The In Between

8: Bones Exposed

If I say I wouldn't be hostile

Could you say you would do the same?

If we're all made just a little bit broken

Tell me who is to blame?

The next day, Annie had woken up, like an hour before my alarm clock went off, and woke me up by jumping around my room, chanting, 'I get to meet your friend'. I literally sent her back into her room, told her to get dressed, and then to come back. I set a thing for like 20 minutes, and went back to sleep. When I got up, she was dressed and eating. I started getting ready and headed downstairs to eat, and despite having seen her, earlier, I didn't notice it 'til now.

"Annie... Why are you a cat?"

She had cat ears, a dress with a cat on it, and she'd drawn cartoon-looking whiskers on her cheeks. She smiles. "I thought it would be a good way to make a first impression. Plus, nearly everyone likes cats!"

"Okay, I guess, then. Are you ready?"

"Almost," she says, running off. So I made myself something quick to eat. She comes running back in, asking, "have you seen my sneakers anywhere?"

I ate while we searched for her shoes. They were under the table, but we looked for a good 10 minutes before thinking of that. I texted Cam to ask him if he could make it to the park today or if we had to reschedule. He replied, 'Dude, I'm already at the park, hurry it up a little.' I laugh and tell Annie, "As soon as you're ready, we gotta head out; He says he's already at the park."

"I'm so excited," she squeals. I'm not sure exactly why she's so excited, but I'm not about to burst her bubble by asking. So we started the walk to the park, which wasn't far from either party. When we got there, he was sitting on the slide. Completely zoned out, probably, since there was a kid at the top of the slide asking him to move so the kid could come down. The kid had to ask, like, 3 times before he snapped out of it and moved. He apologized, then he saw us walking over.

"Hey Riley! What's up?"

"Cam, this is Annie the cat. Catface, this is Cam," I say. "You are now officially introduced."

"Hi, Annie, nice to meet you," Cam replies. "I see you're a cat."

"Yeah, I really don't know why she decided to dress like a cat."

"Well," he says, "nearly everyone likes cats!"

Oh, god, no. "That's what I said," Annie exclaims. "Even people who dislike how cats are can appreciate how adorable they are."

Cam laughs and says, "That is a fact of life." I'm just sitting there rolling at my eyes. Obviously, they are both insane. Cam nudges me, "Come on, Ri, she's adorable."

Annie grins. "Thank you! It is my job as a cat to be adorable and playful."

I really don't know what's going on. We're seriously having a conversation about being a cat. I'm extremely confused at how this happened. "I'm not understanding. What is going on?"

"Well, simple, Riley, we're having a short conversation about cats. It's just some small fun."

"It was nice to meet you, Cam, but I'm going to go play, now," Annie says, smiling. She ran off to the swings, first. I just stared. I'm not understanding why I'm so confused right now.

"Riley, you alright? ...Riley... Hello?"

"Huh? What?"

"Are you okay? You just completely spaced out. I mean, I've been doing it too, but, like, it's weird to see someone else do it..."