'Tis confusion!

doughnut clothes

Joe and Q both aimed their phones at Sal and quietly snapped a few more photos, while I watched, laughing silently. Q got on Facebook and thought a moment. "What's Sal's password again?"

"Imsorry," Joe said. "All one word." Q snickered. "Yeah, I'm sure that's it. Just like Murr's is 'ferretboy'."

"Ferretboyone," Joe corrected him.

Q sighed. "I think I'm just going to make it my profile picture. It'll be funny either way. Gatto, you should change yours to match." Q grinned at me devilishly. "You too, Mara. Whadd'ya say?"

"Absolutely." I grabbed my phone and made the switch. Suddenly I heard three loud dings. ..from Sals' pocket.

"Ah crap. Looks like he has his notifications on," Q groused. He's gonna see the picture a lot sooner this way. Oh well." I laughed. "I need coffee. You guys?"

"Yes," they both replied. I walked into the kitchen, only to stick my head out a moment later. "Joe, how do you take your joe?"

"In a cup," he shot back. "Ideally a clean one, if Quinn has any."

"Funnyman," said Q, but he was smirking. "Joe drinks it real frou-frou like. Sixteen sugars and three quarters of the cup should be milk."

"No, don't!" Joe called out over Q. "Just a splash of milk please."

"He doesn't have any," I told Joe. "Caramel creamer, or.." I peered into the fridge, "I think he has some soy sauce in here." I could hear Joe chortling from the other room. "A little specialty coffee syrup? I'm good with the caramel, thanks." I laughed as I poured creamer into the  waiting mugs. "If you're sure..." I carried the cups back into the living room, handed one to Joe and one to Q, then settled onto the couch with the remaining mug.

Joe took a long sip. " Ah, very nice. Thanks hun."

"Don't mention it." I looked over at Sal and Barbara, and nudged Q in his side. "How has Sal not woken up yet? I thought it was Joe who could sleep for a week."

Joe grinned. "While that's typically true, Sal takes his sleep very seriously. If he's really out, he can sleep through a marching band. That's why I don't know why Quinn was so paranoid about hearing the notifications going off. Sal could have his phone balanced on his forehead, constantly vibrating, and if he's in a deep enough sleep, it wouldn't make a shred of difference." I laughed.  "Think he'll sleep through the night like that? "

"Who knows?" Q glanced towards the window. We could all hear the rain pounding the glass pane. "Sounds like it's still pretty bad out there." 

"It's barely midnight..maybe it'll let up soon," I suggested. 

No sooner had the words left my mouth, when a giant flash of lightning cracked across the sky. I gaped open-mouthed at the window.

"You were saying?" Q teased.

"Shush." I stuck my tongue out at him.

Two seconds later, another bolt illuminated the sky. The bolt hit so close it washed Q's' entire living room in glowing light. It was only a split second, but it was enough to rouse Sal and Barbara from their slumber.

"What the-why is it raining doughnuts on my head?" Sal demanded. Q, Joe, and I all burst out laughing.

"We thought you might be a little peckish after your nap," Joe told him, "So we decided to help you out..seeing as how we're such good friends and all."

" Oh yeah, great friends," Sal replied, rolling his eyes. "Doughnuts on my head, really?"

"Well, we were gonna do grapes, but they kept rolling off," Q cracked. 

Sal opened his mouth to rely, but was cut off by Barbara's howls of laughter. We all turned towards her. She had her cell phone in hand and was giggling at something on the screen. 

"What's up?" I asked.

She was laughing too hard to answer. Instead, she passed her phone over to me, and I instantly saw the reason for the giggle fit. Joe, Q, and my identical Sal picture filled the screen, one after another. Sal caught a glance at the screen and quickly pulled his own phone out, groaning loudly once he saw the pictures on his own phone.

"Guys, really? All three of you?" He turned to me. "You're just as bad as these clowns, you know that?"

Q and I responded in one voice. "Don't call me clown, mustache."

"Hey guys,lookit, two hundred and thirty-six likes on my new profile picture!" Joe exclaimed slyly.

Q checked his. "Two hundred fifty-four on mine."

Now my interest was piqued. I grabbed my phone and checked. "Damn, two hundred and six on mine...I didn't even think that many people knew about y'all...I mean, not that you're not popular, but..wow."

"I hate you all." Sal mumbled. I could see he was trying to suppress a smile. He turned to Barbara, who was still engrossed in her phone. "What are you up to?" 

"Nothing," she replied, with a Cheshire Cat grin on her face. 

"Yeah, like I believe that," he teased. "Seriously, what are you doing?"

"Shh," she replied, "You'll find out in a second."

Sure enough, Sal's phone dinged again. He glanced down at it and groaned. "Aww, you too?"

He turned his phone toward the rest of us. "You've corrupted her." I glanced at the screen and burst out laughing. Barbara's profile picture was now identical to the rest of ours. Joe high fived her. "Nicely done." She laughed.

Sal smiled. "All of you suck, you know that?" He stood up and brushed crumbs off his lap.

"Hey,watch where you're spraying crumbs," Q told him.

"You act like you don't have the human Hoover here," Sal shot back, gesturing towards Joe.

"True..." 

Sal stretched. "Ugh. I think I need a shower."

"Go stand outside for a minute." Joe suggested.

"As tempting as that sounds, not exactly what I had in mind." Sal shot a pleading glance at Q. "Buddy, do you mind if I hop in your shower?"

"Nah, that's fine," Q told him. "You know where the towels are."

"...I'm gonna need clothes too," Sal mumbled. "I can't put doughnut clothes back on."

I snickered. Sal glanced over at me. "I'm sorry. Doughnut clothes just sounded hilarious." Sal smiled, and  I could tell he wasn't upset at my outburst.

"I have a bag of clothes I'm gonna drop off at Goodwill this weekend," Q told Sal. "You're welcome to anything in the bag."

"Thanks man. I'll be quick." Sal left the room. The rest of us looked at each other and burst out laughing. Joe grabbed his phone. "What say we get James involved in this too? I'm gonna send him the picture of doughnut boy and tell him to make it his profile picture."

"I can hear you!" Sal's voice came form the hallway.

I nudged Joe and whispered, "tell him to forward it to Emily too." Joe grinned. " You know, I think I will."