Twisted Proposal by M.V. Miles Page A

ones. They’re some of Lexus’s old things. I hope you don’t mind wearing hand-me-downs.”
    “Not at all, but do you think this is okay with Lexus?” I didn’t need any more drama.
    “She won’t notice. I was going to donate them anyway. Might as well put them to good use, until we figure out what to do with you.”  She held her gaze on me.
    I lifted an eyebrow. Did I do something wrong?
    “Stuart failed to mention how much you looked like your mother.”
    “You’ve stated that a few times. Is that a bad thing? If it is, maybe you could convince him to send me back to Illinois. Just so you know, I never wanted to come here in the first place.” I tried not to sound rude, but my tolerance for her was waning fast.
    “No, of course not. I’m sure everything will work out.” She waved her hand around again. “Esther,” she pointed to the woman still in the closet, “comes in the morning to make the beds. If you can just leave your dirty clothes outside the door, she’ll pick them up. Feel free to call anyone. We have long-distance.” She picked up a white cordless phone, which was on a nightstand next to the bed and placed it on the glass table in front of me. Dr. Franklin. I wonder if she had a chance to find out information on that Henry Maddox guy. Maybe I could just find him myself?
    Esther finished and waited near the door for Petra, who took me in one more time. “Come along, we have lots of important things to do,” she said, and they left.
    Should I lock the door? I decided against it. I had my very own room. Everything was mine. Well, not everything. My gaze fell on the bathroom door.
    I decided to see how messy it really was, so I got up and peered inside. Clothes were scattered across the tiled floor and draped over the shower rod. The toilet needed to be flushed, and the marble countertop was covered in makeup, glitter, and dust. The maids apparently didn’t clean every room. No way was I going to take a shower in here. I’d been to homeless shelters with cleaner rooms than this.
    I took a deep breath, trudged through the mess and knocked on Lexus’s door.
    “What?” She yanked open the door and I noticed she’d changed into a skimpy blue dress.
                  “Uh…do you mind if I clean the bathroom?” 
                  “Eww… gross! Are you kidding me?” Her nose wrinkled like her mother's.
                  Did I look like I was kidding? “Not really.”
                  “I don’t care what you clean!” She closed the door in my face.
                  “Okay, then.” I found cleaning supplies under the sink and went to work. The girl had at least seven tubes of the same lipstick lying around and a truckload of fake eyelashes spilled all over the place. Then I spent at least thirty minutes scrubbing the grime and scum from the shower and bathtub. After separating her makeup into the pre-labeled drawers, I cleaned off an area for me, closest to my room. I stepped back to admire my handiwork. My pink toothbrush stood in an empty plastic cup on one lonely side of the sink. Lexus’s stuff was neatly stacked in her corner.
    Thinking about Lexus made me reconsider the way I had arranged the counter. I grabbed my toothbrush; there was no way I was keeping it in here. Who knew if she would sabotage it or not.
    “What the hell did you do?” shrieked Lexus, causing me to jump about a mile in the air. I whipped around to see her standing in her doorway with a freaked out look on her face.
    “Clean. I asked you, remember?” I raised the bucket and scrub brush.             
    “How could you do this to me?”
    “Uh... simple it’s called a bucket and bleach water. This place should have had hazard signs up.”
    “You skank! I don’t know where anything is!”
    Pointing to the labeled box, “It’s all there, neatly organized. You can still find whatever you’re looking for.” What was the big deal?