As we came upon the property that, just the night earlier, we had defaced without remorse, a feeling of fault washed over Rae and me. Seeing the TP clogging the gutters, the cardboard rolls littering the lawn, and the tree branches laden with soggy squares made us both sense that we could have stopped the scheme, or at least refused to lend our unrivalled throwing arms to it.

We walked up the path and under the awning. We both reached to the door knocker and our hands touched in the middle. I yanked my hand away and pretended to look at a bird. Rae continued to knock on the door aloofly. We stood silently as someone walked choppily behind the frosted glass and opened the door wide. The man who stood inside glared at us, leery.

Rae stepped forward. "Hello, sir, my name is Raegan Watters, and this is—"

"Jackson Burdock," I said, remembering that introducing one's self is the grown-up thing to do in this situation.

"We were apart of the group of teenagers that covered your property in toilet paper."

The old guy continued to peer at us, angry, but hesitating to show it as we were practically babies.

Turns out it was not the best day to wear my knee-high unicorn socks.

"Come in," he said with a sigh. "And wipe you feet." He schlepped away from the door, and we did as he said, rubbing the bottoms of our shoes on the rug just outside the entrance that read 'welcome,' and then stepped inside the house. We found the typical old stuff inside: carpeted floors — except the kitchen — dim lighting, a faint cookie-ish smell, and framed family photos hanging on the wall. He gestured for us to sit on the perfectly sit-on-able floral couch, and we did.

"Would you like water?" he asked.

"No, thank you," Rae and I said simultaneously.

The old guy's eyes switched back and forth between us, contemplating us. "So, why did you come back? In my experience, you don't come back to the scene of the crime and confess. You know I could call the police, right?"

"Please don't," I mumbled.

"We came back because we realized what we did was wrong," Rae said.

"Which one of you did the realizing?" he asked. I pointed at Rae, who bobbed her head in acknowledgment.

The old guy's facial expression didn't soften. "Well, I guess I should thank you, but it's gonna cost an arm and a leg to clean the entire place."

"We weren't just coming just to apologize, we wanted to lend a hand with the cleanup," Rae said. I remembered when my life wasn't filled with ridiculous amounts of butt-paper yesterday.

"That's very generous," he said. "I asked some of the neighbourhood kids to come and clean the house at 12:00 noon tomorrow and we'll pay 'em twenty or something."

"You don't have to pay us."

"Damn straight," he said.

"Hopefully not," I said under my breath.

"What?" Rae asked.

"Nothing."

The old guy got up and walked to the door, opened it, and waved outside. We took this as a signal to get the hell out, so we did. We bustled to the door. Rae turned around again but had the door slammed in her face.

She turned and walked down the path to sidewalk-less road and headed in the direction of both our houses. I caught up to her and tried to hide the fact I was having a heated argument with myself.

She looks sad. Ask her what's up! one voice said.

Goddammit, just leave her alone! Maybe she doesn't want to talk to you! said another.

I sure don't, a particularly snarky one said.

Hey! You're an asshole! I thought.

C'mon, stop with the inner monologging! It's the grown-up, rom-com thing thing to do! Ask her what's up, and sound genuine, but don't sound too needy, and seem cool, like you don't really care, but she's still your OTP, but still don't let HER know that, and—

SHUT THE FUCK UP

"Are you talking to yourself?" Rae asked — I froze.

"No. So, what's up... with your face?"

FUCK. I FUCKED UP.

HAHAHA, oh, my god, you're an idiot!

Who's side are you on, anyway?!

Now you'll never adopt a tiny beautiful Chinese baby. I hope you're proud of yourself...

"What?" Rae asked.

"You look sad, maybe?" I said. So much for not sounding needy.

"Oh, yeah. I'm not very good at hiding what's going on in my head."

"You're not the only one. Was it something I said? Was it how I introduced myself? I knew I should have used a fake name!"

"No, no. You didn't say anything wrong." She touched my arm. I couldn't wait to tell Charlie. "I just — I'm going to sound kind of vain right now — but I expected a bit more recognition. For both of us, for doing what we did."

"I totally agree!" I shrieked. "I mean, I didn't want him to kiss our feet, but he could have, you know, done anything! He was kinda being a dick about it."

"Ha! I guess so," Rae said. "You'll still come tomorrow even though he's a gigantic dick, right?"

"Sure," I said.

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Helloooooo! Thanks for reading this chapter of Preternatural! It means a lot to me.

And, just an aside, you may have seen the video at the top of the page, it's a song that I think perfectly captures the essence of my book. It's called Let Me Go by Nurko (feat. Alina Renae). It's beautiful and it's one of my favourites! Listen if you want, or don't, but I just wanted to share that with you.

Bye <3<3