Cuddle Application

3 - Fran's and Ex-Friends

"Reality continues to ruin my life."

~Bill Watterson

➳♀♁➳

I shoot up from the swivel chair, brain hammering against my skull as a reminder of last night. Walking backward and away from the computer, my knees knocked against the chair. It rolled, quick and unstable, towards the beanbag where the cat was sitting. Mr. Snubs bolted away from the chair, hissing, the orange-brown hair on his neck shooting high. He all but tumbled out of the bedroom door and into the long hallway leading to the stairs. I started to follow him.

"I don't want any of this," I said. "Shut down the website. Delete the account."

Nothing good could come from an early morning, Jack Daniels infused Cuddle Account. I stopped in the doorway, a hand on the white, wooden door frame to steady myself, and looked at my friends. Cora was staring at me, the definition of collected, trying to smother a laugh, and Lina was glancing between me and the computer, presumably trying to decide what to do.

Of course it was me in this situation. While drunk, Cora never made terrible decisions. She just laughed a lot, red-faced and tongue-tied. And Lina - well, Lina just talked and talked, saying anything that came to mind.

I was the one who made bad decisions. Another reason to stop drinking.

"Lina," I said again. "This is just a recipe for disaster - close it." Her fiery red hair looked as fierce as I felt, and even more violent still with the sunlight from the open window shining on the curls. A bird chirped from outside, and the sound irritated my head. I closed my eyes for a brief moment.

"But," Lina started to say suddenly, "but don't you want to see this guy - this cuddle buddy?" Her eyes looked so hopeful, but it wasn't hard to crush the ever-growing dreams that flourished behind her eyes.

"No."

Cora sighed. "You're being stupid. Last night, your drunk ass made this lame account, and now you don't even want to see what's on it?" She leaned towards me, hope in her eyes.

I paused, thinking of what I could have said on my profile. I was probably too drunk to comprehend anything, so none of the information probably made a lick of sense anyway.

"No," I answered. "And I don't care about the guy, okay, I have Josh."

Josh. I remembered who he was suddenly.

Cora and Lina both rolled their eyes at this, and I simply ignored their glares.

Josh was my boyfriend-but-not-boyfriend. We'd met sophomore year of high school, both part of the same big group of friends. I liked him from the start, but it wasn't until I grew boobs that he finally started liking me back. Cora and Lina thought he was stubborn and a jerk, but he was different when it was just us two - always kind and gentlemanly.

Josh was my not-boyfriend because neither of us wanted to put a label on it, whatever "it" was that we had, but I liked Josh, maybe even loved him. I definitely didn't need some stupid cuddle application to come in and ruin what we had.

"Josh treats you like shit, Sky," Cora grumbled, looking down towards the floor. Lina stared at her open-mouthed. Cora despised Josh, but Lina tolerated him because she knew how much I liked him. The few fights Cora and I had usually revolved around Josh, and Lina was always stuck in the middle.

"Cora-" she started, but with that, I turned from the room, padded angrily down the stairs, and pushed outside towards the car.

As I walked, I could hear them arguing about something before one of them laughed. I waited to hear my friends come down the stairs, but they never did. Huffing, I advanced towards the car in the driveway. Somewhere along the way, I'd grabbed my backpack, which was now looped across my back. The morning air was brisk and dewy, the signs of upcoming summer becoming evident in the Oregon landscapes. The bird kept chirping, and I want to scream at it. I was in no mood for noises or arguments.