Perfect Impurrfections

Chapter 13

Things You Can’t Unsee

                Crystal found herself hiding out in the bathroom with Anna under the pretense of possibly needing assistance.  Much to her horror her grandfather hadn’t understood why Casey didn’t just stay in there and help her.  He was still under the impression that the two of them were dating and no amount of explaining their relationship would change the old guys mind.  Casey volunteered to settle him into her downstairs guestroom while Anna brought her some clothes she could wear to the doctor’s office to have her ankle looked at.  She had thought it would look better in the morning and probably would have if she hadn’t had a twenty-pound hair ball on it through the night.  It could have had more to do with all the walking she did on it after hurting it, but she was still going to blame B.B. anyway. 

                Anna had burst into laughter when she had come in with Crystal’s clothes.  She was leaning against the sink yucking it up while Crystal struggled to change her lower half without further damaging herself.  Crystal glared at her as she had just managed to get her pajama pants off without falling face first off the toilet.  You would think doing yoga would allow for some kind of flexibility but apparently the acrobatics of dressing on the toilet without bending one’s leg required a different skill set.  She was left huffing while holding her clean bottoms not really wanting to try and get them on by herself.

                “Are you done yet; I could really use some help with this.”  She asked annoyed waving the cloth at her friend.

                “Sorry, you have to admit it was pretty damn funny.”  Anna pointed out not looking repentant in the least for laughing at her.

                “Maybe in a year I’ll find it as comical as you do.”  Crystal gritted out doubting she would ever find what her grandfather did hysterical.  She knew she shouldn’t feel the way she did.  It had just been Casey after all, but she couldn’t help feeling low at the moment especially after seeing his date last night.  It was the story of her life.  Need help moving a fridge call Crystal she can help.  Need a hot date call anyone else who was sexy, and feminine, and everything Crystal wasn’t.  If her name was in a bathroom stall with the words call for a good time it usually meant for a game of pick up or a good drinking buddy.  Unless you were in the women’s bathroom which was a whole other weirdness altogether.  She had never swung that way and the funny thing was that it was usually straight girls that wrote it.  That had always confounded her.  While she wasn’t the epitome of cute girl next door Crystal didn’t think she looked masculine either.  Then again, thinking back to Arnold maybe she wasn’t the best judge of that.  Perhaps she should have hung in there on her date last night.  He hadn’t been bad looking and she supposed she could have eventually overlooked his need to control everything.  At least he had been interested enough to have dinner with her.  Crystal sighed dejectedly wondering if she had let her one chance at a married life go last night.

                “It wasn’t that bad you know.  It’s not like Casey hasn’t seen you looking worse than that either.  Don’t act like the world is coming to an end just because you’re a little embarrassed.”  Anna pep talked her, misunderstanding what had been going on in her head.

                “I’m never going to find someone to marry.  Maybe I should have given David the benefit of the doubt and just sucked it up last night.”  Anna looked at her friend in stunned shock for a moment before smacking her on the arm.

                “You’re a blind i***t you know that?”  Surprised Crystal rubbed her arm where a red mark was forming from the force of Anna’s slap.  She stared at her friend as Anna scowled at her with her hands on her hips.  Crystal shook her head and reached down to put her good leg inside the sweats that Anna had already put her injured leg into.  Giving up the argument Crystal stood on her good leg to pull her pants up.  Just because she half mooned everyone earlier didn’t mean she was in a hurry to do so again at least not sober.  And even Crystal was smart enough to know being drunk with a bum leg was a good way to end up in the ER for other injuries.  Before she could try and hobble her way out of the bathroom Anna had the door open and was yelling for Casey.  He must have been waiting close enough that when Anna walked out the door he was walking in the door.  He reached down to pick her up, but she moved to the side looking at him with worry.

                “If you give me a hand I can hobble out to the car.”

                “That’s ridiculous and will take longer.”

                “Casey you’re going to hurt yourself picking me up all the time.”  Crystal chided him landing a scowl across his face as he looked at her.

                “Either you’re insinuating that I’m not strong enough to carry you or that you weigh a ton.  Neither is true so stop being so damn stubborn about this.”  He growled at her.  Before she could argue back, he had her up in his arms causing her to squeal by the sudden move.  Crystal lifted her arms but hesitated not knowing what to do with them.  If it were a guy she was romantically involved with she would have just wrapped them around their neck and nuzzled in, but this was one of her best friends.  Besides, they had gotten way closer than most friends do earlier, which also made this more than a little bit awkward for her.  She ended up holding on to his shoulders as one would during a middle school slow dance.  She tried to keep space between her arms and his chest while not making eye contact.  Shaking his head, he chuckled at her.  B.B. walked into the path of the hallway causing Casey to smirk as an idea popped into his head.  Pretending to stumble slightly over the cat who played along with his skit perfectly, he hiked Crystal up a bit under pretense of not wanting to drop her.  In turn her arms went around his neck squeezing tight as a reaction to her fear.  She chastised her cat as Casey grinned at her.  With as tight as he was holding her now, she had no way of backing away again.  Casey made a mental note to pick up a can of sardines for B.B. the next time he was over. 

                Crystal’s grandpa opened the door for the pair as he beamed a smile from ear to ear.  Crystal glared at the old fart still not completely forgiving him for earlier.  When she looked away, he wiggled his bushy white brows at Casey earning an award-winning smile in return.  Anna shook her head at the lot of them wondering when it was all going to work itself out.  At the same time that they exited Crystal’s townhouse, the door to Casey’s townhouse opened.  The woman she had seen him with last night exited his place wearing the skimpy dress she had on last night with one of Casey’s button up shirts over top.  Not just any button up either, but one that Crystal had bought him for his last birthday.  She narrowed her eyes at the woman as she sauntered her way over to them. 

                “Good morning stud.”  The woman rasped out as if she had a sore throat this morning.  Leaning up she ignored the fact that Crystal was in his arms and gave him a lingering peck on his cheek.  Crystal wanted to tell the woman to get her damn boobs off of her but instead ended up yelping as the woman bumped her injured leg while trying to get closer to Casey.

                “Are you okay?”  Casey asked in concern glancing down at her leg.

                “Peachy.”  Crystal bit back sarcastically as the woman sneered nastily at her.  When Casey’s attention turned back to the woman, she made sure to have a look of pure concern.

                “I’m so sorry.  I didn’t see where you were hurt.  I just knew that Casey had to do a raincheck on breakfast this morning to help out his friend.  I hope you get to feeling better.  Call me later.”  The last thing was directed at Casey as she batted her eyelashes at him in what Crystal assumed she thought was alluring.  She snorted in disgust as the woman swayed her hips putting as much emphasis as she could on her backside.  Casey looked down at her in slight confusion.  Crystal had never had a problem with him dating women before so he couldn’t fathom what her problem was.  He chalked it up to the fact that she was hurting even if he wanted it to mean more.