The Unknown Horrors of Teenage Apartments

All they could see was the tail, twitching teasingly in the air. Playing this game for the past hour had nearly exhausted them; cat and mouse should not be for cats and humans.
“Do we really have to catch her?” Casey, not being a morning person, was already frustrated and getting snippy.
“Do you want her to get hurt?” Lizzy was peering up into those yellow orbs. They had been trying to get that kitten off the top of the refrigerator for forever. It wasn’t going too well.
Brittany and Jessie would be home any minute and they hated the kitten, hated cats in general. Being an all around animal person herself, Lizzy just didn’t understand it. How could you hate something so cute and innocent, albeit annoying at times. Frustration tugged a smile to her mouth; the smile most people knew was not a good smile. It spread almost wickedly across her face, she had seen an opening.
Looking conspiratorially at Casey, she wagged her finger towards him, bringing him closer.
As Casey heard the plans, his face spread just a wide and just as wicked as he thought longingly for the next minute. Lizzy dashed forward, causing Rafiki to dodge right. Casey pushed her back left, Rafiki retreats to the left. Lizzy pushes forward to catch the dodging kitten. The front door opens the kitten bolts and flees right between her legs causing a somersault in a vain attempt to block the couch.
The smug eyes flowed from the darkness with a sheen of vanity; the battle was won for now. The kitten had claimed her freedom for the moment.

Unable to save the kitten, Lizzy and Casey turned to get a tongue lashing of their own. A small squeak uttered from her lips, as she burst towards the unexpected familiar face.
Jean Bawn, only slightly taller than Lizzy, was not totally aware of her attacker. With in a few seconds, the six feet of the living room floor was crossed, it was now Jean’s turn to squeal as Lizzy tackled her best friend in a loving, sloppy embrace.
They had met in high school, hated each other for a little while, and finally decided to become friends. Neither of them knew why their hatred had changed to love, Lizzy believed it had a little bit to do with fate and a common enemy that had united them so completely.
Jean was slightly simpler than Lizzy, roughly the same height, with a smaller frame and a slighter build. Her longer darker hair, that was nearly always frizzy when it was down, was pulled tightly into a bun or pony tail, the angle made it hard to tell. Her chestnut brown eyes contained only one of her many and easily changing moods and emotions at a time. She wore little to no make up and had a paler complexion. Her clothing told them both that she had just gotten off work, doing the song and dance for the man, at the pet store she loved.
Their greetings were joyous, even though it was only yesterday that they last saw each other, welcomed like long lost friends. It was ten o’clock in the morning. Lizzy had to leave for work in an hour and Jean had matters of business to discuss. It was time, they had all been talking of moving in together for a year, the little twists and turns of their lives had made it impossible until now.
“So did you speak to your parents?” hope beamed in Lizzy’s eyes as she asked the important question. The room got quiet as Casey and Jean turned their attention to Lizzy.
“Actually, I did. They agreed that moving out would be a great idea. They even offered to pay for it if I went back to school.” Jean replied enthusiastically. She had stopped going to school after high school. College bored her and she didn’t know where she wanted to go with her life. She had moved from joining the Marine Corps to moving to Arkansas to moving back. Her journeys had left her weak of spirit, even though she would never admit it. “I just have to register for spring semester and I will be able to get an apartment with you!”
The apartment search would begin that night, and with the plans they set into motion, they all felt their spirit’s lifted sitting there talking, agreeing to meet again later in the evening.

It was a week later. Lizzy sat quietly at her desk working, if not diligently to complete her assignment. She had so much to do and so little time. Her deadline was coming up in the next day or so, and her finger flew across the keyboard with an accuracy that surprised even herself. I have improved so much in the single year I have been here. I run my own department. It still amazes me. Her thoughts, though a little vain, boosted her ego and made her work faster, work harder, and be better at the task at hand.
It was at that moment, a small feeling crawled into the pit of her stomach. A shudder spread from the entry point in the depths of her stomach up and into the rest of her body. Glancing up looking for the cause of the shudder, her attention moved from her work, pinpointing the feeling and she started analyzing it.
It was then that the small red cell phone, sitting on the oak desk next to her, started vibrating in small, slow circles, as if to say “Pay me attention now!!!”
“Casey, what’s up?” She loved it when he called and she enjoyed hearing the voice that she almost worshiped.
“Lizzy. I am taking Rafiki to the hospital.” His voice was choked with pain; it broke and cracked with the efforts of speaking.
“What happened is she ok baby?” Lizzy jumped on the information. Her mind flashing to the night before, it was just last night we were laying there. They had to play the game, catch the kitten. It was her favorite game, their laughter at Rafiki’s antics flashed through her mind in a second.
“The neighbor’s lab got in the house, he tore through the house so quickly that I didn’t even have time to react, I don’t know what to do.” She could tell he was holding back tears. Her heart went out to his, touching the center trying to comfort his pain.
“How did the lab get in? What is wrong with Rafiki? How badly is she hurt? How did he hurt her?” concern laced her voice, she spoke with urgency and care. This could break him. God, please don’t let this hurt him badly.
“I don’t know how he got in, but he tore through the house like a hell hound. She was sitting on the couch with me. Spooked, she tried to streak underneath the couch, he blocked her was so she turned tail and ran to the bedroom. They danced to a horrible tune, I charged after them trying to catch that mongrel. I had just gotten tossed out of our room; I lost my balance, when I heard a crash.” His voice was shaking, he sounded breathless as he retold an obvious nightmare of his reality.
“What broke?” Lizzy waited on baited breath. Pain was already welling in her chest. She loved that kitten, she loved Casey, and knowing that both of them were hurting hurt her worse than she expected it to.
“We think it’s her spine. She can’t move and she can barely lift her head. That thing ran into my guitar cases, knocking them over. The coffin case with my fender fell on her. It had to be the heaviest thing in the room, didn’t it? It’s just my luck.” He broke then, she could see the tears he sobbed through the phone. She almost got up right then and drove with the fury of angel’s wings to him.
“Do you want me to come there?” She begged him silently to let her come save him.
“No Jean is on her way to help me do this.”
“Do what?” The worry in her mind intensified as she contemplated that horrors going through his mind. She had been here a year or so ago. Her head spun with the pain, and she buried that box one more time. This was Casey’s time to grieve, not hers.
“I am going to put her down. I can’t bear to see her like this; it’s not right to her. The vet just verified that her back is broken and it can’t be repaired, not that I have the money to do it anyways.”
She broke then and cried with him, cried for him. It wasn’t fair that the innocent died without really getting to taste life fully. Her heart screamed from the pain that engulfed her soul. It consumed her fully and moved on into her surroundings to gather the world around her wrapping her entire being in grief.
All of the boxes flew open in that one moment, the pain she had hidden, buried to be ignored for years, exploded behind her closed eyes. The colors of it intensified as she tried to open her eyes, reaching and grasping for the raging torrents that she was now swimming threw begging to break the surface.
Finally her lungs caught air, the pressure resided and she picked up the phone she had dropped when he hung up. How could this be happening? He needs me and won’t let me come. I don’t know what to do. She called him back, but it was finished.
Jean and Casey had taken her little broken body to the riverside and buried her there. Lizzy requested they come up to her work in order for her to comfort her baby. She turned back to her computer, and her fingers started to fly faster than they ever had. She would fix this, and for the first time she ignored her work deliberately focusing on the new task at hand, healing the love of her life.

It took them about twenty minutes, by then she had it all figured out. She couldn’t let him hurt like this. The hole in his heart had to filled as soon as possible, logic didn’t apply here. This will probably make him mad, or hurt him more. It had the possibility to heal him, so it was worth the shot.
Pulling out the flash of red again, her fingers started pushing the button hiding a deep secret. Her research had proven valuable, they moved with the plan tonight.
Jean wanted this; she wanted it almost as bad as Lizzy did, but for completely different reasons. The plan was good; it required all of them to play their parts. It didn’t help that she had a slightly secret ulterior motive, but that didn’t make the intentions behind her actions any less noble than Lizzy’s.

Their meeting was quick lived. He held her and she held him. The tears soaked the clothes they wore, for what. For innocence, for beauty, and for the lack of justice there was in death.
He told her how Rafiki went and how he held her in those last precious moments. She kissed him, requested trust, and said, “I love you, it will be ok. Trust me.” Jean met her gaze when she said this. Both young women understood.