Cheers Roll Down: A Series Of Unfreaktunate Events

2: King, Queen and Freak of Hearts

"DEFCON 1, Ophelia!"

"What?" came her tinny reply over the cordless phone. "DEFCON- what are you talking about?"

While she was talking, I peered through a crack in the door to my room; I could just see the top of Sabrina's blonde head over the back of the recliner. "You'll never believe who's in my living room right freaking now!"

"Uh-oh... it's not-"

"It is!"

"The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man?! Ye gods!"

I sat there. How do you respond to that?

"Don't worry; I'll bring the Hershey bars and graham crackers! We'll make s'mores outta him if it's the last thing we-"

"Dammit, would you cut that out?!" I growled over her bemused cackling. "I told her I had to call work real quick, so I don't have long!"

"Her? So it's- oh! Oh Goddess, I'm sorry! If I'd known it was your- your-"

"Not 'my' anything!" I hissed indignantly.

"What the hell is she doing here, how'd she get here?!"

"Nevermind that crap - what do I do?!"

There was a slight pause. "Do? Wait, aren't you happy to see her?"

I loosed a shaky sigh. "Of course I am, but- sheez, it's all so complicated now! Do we play it cool and act like there's no past between us, or do we get that messiness out of the way ay-sap, or should-"

"Hey, backpedal for a second," she giggled. "From the way you're babbling, it sounds like you'd rather go with option number one for a while."

"What option is that?" Mentally, I rewound the conversation. "Oh yeah. Really, can we do that? It's so big, and there's so much to talk about!"

"Then talk about it later. How long is she going to be here?"

"From the way she made it sound... a week." I smiled. Despite how on edge I was, it sounded delightful - a week with Sabrina in my city! God, all the things we could do, the places I could show her! "Yeah, why not? I'm Libby Freaking Chessler, dammit - if anybody can pull this off, it's me! What could go wrong?"

Exactly then I heard something shatter in the kitchen; somebody shouted, "Sorry, my fault!", but it wasn't very reassuring. In fact, it felt more like an omen.

"Uhh, look, I gotta go before they decimate my house. You really think I can leave this on the back burner for a day or two?"

"Whether or not you can is up to you, but sure, I think it's worth a try. That way, if that tough conversation doesn't go well when you do get around to it..."

"...at least we had a couple days of unfettered fun first," I finished, grinning. "You're a genius, Ophie!"

"That's what they tell me in the secret laboratory. Now, go have all the fun in the world!"

"Roger!"

"Hey, wait!"

I paused with my finger on the "POWER" button. "What, what is it?"

A longer pause; I mentally pictured her staring at her boots. "Um, is it okay if I hang with you guys, at least for a couple hours? I m-mean, well, that is... I haven't seen Sabrina since graduation, either, and it'd be nice to-"

"Of course!" I answered immediately. "That'd be awesome!"

"Are you sure? I don't wanna wedge myself in there and make everything weird."