Life After You

chapter 1

The sound of a gun pierces my memory and I bolt up in bed, sweating and panting, with tears streaming from my eyes. The bed beside me shifts and I feel arms wrap around my middle.

"Teddy? Baby are you okay?" The voice is sweet and laced with sleep.

I steady my breathing before replying, "um, yeah. It was just a dream." I lay back down and snuggle into the other woman's embrace, and drift slowly back to sleep.

The next time I wake up is much more enjoyable. She smell of french toast and coffee flood my room, and a smile spreads across my face. I stretch, one of those stretches that's practically orgasmic, across my queen sized bed. "She's such a babe," I whisper, while sitting up. My feet touch the icy hard wood floor, and I immediately pull them back onto the bed. I could have sworn I had socks on when I went to bed, so I start searching through the blankets until I find the pair of fuzzy purple socks ygat I got as a birthday present from Zona, just under 4 years ago. I laugh at the memory.

"Open mine next!" Arizona's excited voice whisper-screams next to me.

"But I want to open Maura's next." I joke with the blonde and reach for the shoe-box sized gift wrapped in off-white paper with sketches of all my favorite things covering it. Maura had quite an artistic talent, and her wrapping paper always displayed it.

"NOOOOO! Mine." Arizona whines shoving a larger than life box towards my hands.

I laugh, "fine. Whiney baby." She replies by sticking out her tongue , much like a 5 year old. I slowly start to unwrap the gift, antagonizing my best friend even more.

"Oh my lawd! come on Theodora just open it already!" she complains.

I hate it when people use my full name, but I've gotten use to it coming out of her mouth. "Arizona Jessica Robbins, if you don't calm down so help me, I will hurt you." I threaten, its an empty threat but hopefully it will work, yet of course it doesn't.

"No you won't," she laughs and tries to help me tear the wrapping paper quicker.

"Are you five!?" I giggle shoving her hand off the present.

"No, are you 100?" she retaliates.

"No it's just fun messing with you" I smirk and start to open the gift at a normal pace.

"Thank you lawd!" she almost yells as she sits up straight on the edge of her chair.

When I finally get it open I peer inside, only to find another wrapped box. Between the boxes was a micro-fleece giraffe spotted blanket. I pull it and the second box out. "How many boxes are there Zona?"

She makes a face as if she's thinking back to find the answer, "Ummm, I guess you'll have to open them to find out." She flashes me her best dimpled smile, causing me to laugh before I continue working on opening the rest of her gift.

Five minuses, 3 boxes, 4 scarves, 2 sets of gloves, 2 sets of mittens, and 2 pair of fleece lined leggings later I get to a box, about the size of a cereal bowl, wrapped solely in duct tape. "Arizona? What is this?" I glare between the box in my hands and the friend at my side.

"The best part of the gift," she smiles back at me.

"Does anyone have a knife?" I look to the 4 other people in the room, all shaking their heads no.

"You can't use a knife! That's cheating!"

"Arizona, this is solid fucking duct tape, how am I supposed to open this without a knife?"

"Very carefully."

I shake my head and shove her out of her chair, before starting to try and open the last box. "I swear it there's nothing in here you are so dead."

"I promise that there is something in it."

After almost 20 minutes of finding ends, the box is free of the tape, and I open it to find a single pair of fuzzy purple mid-calf length socks. "Smell them!" Arizona shouts from her new location, 5 feet infront of me. I send her a questioning look but do as she demands.

"OMG! They smell like vanilla!" My face lights up.

"I told you they were the best part!"

"They really are, even if they were such a pain in the ass to get to. Thank you! I love them!"

They don't smell like vanilla anymore and the soles are so thin that you can see through them, but they're still my favorite socks.

Only when the socks are securely on my feet do I let them touch the floor again. The sheer soles don't allow them to help ward off the cold too much but they do enough. I walk out to the tiny kitchen of my on campus apartment.

Fiery red hair falls in gentle waves down the back of the woman in front of me. She has ear buds in and is swaying with whatever is playing, while she flips the last couple pieces of French Toast. I tap her shoulder causing her to jump. I giggle at how cute she is.

"You're laughing at me? After I took time out of my morning to make you breakfast? Wow. Unbelievable." She jokes.

"I would never." I defend, hold up my right hand, "Why would you accuse me of such a thing?" I try to keep a straight face, but when she crosses her arms and taps her foot I loose it.

"That's why." She laughs and goes back to cooking.

"It smells great, but you didn't have to--"

"Nonsense," she cuts me off, "It was no trouble and besides I enjoy it."

"Okay." There's no use arguing with her, she always seems to win. I sit on one of the stools on the outside of the kitchen area.

I hear the stove click off, and next thing I know there's a pile of french toast and a bowl of fresh fruit in-front of me. I get up and grab plates, a cup, a mug, and silverware while she grabs butter and syrup from the fridge. "Why do you have coffee if you don't drink it?" She questions.

"Because I have friends that come over and do drink it. Besides, I use to drink it."

"Valid points."

"I thought so," I laugh as I pour coffee into her mug and water into my glass.

We banter back and forth throughout the meal and the cleaning afterwards. "What time do you have to leave?" I finally ask.

"Um, it's Sunday?" I nod. "Okay, well I have class tomorrow at 8, so probably around 11?"

I smile. "So does that mean you want to watch movies with me all day?"

"Um, of course!"