Inhibition

Chapter 32

“Wake-y, Wake-y!”

Cat blinked open her eyes to Midge and Finley looming over her. She jumped and rolled right over the edge of the bed, getting tangled in her blankets in the process. When she managed to untangle herself (mostly), she looked up again.

Midge and Finley were still standing over her, but now Midge had a huge grin on her face, and Finley was struggling to hold in her laughter with a hand over her mouth. She was failing, miserably.

“I’m sorry!” Midge jumped on top of Cat and tried to strangle her with hugs.

When Cat started to turn blue, she pointed desperately at Midge’s chokehold.

“Uh, Midge?” Finley asked, a bit nervously.

“Yeah?” Midge’s head turned to face Finley, but her body didn’t.

“You might want to let go.” She gestured at Cat, who was almost dead by now.

“Oh! Sorry!” She released Cat quickly. She went to give Cat a pat on the head.

Cat grunted as Midge missed the top of her head and hit her face. She stopped Midge before she could try to make it up to her . . . again.

Finley couldn’t take it anymore. Watching Midge try to “help” and Cat’s attempts to fend off said “help”, she burst out laughing. She pretty much collapsed on top of the other two. Midge and Cat both stopped. It had been a while since Finley had laughed for real.

“Awww!” Midge proceeded to jump Finley.

“Get. Off.” She struggled to free herself from Midge’s clutch.

Yep, back to the old Finley, Cat thought. It was a relief.

“Wait,” Cat turned to Midge. “Why are you here?”

“’cause I wanna be?” Midge deflected, attempting cute and innocent.

“No, that is not how you do it. It’s like this.” Cat made her eyes go big, and pouted her lips. She drew her eyebrows down, and then her face, looking up from under her lashes. She looked like she was going to start crying any minute now. “Then, you do this.” Keeping her face, she clasped her hands together and swung her arms in front of her.

“That’s not that cute! This is cute!” Midge giggled, placing her hand in front of her mouth. She dropped her head down a bit, and lifted her shoulders. She tilted her head to her left, and then looked at Cat through the corner of her eyes.

“Nu uh.” Cat didn’t even need the exclamation mark.

“Yah huh!” Midge did.

“Nu uh.”

“Yah huh.”

“Nu uh.”

“Yah huh.”

“Nu uh.”

From Finley, in the corner: “I can’t believe I have friends like this.” But her whispered words couldn’t be heard over the dull roar of Cat and Midge’s argument.

As they were arguing, Aidan popped his head in. Seeing Cat and Midge, standing in their selected poses and yelling out what he thought was randomness, and Finley in the corner shaking her head, he popped right back out.

“Aidan!” Cat and Midge called out at the same time.

Outside of the door, he shook his clenched fist in defeat, before walking back to their door. He leaned against the door frame, with a calm, albeit quizzical expression on his face.

“Yes?”

Cat opened her mouth to respond but-

“Which one of us is cuter?” Midge demanded.

“Uh . . .” He looked around the room, as if help would magically appear. Finley stopped her lamenting in the corner to see what he had to say.

“What brought this up?” Aidan tried to deflect.

“Well, I tried to be cute, which I am. I don’t need to try.” Midge gave a hair flip. “But Cat said that her pose was cuter.” She gave Cat a look of disbelief. “As if,” she muttered to herself.

Cat held up her hand, pointer finger up. “Hold up.” She pointed at Midge. “Lie.” She pointed at Aidan. “Distraction.”

Cat crossed her arms in front of her chest, inadvertently pushing up her cleavage. Aidan’s gaze immediately zoomed in on it. Hey, he was still a guy. Her stance made Cat look a lot more hot, than cute. But he probably shouldn’t say that as his answer. Then, seeing the serious expression on her and Midge’s faces, he decided it would be best if he just didn’t speak at all.

“Um . . .” Aidan tapped his pointer finger on his bottom lip, seemingly deep in thought. “Gotta go!” And he vanished out the doorway.

Cat and Midge just stared after him.

“I wonder what he was even doing here,” Finley mused out loud.

All three girls looked at each other.

“Edi.”

Of course, their dorm building, that just happened to be alive and conscious enough to screw with the students. Her favorite hobby was making what Cat had dubbed the “elevators” go crazy. When ridding, one never knew exactly where they would end up.

“For that matter,” Cat turned to Midge. “Why are you here?”

“For fun! Duh!”

Finley and Cat both looked at Midge.

“Ok.” Total acceptance.