The Laptop Switch

Chapter Two

     Cooper casually slid his hand off of my back. I could tell he was confused by my response, but I meant what I said. He was the one who got me into this mess, so he sure as hell was going to be the one to get me out of it. The bell resonated through the hall, but the two of us remained still. I look up at Cooper and gave him the most serious facial expression I've ever given to anybody. The way Cooper looked at me made me know that he knew I was being dead serious.

"Alright, I'll help you get it back," cooper responded, throwing his arms up in defeat. "but how?"

"McKay has basketball practice this period," I said, climbing up to my feet. I still felt a little nauseous, but I'll survive. "I'm going to need you to sneak into the boys locker room and switch my laptop out with his."

"Why can't you just talk to him and ask for it back?" cooper asked. "I mean, this could be the ice breaker between you two an—"

"Nope." I cut him off. "Absolutely not. You know how it went last time I tried talking to him."

Cooper chortled in amusement. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

     Long story short, last time I tried talking to McKay, I ended up getting a basketball to my face. I got a bloody nose and the coach yelled at me for getting blood on the gym floor. He definitely cared more about his gym floor than his own student. Ever since that incident, I never spoke to him again. I felt like that certain experience was a sign from the universe that I shouldn't talk to McKay.

     I slip my backpack off, unzip it and get out my—er, McKay's—laptop. I still couldn't believe that Cooper would do such a thing. I had to admit though, Cooper wasn't aware that I had writings about McKay on that laptop, and he'll still never know. Nobody can know. It's too embarrassing. I wonder if Cooper knew about all the love stories I wrote about me and McKay on my laptop, he never would have switched them. I couldn't think about what could have been though, my main focus should be on getting my laptop back before McKay opens it and practically ending my life.

"Here." I spoke, shoving McKay's laptop into the arms of my best friend. "McKay's backpack is the one with white and blue stripes with his basketball number on the back. Number twenty one."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to be waiting around the corner of the boy's locker room," I respond. "which means don't doddle."

"What about your class?" cooper asked. I sigh. This boy asks too many questions. "I mean, Davis is going to get the call that you were absent, and you know how he gets when that happens."

     I paused for a second. Cooper had a point, but at the same time, the consequences of McKay finding the writings on my laptop was far too more important.

"I'll take care of it when it happens," I said, shooing Cooper away from me. "now go get my laptop back."

"Alright, I'm going."

* * * * *

     Twenty minutes. That's how long Cooper had been in the boys locker room. What was he doing? He was doing a task that should have normally taken a minute or two, yet, he was in there for twenty minutes. I was right around the corner, like I said I would be. I could hear the shoes squeaking on the gym floor in the big gym. The boys were practicing which meant that nobody was in the locker room. What could be taking Cooper so long?

     I put my back against the brick wall and slide down. I kept checking my watch, the time kept passing by and Cooper never came back. Did he drop out last second? I hear the door to the boy's locker room open and the all-to-familiar laugh rang down the hallway. The fact that my heart skipped a beat, I knew it was McKay. He wasn't in the gym like I thought he was. I subtly peek around the corner, only to see him heading the other way with his friends. I release a sigh of relief.

     He walked through the double doors that led out of the school. I guess he was leaving. The fact that McKay came out of the locker room meant that Cooper wasn't alone. Man, I really hope that Cooper was able to switch the laptops back. I remained sitting against the brick wall for another ten minutes or so, constantly checking if he came out. Eleven minutes was when I heard the door open and the blonde boy was the one walking out. I rise up to my feet and walked around the corner toward him.

     Cooper had what I hoped my laptop held against his chest. His face was giving me a feeling that it wasn't mine though. When I finally reached him, he inhaled deeply before telling me the news.

"I'm so sorry Lilli, I wasn't able to switch them back, I tried though, I really did!" cooper exclaimed. He seemed pretty sincere. "I don't know what else to do."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "I guess that means we're right back to square one then," I sighed. "what even happened though? Why were in there for like thirty minutes for a task that would have taken two?"

"Um, it's a long story."

"Well, we have twenty minutes until school ends," I said, checking my watch. "so if the story isn't longer than twenty minutes, lay it on me."

Cooper dug his teeth into his bottom lip. "Mmm, fine." he said, taking a deep breath. "Here goes nothing."

" I entered the locker room and I instantly spotted McKay's backpack. It was exactly the description that you told me that it looked like, and so I headed over to his backpack quickly. I put McKay's laptop on the bench and unzipped his backpack and I got out your laptop. I placed it down next to McKay's and that's when McKay and his group of friends came in. I had to hide because who would want to see somebody snooping around in their backpack? So I go to the other side of the lockers where they couldn't see me, I could hear them. McKay immediately noticed the two laptops on the bench and wondered which one was his, apparently McKay and his friends were in a rush to leave so McKay randomly grabbed one and the one he grabbed happened to have been the yours again. He put it back in his backpack and left. "

     Cooper exhaled as he ended his story. His story still seemed like something that wouldn't take thirty minutes to do.

"That story was short Coop, but that still doesn't explain why you took thirty freaking minutes in the boy's locker room," I said, crossing my arms. "because I remember McKay leaving with his friends, but you still stayed in there for another ten minutes."

     Cooper lowered his diamond blue eyes to the ground and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"I um, I was kind of afraid of telling you that I didn't get your laptop back." he said tenderly. "I genuinely feel bad about this Lilli. I didn't know that doing this would hurt you so bad."

"Coop..." I breathed, lowering my eyes too. "I get that we all make mistakes. It's just..."

     I couldn't say it. I couldn't let him know. I didn't want anybody to know. The thing about Cooper is that when he genuinely feels bad, he shows it, and he was no doubt showing it now. He went along with doing the task of trying to get my laptop back with no question. I knew that Cooper would do anything for me, but why was it so hard to tell him about this? I still couldn't risk it though. I just couldn't.

"I forgive you." I forced out. "It's okay, really."

     Cooper nodded and breathed out a small, "thank you" Cooper really didn't know what to do, and I was honestly out of ideas too. I guess just had to accept the fact that McKay was about to find out my deepest darkest secret. I pull out my phone to check the time, only to find numerous text messages from Davis along with seven missed calls. Dang. I really should stop putting my phone on silent. I didn't need to check my text messages to know what they said, but I did anyways.

" Lilli, where are you? "

" Why did it say that you were absent during fourth period? "

" Hellloooooo "

" Answer me Lillian "

" Lilli why are you not picking up the phone "

" Lilli you better not be ditching class again "

" LILLI ANSWER ME "

     Davis using upper case letters immediately gave away that he was pissed off. I hated it when Davis was mad. I check the time and then tuck my phone away. Davis is my step-brother. His father married my mother, and my mother passed away a few years ago from drug overdose. She drank. She did drugs and she smoked. She was making herself miserable, and watching her practically killing herself like that was making me miserable.

     I was then stuck with a step-father who I barely knew and a step-brother who hated me, but between the two, I would have rather stuck with Davis. My step-father fell into drinking after my mother passed away, and I knew it wouldn't be long until he drank himself to death. Davis took custody over me and has been my guardian ever since. There have been many moments where people would mistake me as his daughter, which he found humorous but I hated it.

     I mean, he was old enough to be a father, but I didn't want to be the daughter to anybody else but my biological father. I still wonder where my father is everyday, but it wasn't something I dwelt on forever. I knew I had to eventually move on, and that's exactly what I did.

"How many times did Davis call you this time?" cooper asked, causing me to come back to reality. "I can tell from the way you looked at your phone."

"Oh um, seven times," I said with a light chuckle. "I guess I'm going to be getting one hell of a lecture when I get home."

     Cooper nodded in agreement. He knew how Davis would get when he was mad too, he experienced it not too long ago.

"Where do you think that McKay went though?" I asked. "McKay is  the team captain though, so maybe he was let off the hook easily."

"He went home to go pack," a voice spoke out of the blue, startling both me and Cooper. The beautiful blue eyed boy I saw earlier came walking around the corner. "I should know because I'm his next door neighbor."

"You are?!" I exclaimed in surprise. "You have to help me please! Cooper swapped my laptop out with McKay's and I need to get it back."

     I was at the extreme desperation that I was willing to trust anything a complete stranger said. All I know is that he said he was McKay's next door neighbor, so all I could do was trust that he was telling the truth.

"Wait, McKay Ross is the McKay we're talking about," cooper added, turning around to face him. "McKay Ross is the McKay that you're talking about too, correct?"

"Yes. McKay Ross. Tall, black hair, team captain of the boys basketball team, I know practically everything about him," the mysterious boy claimed. "his parents are best friends with my parents. We've been boating with them before. We have dinner with them every Sunday. We're pretty tight."

"Okay cool, but can you help me out with this?"

"Don't worry Lilli, I can help you," he said. I raise my eyebrows. How did he know my name? He seemed to have noticed my reaction and tried to pretend he didn't just say my name. "I um, yeah so anyways, McKay has a date with his girlfriend tonight at seven o'clock, which means he's going to be gone. That's where you come in," he said, pointing at me. "I'll be the look out just in case something happens. You sneak into his bedroom, get your laptop back, and bam! You've got your laptop back."

Cooper shook his head. "There's no way in hell she's going to break into somebody's house. That's insane. It's a crime!"

"It's only a crime if she gets caught," he replied with a shrug. His majestic blue eyes shifted back to meet mine. "so don't get caught."

I felt Cooper look over at me from the corner of my eye. Cooper scoffed. "Lilli, you can't actually be considering doing this, right?"

"I'm thinking about it," I shushed Cooper. I waited one second before going on. "I'm in."

"What?!"

"Cool." the cute boy smiled. "Here's my address. Come over at six thirty, I'll go over the plan with you and when McKay leaves, that's where it starts."

     I pull out my phone, go to my notes and hand it to the next door neighbor of McKay. Cooper wasn't happy, but I couldn't let McKay find out.

"What about Davis Lilli?" cooper asked, trying to convince me to not do it. "What are you going to do? Sneak out? Davis is going to notice."

"Not if you're there to distract him," I suggested with a nudge. "I'm just going to need you to convince him that I'm in my bedroom and Davis will leave me alone, and once the job is done, I'll race home."

"This is absolutely nuts Lilli," cooper sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He inhaled deeply. "but because I practically got you in this mess, I'll do it."

"Now, that's what I like to hear." I smirk, patting him on the shoulder. The mysterious boy handed my phone back to me once he typed in his address. I stared at him. "By the way, what's your name?"

"And how do you know her name?" cooper chimed in. "You seemed to have known her name before she even knew you first."

The blue eyed boy pointed at me. "Spencer Pitts." he moves his finger to point at Cooper. "No comment."

Spencer saluted at me with two fingers and backed away from us. "I'll see you tonight Lilli."

Spencer turned around and disappeared down the hallway. Cooper shook his head. "I hate this, but at the same time, I need more adventure in my life."

"I agree." I smirk. "I'll see you at my house tonight Coop, come prepared with things to do with Davis. I know you're good at distracting people because you do it to me all the time in Math class."

"You're right," he smiled back. "let's just hope you don't get caught. I personally feel like Davis catching you sneaking out is scarier than McKay catching you snooping in his backpack."

"That's your opinion." I said with a nod. "To me, both are equally as scary."