Something strange had been going on in my closet for a while. A girl without my memory might never have noticed it, but...sometimes things in there had a way of rearranging themselves. In my closet, there was a large open space in which I could hang my dresses. Below that were drawers in which I kept the clothes that could be folded. Usually, nothing in my closet changed unless I touched it. That had changed for the lowermost drawer.
Whenever I'd come home, I'd take off my shoes and throw them in there on a heap. It was a mess, yet at times, things started feeling...off. I didn't know what, it was just my brain reacting to the differences between what I'd seen in the morning when I had to pick a pair to wear, and what I saw when I came back home.
When this continued, I started to see more patterns. Half the shoes I owned were boots, and half were not, but it was always the boots that moved the most. I didn't see a distinction between boots and other shoes until then, so I didn't keep them apart. A pair of my ankle boots had ended on top of the sneakers that had laid on them in the morning, that sort of thing. I had suspicions about who was responsible, but I had been unable to confirm them.
I found the culprit one particular Thursday afternoon when I came home from a shopping session with my girlfriends. We'd stopped in front of a shop window displaying a large array of knee-high and thigh-high boots, and I had challenged Wendy, the timidest dresser in our group, to buy a pair. She'd dared me right back, saying she wouldn't if I didn't buy a pair, too. I acted as if it were no big deal for me, and we entered the shop. After a long period of indecision, Wendy had left the shop with the most modest pair that was sold; flat, brown boots that stopped under the knee. I, of course, had to show I wasn't that scared, though I drew the line at the seven-inch stilettoes they sold. I bought a pair of black suede that went over my knees. The blocked heels were as long as the stilettoes, but they were platformed boots, which made them much easier to walk on. Under a short skirt, they would be incredibly sexy. If I combined them with some jeans, however, they were just mild enough to wear to campus and such.
From the hallway, I heard the sharp, rich sounds of the violin sounding from the living room. Benjamin, my younger brother, was practicing like he always did at this time of the day. He played beautifully; he was the one who had inherited all the musical genes from our parents. I snuck into the living room, trying not to disturb his practice, to listen. He was playing a sonata I faintly recognized. I had heard him play it before.
Ben had been playing music his entire life. When we were young, our parents had started teaching us the piano. In two weeks Ben learned what had taken me months. It was hard not to be jealous of my brother's musical gift, as I loved music as much as he did.
I could not help but smile as I listened. Occasionally, when he wasn't satisfied with himself, he'd go back a few bars and play them again, even though to my non-musical ears it already sounded amazing. The emotion and care with which he could play! I had to remind myself there were other things in life I was good at.
I had been listening for a while when he finished his sonata. He took his bow off the strings and turned around, only then noticing me.
"Hey sis," he said, not at all disturbed by the fact that he'd had an audience. I used to play the clarinet, and sometimes still do, but I have always been terrified of playing for other people. Ben had played in our city's youth orchestra for a long time, and he had accumulated so much experience that he was completely comfortable when people listened in.
He was nineteen--two years my junior. He was a few inches taller than me, with short-cropped brown hair and a shy kind of handsomeness that I really liked on guys. Not that I looked at him that way, of course.
"Hey, Ben. It sounds good."
He grimaced. "Not really, but thanks anyway." He eyed the tall shoebox I had propped against the couch. "What've you got there?"
"I bought a new pair of boots today," I said, opening the box for him to see. "What do you think?"
I studied his reaction, and I knew. He was the one who had been moving my boots. He held his breath as he admired my purchase for far longer than anyone reasonably should have. "You'd look nice in them," he told me eventually.
I'd had a boyfriend with a fetish before. We've been broken up for months now, but he had always wanted to fuck me doggy-style and kept running his hands over my back. Though I thought it was a little weird, I didn't mind. I knew that a boot fetish was not the most uncommon fetish; I just never expected my little brother to have one, too.
"Aw, thanks, bro," I said, pecking him on the cheek. I packed up the boots and made for the staircase to go to my room.
"No, wait," Ben half-shouted.
I turned around to see him staring at me, wide-eyed and mouth hanging open. "What?" I asked.
*******
Fuck, I thought, fuck, fuck, fuck!
Amanda was staring at me, awaiting an answer. I did the only thing I could think of. I laid my violin on the couch and said, "I'm coming with you."
"Upstairs?" she asked.
"Yes," I forced myself to say. I did my best at coming up with a plausible story as to why, but the interrogations didn't come.
"All right," she simply said.
I screamed inwardly as Amanda went on the stairs before me. What if she saw?