Chapter Two: Jinx

Present Day

Gregory Finch hated a lot of things about Washington D.C. The streets were grimy; there were more and more idiot drivers on the road every day; and in all of the 52 years he's been alive, he's never had worse neighbors. His townhouse was wedged between two other dirty brownstones, and both neighbors were barbarians, in his opinion.

The four girls living to his left were always making noise, even when they weren't home! The previous summer, Gregory had prayed, watched, and rejoiced as he saw the four girls pack a year's worth of supplies into a filthy car and drive off whilst screaming, "Beeeeaaach bitchesss woooooooo!" Gregory swore the decibel of it blasted his eardrums to shards, but it was the best sentence he'd ever heard since their move in day.

Finally, they were gone. Greg planted a kiss on the picture of Jesus sitting on his mantle. A kiss to no more screaming neighbors and no more noise. Yet, somehow, these neighbors left their TV on. On the Hallmark channel. It was the worst week of Gregory's life, worse even than when his wife divorced him because he was too "negative." Please, Greg thought as he sat on the couch and scowled, there's no such thing.

The neighbors to Greg's other side were no better. They always put up too many decorations during the holidays. Every year for Christmas the couple put up a wreath on their door and on their mailbox. Greg saw it as his civic duty to help the mailbox wreath find its way into the gutter every couple of days. They must have kept back up wreaths just to ruin Greg's life, because the next morning there would always be a new one.

It was 5 p.m. on Friday and Greg had just driven precisely 3.7 miles home from his job at the bank—the best job in his opinion because he could lecture people all day long about how they're morons with their money—when it happened.

His parking spot, by the curb in front of his house, was taken.

Now there are other spots on this side of the road, but this spot, this particular spot was Greg's spot. He even went through the damn trouble of putting up a sign that stated in clear writing Restricted Parking for Finch. Gregory's hands clenched the steering wheel tighter and the car's windows steamed up. If you asked any onlookers what caused it they'd tell you various answers of: "oh, that was the steam blowing out of his ears," or, "no, it was definitely the condensation from his scream." Either one's a solid bet.

Now Greg did the most painful thing he's ever had to do. He parked in the next spot down underneath the cherry blossom tree that was currently in full bloom. Stepping out of his car, Greg glared at the pink flowers above his baby. Grinch huffed and walked up to the offending vehicle.

"What the…"

This, Greg thought, was absolutely not a car. Cars have doors, and windows, and trunks for god's sake. This atrocity had none of those things. Unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable. If one was going to be a criminal and steal reserved parking spots, one should at least do it with an actual car. And there was only one neighbor it could be, since the other was out of town for the weekend.

Greg stormed up the cracked sidewalk leading to the girls' apartment door and banged a meaty fist on the door. He could feel his blood pressure rising with every passing second.

A tall boy with dark hair and blue eyes opened the door with a weak, "Hello?"

"Who are you." Greg demanded.

The boy shifted his weight between his feet and laughed uncomfortably. "Uh...who are you?"

"Greg," Greg said.

The boy repeated it back to him. "Greg?"

"Yes, Greg," Greg snapped. "And I asked you, boy, who are you?"

"Josh."

Greg squinted his eyes up at the young boy. He never had liked tall people, probably because they always looked down their noses at him. Even though it's not their fault, you know, that their eyes are above their nose, really.

Greg tried to peek around Josh to find the other heathens that lived inside.

"Where are the other ones?"

"The other ones…?" Josh asked.

"The animals that have taken up residence here. One of them looks like a raccoon."

"Animals," Josh said flatly. "Raccoons."

Greg stepped closer to this tall, blabbering child and spit out, "Listen here, boy. I-"

"Josh?" Cammie yells out from inside the apartment. "Is someone at the door?"

Josh furrows his brow and turns around to yell back, "Yeah. Do you know a Greg?"

"Who? Meg?"

"No, Greg." Josh looks back at the fuming old man in the doorway and starts spitting out, in Greg's opinions, obscene descriptions of him. "He's kinda short, has really deep frown lines. He wants to know about a raccoon? Did you call for an exterminator or something?"

"THAT'S IT!" Greg roars, and pushes past this Josh fellow. Greg had only been inside of here one other time, to investigate the smell of what was clearly marijuana. He didn't find anything evidence, obviously because the criminals hid it, and the police had the nerve to scold Greg for coming inside unsolicited.

And Greg was disgusted to know that the apartment looked worse than it did before. There was so much color. The couches in the living room were pink and there was artwork of just plants on the walls. Plants. Who in their right minds pays for a picture of a cactus and hangs it on their wall? Greg thought to himself in disgust. There was even a deer head on the wall that Greg swears up and down looks like it's made of cotton swabs.

Greg hardly had time to process the horrors around him—was that a chair with clothes on it or a dresser with no drawers and four legs?—when Cammie finally stepped around the corner.

Cammie froze with chapstick halfway to her mouth. Before she could speak Greg pointed to the boy and burst out, "Who is this?!"

"Josh," the two chimed together.

Cammie raised her eyebrows and walked over to Josh. Greg narrowed his eyes as Cammie tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. There was something off with the girl, Greg noticed. Something weird was going on, and Gregory did not like it. "What's wrong with you? Why do you look like that?" Greg gestured up and down at her.

"Woah, hey man," Josh started as he took a couple steps closer to Gregory.

Cammie didn't look in the least bit offended, only confused. "Excuse me?"

Josh looked at Cammie with a what the fuck is happening kind of face and hooked his thumb at Greg. "Do you know this guy, Cam?"

"Yeah this is Grinchy."

Greg's face when hot and his eyes saw red. "Do. Not. Call. Me. That. Name."

But Cammie wasn't in the least bit fazed; these kids never were. The only response he got from her was a wicked smile and a wink.

"I meant," Greg corrected himself slowly. "That you look like a human. You're wearing pants."

"Did I not look like a human before?" Cammie asked with raised brows.

"No. Never."

And then the situation got even worse, because the children kept multiplying. Macey and a girl with blue hair and no less than five facial piercings walked down the stairs. The pair froze when they saw the others, and the blue haired girl blushed and turned to Macey for a quick kiss before speeding out the open door.

"Who," Cammie said with delight. "Was that? Evie? Taryn? Rose?"

Macey gave an exaggerated swoon and fell backwards on the couch. "No, that was Rebecca. I met her at the gym a couple days ago."

"Ooh. Our Rebecca is going to be jealous," Cammie teased.

Greg cleared his throat to interrupt the giggling girls. This generation has such short attention spans. "If you're done being indecent, now, I came to demand to know whose—"

Macey rolled her eyes and gave Josh a dazzling smile. "You're Josh, right?" She stuck out her hand. Josh laughed politely, "Yes ma'am." Then he turned towards Cammie and asked with a smile, "So you're talking about me, huh?" Cammie blushed but didn't look away. "Have I been bragging all week about going on a date with a super cute boy? Um, yeah, no shame."

There was actual bile coming up Greg's throat. He choked out, "The car in my—"

Cammie spun towards Macey and said, "Grinchy thinks I don't look like a person. Ridiculous right?"

"You don't," Macey deadpanned while texting.

"You look like an upright," Greg started. He and Macey finished at the same time, "raccoon."

Macey clapped her hands, "YES! Grinch sees it too!"

Cammie's mouth dropped open and Josh let out an oooooh.

"What? How?" the very confused, and very human girl asked.

Greg started listing out facts. "There's always black around your eyes."

"Smeared makeup," Macey interjects, helpfully.

"Your nose is all pointy."

"Perky and cute, he means."

"You wear trash bags."

"Mmmm, I'm gonna guess he means sweats and by that he means cute athleisure," Macey said sweetly to her gaping friend.

But Grinch frowned even more sharply than he was already frowning. "Ath-what?"

"Athletic but leisure," Macey "explained," as if Greg would ever know what that's supposed to mean.

Greg met everyone's eyes in the rooms and flatly replied, "trash bags."

"Liz also tested out your picture and a raccoon's picture in a facial similarity algorithm she was working on a couple of weeks ago. You got an 87% match."

Josh slowly nodded his head and chimed in, "Impressive."

Liz Sutton lived and breathed research, so it was no surprise to Cammie that she had taken the time out of her life to do this. It was however a huge problem for her amazing-but-momentarily-awful-friend-slash-roommate to announce it in front of the very cute boy standing next to her before their first date.

Cammie widened her eyes and tried to telepathically send Macey a message of I'm going to kill you with your curling wand when I get back. Greg tried to telepathically communicate I'm going to run all of you over with my car starting with the idiot who is parked in my spot.

That's it. Greg had waited long enough. He shouted out, "THE CAR." The three twenty somethings all blinked at him in confusion. Later on when Macey and Cammie were relaying this entire encounter to their roommates, they would describe how Grinch's head seemed to blow up really big and how he greatly resembled George Lopez in Shark Boy and Lava Girl. It's inconclusive, however, until Liz run's those images through her algorithm.

Greg took a deep breath before pointing out the open door that was allowing all kinds of spring bugs to fly in. "There is some kind of contraption parked in my parking space."

"Not me. I totaled my car last week," Cammie replied with a shrug.

With pure, adorable concern Josh grabbed Cammie's arm and asked, "Woah, you got in a car accident? Are you okay, what happened?"

"Well I was turn—"

"WHOSE VEHICLE IS THAT?" Gregory Grinch did a little jump squirm point jab.

Everyone shuffled outside to look at what had given Grinch an aneurism when Cammie "accidentally" tripped over the threshold. But worry not, because luckily for her there was a conveniently placed boy standing by to grab Cammie by the hips to stop her from falling. Cammie blushed and muttered a thanks before mouthing oh my god to her roommate. Macey wiggled her eyebrows when Josh wasn't looking. Greg waited approximately 0.1 second before storming over to the car and yelling, "THIS!"

Josh perked up, "Oh, that's my car. Sorry, I didn't realize y'all had set spots."

At this point, Greg's mouth had stopped forming coherent words and all he could do was glare daggers at this rude, inconsiderate boy and point angrily at his reserved sign.

"Ah, sorry man." Josh placed a hand on Grinchy's shoulder and winked at Cammie. "I guess I was just too excited about seeing a pretty girl to notice. But it's chill, we're about to leave." Josh turned to Cammie and held out his hand. "Ready?"

"That is not a car," Greg spat out.

"I'm sorry?"

Greg pointed back at his car, his ruined car covered in pink petals. "That's a car, but this?" Greg stuttered. "Boy, where are the doors? The roof?"

"Um, it's a Jeep? I took the doors off."

Greg had had it. Disrespectful kids. Obscene and offensive vehicles. Illegal parking. "Move this pile of junk." Greg walked up and tried to get as close to Josh's face as possible and said in a deep voice Greg only uses when people let their dogs pee on his grass, "Now." And then Greg spun on his heel and yelled out over his shoulder, "I'm calling the landlord to complain!"

The girls could barely wait until Grinch got into his car before breaking out into hysterics.

"Is he okay?" Josh asked.

Macey grinned up at him, "Yeah he just likes to steal the fun out of everything."

"For Christmas we gifted him a book, and he shredded it before giving it back to us in our mailbox."

Josh snorted and asked, "Why? What book did you give him?"

Cammie and Macey smiled devilishly at each other. "A Man Called Ove. We told him that he has a striking resemblance to the main character."

Cammie tugged on Josh's hand and tried to steer him towards the car. "I'll tell you about it on the way."

Macey blew a kiss to her friend as they drove off and then blew another one to Grinch as he promptly pulled into his coveted spot not underneath a tree.

Cammie was in a daze on the couch as she texted Josh. She let out a dreamy sigh and didn't even notice as her friends stood in the kitchen and stared at her. Cammie had been walking past the window to the pharmacy that Josh worked at for months. Every time the girls needed something from the store, Cammie would volunteer to go and get it. Just to run into him. But unlike the first time Cammie met Josh, the cute cashier, she made extra sure that she wasn't dressed—as Greg Grinch would put it—like a raccoon and that she actually had her wallet this time.

It took almost a full year of flirting in the checkout line for this boy to get the hint that maybe Cammie didn't actually need a new packet of gum every day. And their first date was so good. Josh dropped her off an hour ago and she hasn't stopped smiling since.

All of Cammie's roommates were in agreement about one thing though: Cammie was still a mess. It's been two years since she dropped out of Georgetown under the guise of a "gap semester" to really "find out what she wants to do with her life." A semester turned into two which turned into two years, and the only thing Cammie has done since is bounce from shitty job to shitty job. Two years wasted. Her friends knew that she wasn't content; she was already trying to find some short term happiness in random boys and random hobbies that she only stuck with for a couple of days.

Arguably, the most interesting one was Cammie's stunt on a roller derby team. In the span of one game, Cammie managed to break someone's nose, break up with her boyfriend who she wasn't even technically dating, and knock out two teeth. The proof is memorialized in a picture stuck to the fridge with a magnet.

Her friends watched her as she texted away happily to this new boy.

"Okay, should we let her bask in the afterglow?"

"She looks so happy. We shouldn't ruin it for her yet."

"Uh uh. This girl had two years to lounge around. It's time for Operation: Get Cammie's Life Together."

"Operation? What are we spies?"

"If we're doing a role playing kinda game right now, I demand we have a stand in for James Bond."

"Agreed. Do you think Grant would come over and just stand in a corner and look pretty?"

"Only if we give him free beer and Bex agrees to sleep with him again."

"Bloody hell, Macey! Stop bringing that up, I'm tired of having nightmares from thinking about it."

"Oh, we're calling dirty dreams nightmares now? If you say so, honey."

"I think," Liz says quietly so Cammie won't overhear. "We should split up Cammie duty."

Liz continued on, "It's the most efficient method of tackling our objections, and if we're approaching this one-on-one with her then she's more likely to be committed."

"I call doing the easy part."

"Macey!"

"Let's settle this like adults, ladies." Bex chides. "Rock, paper, scissors."

"You're on, Baxter."

Cammie was so absorbed in her phone and in Josh that she didn't notice the commotion her roommates were making until Bex was trying to put Macey in a chokehold. It's not the most uncommon sight to see, if she were being candid. Another common sight was Liz Sutton standing with her thin arms wrapped around herself while frowning at her friends. "Guys," she tried interrupting gently.

"Did Macey take your phone and sext Grant again?" Cammie guessed.

The two fighting girls ignored her and kept rolling on the kitchen floor until Bex finally had Macey's arms pinned behind her back. "Ha! I win McHenry," Bex goaded.

"Real mature, you guys," Liz said in her most I'm-not-surprised-but-not-trying-to-encourage-this tone.

Bex finally got off of Macey and pulled her to her feet. Cammie watched as her friends shared secretive looks before turning to her.

"Uhh...what's going on?" Cammie asked wearily already knowing she didn't want to know what her friends were getting up to.

Bex stepped forward and put her hands on Cam's shoulders squeezing tightly. "You're about to hate us, darling. But it's gonna be bloody worth it."

Cammie let out a nervous laugh. "What?"

Next door, Gregory Grinch heard screams and bangs coming from the girls to his left. With every new curse word he heard through their shared wall, Greg's shoulders rose a little higher. It was time, he thought angrily. Greg couldn't manage to fit his landline between his hunched shoulder and his ear, so he raised his voice to shout at the operator.

"I want them arrested," he roared.

A couple by-passers on the street cast uneasy looks as they passed the set of townhomes. The screams of both tenants blended together to create the soundtrack of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A mom pushing a stroller quickly crossed to the other side of the street before pulling out her phone and dialing 911. "Yes hello, I want to report a possible murder at the corner of Gallagher and Blackthorne."

Two weeks later, there were two new things stuck to the girls' fridge with magnets. The first was a polaroid of the girls posing with the hot officer—Officer Rodriguez for anyone curious—who came to do a welfare check on them. The second was a checklist. A very long and thorough checklist, thanks to Lizzie, that had the title Operation: Don't be a Fuck Up.

Liz arranged it to be in descending order from least challenging to most challenging. Out of the 61 tasks listed, only 3 had been crossed off, and next to each one was Liz's initials. See, there's a competition at stake now. Whoever helps Cammie accomplish a task gets to claim it, and whoever helps cross off the most tasks wins.

If Macey won then she was allowed to set Bex up with Grant; if Bex won then Macey wasn't allowed to talk about Bex's sex life for one whole month; if Liz won then she could use Macey and Bex as her guinea pigs for testing out some of her latest scientific creations. The coolest and most worrisome of them is lipstick that could give emit electric shocks when pressure was applied. Essentially, it's a—

"Lipstick," Macey started.

"Taser," Bex finished.

The two had exchanged horrified looks when Liz explained it to them. "At least if it works," Liz suggested, "you could use it on Grant." Bex had to admit the idea of that was bloody tempting.

Unsurprisingly, most of Liz's normal test subjects denied consent for that experiment. So the stakes were almost as high as Liz's IQ. Almost.

The only person not impressed by any of this was Cammie, aka the focus of the little operation. Her friends weren't wrong—she did need to pull her shit together and stop letting time pass her by—but she was resisting just to be difficult. She admitted only to herself and only when she was alone that it did hurt. It wasn't as if she was happy with her choices, but sometimes your brain doesn't give you much of a choice. Cammie's typically positive, serotonin balanced brain said c'mon girl let's get it but then Cammie's depressed brain said yeah let's just get back in bed and watch some youtube. She wasn't embarrassed but she also wasn't not embarrassed, if that makes sense.

So all Cammie could do was drag her feet through the apartment and sigh heavily while cleaning up her room. It was kind of cathartic to be going through everything. She found some old trophies in her closet, and seeing them brought a painful pinch to her chest. When she first got these, she had loved seeing them sitting out on her dresser, but that just wasn't the case anymore. She placed the trophies gently in a storage bin that Macey had labeled Sentimental Shit. There were old notebooks and certificates and medals and pictures. There was also a stuffed bear squished in that Cammie had gotten on her first date back in middle school. Cammie finally snapped the lid onto the box and shoved it on the top shelf.

Macey knocked a knuckle lightly on the door frame to get Cammie's attention. She gave her a small smile and asked, "You doing okay?"

"Yeah," Cammie said and then added, "thanks for making me do this."

Macey wrapped her arms around her friend and the two just stood there squeezing one another tightly.

"I know how much it hurts," Mace mumbled into her shoulder. "It's how I always feel when I see pictures of my brother."

Cammie squeezed just a little bit tighter before stepping back.

"Like, something shitty happens and every time you think about it it just kills you," Macey kept going. "It physically hurts you, you know. And just when you start to forget for a little while and you think you feel better than you see something. Like a picture or a trophy and it just reopens that wound. It's un-fucking-fair." Cammie didn't want to stop her, because she knew that Macey was half talking about her brother's death.

Tanner McHenry was a couple years older than the girls, and much like Macey, he lived off of pissing his politician parents off. When he turned 18, he purposefully applied to every Ivy League school and then turned down every offer he received so he could enroll in the army. His parents were beyond pissed. Less than a year after he got deployed, he died in a training accident. Another soldier in his unit had gotten spooked and fired off a few rounds blindly, and one caught Tanner in the neck.

Macey shook her head and met Cammie's eyes. "It doesn't stop hurting, Cam. What happened fucking happened, okay? But don't just surround yourself with a bunch of reminders of it."

Cammie nodded her head and said, "I packed the trophies up. And most of the stuff I brought from Virginia."

"Good," Macey said. "Good."

There was a comfortable silence between the two as they both got lost in their own painful thoughts. Eventually Macey forced a smirk to her face and walked out of Cammie's room towards the kitchen.

"Thanks for putting me one step closer to beating Bex!" Macey shouted over her shoulder.

Cammie rolled her eyes and flopped down on her bed to FaceTime Josh. Her thoughts had been preoccupied all morning with cleaning out the past, and she was dying to erase it all with Josh. By talking to Josh. Looking at Josh. Thinking of Josh. She had to bite back a smile while the phone was still ringing so she didn't look like a love struck psychopath when he answered.

And then he answered, and Cammie definitely looked like a lovestruck psychopath. But Josh was also grinning.

"Hey you."

"Hi yourself," Cammie said with only a little bit of a swoon. An itty bit one. "Any cute customers around?"

Josh had propped the phone up next to the cash register so he could organize some merchandise. He cut his eyes to her and said, "You know I've only had one cute customer in here and she hasn't even showed up today. I don't know where she is."

Josh leaned in closer to the camera and pretended to be squinting intently at the screen. "Oh wait, I think I see her. She's lounging in bed without me, can you believe that?"

"She sounds awful," Cammie said with a laugh.

"I'm heartbroken."

"Maybe she'll come stop by later," Cammie suggested.

Laugh let out a deep laugh. "Oh did you run out of the gum you bought here yesterday?"

Cammie bit her lip and paused before saying, "Who said I was gonna buy gum? I can think of something else I could buy."

"Oh really? What's that?"

"Something that we could use together. On this bed."

Josh nodded vigorously. "I think that's a wise purchase. Better hurry though, a cute grandma just winked at me from aisle 10. I don't trust her intentions."

Cammie leapt from bed and started grabbing her things "Don't worry, I'm on my way. Blow your rape whistle if she tries anything."

Josh winked at her before hanging up. Every person who passed Cammie on her walk to the Abram's Pharmacy gave her strange looks. A little girl pulled on her dad's hand and pointed at the smiling girl. "Daddy, why does her face look like that?" Her dad covered her eyes and turned his daughter in the opposite direction.

When Cammie walked in Josh was busy checking some customers out. She headed down the aisles until she found what she was looking for. Grabbing a box of extra smalls she headed towards the blue eyed cutie at the front.

She got in line behind the old woman flirting with Josh and threw the condoms up on the belt. This tiny, wrinkled woman blew him a kiss as she hobbled away.

"Just this, please," Cammie said sweetly.

Josh leaned forward to give her a quick kiss. When he reached to scan the box he paused and held it up. "Extra small? Really?"

Cammie batted her eyelashes at him. "I just don't know what to expect."

Someone behind her let out a low whistle, "Yikes, you really know how to emasculate a guy, Gallagher Girl."

Blood rushed up to her cheeks as she turned to look at a face she hadn't seen in a full year. Zach was just the same as Cammie remembered him to be. Tall, broad shoulders, green eyes, smartass comments. His hair was a little longer and curlier than she remembered, though. It looked good on him.

Cammie flipped her dark blonde hair over her shoulder and said, "They're stretchy."

Zach's only response was a cluck of his tongue and a small smirk. When Cammie turned back to Josh, his eyes were flicking between her and the man behind her. "You look familiar."

Zach reached out a hand to him. "Zach Goode. I've been in here a couple times."

Josh shook his hand and put some extra pressure into it. "Josh. I'm Cammie's boyfriend."

Cammie let out a slow, "Oookkaaayyy," and reached into her purse for her wallet. Except there wasn't a wallet. She rifled through her purse again with agitation. Keys, check. Phone, check. 12 packets of gum she hasn't gotten to, check. But no wallet. No no no, she thought, not again. "Shit."

Josh raised his eyebrows at her, but he mostly looked amused. Mostly. He opened his mouth to try and tell her that he'd cover it, but Zach beat him to it. He threw down the medicine he was holding and a twenty. "Keep the change, man."

Zach gave Cammie a wink before pushing past her and out the door. Josh and Cammie watched him leave with different emotions swirling through their heads. Cammie gave him a weak smile before kissing him on the lips. When she tried to pull back, Josh reached a hand around to grip the back of her neck and pull her closer. They only broke apart when a less-than-thrilled customer cleared his throat.

"Come over after you get off?" Cammie asked

Josh kissed her once more quickly and mumbled yes into her mouth before turning back to work.

Cammie couldn't shake the feeling of déjà vu. The coincidence of it all was too much, and she tried to shake it off as she made her way home. What's weird is that Cammie had tried looking around for Zach, but she never saw him after that day at the pharmacy. And Cammie had tried hard. For two months she'd taken up jogging. She told her roommates that she was trying to burn off the booze she drank every weekend, which wasn't a complete lie, but she was also scoping out the neighborhood. Zach told her that he lived around the block, but where? Shouldn't she have run into him occasionally or seen him drive past? But nope, nothing.

On her way back home from the pharmacy, Cammie didn't spy this mysterious Zach anywhere. So she stepped up her pace to a speed walk. And then a light jog. Finally, Cammie broke into a sprint. Maybe she could catch sight of him on Blackthorne. All Cammie knew was that she wanted to crack the mystery that was Zach Goode.

She had to admit that he might not have even walked back this way. Zach could have walked to the subway or another store or into a manhole for all she knew. But she finally did spot him stopped at the crosswalk a block in front of her townhouse.

"Zach!" she shouted. He turned and watched with raised brows as she closed the distance between them. Cammie tried to say something else, but she couldn't catch her breath.

In between her wheezing inhales she got out "I-I wanted to...say...say thank...you...again."

Zach smiled as Cammie visibly suffered and waited until she finally stood up from her crouch. The crosswalk sign changed and they crossed together. "Is this going to become a regular thing?" he asked. "Me buying you things to put inside yourself?"

Cammie didn't even hesitate before hitting him in the shoulder. Her cheeks went hot, and hearing this man say talk about things going inside of her did all kinds of things to her lower abdomen.

"Ow! What the hell?" Zach asked while rubbing his shoulder.

Cammie scowled at him, "You didn't have to say it like that! And I never asked for you to pay for me."

Zach only gave her a smirk and asked, "And how should I have said it, Gallagher Girl?"

"I don't know—"

Zach stopped walking and turned to stand in front of Cammie. He leaned down so his breath fanned across her face and said, "Tampons, condoms, what's next? Some sex toys, Gallagher Girl? Hm...do I need to buy you a vibrator to replace your boyfriend back there?"

This time Cammie slapped him across the face. "Fuck you." She started walking away back to her apartment and far away from Zach. She could care less where that asshole lived; she was just trying to say thank you.

Zach laughed without humor and called out after her, "You're welcome!"

When Cammie reached her front door, she banged it open and slammed it shut as hard as she could. The picture frames on the nearest wall fell down and shattered. Bex, Macey, and Liz froze mid conversation as Cammie turned to her friends and said, "I need vodka."

"Uh…" Bex said as she looked at her other roommates wearily.

"It's noon, Cam."

Cammie didn't even bother responding as she crossed the room to their bar cart, screwed off the top, and drank straight from the bottle. Fuck that crude man with his crude mouth and crude words.

Cammie was mad. She started rambling off to her friends, "I don't need a vibrator."

Liz choked on her drink.

"I don't. I have Josh, and we're gonna have great sex."

Bex and Macey shared a look before Bex said, "Yeah. Okay."

Cammie took the handle of vodka and stormed into her room with another slammed door.

There was a pause of silence in the living room, before Macey blurted out, "She's losing it."

"I'm not cleaning up that broken glass."

"I get the feeling she just jinxed herself."

Liz looked sheepish when she asked her friends, "Do you think she wants to know the statistical probability of her and Josh having below average intercourse?"

Macey automatically says, "No. Absolutely not." Bex shakes her head vigorously.

With a grimace, Liz turns her laptop around to show them the calculations she just ran. The other girls flinched.

"Knock on wood?"

The eeeeennnnndddddddd!

Quarantine boredom has officially gotten to me y'all. Sorry for how long this chapter turned out to be, but I had to set everything up so we can find out who Zach's girlfriend is in the next one! ALSO, big thank you for all your kind words about the first chapter :)

I hope you're all staying safe and healthy wherever you are in the world!

Kath xx