My house is a small two-bedroom bungalow with a white front porch and pastel yellow exterior. Yellow was my dad's 'happy color' and at one point all the rooms inside the house were various shades of sunlight. My mom said it was too much of a headache to keep them all so most of them are back to boring white, except for the outside walls and my sunflower-bright bedroom. I would've kept them all if I could. All the best things in life are yellow; cheese, butter, bananas, and of course plenty of non-food related items ...

When Alex pulls up to the curb, we are just in time to meet the pizza guy by the door and bring the boxes into the living room. My mom has already set the scene for the evening's entertainment. The small room is lit entirely by fairy light and the drapes are pulled shut. Every book, every key of the piano is illuminated by a soft, warm glow as if they are each touched by magic. The couch is covered in a patchwork quilt and pulled right up to the TV, only leaving room for the coffee table loaded with bowls and bowls of popcorn. Each bowl is a different flavor and each flavor is somewhat experimental. You never know what mix my mom's going to pull out next. We did, however, have to set some ground rules after the tuna-cayenne-caramel fiasco of 2017.

Alex launches himself onto the couch immediately, kicking off his stiff, formal school-shoes and grabbing a handful of popcorn all at once. Vanessa demurely balances the pizza box she's carrying on top of several bowls of popcorn before joining him.

"Hey kids!" My mom calls out from the kitchen. "How was school?"

All three of us groan in chorus and she laughs, bringing in plates, cups and a pitcher of lemonade.

"What's the first movie tonight?" I ask through a mouth full of candy floss flavored popcorn.

"Well," says Vanessa slyly, "it really should be vintage Star Wars."

"Huh?" everyone looks at her, confused.

"Because 'ya know ... it's a Trap!" She doubles over laughing, I go red and Alex rolls over and groans into a couch cushion. My mom just stands there looking bewildered.

"Did I miss something?" She finds a place for the lemonade and squeezes in beside me.

I shake my head. "Just Vanessa being annoying."

"If you mention Trap one more time, I'm out of here." Alex can just about be heard muffled by the cushion.

"Oooookay how about Singin' in the Rain again?"

Alex pulls his head out of the cushion and Vanessa reaches for the pizza.

"I'll take that as a yes then!"

So, we end up watching Singin' in the Rain and the African Queen before Vanessa and Alex have to head home. I help my mom to clear up before heading to my room to yawn over my textbooks for a few hours before bed. I left the bag in the kitchen on purpose, deciding that if I was going to give it back to Trap tomorrow, I'd better avoid the temptation of reading any more. Besides, what Alex said before really bothered me. He had been quiet all night too. He seems disappointed in me and I don't know why. 

"It's not your fault." I tell myself in the mirror as I brush my teeth. "He can't expect me to read his mind!"

Angry, I switch off the light and slip into dreams about boys with black hair, blue eyes and sweet, shy smiles.

The next day starts off badly. I miss the bus and registration and am also late to my first class. Vanessa tries to talk to me all through English about Trap and gets us both detention for her trouble. I'm beginning to think that the day is cursed. Maybe I wasn't supposed to talk to Trap today? The whole day has been misstep after misstep and I just know I'll ruin things with him if I go and find him now.

"You need your stupid books, if nothing else!" Vanessa points out with irritation. "Honestly, Harlow, you're being ridiculous, there's no such thing as perfect timing or whatever. You've been watching too many of your mom's movies. Just go up to him, shove the bag in his face and ask him out!"

I make a face. "He isn't like that ... or at least he doesn't seem like that from his book, he's -"

" - Sensitive!" She cuts in. "I get it! Listen, if you don't do something about this then I will!"

"Ever heard of delayed gratification?" I smile with a superior expression.

"Harlow Riley if you don't talk to that boy right now, I can't be held responsible for my actions!" Vanessa looks really angry, but I just roll my eyes.

Vanessa is all talk, it would've been Alex that would've done something if he cared at all, but he clearly doesn't. He disappeared off to the library after class. He's obviously still mad at us, another bad sign in my mind.

I guess Vanessa can tell that I don't think she's serious because she spontaneously yanks my wrist and pulls me over to a nearby storage closet. I'm taken completely off guard and don't have enough time to even blink before I find that she has pulled the door open, shoved me inside and locked the door.

"Vanessa!!" I yell, as loudly as Harlow-ly possible, pounding on the door.

There's no reply.

The corridor we'd been walking down had been empty except for us, so no one is there to hear my shouts behind the thick, old door. I feel in the dark for the light switch, cursing the school policy that bans cell-phones and my own stupid conscience for following that rule when no one else does. I find the switch and light up the tiny space. My foot feels weird. I look down and see that it's fixed squarely in a mop bucket whilst the other one is planted on a suspiciously greasy stain on the floor. 

Ergggghhh. 

Worst. 

Day. 

Ever. 

I wrench out my foot and fix it with the other on the lesser evil of the sticky stain.

How long will Vanessa leave me in here for? 

Surely not all day, she's wilful but not cruel. Five minutes that feel like five hours pass. Then the door suddenly flies open again without warning and someone else is pushed into me before I can force my way out.

"Vanessa let me out!!" I scream.

But the door bangs shut again and I can just about hear footsteps clicking away outside.

The boy who has just been shoved in with me awkwardly manages to turn in the tight space and face me.

Trap Stevens. Holy hell.

Of course, it's Trap. Trapped, with Trap, Vanessa is probably laughing herself silly.

"Hi ..." I say, mouth going bone-dry and hands instantly starting to feel clammy.

"Did you plan this?!" Trap's eyes don't look a bit dreamy in the light of the single lightbulb overhead. 

"No! Are you kidding me? I would never!" I blurt out.

He ignores me and bangs hard on the door. This isn't going at all the way I'd planned. I wanted to be alone when I talked to him but not the 'locked in a closet with him' kind of alone.

"Why did that crazy bitch do this to us?!" He asks, after the door-banging gets him nowhere.

I cough uncomfortably. "It's about the bags."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He glares at me.

I feel like unhappy Jello.

I wriggle the backpack off my shoulder and pull it round in front of me. "I have your bag ... I read your book. I didn't mean to it just sort of happened. I'm not explaining myself very well, I just - I just wanted to say; I understand, and we can be friends, you know? If you need to talk?"

Jello-me could have melted on the spot. It was all wrong and the cringe was unbearable. Trap raises one, genetically gifted eyebrow then shuffles his own backpack off his shoulder and nods to it. It's plain black and nothing like mine.

"This is my bag and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

I close my eyes as if that will help and make it, make him, go away. Meanwhile Trap works his phone out of an extra pocket sewn into his blazer, something a lot of the students have to work around uniform inspections, and starts furiously texting.

"How come you kept looking at us up on the bleachers?" I can't help but ask.

"What?" He looks up from his texting, annoyed.

"Yesterday during Track?"

"Oh ... your friend is cute, I guess."

"Vanessa?" I knew it.

"No, not that nightmare! The guy with the brown hair, he's called Alex right? Is he single?"

"Oh ..." I feel for the wall with my fingers wanting to step back right through it, "yeah he's single."

"Is he into guys?"

I shake my head. "I don't think so."

"Well, whatever." He shrugs.

The door outside clicks open and one of Trap's friends appears, trying hard not to laugh.

"If you dare laugh, I will hit you!" Says Trap, hopping out without even a glance back in my direction.

"It's just, you were in the closet!" His friend explodes with laughter then takes off running.

"I said it's not funny!!" Trap chases after him and they disappear out of earshot.

I ever so slowly slide down the wall and end up sitting in the mop bucket. I don't care. It's dry anyway, just uncomfortable. 

Is it possible to die of embarrassment? 

I cover my face with my hands. Even if that's impossible, someone's going to die today because I'm going to kill Vanessa when I find her.