You’re a real—” Rhett cut off as Dan shoved him in the center of his chest, knocking him back a couple of steps.
“Time to go,” Dan growled.
