Where Two Collide

Chapter Twenty-Three - Cat

Chapter Twenty-Three

Cat

I balled up a piece of paper and launched it at the rubbish basket in our room. It bounced off the side and landed on the floor. The basket was all but overflowing at this point, my failed attempts at creating the perfect final piece for my art program submission were all screwed up balls of paper. I set a new piece in front of me and leaned back to assess it, tapping the end of my pencil on my lips. "Ugh," I said finally, then launched my pencil across the room. It landed in between our beds.

Alice looked up from her laptop screen. She was sitting sideways in bed, her back against the wall and her feet hanging off the edge of the bed. "Don't bite my head off," she said, and I frowned at her over my shoulder. "But don't you think maybe you should take a break from whatever it is you're doing. You're clearly not in the right mind and are getting nowhere with it."

I get up and cross the room, flopping onto the bed beside her. The weight of her bed shifts as I rolled to face her. "Ugh," I repeat.

She booped me on the nose. "The trees will thank you."

I forced a smile. "Can we watch a movie? I need something to distract me."

She has a mischievous glint in her eye which makes me wish I hadn't asked. "Only if it's a romantic comedy."

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh." I rolled onto my back, staring up at the ceiling. "You know I hate lovely dovey stuff, can't we just watch a normal comedy. Or even better, an action movie."

She glared at me. "I will not have such filth shown on my laptop. It's a romantic comedy or nothing."

I continued to stare at the ceiling. There was an array of those glow in the dark stars stuck up there, there used to be loads but they'd fallen down over the years and now there was only about a quarter as much and they had huge gaps in between small clusters. Which, frankly, was probably more accurate than the perfectly spaced stars that originally decorated our ceiling. They didn't even really work anymore. Barely emitting any sort of glow, but sometimes, if the day had been one of those super bright and sunny days, we'd get a sort of green blur from those stars.

"Fine," I said giving in. "But no dying people please."

Alice's eyes glowed excitedly, and she begun to tap away at her laptop. "I have the perfect Meg Ryan movie."

I rolled my eyes and pulled myself up from her bed. "I'll pop some popcorn whilst you line it up."

In the kitchen I watched the microwave spinning the popcorn bag around on its plate. My mobile buzzed in my pocket. I checked it, a message from Addie.

Addie: I'm in the mood for a slice of Red Velvet, you in?

I typed back a quick, sorry I'm busy, and took the popcorn out of the microwave, dumping into a bowl.

Climbing on the Alice's bed, I placed the bowl between us. She immediately shoved her hand in the bowl and stuffed a fistful into her mouth. "You are such a pig," I laughed, popping a couple of pieces into my own mouth.

"I need my crunchies and munchies, besides," she said, sighing. "Rachel said that I looked like I lost a ton of weight so I think I can afford to put on a few pounds."

I threw her a look. "Tell her to mind her business next time, girls shouldn't call other girls out on their weight. They should know better."

Alice smiled but didn't say anything. She'd never disagree with me, I knew she knew I was right, but she had this strong sense of loyalty for her friends and would never actively be rude to them or about them. Even if they were assholes. Which they were.

My phone buzzed again, and when I glanced at the message, I dropped the phone on the bed like it had burnt me. The oh so subtle movement didn't get pas Alice.

"Are you and Travis in a fight?" she asked trying to sound casual.

"No not Travis," I said, still looking at my phone as if it might come alive and start trying to bite me. "A new friend. But it's not a fight," I clarified.

She gasped open mouthed at me. "You have another friend?"

I punched her lightly in the arm. "Wow, rude. Yes, I have another friend, though I'm not sure for how much longer at this rate."

She stuck her lip out in faux sadness at my attack and I gave her another light punch. "Why not, what did you do?"

"Why would you assume I did something?" I said, throwing her an incredulous look.

"Because it's you, duh!" she said. "You are the queen of self-sabotage."

I scoffed at that. I may not have had the best people skills, but I was proficient in keeping my life on track and heading in the right direction. Even when outsiders were trying desperately to distract me. "I absolutely did not do something," I mumbled. "She just keeps wanting to hang out and hasn't been taking my no's very well."

Alice closed her laptop screen and eyed me thoughtfully. "How many times have you turned her down?"

I counted slowly on my fingers. "Four times."

"Well that's where you're going wrong." She clapped her hands together, then held up three fingers. "If you want to not lose your new friend you need to follow the rule of three."

I grabbed the bowl of popcorn and putting it in my lap to try and keep Alice from eating more than her share. Alice tried to grab it back and we proceeded to have a tug of war with the bowl until popcorn flew all over the bed. "Go on," I said, placing the now empty bowl back on the bed.

"You are allowed to cancel plans with a friend twice in a row, but on the third time you must say yes, otherwise you aren't feeding your relationship and it will die," she declared. "Basically, if she's still around after four no's you are super lucky, but if you say no again you might be down to only one friend again."

I considered her rule of three carefully. If she was right, I'd not only potentially been killing my friendship with Addie, but with Travis too. I was busy trying to get my future the way I wanted it to be, but would it really be okay if I lost friendships along the way? "So what you're saying is I should go meet up with her now?"

Alice nodded. "Totally."

"What about our film," I said, somewhat panicked at the prospect of going outside and peopling. "What about me cancelling on you?"

"Oh that doesn't count," said Alice waving her hand at me. "I'm your twin, our relationship will never die, it is basically a succulent. It just needs watering a little occasionally to keep on trucking on."

I booped her on the nose, as she'd done with me, and jumped off the bed, sending popcorn flying.

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