The thought occurred to me every time I had company over that we should pick up after ourselves. Then we wouldn't have to clean up so much the day before people came over. But still. We didn't pick up after ourselves – we never did, even though we swore up and down that we were gonna get into that habit – so now I was stuck cleaning pretty much the entire house in a day. Or at least the parts of it that Jessie might see. I didn't bother touching either of the bedrooms.

Neither of the animals were helping in the slightest. Buddy kept dragging his toys out of the box we kept them in and leaving them on the floor. Rainy kept climbing into the dryer – a place she knew she wasn't supposed to be, and still insisted upon getting into. I cursed them in two different languages before locking the dog in the backyard and the cat in my housemate's bedroom. They pitched a fit over it, but I didn't care.

"Thomas, why are all the animals insane?" I inquired tiredly when he'd gotten back.

He laughed, grinning impishly at me. Thomas didn't look too different from how he looked in high school; he still had a sheepdog-looking hair style, he still wore brand-name clothes, and he was still gay beyond belief. The only difference was his newfound love for boots. I think he got that from hanging around me too much. "Because you brought them home," he informed me, tossing his slingbag onto a chair and flopping next to me on the couch.

"I don't see what that has to do with anything," I remarked with a frown. I would have scooted over to give him more room to sit, but I had the big German Shepherd curled up behind me, so I couldn't really move. "And furthermore, you are the one who went out and got the cat."

"Well, because they live with you, then," Thomas corrected himself, giving my knee a light shove. I shoved him back with my foot.

"I still don't see what that has to do with anything. Start making sense!" I ordered him. I was sure it was going to lead to a joke at my expense, but whatever. If I got offended at that, I wouldn't have agreed to co-own the house; he made them on just about a daily basis. But I didn't care; I gave as good as I got. Often better.

"They say insanity is contagious." I kicked him a second time. See, I knew he was about to make fun of me. "Why are you kicking me?" Thomas whined, holding his side as though he were actually in pain.

"You had it coming. If you weren't gonna get kicked by me, then someone else woulda done it."

"Someone's kinda pissy," he noted in a mumble, looking pitifully over at me. Obviously he was under the impression that I was going to be sympathetic if he acted pitiful. He was sadly mistaken.

"Yeah, well, I'm about to have an ex-girlfriend coming over here tomorrow, and they kept messing the place up when I was cleaning," I reminded him, motioning at our pets. I didn't bother elaborating on the 'ex-girlfriend' bit; he'd known about the piano lesson deal since the day I made it. "And did you have any idea how messy the house was?"

"Very. We should hire a cleaning service to do that for us," Thomas sighed, shaking his head. Neither of us had ever been particularly clean or organized, even living with our parents (or alone in my case). Now that we were sharing a house, we cared even less. It usually didn't matter, since we rarely had company, but it was a pain in the ass to clean up when we did.

"You're in charge of paying for that," I snorted, brushing my hair out of my eyes. I leaned back to half-lay on Buddy. The dog looked up at me and went back to sleep. Such a lazy dog.

"No fair! I'm being paid minimum wage!"

"That is such a lie. You pay half the payments on this place." Just like I did. That had been the agreement we'd made; we split the payments on the house and utilities down more or less equally. So I felt no sympathy for him when he whined about making minimum wage. We both knew he made more than that.

"Barely," he grumbled, pouting.

"Shut up." And then, attempting to get the subject off finances, I inquired, "How'd your date with Steve go?"

That totally worked. He was instantly off relaying all the details of his date with his usual over-the-top flamboyancy. I just nodded and let him ramble, only half listening to his story. It amazed me that he could honestly be this cheerful about, well... anything. Maybe it was just because I was so cynical, but his pep was honestly just obnoxious at times. Thankfully, I was on a different sleep schedule than he was, so I didn't have to deal with his pep for too long any given day.

"Speaking of dates..." My eyes snapped up to him, warning, and he winked at me. "How'd your get-together with Jessie go?"

"Damn good question," I allowed, rubbing my eye under my glasses. "It wasn't terrible, all things considering. Could have gone a hell of a whole lot better, though."

"How so?"

I began ticking points off on my fingers. "It turns out trying to be 'just friends' with someone is easier said than done; I don't have the faintest idea of how to do that just yet." It was true; my senior year with Jessie had either been total opposition or starry-eyed lovers. Finding a balance of friendly and not-too-friendly with one conversation was hard. "Second, I was too nervous half the time to come up with anything not totally retarded to say." And why shouldn't I have been nervous? Two years was a damn long time. I wasn't sure how or how much she'd changed. Hell, I still wasn't sure of that. I was just glad we'd managed some conversation, as opposed to the heavy silences I'd been expecting. "Third, how the hell would you feel if you met up with someone you're pretty sure you're still in love with only to have them go, 'oh, hey, by the way, I'm straight and taken now, so your chances with me are pretty much fucked.' We'd been talking just fine before that, but it was so fucking awkward after it." I sighed wearily, reaching behind me to scratch Buddy's ears for him.

"She didn't actually say that, did she?" Thomas inquired curiously. I gave him another well-deserved shove with my foot.

"Are you seriously this fucked in the head?" I demanded, raising a brow at him. "No, she didn't say it like that. But she was using it as an excuse to not see me, which is worse. 'Why won't you let me help you with something you just said you needed help with?' 'Oh, I'm busy with college and my boyfriend.'" I made a frustrated noise, but didn't say anything else.

"Wow, you're seriously worked up about this," he noted, surprised. I'd been able to more or less taper off the strong emotions the little redhead stirred in me before now. But now he'd gotten me talking about it, so it was harder to keep my emotion in check.

"No shit, Sherlock," I muttered, folding my arms over my stomach. I absently ran the pad of my thumb over the pale scars that ran over my right arm. It had become something of a habit since I'd noticed that the feeling was mostly deadened where my scars were.

"What are you gonna do?" he inquired curiously, turning to face me.

I made a random waving gesture with my hand before letting it dangle off the edge of the couch. A light sting informed me that the kitten was attacking my fingers. "I dunno," I admitted tiredly, wiggling my fingers to tease Rainy. She swatted at my hand again. "I guess nothing. I mean... it's been two years. I don't wanna chase her off or anything 'cause I can't act right. I reckon I'll just be her friend. And, if it turns out she wants to be something more later on... that'll be great." I shrugged again, putting my slightly-cat-scratched hand on my stomach. Then I winced a little when the kitten jumped onto me, her front paws landing on my kidney. I picked her up with one hand. "But... I'm not gonna do anything unless she does," I finished, cuddling the kitten to my breast.

"How gentlemanly of you," Thomas teased.

I frowned. "Hey, I'm a lady."

"A lady in boxers?"

"Piss off, Sparkles." I nuzzled my nose into Rainy's soft fur, indicating that I was no longer listening to him. The little kitten purred sleepily at the affection.

"That is so not fair!" Thomas whined when he heard the contented noise. I merely grinned at him. It wasn't my fault his kitten didn't like him.

A/N: YAY for rapid updates, yes? -cough- So I have a friend IRL who read Singer and is now forming a harem of her own because of it. I'm not sure whether to be amused, pleased, or worried. Or a combination of the three. xD As for this chapter... I just really liked the idea of Rachel being a big animal softy. I dunno. :x