Falling For Amelia Manning - 17 Dilapidated

“Don’t go in the bathroom,” James announced to the entire room as she came from the downstairs bathroom with dust and drywall all over her.

“Why? What is it now?” Phoebe dropped the hammer she had been using on some old border that needed to be taken off before some of the new drywall can be put up. Something she was grateful wasn’t part of their punishment. “If it’s another spider, I swear James, I will make you eat it this time!” She shouted over the sound of someone using a table saw in the other room.

When Phoebe gently pushed past a powder white James, her eyes took in what James was so concerned about.

“How did this happen?” Phoebe asked with fear laced in her words. She wasn’t sure what would happen to them if there was damage, they did that wasn’t part of the plan.

“I didn’t do anything to make the ceiling fall on me! I was tightening a pipe and it felt like there was sand falling on my head, so I moved out of the way to get a look and, bam!” James clapped her hands together for emphasis. “A piece of the ceiling came down!” Phoebe shook her head and quickly left the bathroom before it could get all over her too.

“James, your father told you two not to mess around while he’s out for more screws,” Hank, the big man with the saw in his hand, walked over to them when he noticed the shouting.

“We aren’t messing around, uncle Hank, the ceiling is collapsing in the bathroom,” James explained and pointed to the mess being made in their absence. One looks around the room and Hank confirmed what they were shouting about, the ceiling was coming down. “Well, no more working in this one, take the bathroom upstairs or help Phoebe here with the borders and baseboards that need to be taken off. When your dad gets back, we’ll break for lunch.” Taking his leave, Hank brushed his hand over James’ head, as if he was ruffling her hair with the drywall scattered in it making it look like it was snowing around her.

Coughing up the rest of the drywall, James tried not to think of the times she would play in the stuff working with her dad as a kid. Phoebe waved her hand in front of her face trying to get the dust out of her eyes before she was coughing just as hard.

“This is bull, I don’t want to keep this up, I’m not in shape enough for this!” James complained but Phoebe was in shape and it didn’t seem to take much out of her, but she still didn’t want to be in a dilapidated house, pulling wood off the wall.

“Want to know a secret?” She baited James while turning back to the wall she was working on before; she used the pulling side of the hammer to yank pieces of wood off the wall. Adjusting her gloves, James joined her.

“I want to know every secret you have, Pheebs, you know that.” James winked while pulling a piece of wood off the wood.

“I snuck out of the house last night,” she told her, making James stop in her tracks to look at her in shock. “Are you kidding me?! We’re in enough trouble and you do something like that!” James shook her head, making more drywall come out of it and get on Phoebe. “It better have been for something cool, and don’t say Lacrosse,” James pointed at her just before snapping off a piece of wood from the wall. Phoebe kept her lips tightly closed and didn’t answer her giving her the answer she needed. “You went to the field, didn’t you?” Phoebe turned her attention back to the wall making James groan and grunt in frustration.

“I just wanted to smell the air of the pitch and feel the grass under my feet, the Crosse in my hand as I throw balls into a little net. If that’s not cool, I don’t want to be cool,” Phoebe snidely told her making James laugh harder than she should have.

“It makes you, you, Pheebs. Did you get caught?” She asked.

“Almost, I came through the back door and my mom was already there. She bought my excuse for getting the gear from the backyard thinking it might rain. There’s something else I need to tell you.” Phoebe contemplated telling her about the guest in her room. It wasn’t like James would tell anyone, but it would still be a weird conversation that she wasn’t sure she was ready to talk about. Instead, she gave her the notes about what happened on the field instead.

“She just played next to you. She didn’t make rude jokes or provoke you in any way?” James was shocked, as she should be, but Phoebe didn’t have any clue as to what happened last night – or this morning but she didn’t know about that yet. When Phoebe woke up this morning Amelia wasn’t in the room and she couldn’t find her in any of the other rooms or bathrooms. She assumed she snuck out before she woke up and didn’t say anything. No note. Nothing.

Instead of thinking about the empty blankets folded neatly next to the bed this morning, she ripped a long piece of wood off the wall instead.

“She apologized said it was all Josie’s fault. Never did I think I would go more than a few seconds without wanting to rip her head off, but it was pleasant. So much so, that I told her I would help her graduate if she taught me her trick shot. I may not be able to try-out again in high school but there’s always college.” Phoebe shrugged and continued with the wall, but James just stood there in shock.

“You’re kidding! This is like some sort of therapeutic breakthrough and you’re talking about it like it was just a little practice conversation!” James complained loudly, attracting the attention of her uncle Hank he peered around the wall they were working on. Shrinking back, she lowered her voice.

“Are you sure it wasn’t just a dream?” James asked.

“I haven’t dreamed of Amelia since,” Phoebe closed her mouth quickly before James could ask her what she meant. When she saw the side-eye from her, she realized she let something slip she wasn’t supposed to.

“How did your dad take the news about the suspension when you got home?” She changed the subject as quickly as possible, but James knew what she was up to.

“We’re going back to what you were about to say, but for now, I’ll go along with what you want,” James made sure she knew that the subject hadn’t been dropped. “He was furious, but at the same time, he understood where I was coming from. All the stuff with my mom coming back, learning about her other family, he knew that was hard for me to process and sort of blamed it on that. Then the idea with this house came to mind, he called your mom about it before and set it up. I think we’re lucky to spend out suspension this way.” James told her with a bright smile on her face.

“Yes, so lucky. Instead of sleep in, we get to hear buzz saws and cursing men all-day long. What a trade.” James laughed at her just as a big piece of wood flew off the wall after she cracked it free with her hammer. Phoebe ducked as if barely missed her face. Straightening the clear glasses over her face and the hard hat on her head, she looked back at James who was laughing way too hard for her to be sorry.

“Break time!”

“Thank Christ!” James shouted, making a few of the men laugh at her while they took their leave to the front yard where the ice chests were set up with sandwiches and drinks.

The girls had first pick since they were smaller and found the ice chests first. They grabbed a sandwich and drink each before heading to the back of a work truck to sit on the trailer door away from the smelly men sitting on the stairs.

“James, can I ask you something?” Phoebe asked between bites of the turkey sandwich. She still didn’t want to tell her about sharing her room with Amelia, but she wanted some of James’ classic wisdom she desperately needed.

“You know you can ask me anything,” James told her.

“If you had someone in your life that you had this one thought of for so long and then they just change, as if overnight, would you think they were the same person? Or that they actually changed?” James knew exactly who she was talking about, but she hadn’t realized her mind was wrapped so tightly around this new Amelia that has shown her face. James was hopeful for this change, but it seemed as though Phoebe was rejecting the idea.

“I think…If someone truly wants to change, they will change, it helps if the people they are mending in their lives meet them halfway, but I can see why you wouldn’t want to.” James told her.

“It’s not that, I don’t think…I like the change, but it feels like a dream. Like we’ll go back to school, and nothing will be different, and I’ll feel the need to prove to her that I’m still the same. That I won’t let her mess my life up anymore and get ourselves in even more trouble.” James rolled her eyes with a sandwich stuffed in her mouth.

“You know you have self-control, right?”

“You know what I mean. If she’s the same, the ornery girl that did everything she could to piss me off, then what was all that last night?” Phoebe asked while she picked at the bread in her hand.

“You have to take a leap of faith. It’s going to be weird, especially with her, but you have to trust that if she wants to change that she will change. Are you that scared she’ll be the same come Monday?” James questioned.

“Maybe I am,” Phoebe told her, suddenly losing her appetite for the sandwich in her hand.