Chemicals Keeping Us Together

Timidly, Rae knocked on the door, her hip holding the screen from slamming on her backside. A crisp cold wind bit at her neck and she immediately regretted not wearing a scarf or something a little more fashionably warm on top of her sweater; her tights did no justice in keeping her body temperature high, and in a fit of actual thought, she realized that her whole outfit provided no actual coverage.

"I'm a fucking idiot," Rae muttered, her brown bangs swinging underneath the lenses of her glasses as she shook her head at herself. It was a bad habit, self-berating, that she was trying to work on and so far failing at.

"I could agree, but I don't know why," a voice said in her ear. Rae jumped, accidentally slamming her head onto the screen, bumping her face on the metal frame. Celeste let out a laugh of concern and mild amusement and instinctively reached out to grab for her friend. "Ohmigod, are you okay?"

"I'm okay, I'm okay!" Rae laughed, her hands on her face in embarrassment, praying that the door would open. Celeste took her friend in her arms and began to pat down her hair, rubbing down the brown waves that had grown due to always wearing it in a pony tail. They stood like that in the cold, Celeste creating knots in Rae's hair, for several seconds until the front door finally opened, revealing a small blonde girl with her hair in a freshly-showered school boy part down the front and threadbare jeans that fit snug at her hips.

All three of them exchanged glances before Rae and Celeste ran at the blonde, the screen door slamming hard behind them as they tackled her on to the back of the couch, nearly flipping over in the process. Screams of joy rang in the air. It was beginning to feel a lot like the holidays.

~*~*~*~*~

Sitting around the living room, Celeste and Rae took their usual spots, Celeste on the couch, Rae on the floor, as the blonde paced between the living room and kitchen with a cup of tea for Celeste and a glass of orange juice for the giant grown-child Rae.

"Andy, I'm so glad we're together right now," Celeste took the cup from the blonde, who had since pulled on a black and red stripped hoodie and a Sublime snapback until her hair dried. Andy smiled as Rae thanked her too many times for the fairy cup and ruffled up her hair.

"I am, too. I actually couldn't imagine spending this Christmas break without you two."

Rae looked down at her drink and smiled to herself. "I thought we would be spending it apart, to be honest."

Celeste thunked her tea cup against the t.v dinner stand and Andy scoffed, gingerly kneeing the brunette in the back of her head.

"You dumb butthole, of course we would. It's the first time..."

"It's not the first time we've spent so long apart, but it's the first time we've...It's a first, okay?" Celeste cut off Andy, finding herself on the floor taking Rae's hands in her own. Andy put her chin on top of Celeste's dark red hair and they both smiled at their God-forsakenly macabre best friend whose eyes were hidden by her smile.

"Okay."

~*~*~*~*~

All three of them sat together in a triangle, their knees touching, Rae sipping from her glass of orange juice, Celeste blowing on her tea to cool it. Andy chugged back a canned tea and leaned back on her palms.

"Guys, we're adults," she said, tossing her head back and looking at the blackened screen of the t.v. Her snapback fell to the ground, and she sighed as if her soul were on fire. Rae burped, excused herself, and wiped her mouth with the too long sleeve of her sweater which the girls had deemed her "Spongebob Sweater" because the 'best time to wear a stripped sweater is all the time'. Celeste laughed into her tea cup.

"Shit, we need adult-ier adults."

"Shit, we need to smoke," Andy said, following her snapback's style and laying flat on her back on the ground, making carpet angels with her arms. A collective silence formed over the girls as the thought wandered through each brain, finally settling in the air with a firm nod from each of them. Celeste, in her boots and skinny jeans, stood first, grabbing her peacoat from the back of the couch. She tucked the sleeves of her sweater into the armholes and began to button to the top before she looked down at her best friend's, still lazing around on the floor. Andy had stopped making carpet angels and had rolled over onto her belly, picking lint from the fabric, and Rae was taking her sweet time finishing the end of her drink.

"I could use some alcohol," she said, finally finishing the orange juice.

Celeste pulled the brunette up by her collar and half threw her out the back door.

"That's not what tonight is for, you idiot! It's Christmas, we're going to blaze it and praise it!"

Andy followed suite, laughing out, "We still have a week until Jesus' b-day."

The glass door slid shut, keeping the cold from seeping in to the house.