Top Dog

“Why not?” she asked.

I took a long drink of my coffee as I thought on that question. Why hadn’t we done this in so long?

“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “I guess life got in the way. We became serious about college, and I was trying to do stuff with my art. We joined that honors fraternity, which basically took up the bulk of our spare time. Then came being preoccupied with boys.”

“We grew up too quickly, Amanda.”

“Life has a weird way of doing that to people,” I said.

“Well, here’s what I say. I say we should order way too much pizza, watch movies all night long, and stay up talking. Then, you can get loads of coffee before you have to venture back up the mountain to see your hunk of burning love.”

“Seriously? Don’t call him that,” I said, giggling.

“Piece of man meat?”

“Nope.”

“Luscious mountain man?’

“Hell no, Sarah.”

“Big Daddy Papa Bear?”

“I’m going to hit you with a fucking pillow,” I said.

“Oh really?”

Suddenly, a pillow whacked me in the face. My coffee went tumbling to the floor, spilling out all over the carpet. I looked over the edge of the bed and saw the caffeinated goodness staining the carpet. I felt the ache deep in my soul. The beautiful black gold was spilling everywhere as Sarah cackled behind me.

“You’re so paying for that,” I said.

Grabbing a pillow, I threw it in her face. I stood up and grabbed another one, then proceeded to whack her over and over again. She rose to her feet and started defending herself, and soon the two of us were jumping on the bed trying to push each other off. Pillows were flying and the comforter was tangling around our legs, tripping us up and collapsing us to the bed. We were sweating and breathing heavy, with pillows strewn all over the floor and the smell of raspberry coffee fluttering around the room.

“You can get one tomorrow morning,” Sarah said, huffing.

“But I wanted it now,” I said breathlessly.

“We’ll get soda with the pizza.”

“I get to pick the soda,” I said.

“We’ll each get a soda.”

“A two liter for each of us?” I asked.

“Yep. Because we need the caffeine to stay up and catch up.”

“I have to babysit tomorrow, Sarah.”

“And you can go tired with sunglasses on your face like every other twenty-two-year-old asked to babysit someone,” she said.

We laid there on the bed, our bodies splayed out and our limbs cockeyed. My hand searched for hers, and I grasped it, running my thumb around in the palm of her hand. I heard her sniffle, and I pulled her close to me, holding her tightly as she cried into my shoulder.

“It’s going to be okay, Sarah. I’m going to help you get through this.”

“I loved him,” she said desperately. “I really did love him.”

“I know you did,” I said as I stroked her hair. “I know.”