Into the Light

“Of course I’ve got ideas. I’ve been waiting for this moment since the night Edwards had my baby in jail. Leave that side up to me...” she answered with a devilish grin.

That night I sat alone in my living room wearing sweats and my hoodie, much to my disappointment. I don’t think in my life I had ever stayed in on a Friday night, except that one time I got mono. I curled up on my lounge, checking my twitter. Same old bullshit and I was disappointed that The Bone Ranger was offline. I threw my phone over to the other chair so I wouldn’t be tempted to check it. I flicked through the cable channels which had absolutely nothing on. I settled for an infomercial on this miracle face cream. Fuck, do not get out your credit card.

After forcing myself to change the channel to MTV, (because I was this close to buying the face cream as well as the bonus hair remover) I heard a knock on my door. I stood up and grabbed my fry pan in case it was some axe murderer before noting that the price tag was still on it; well duh I had no idea how to cook.

“Open up, E, it’s me.”

I unlocked the hinges because I recognized the voice. Standing there was Charlie in her sweats, carrying DVDs, Chinese take-out, pizza and ice cream.

“Geez, Charlie, a little bit early for cravings?”

“This isn’t all for me, now scoot.” She walked in and placed the food and DVDs on the table, heading into the kitchen to place the ice cream in the freezer.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be spread out in bed getting your waterhole filled by snakey Edwar

ds?”

She laughed, grabbing plates and bottles of water to take back to the living room.

“Friday night is our night,” she simply replied.

“Charlie it’s okay, I get it. You’ve got this great man. I don’t mind that Friday nights are now spent with him.”

She paused, before grabbing both my hands. “Eric, life has done a complete three sixty on me. Never in this lifetime did I think that I would be in a relationship with Lex again, let alone pregnant with his baby... again.”

“Again?” I asked shocked.

“Long story... we need more ice cream for that. Look, as I was saying, while this feels like a dream come true, it’s also a little frightening. There are parts of my life that will never change and that includes my friendships. I need you in my life more than ever now, E.”

I hugged her tight, because just like me she had felt it too and here I was thinking I was the only one going through this. She was my best friend and needed me, probably more than ever.

“What did Lex say when you told him you were coming here?”

She laughed “He understands what my friends mean to me. That won’t change. Besides, I made him read Fifty Shades of Grey, well at least start it. He wanted to know what the hype was about and, well, I said read it for yourself.”

“OMG Lex Edwards takes on Christian Grey? I couldn’t think of anything hotter!”

“He doesn’t understand why a woman would want to be with such a control freak,” she laughed again.

“Oh holy hotness. I need a detailed daily update on this. Damn I’m shizzling in the pants,” I laughed out loud.

“Eww…and you’re in sweats? What is the world coming to?”

“Oh you’re right me in sweats can’t possibly be a sign of good times ahead.”

We sat down on the lounge and ate whilst we gossiped about Adriana’s wedding. The food of course was delicious as hell. I did a mental calculation of how much extra gym time I needed to do to work this off. Ooh that meant I could see Simon that cute college dude that made that grunt when he did squats!

“What are we watching?” I asked whilst shoving an eggroll into my mouth.

“Bring It On.”

“Nice... the cure to Friday night blues.”

The movie started and we sat there watching, occasionally commenting at our usual places.

“Hurry up get them out!” Charlie said as I stood up.

I raced to my closet and pulled them out; I threw a pair over to her just in time.