Rebecca and I sit in the living room, her on the couch and me leaned against the wall with a bowl of cereal. It's nearing midnight on a Monday night, one of the rare times we feel like sitting up and doing nothing for hours. Lex is at an astronomy club field trip, and Mike is over at a girl's house, meaning it's just me and Rebecca for the night.

"When's the last time you did anything fun?" she asks, leaning toward me with squinted eyes, accusatory.

I half-choke on my bite of cereal and end up hacking like an old woman. Rebecca only raises an eyebrow at me, a sure sign that she doesn't know anything about my sexy time with Lex yesterday. I don't know why I've been so hesitant to share with her—maybe because that'll turn the ordeal from something between me and Lex to something between me and Lex and Rebecca. No thank you.

"Um, I don't know," I finally say with a shrug.

"You don't know," repeats Rebecca. She taps a finger against her chin and cocks her head to the side. "Well, I can't either. Isn't that just a shame?"
"I feel like there's a treacherous plot coming on here," I say, mouth once again full of cereal.

"Of course there's a plot," says Rebecca with a fake maniacal laugh. "Just kidding, it will actually be fun. Not treacherous at all, promise."

"All right, let's hear it," I say. I take a final gulp of sugary milk before tossing the bowl on the ground.

"No way," says Rebecca, "You're just going to have to trust me."

"I think those are my least favorite words ever," I say. But after my surprise dinner with Lex, I've learned to let loose, if only a little bit. If Rebecca wants to do something mysterious and exciting, why question it?
"Are we doing it now?" I ask, glancing down at my outfit. I'm wearing a pair of polka dot pajama pants and a pink and white sweater that looks two sizes too big (not because I'm too skinny, but because I bought it that way). Just as an added side note, my jeans are feeling tighter again, the way they should feel, rather than falling off my butt.

"Of course we're doing it now," says Rebecca with a roll of her eyes. "C'mon, let's go."

She jumps up from the couch and glances into Elizabeth's room, which as usual, is empty.

"You want to go like this?" I ask with a laugh. Rebecca isn't dressed much better than me. She's wearing a pair of baggy gray sweatpants and an ugly hoodie that has a picture of a grizzly bear on the front.

"Trust me," says Rebecca. "It doesn't matter what we look like. No one's gonna see us."

"Is this illegal?" I ask, scrunching my eyebrows together. "Because if it is—"

"We're not gonna get caught," says Rebecca. She catches hold of my wrist and tugs me into the hallway. "And it's not like uber illegal, just kind of sort of. No one's gonna care. Promise."

"We're not even wearing shoes," I protest, but I let Rebecca drag me farther down the hallway and into the elevator.

Five minutes later, we're in Rebecca's car, driving away from campus and the M. I give up trying to guess our destination, especially when her turns take us farther and farther from Lex and Mike's house. Finally, we end up at a Walmart.

"We're doing something illegal in Walmart?" I ask, my eyes growing wide. "I thought you said no on was going to see us! Rebecca, they have, like, cameras in there."
"Calm your tits," says Rebecca with a relaxed smile. "I just have to make a pit stop. Wait here."

It takes a moment for her words to process through my stunned mind, but by the time they do, Rebecca's already out of the car and on her barefooted way into Walmart. She's gone for all of two minutes, reappearing with something tucked under the crook of her arm.

It isn't until she's almost to the car that I realize it's toilet paper.

"Are you being serious?" I ask when she tosses the toilet paper into the back seat. "We're TPing someone's house?"

"Don't say someone like you don't know who," says Rebecca, tapping my nose with her pinkie. "C'mon, it'll be funny. Lex will think it's hilarious."

"Oh my gosh," I say, and I press my fingers against my burning cheeks. "This is something middle schoolers do!"
"Yeah, but something tells me you, even as a middle schooler, never had the pure adrenaline rush of toilet papering someone's house," says Rebecca, her voice so smug I don't bother telling her she's right.

She steers the car through a twist of roads until, eventually, we end up back on Lex's street. Both his and Mike's trucks are gone, and aside from a distant street lamp, the area is subdued in darkness. Rebecca leans over the back of her seat to grab the toilet paper. She rips open the plastic and hands me a roll.

"Okay, we've got six rolls," she says. "That means three for each of us."

"We're going to use all six?"

"Silly little, Addie," says Rebecca, patting my cheek. "Of course we are. Otherwise it'd be too easy to clean up."

"I don't know—"

"There's not time for I don't know!" says Rebecca. "Mike probably won't be home for another hour, but who knows about Lex. He could get back any minute...Do you want to be here when he does?"

I let an aggravated grunt, but I get out of the car anyway. And then, like magic, a feeling of giddiness thrusts into my body. The adrenaline pumps fast as I walk, one roll in each hand, toward Lex's front yard. I don't think about the mess I'm about to make, nor do I think about Lex and whether he'll be mad. The only thing that crosses my mind is throwing the toilet paper high enough to tangle it into the trees. Rebecca stands at my side, throwing with the expertise of a shot-putter.

"Are you done yet?" asks Rebecca a few minutes later. She's already empty handed and shivering.

I still have half a roll, and I've never felt more warm in my life. I jump into the air as I toss the toilet paper roll, giggling loud enough to wake the neighbors. They could call the cops, but right now, I don't feel afraid. I feel effortless.

"All right, you're going crazy," says Rebecca. She snatches the roll from my hand and chucks it onto the roof. We watch as the glowing strip of paper tumbles down and drapes in front of their main window.

"Nice final touch," I say with an appreciative nod.

"Shhh, do you hear that?" she asks.

My stomach clenches and I immediately freeze, tensing for the sound of police sirens. Instead, I hear a much more familiar sound: the grinding gears of Lex's truck.

"Holy shit," I whisper.

"C'mon!" screams Rebecca, her voice pitching high. "Let's go, go, go!"

Still laughing, we pile into her car and tear onto the street, fast enough that the car squeals against the pavement. We barely pull onto the street when Lex's truck pulls in behind us, steering into his driveway with the hesitance of someone who realizes their house is now a toilet paper winter wonderland.

"That was awesome," I say under my breath. I hold a hand against my chest, feeling the intense pulse beneath my ribs.

"That was living," says Rebecca, clapping a hand onto my shoulder.