Perfect Impurrfections

Chapter 6

After Hours

                Crystal had to wait for the officer to open the back door of the car before she could get out.  Casey must have been watching from the window as he came rushing out her front door before she even had one foot slung out of the car.  The officer looked at him curiously as Casey frantically rushed to her side. 

                “I hope the rest of your evening gets better ma’am.” 

                “Thank you for bringing me home officer.”  He tipped his hat at her in response before getting back in the patrol car and driving away.  Crystal stood there; shell shocked as Casey looked her over running his hand over her sooty skin to see if she was hurt.  She looked at the front ground floor window of her house to see B.B. sitting on the window seat staring at her like a little furry creeper.

                “Are you okay?  What happened to you?  Why do you smell like a frat party at a bonfire?”  His last question caused her to lose it as she doubled over in laughter.  Casey stood beside her looking at her as if she had gone crazy.  The look on his face only caused her to laugh harder in response.  By the time she had settled down she had tears running from her eyes.  She wiped at her face as she tried to catch her breath.  Casey waited patiently until she was able to talk.  Knowing from past experiences that if he said or did anything while she was laughing it had the potential to make her laughter last longer.

                “Crap I needed that.”  She panted out feeling like she had just run a marathon.

                “Are you done?”  Crystal gave it a minute but when she no longer felt the giggles attacking her, she knew it was safe.

                “Done.”  Casey nodded in response before turning around and headed over to his place.

                “Night cap one hour.”  He called back to her bringing out a smile.  She rushed over to her front door.  Looking down at her muck covered shoes and panty hose she stood on her front porch taking them off before entering.  While it was funny tonight she wouldn’t be laughing tomorrow if she had to scrub the filth out of her cream-colored carpet.  Crystal left the items outside her door as she walked inside.  B.B. ran over to her to greet her home but when he came within smelling distance he stopped.  His pupils enlarged to round black circles that nearly engulfed his eyes.  His hair stood on end all down his back as he growled and hissed at her.  She glared down at him shaking her finger at the cat.

                “It would not be a good idea to attack me right now B.B., don’t even think about it.”  Her tone of voice meant business and it gave the cat pause before going on the aggressive again.  Being fed up with him she hissed back at him scaring him enough that he ran off to parts unknown.  She hoped he would stay out of her way long enough for her to get cleaned up to lessen any impending attacks coming her way.  Sighing she trudged up the staircase and headed to the bathroom.

                Forty-five minutes later Crystal felt like a new person.  She was muck free, smoke free, and smell free.  Coming into the bedroom she saw B.B. hunched up, puffed up, and walking sideways trying to attack her discarded slip and dress that were heaped on the floor.  Instead of getting mad at him for trying to destroy the garments, she found herself in agreement with him.  Decision made Crystal walked over and picked up the clothing.  Walking over to her vanity she dropped it into the small can there.  Tying the bag shut she marched downstairs with it B.B. following hot on her heels the whole way.  Heading to the fridge she grabbed a six pack of bottles out and went out the back door.  She made sure to reach up and hook the latch on the screen door so that B.B. could chase bugs crawling on it without popping the door open and scaring himself.  It had happened the first time he had played with the screen and it spooked him so bad that he hissed at the back door every time he entered the room.  He wouldn’t even get within 5 feet of it and Crystal had had to move his food dish and water into another room until he got over it.  B.B. could carry one hell of a grudge even if it was at an inanimate object.  His hate for the door burned for almost a year and it had driven her nuts the entire time.  She was not about to have a replay of that again.  Who knows how long it would take her fur baby to get over it this time?

                Crystal set her beer on the patio table next to Casey’s before heading to the trash can with her parcel.  Casey watched in silence as he took a pull from his bottle.  She had been so wrapped up in her task that she hadn’t even noticed the other occupant on her deck.  Turning back, she raised an eyebrow when she saw Anna sitting two chairs down from Casey.  Smiling and shaking her head she retraced her steps back and grabbed a cold one.  Popping the top, she took a long pull of her own grimacing at the bitter taste as it went down.    She sat down between her two friends glad that the other two guys lived across town and often missed out on her little debriefings.  It’s not that she didn’t like Casey’s friends but sometimes it really annoyed her to be around them.

                “I can’t wait to hear what happened this time.”  Anna bounced in her seat with anticipation as Crystal looked at her in shock.

                “How do you know anything happened?”  Anna snorted at her taking a drink of whatever fruity concoction she had in her glass.

                “You came home in a cop car, that pretty much says it all.”  Sighing in aggravation Crystal leaned her chair back propping her feet up on the deck railing like Casey.  Anna shook her head looking at the two of them before placing her glass on the table behind them.

                “One of these days one of you is going to fall backwards and bust your head open.”  Anna pointed out.

                “My money’s on Chris being the one to do it.”  Casey countered not missing a beat.

                “Ditto.”  Anna agreed drawing a vocal protest from Crystal.  It wasn’t a very convincing objection either since she too had to agree with them.  She was probably the clumsiest person anyone had ever met.  Her parents should have named her Grace instead because that was probably the only way she’d ever have any.  In truth it surprised her that her date had been the one to set the table on fire instead of her.  Shaking her head at the thought she dove into her tale leaving no detail out as she recapped her date for the evening.  By the time she was done Anna was laughing so hard she was in tears.  Casey at least made the effort to hold in his mirth, but his shoulders shook with the struggle.  Crystal rolled her eyes at him worried he might hurt himself if he didn’t just let it out.

                “You might as well get it out of your system, goodness knows I already did earlier.”  Crystal told him breaking his last resolve as booming laughter came rumbling out of him.  He was laughing so hard Casey had to put the legs of his chair down before he really did fall over in it.  Anna was laughing so hard at this point no noise came out of her.  Crystal couldn’t tell if her friend was hysterical or in pain as she wasn’t really catching her breath either.  Anna was doubled over holding her side as her face contorted oddly.  Crystal reached out and rubbed her back worried she had broken one of her friends.

                “Are you okay?  Anna you need to breath.”  She tried coaxing but Anna waved her off as she tried to pull herself back together before she passed out.  Once she had finally managed to breathe again, she turned sparkling eyes on Crystal.

                “You would think they would use flame retardant tablecloths if they had candles on them.”  She pointed out causing Crystal to roll her eyes.

                “You know what else wasn’t flame retardant?  Arnold.”  Crystal stated sending the three of them into another fit of laughter.  Heck if you couldn’t laugh at yourself then who could you laugh at.