COWBOY LIKE ME

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Ravi!

"Huh," Cara said, head through the open window. "Nao, come here."

She pointed out Pip's window at the roof. At Pip, covered by a blanket, snuggled into Ravi's side.

"Um," Naomi mumbled into the snowy morning breeze, eyebrows creased. And that was all she had to say.

"Do you think they're cold?" Cara asked, her mind avoiding what Naomi's was being consumed by. "I mean, they look like they're freezing."

The truth was, Pip and Ravi hadn't been outside long. Though they were covered in snow now, they had only been outside for forty minutes.

The night before, after Ravi had re-emerged from under Pip's skirt, they had snuck back inside.

- - - 12:34 A.M.

Shh, Pip had whispered to him, stumbling through the window. Only of course, he was there to catch her. Okay, come on.

Ravi had watched Pip scoop up her pajamas in a bundle in her arms. Yours - he kept a pair of pajamas at Pip's house, nowadays - are in the bottom drawer.

But your bottom drawer is - Ravi itched that invisible scratch on the back of his neck.

I know what my bottom drawer is, Ravi.

Ravi looked very amused. Pip did not.

Pip was coming down from two highs, then. One clouding her mind, the one that left her legs shaking, and one that she'd forgotten about by then, born from a walk with her best friend.

Together, Pip and Ravi had snuck into the bathroom, avoiding the floorboards that creaked - they had memorized them.

He watched her peel her sweater from her chest and over her head. Unzip her skirt and slip it down her legs.

She let his eyes trail her frame for five seconds. She watched him take careful note of the red satin bra she was wearing. She knew what he was thinking before he even said it.

Keeping the holiday theme alive in your undergarments, huh?

She threw her skirt at him with a snicker. Shut up.

It was then that she pulled her Christmas pajama pants over her thighs, her black tank-top over her chest, her Christmas sweater back on over the top.

God, you're adorable, he whispered, his lips suddenly against hers again. She blushed and for a second, she melted into it, but she pushed him away just as quick as she melted.

No, Ravi.

And that no was firm. A final answer. She laughed as she slipped out of the bathroom, leaving Ravi to change, while she hurried to scavenge the fridge for beer.

Girls just wanna have fun, Ravi! She said when he appeared behind her, asking what she was doing. She handed him a beer and carefully, they shuffled back up the stairs, hand in hand, and drank the night away on the roof.

They were only out there for an hour, really, before Pip drank her own beer and the remaining half of Ravi's, resulting in the inevitable — she passed out.

Ravi hadn't been sure if it was because she was that drunk or if it was because she was that tired, but either way, for just a moment, he let her lay there; curled against his side, head on his chest, breathing in time with him. He pet her hair for that short moment, before he lifted her into those strong arms, and he carried her to her bed.

Her eyes had flickered, then, grasping at the sleeve of his shirt and pulling him ever-so-gently. One last bit of ditzy consciousness.

He had sighed, because as much as he wanted to crawl into bed with her and hold her all night long, he couldn't. He was supposed to be asleep with Connor and Jamie in the guest-room downstairs. Not here.

He pulled away from her grasp and he admired her for a moment. Her subtle beauty. The way she looked so peaceful, sleeping there. How she had grown comfortable enough to take off her makeup before she fell asleep in his arms each night. One more sigh as Ravi turned on his feet and headed downstairs for the night.

Ravi was tucked into his sleeping bag, back against the futon in the guest room, by 1:53 A.M.

And at the same time, Pip was having a nightmare. Thrashing against her down comforter, dreaming of ghosts and monsters she hadn't met yet.

8:32 A.M. - - -

"Do you see how red Pip's nose is? I'm going to wake them up," Cara decided, beginning to haul herself out the window, when Naomi grabbed the sleeve of her hoodie.

"Cara, stop for a second," she said, waiting for her sister to turn and look at her. "Do you see them? Why are our childhood best friends snuggling each other?"

Cara snorted — obviously, she knew more than Naomi. "Pip snuggles, Naomi. Especially when she's -" Cara coughed once. "High. It's not unusual for her. They're going to wake up and laugh about it, I guarantee."

She pulled herself the rest of the way out of the window and carefully tip-toed to the lump of Pip and Ravi.

She kneeled, and gently, she shook them both awake. It took a moment, Pip blinking back to life, small snowflakes clinging to her eyelashes. "Wh-...?"

"Why are you asleep on the roof?" Cara asked with a laugh, pointing the question mostly at Ravi as he woke.

"We've only been out here for forty minutes," he shrugged, sitting up. "Pip was bored, you guys were asleep, so she came and got me to hang out with her. I was already awake, then. I guess we fell asleep out here."

Somehow, that was the truth in it's entirety.

Well, maybe not entirety. Maybe there had been a reason Pip had fallen back asleep, and maybe it had something to do with Ravi and his fingers.

Pip blushed at the thought of it, giggling as she stood up. "I'm going to take a shower, guys." She told them with one subtly quick glance at Ravi before she slipped back in through her window.