A N G E L (Roger Daltrey)

Twenty

Nancy's POV

It felt like I had just barely went to sleep when my alarm started blaring. Why Janice had to take the red-eye flights was beyond me.

I was excited to have her back home, though. It had been excruciatingly boring without her around. Were it not for having Ringo to take care of, I probably would have wasted away!

The little kitten purred in his sleep beside me. He had already gotten bigger in a few days' time. I scooped him up and squeezed him, wishing he could stay that size forever.

"Mew!" he cried. He flailed his tiny paws and was obviously mad that I had woken him up.

"That's just what you get for being so damn cute," I told him, kissing all over his orange face.

He wiggled like he had been possessed, so I put him down before he could hurt himself.

Hoisting myself out of bed, I hunted for my keys, which had evidently sprouted legs and walked off sometime during the night. A few minutes of quiet, frantic searching later, I found them on top of the stove in the kitchen. How did they end up there?

I shook my head and headed out. The door latched softly behind me as I stepped out into the cool morning air. It was still mostly dark outside and it hadn't had time to turn humid yet. I was glad I wouldn't be rolling up to the airport with my hair sticking out in ten different directions from the frizz.

My beetle was waiting for me in the driveway as usual. I hopped in, started it, and began the short journey to the Cincinnati airport.

The drive was uneventful, as the roads were pretty much a ghost town at such an ungodly hour. I got cut off by a sleepy Mack truck driver, but that was about it.

The airport was absolutely hopping when I got there. As I walked to Jan's terminal, I pondered how miserable it must be to work in an airport, much less at the asscrack of dawn. The only time I had ever flown was in middle school, to the beach. My dad had raised so much hell with the poor desk lady over our luggage that I felt like apologizing for his entire existence.

I settled into a chair and waited for Janice. As I sat, I thought about Keith. He was too dreamy for his own good. And a nice lay, too. I wondered if I'd ever see him again. Eh, probably not. The sound of a baby crying jolted me from my thoughts and I realized I had roughed up the short carpet with my heel. I scuffed it back into place. One of these days I'm gonna jack up an important carpet, if there is such a thing.

The baby was still crying as Jan's plane approached, and it made me feel sick at my stomach. I've always been bothered by the sound of crying babies.

And then there came my best friend, dragging her avocado green suitcase and looking pale-faced and upset.

"Hey, babe!" I called, running to her and hugging her.

"Hi, Nance," she said weakly, "I missed you."

I grabbed the hand hold on the other side of her suitcase to help her carry it. "I missed you too. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just tired, mostly. And I miss Roger already." She stopped for a second and we dropped the luggage so she could flip her hair out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry." I pouted my lip out sympathetically as we lifted the case and started walking again. "Other than that are you okay?"

"Yup. It's sad to leave him, though, because, uh, I dunno. I think I love him or something." She sighed heavily.

"What?" I asked incredulously as we clumsily pushed through the doors and out into the parking lot, banging the suitcase off of everything in a ten mile radius.