Saturday morning came so quickly after Wednesday night that Rebecca was pretty sure the middle two days didn't even happen at all. Three days later and it had officially been a week since she had met the famous—or perhaps infamous—Kennedy Abrams. A week since she had felt like her life was going to change, and she still wasn't sure whether it was for better or for worse.

Rebecca walked onto the treadmill Saturday morning at 10:09 AM, connecting her Bluetooth headphones to her phone before selecting her workout playlist on Spotify. She had found the time in the previous two days to change her entire playlist theme, where she had all of her playlists beginning with the words 'I am.' Her workout playlist was aptly titled, 'I am at the gym.'

She hit shuffle and started the treadmill, slowly at first before jacking up the speed to a 6.3. Her song blasted in her ears, the perfect beat for the speed she had set the treadmill at.

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,

Rebecca wasn't the biggest fan of Eminem as an artist, or rap as a music genre. But there was something about hearing the beat in her ears as her feet hit the conveyor to the same rhythm that felt a different kind of satisfying.

There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti,

Rebecca looked up in the mirror across from her and looked at everyone in the gym. She thoroughly enjoyed watching people in the gym; they all seemed to be so enamored with what they were doing. The guys bench pressing more than they should have been, the girls with perfect form who made Rebecca wish she knew how to work out at all besides running on a treadmill and thinking about eating donuts when she was finished.

He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready,

She needed a new playlist: 'I am running.' Maybe it would help her feel like she wasn't considering a basic run to be a full workout. Something about that felt like cheating.

To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgettin',

Rebecca looked in the mirror until she saw a familiar face appear beside her, grinning slightly as she watched the other girl run.

What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes—

Rebecca pulled out her headphones and paused the treadmill, slowing her pace at a reasonable speed so she didn't have a repeat of the Saturday before. She turned to face Kennedy.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Just wanted to make sure you didn't fall off this time." Kennedy laughed as Rebecca rolled her eyes. She turned back to start the treadmill again before Kennedy caught her arm.

"Hold on, I have news." She continued. Rebecca turned back around, her arm tingling where Kennedy had grabbed it. She hadn't seen the blonde the day before, and it seemed like her awe at the girl's ability to be perfect in every aspect of her life was multiplied by that absence.

"News?" Rebecca repeated, "Alright."

Kennedy smiled again, a recognizable excited smile that made Rebecca nervous.

"I'm gonna host a party tonight. I was thinking it would be good to get exposure for the account by just making an offhand comment about it or something, you know? Gain interest."

Rebecca shook her head immediately.

"An 'offhand comment?' What does that even mean? How do you plan to make an offhand comment?" She sighed, "There is absolutely no way to make that seem natural."

"I'm insulted, honestly." Kennedy replied, "I will make it seem natural, don't worry. But you have to come, and bring those roommates who were talking about the account a few days ago. Maybe they'll be able to get the conversation going once I mention it."

Rebecca was quiet for a moment. Kennedy was literally the girl in the pictures. It would be so completely obvious to have her be sitting there talking about a 'new Instagram account' only to have people look at it and see that she was identical to Drew Parley.

"Alright, Kennedy." Rebecca shrugged, "Do what you want. I'm not gonna stop you or anything."

Kennedy sighed loudly as Rebecca turned to start running again.

"You don't have to be so condescending, you know." She huffed before Rebecca could put her headphones back in, "Tonight at 7:00."

Rebecca nodded again and put her headphones in, turning on her workout playlist and starting to run as she watched Kennedy head for a squat rack in the mirror.

Was she in love with Kennedy Abrams? Maybe. Did Kennedy Abrams make her want to pull out her hair some days? Absolutely.

><><

5:16 PM.

"Hey, do you want to go to another party tonight?"

Celeste looked up from her cooking as Rebecca walked in the door from work that afternoon, carrying a few bags of groceries that she had picked up on her way out. The kitchen smelled phenomenal; whatever Rebecca's roommate was cooking could have won an award. Or a cooking competition on the Food Network at the very least.

"What party?" Celeste replied, throwing a few pieces of chopped onion into the pan already simmering on the stove, "Are there gonna be good people there?"

Rebecca raised her eyebrows.

"'Good' people?"

Celeste nodded.

"Yeah, like people we would want to be seen with. I can already tell this school has something of a social hierarchy; I don't want to be automatically placed at the bottom, and I'm pretty sure transferring from a Maryland school isn't helping me."

Rebecca laughed.

"Being friends with me isn't helping you either."

Celeste rolled her eyes.

"Don't remind me."

"Hey!"

"Kidding!"

Rebecca sighed dramatically at the jab before continuing with her necessary advertisement for the party.

"You should come to this party with me tonight. It's at Kennedy Abrams', the girl from last weekend? Same place, easy to find, good people, good music."

Celeste shrugged slightly and turned back to her cooking.

"Last week was fun. Should we invite Kaylie and Jamie?"

"Invite us to what?"

Rebecca sometimes felt like Kaylie was some sort of demon who just hovered everywhere until she heard her name mentioned so she could pop up out of the woodwork to bother anyone and everyone. Her penetrating green eyes stared at Rebecca as she walked into the kitchen, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder as she did so.

"A party tonight." Rebecca replied shortly, immediately feeling self-conscious. Like Rebecca, Kaylie was wearing workout clothes, but she looked objectively far better than Rebecca did. She was slimmer than Rebecca to begin with, and her matching leggings and crop top set made her look like she could run her own fitness YouTube channel, while Rebecca's white t-shirt and black shorts felt like something a middle schooler wore to gym class. The bright pink sneakers didn't help either.

"Is that all the information you're going to give me?" Kaylie snapped, jolting Rebecca out of her self-deprecating train of thought and back to the conversation at hand, "Because I don't think I would be able to find 'a party tonight' on my own."

"Sorry." Rebecca shook her head, ignoring her roommate's outfit. "It's at Kennedy Abrams' apartment, over at the Estate. 8:00."

Kaylie's face changed immediately and Rebecca could tell the mention of Kennedy's named excited her, but she was trying to maintain her cool throughout the thoughts running in her head.

"Yeah, Jamie and I can probably make that." She shrugged nonchalantly, "Why are we invited?"

"Rebecca is like BFFs with Kennedy now." Celeste replied offhandedly, "They met last week and spend like every second together."

Kaylie looked at Rebecca with a mixed expression: a combination of shock at the fact that Kennedy Abrams would even look at someone like Rebecca and a newfound respect for the fact that she was roommates with Kennedy Abrams' new 'BFF.'

"Well, that's...pretty cool." She nodded slowly, "You said the party was at 8?"

Rebecca nodded.

"We'll drive with you, if you want." Kaylie said quickly, "Does that work?"

Rebecca nodded again, a slight smile on her face. Did Kaylie actually want to show up to a party with Rebecca Eaves of all people? It was as if hell had frozen over.

Kaylie hid her smile and walked out of the kitchen again as Rebecca turned to Celeste.

"Should we text Spencer?" Rebecca asked, "See if he wants to come again?"

Celeste nodded.

"Sure, why not."

Rebecca raised her eyebrows.

"Are you and Spencer fighting again?"

Celeste rolled her eyes and huffed air out of her nose angrily at the question. Rebecca didn't feel bad for asking; the two argued like a married couple and were angry with each other for at least half of their friendship.

"No, we're not fighting again." Celeste muttered, "I just don't care if he comes or not. Maybe hot guys will actually hit on me if I'm not being followed around by a six foot dude everywhere I go."

"So you don't want me to invite him?"

"I didn't say that." Celeste replied instantly, "I was just...saying."

Rebecca shrugged.

"I'm gonna text him. 8:00."

Celeste nodded as she returned her attention to the stove.

"8:00."

A/N: Sorry for the late update! Be sure to check out a sneak peek of Chapter 10, Part 1 on my blog, https://kpmblog.wixsite.com/shelfawareness (also the external link for this chapter!)

-Katherine