“Good thing I’ll be here to help you both semesters,” I said,elbowing her side.
“Why don’t you just do it for me?” she whined.
“Because then you wouldn’t learn, Kitty Bird.”
“I don’t want to learn. I want to write comedy. This is a means to an end.”
“Alright, let’s break it down.”
We fell into our familiar rhythm of how we work together. Kitty was prone to skipping steps and jumping to the end, so I had to help her slow down. She berated me the whole time like she always has. In a cute, friendly way. It felt nice to have a moment of normalcy with her. The last time we spent extended time together, Maman was dying. And over the weekend she’d been . . . unwell. We couldn’t finish her homework before the waffle shop closed.
“Finish at my place? It’s on your way back,” I said. “Then I can walk you home.”
“I can probably finish on my own. It’s out of your way. I’ll be okay.”
I picked up her backpack for her. “It really wasn’t a question, Kitty. Let’s go finish at my house.”
“Fine.” She shoved the last piece of waffle in her mouth vengefully.
“I was saving that for you anyway,” I pointed out.
As we walked, she caught me up on some of the high school gossip from people I’d remember. It was so nice to hear her voice again and be close to her. I had forgotten how her eyes lit up when she told stories, or how she watched me when I talked. Being back with Kitty was comfortable in a way I hadn’t expected. Time had passed between us and there were things we didn’t know about each other, but it still felt easy. I was grateful for that kind of friendship.
When we got in, I was still somehow starving. Practice had been a tough one earlier that day, and I still didn’t feel caught up on calories. I dug through the pantry and fridge.
“Nothing looks good,” I complained as I munched on a cheese stick.
“Hang on. Move,” Kitty said, pushing me out of the way. She stacked ingredients on the counter. “Where’s your candy?”
“What candy?”
“You’re telling me you don’t have candy or chocolate stashed anywhere around here?”
Sheepishly, I pointed to a drawer. Kitty opened it and gasped.
“You hockey boys eat this much junk? I’m telling your coach!” She fished around in the drawer. “Aha!”
She unearthed a bag of M&Ms and started mixing things up, turning on the oven.
“What are you making?”
“You’ll see,” she said, turning on the oven. We chatted while she mixed up what appeared to be M&M cookies. Colton and Mikey dropped into the kitchen, back from the hockey house party.
“Smells good,” Mikey said. “What the fuck, are those my M&Ms?”
“I’ll get you new ones,” I said.
“And I’ll share the cookies,” Kitty crooned.
“I can’t believe you let the freshman eat my M&Ms,” Mikey grumbled.
“The freshman again, huh, Frenchie? I see our guest of honor is feeling better,” Colton said, looking amused. I glared at him.
Kitty took it in stride. “I guess we must have met the other night when I was under the weather,” she said gracefully. “I’m Kitty.”
“Oh, I know,” Colton said. “I’m wondering if you two have made love yet.”
Kitty looked at me, mortified. “You told him?”
