The doorbell rang. Merrin got up from watching vacuum cleaner infomercials on the TV and scurried over to check the peephole. On the other side, she saw Lily's bright smile and her cheerful wave hello.
"Hi, Mer! Let me in!"
Merrin opened the door and embraced her friend in a hug. "Hey, Lily. How are you?"
Lily ran a hand through her braids. "Kinda hot, I guess. Great otherwise. So, what do you want to do?"
Merrin shrugged and led Lily into the kitchen. She pulled out a couple microwave bags of popcorn and threw one in the microwave for two minutes. "I don't know. My parents went out of town-"
"Wait, really?" Lily interjected, grinning mischievously. Merrin saw her expression and shook her head.
"No. No way. I know what you're about to say, and it's not happening."
Lily made puppy dog eyes. "Pleeease? Not even just a little one? You know my parents won't let me drink in the house."
"Dude, you're 21. Why are you still living with your parents, anyway? Just move out and party there. Problem solved."
"Move out? You're one to talk."
Merrin rolled her eyes. "Well, Lily, I'm in college. That's why I still live with these bitches. And what do you do, again?" Her voice raised at the end along with her eyebrow.
"Fuck off..." Lily muttered. Merrin laughed.
"You know I'm right."
"Yeah, whatever. So, what do you want to watch?"
"Dunno."
Lily's eyes brightened. "What about something true crime?"
Merrin wrinkled her nose. "True crime? Ew. You watch that shit?"
"Of course! It's actually really cool... all the psychology of it and stuff. Especially with serial killers."
Merrin spun around on her heel. "Who gives a fuck? The statistical likelihood of anyone being killed by a serial killer is what? One in 700,000?" She sighed. "There are bigger problems in society than a few crazies running around killing people because they get off on it. All these documentaries and podcasts and shit are only popular because the media's turned these guys into... I don't know, murder celebrities."
Lily burst out laughing. "Murder celebrities? That's original."
"No, seriously! Think about it. How did Kim Kardashian get famous?"
"Sex tape."
"Exactly. She did something public and taboo- in her case, fucking Ray J and selling the video- and everyone loved it. People like to act all holier-than-thou in public, everyone measuring themselves against others to see how well they fit the societal expectations of whatever their demographic is, but go home and consume media depicting the very things they call immoral and repulsive to the point that some people can build not only livings, but entire empires off of their quote-unquote transgressions."
It was Lily's turn to raise an eyebrow. "They teach you all this as a psych major? Sounds edgy for UCSD."
Merrin rolled her eyes. "I'm poli-sci for one, so no, and UCSD has nothing to do with it. It's just a thought... just a thought I've had for a while."
"Whatever. Anyway, get your laptop. There's this really good YouTube documentary I found a few days ago on the Night Stalker-"
"The Night Stalker? As in the serial killer from, like, 30 years ago?"
"Uh, weren't we just talking about serial killers? Duh. Of course."
"Smartass," muttered Merrin. "My laptop's in my bedroom. Come on."
The two of them walked into Merrin's large yet sparsely decorated bedroom, kicked off their shoes, and sat down on the bed. Merrin reached into the top drawer of her bedside table and pulled out her Mac. She handed it to Lily. "Here, find the doc. I'm going to go get the popcorn."
"Bring me a thing of Sour Patches, too!"
"Sure, fat ass," chuckled Merrin.
