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Wednesday, June 2 (cont.)
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Olivia dropped Reese off at home after they got their popcorn, since she wanted to head back out to get dinner with Jordan. And Reese was able to finally breathe a sigh of relief when the harness was taken off of him in the parking garage of the mall before they drove home. But stepping out of the car once they arrived back at the house had been the most freeing moment.
“I’m kinda late for meeting up with Jordan,” Olivia told him as she got out of the car and opened up the passenger doors. “So if you could take these in for me that’d be great.” She came around the side of the car with several of her shopping bags under her arms before setting them down on the driveway. “Thanks, see you later,” she smiled, and then got back into her car, quickly pulling back out onto the street before zooming away. Reese watched her go, waiting until she was out of sight, and then did a quick couple of laps around their front yard, just to enjoy the feeling of being able to run wherever he wanted. And then after his momentary celebration, he picked up one of the several shopping bags, needing to use both of his arms, and trudged inside to carry it to his sister’s room.
After bringing up the fourth and final bag, he turned to leave, before noticing Olivia’s laptop sitting open on her desk. Friday was supposed to be the last day of school, and he knew Olivia had mentioned a few times that she and Jordan were heading to the beach tomorrow. Which meant that, hopefully, any homework she was gonna help him out with would be done by now. And if it’s not, then that’s totally cool I guess, she’s helped me out so much already, he told himself as he wandered over to her desk. But it’d be good for me to know if there’s something she didn’t do yet, so I can finish it myself. His teacher had told him exactly what he’d needed to turn in in order to nudge his grade into passing territory, so he knew just what he’d have to look for. And he knew her password; she’d told it to him years ago when she called him over the phone and needed him to find something for her, and since she trusted him she hadn’t had any reservations about telling him. But is it bad if I go through her computer? What if I see something I’m not supposed to? I don’t think Olivia’s like that though, and I already know where the files would be. He was too short to sit at her desk chair, but still tall enough that he could reach the laptop relatively easily. He turned it on, typed in her password… but it was wrong. He typed it a second time, more slowly, and yet again, the little text box beneath her profile picture shook back and forth, not letting him in. Shit, she must’ve changed it, he realized. The only time I’ve ever used her computer was that one time when she needed me to log on for her. Maybe she changed it as soon as she got home because she didn’t trust me as much as she seemed to. But then he wondered if he might be able to guess it. He clicked on her hint: “Summer 2019.” Did she go somewhere for vacation that year? That must be what she’s talking about. He hopped up onto her chair and began slowly twirling around, gazing over all the various decorations of her room that highlighted her personality and a few memories. Wait, I think she went to Central America with some of—
“Reese!” Hearing his name called in the middle of him trying to crack into his sister’s laptop caused his heart to stop for a moment as he spun towards her door. But as he whirled around, his hand knocked into the cup on his sister’s desk, toppling it over and causing water to spill out... right onto her keyboard.
“Ohhhh, fuck,” he whispered to himself as he saw what he’d done. Nobody had been at Olivia’s door; his mom was just calling him from downstairs. But he’d been so focused on something he knew he probably shouldn’t do, that hearing his name called had jolted an overreaction out of him, since he thought for a split second that he’d been caught. There had been an immediate wash of relief over his body immediately after realizing he was fine, followed by an even greater surge of stress as he saw the water seep between the crack’s of his sister’s MacBook. “Uhmmm,” his voice cracked out, in between talking to himself and calling back to his mom. “One minute!” he yelled, hastily setting the glass upright again. But it obviously hadn’t mattered; even though it had only been a quarter full, it had completely emptied out onto her keyboard within a second. He pulled his shirt off so he could immediately press it against the keys and soak up the bits of water that hadn’t seeped beneath them, and then pulled the clothing away to see how bad it looked. He pressed down on several buttons in the center, and looked to see the screen to see that most of them weren’t registering in the password’s text box. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck,” he chanted to himself, and turned the laptop upside down in hopes that some of it might drip back out.
“Reese!” his mom called again, causing him to clench his fists in annoyance.
“I SAID, ONE…” he began yelling back, but stopped himself short. He knew he couldn’t keep waiting forever, because his mom would wanna know what had been keeping him if she didn’t just come upstairs herself. He stepped back, looking at the upside down laptop on his sister’s desk, as a small drop of water slowly dripped down the glass he’d knocked over, reminding him of what he’d done. “Shit!” he whispered to himself. If his mom hadn’t called him, maybe he could’ve held something warm up against the keys to try and get the water to dry quicker. But he didn’t have that luxury. He turned to head downstairs and see what his mom needed, hoping it wouldn’t take too long.
* * * * * *
“Hulllllooooo, hello hello hello,” sang Olivia’s voice as the front door to the house opened. Shit, I didn’t realize she’d be back so soon, Reese thought, glancing over to his big sister as she wandered into the kitchen where Reese and their mom were cooking. Tracy had had Reese do a few chores after he came down, and then ended up having him help her in the kitchen. He figured he had at least a few hours until Olivia would be back, and had been going over a thousand possible excuses and plans in his mind. But now she was back. There wouldn’t be any way to run upstairs and turn her laptop back over again without her seeing.
“Hey honey, me and Reese were just about to finish up with dinner,” Tracy said, turning around with a smile. “But you told me you were going out with Jordan and some friends to eat, right? So I’m assuming you won’t be joining us.”
“Yeah, Jason’s parents just opened up a restaurant so they invited a bunch of us to dinner for the grand opening.”
“Oh that’s fun!” Tracy replied. “What kind of restaurant is it?”
“I don’t really know actually,” she laughed. “I guess ‘Americana’ is probably just a good word for it.”
“Interesting,” Tracy said, turning back to her cutting board to continue cutting up some basil leaves. “Well maybe we’ll all have to go as a family one day then, I haven’t seen the Reagans in a while. Was it any good?”
Olivia scoffed, “Of course, we’ve eaten at their house before, remember? I don’t know how they never had a restaurant til now, it was so good.” Tracy nodded approvingly. “Anyways, you said you guys were almost done making dinner right? Can I borrow Reese for a sec?” Wait, what? What the fuck, does she know already somehow? She didn’t look upset. Even with their mother’s back turned, his sister wasn’t giving him any death stares or anything.
“You can borrow him for as long as you’d like, there isn’t much left to do and he’s already been a huge help.” She leaned over and kissed her son on the top of his head. “Thanks for spendin’ some time with your ol’ mama,” she joked, and he smiled faintly up at her in response. With a solemn expression, he looked at Olivia, and she turned to head towards the stairs as he followed behind her. She still didn’t seem upset though. But maybe she’s just a really good actor. Was her laptop camera on, did she see me? Wait, but then I would’ve noticed the light next to the webcam. Or maybe it sent an alert to her phone that someone tried to log into her laptop a bunch, does Apple do that? His heart was racing as he followed her up the stairs, knowing that ultimately, whether she already knew or not, she was about to find out in a minute anyways.
As they arrived at the top of the stairs, Olivia turned towards her brother. Her jubilant expression had diminished a bit as she looked down at him. “I just wanted to come up here so Mom wouldn’t have to hear us, but I’m guessing by how nervous you look that you forgot to do my laundry again, right?”
His eyes widened, as he suddenly remembered what he’d told Olivia before they left for the mall earlier in the day. He’d felt bad about the other day when he hadn’t done her laundry before her big meeting, so he wanted her to give him a second chance, and had asked her about it today. She was a bit reluctant, but she figured that since he was the one offering this time, he’d be more diligent in remembering. And besides, she didn’t have a meeting that night anyways. She figured the best case scenario would be her having a bunch of clean clothes to choose from before she left for the beach tomorrow, and the worst case scenario would be a bit of disappointment. But Reese hadn’t even thought about his pledge to his sister a single time since making it earlier that day. He’d spilled the water on her laptop just a few minutes after she dropped him off earlier, that he had been too stressed worrying about that to even remember to do a load of her clothes. “I… honestly um, I didn’t even remember I even told you I’d do your laundry until you reminded me just now,” he said, eyes downcast. She sighed, and then turned to head towards her room.
“It’s fine, I guess. I kinda had lowered my expectations anyways, so you—“ She stopped in her tracks after turning into her doorway, immediately noticing her upturned laptop on her desk. “Why… is my laptop upside down?” she slowly asked, and then turned to look at Reese. He somehow looked even more grave than just a few seconds ago, staring shamefully at the ground. In that moment, it would’ve been impossible to get him to look up at her. To see the anger grow on her face. To feel the shame bubbling in his stomach. Olivia realized in that moment that Reese hadn’t been anxious about forgetting to do her laundry, because something a hundred times worse had occurred. She turned to look back at her computer, and slowly stepped into her room. She was scared to even turn it over and discover what he’d done. Reese crept up after her, hugging her door frame like a frightened child as he watched her arrive at her desk, dumbfounded, and turn the laptop right side up. She moved the mouse around to turn it on, and felt relieved to see it respond. And the screen seemed fine, there weren’t any scratches or cracks. Which could only mean…
He watched as Olivia pressed down on one of the keys. No response. She pressed it again, and then a couple other keys. She swirled her fingers across the keyboard, simultaneously pressing dozens at once, in no particular order. Not a single dot showed up in the password box. She then noticed the tiny puddle of water sitting on the desk, right up against her cup. It wasn’t a mystery what had happened; she knew now. It had only taken a few tablespoons of water to render her $2500 computer completely useless. She didn’t know what to think. She couldn’t even describe her emotions with a singular word; angry, disappointed, and confused were too simplistic to describe what was going through her head in that moment.
But there was one thing she knew without a shadow of a doubt: her little brother was to blame. And however she’d decide to deal with it, she knew deep down that he had to be punished ten times worse than anything she’d ever done before.