Cee sighed and stuck her gloved hands into her jacket pocket for warmth. The subway station was ridiculously cold—but that was to be expected mid November. She hopped from foot to foot, attempting to get some feeling back into her frozen toes. The 2 train was extremely slow late at night. Cee hoped it was coming soon—a homeless man missing his front teeth had been openly leering at her for the past fifteen minutes. She fingered the pepper spray on her key ring. Living in New York had taught her that fucked up things could happen at anytime, for any reason—especially while alone late at night in the subway. Fortunately, the train came a few minutes later and screeched to a halt in front of her.

Cee sighed again and slipped her key ring back into her pocket. Moving with the kind of weariness only a New Yorker could have, she shuffled into the train with the others.

******

An hour later, Cee got off the 2 at Flatbush Avenue and made the twenty minute trek to her tiny Brooklyn apartment. Normally the walk would take her ten, but the recently heavy snowfall forced her to walk insanely slow. She literally had to wade through a mixture of gross grey slush and slippery black ice. By the time she made it home, her boots and some of her pants were soaked.

Cee unlocked the door and immediately took off her her backpack. Immediately she felt as if she had shed forty pounds—and maybe she literally had. Every year her textbooks seemed to get heavier and heavier. She took off her boots and hung up her coat by the door.

“Carter?” She called out, not really expecting an answer. Her roommate had told her earlier that he was meeting his boyfriend for date. He wouldn’t be back until late.

I just hope he remembers to buy some groceries. It’s his turn, she thought absentmindedly to herself as she plopped down on their cheap IKEA couch. Their black cat, Kush, hopped onto her lap. She petted him for a few minutes before gently shooing him off her. It was already ten, and she needed to do some reading for class before exhaustion completely overtook her.

She was only a few chapters into her reading for the night when the front door banged open loudly. Cee didn’t bother to look up from her anthropology textbook—only her roommate could make such a loud entrance.

Carter dropped the armful of grocery bags he was carrying on their small living room table before artfully falling next to Cee on the couch. Carter sighed dramatically, causing her to roll her eyes. “I take it the date didn’t go well?”

“The opposite. Honey, he’s puttin’ it down, and I’ma fall in love,” he said dreamily while turning sidewise and placing his feet on Cee’s lap. She quickly swept aside her textbooks and assignments to accommodate his long limbs. She slipped off his shoes and began massaging his feet.

“Damn, it must be good if you’re quoting Brandy. I thought you were still heart broken over that whole lip syncing fiasco.”

Carter shrugged. “The lyrics were just too perfect for the situation.” Cee applied more pressure on his arches and he moaned. “I swear to god you are some sort of ebony goddess… Anyway, Will is just amazing. I think he’s the one. And I’m not just saying that because he has a big dick. He’s meeting all my other qualifications too.” He said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

“Oh my god, you’re so gross!” Cee swatted him on the arm.

She was genuinely happy for her friend, but she couldn’t help the sharp stab of jealousy. When she wasn’t in school, she worked two jobs and her love life suffered for it. She hadn’t had a date, let alone sex in ages. With it being the holiday season, couples seemed to be everywhere, further reminding Cee that this Christmas was probably going to be spent with her alone and drunk in the flat with the cat. Even Carter, who seemed to go through lovers as often as he changed his underwear, had found love. Glancing at her friend, he seemed to be oozing happiness and sexual contentment. Not wanting to ruin his moment with her negativity, she quickly changed the subject.

“So anyway, what did you get at the store?” She asked, nodding towards the bags cluttering their table.

“Six bottles of champagne,” Carter answered properly. He removed his feet from her hands and began to open up one of the bags.

Cee stared at him in literal disbelief. “What? You spent our money on alcohol? You were supposed to get food!”

“Calm down, we’re celebrating my good fortune.” Carter hopped up and began rummaging through the bags. “Besides, I got us food.” He held up a twelve-pack of cup ramen. “Got all the sodium you could ever want right here, honey bun!”

Cee’s eyes narrowed and her brows furrowed. Carter could tell that she was gearing up to literally murder him with a verbal assault.

“Wait. Before you work yourself up into a lather, listen. I have a plan.”

Cee raised her brows expectantly. “And that is?”

“We sit our asses on the couch. We drink all this champy. And then we get utterly shitfaced like the classy people do it Friday night.” He poked Cee in the side, his large blue eyes pleading. “C’mon Cee,” he whined. “You know you want to do it. You’ve been so stressed lately.”

Cee suppressed the urge to sigh. Fuck, she must have been really stressed if this ridiculous plan was starting to become increasingly more attractive.

“Fine,” she said, defeated. “Did you at least get the chicken flavored ones?”

“You know I did!” Carter merrily grabbed the ramen and skipped to their tiny kitchen. Cee followed, picking up two bottles of champagne. She peered at their labels. “Carter. This costs $4.52.”

“And your point is?”

She hopped on the counter, watching as her roommate banged around the kitchen. Only he could make cooking ramen into such an ordeal. “My point is, since when do classy people get shitfaced on champagne that costs $5.00?”

He waved his hands dismissively. “So what? We’re classy people on a ratchet budget.” He began pouring boiling water into the cup ramen. “Besides, weren’t you bitching the other day about how I should be more careful with money? I had to get the cheap stuff so that I could afford our dessert.”

Cee rolled her eyes, not even bothering to dispute his backward ass logic. “What’s for dessert?” She asked curiously, almost afraid for his answer. “I didn’t see anything else in the bags.”

Carter cackled and pulled out what looked like a small pencil pouch from his back pocket. He dumped its contents on the kitchen counter. Immediately, a skunky odor filled the air. Cee grabbed one of the green buds and began examining it. For the most part, she was relatively straight laced. But fuck it, Cee had loved weed ever since she first tried it during tenth grade at Jason Peterson’s house party.

“Well shiiiit. At least you accomplished something when you blew all our money. How much is this?”

Carter smirked and carefully grabbed their steaming noodles. “A little over a quarter of an ounce. Enough to tide you over for awhile and keep you from being such a basic bitch.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but he was right. She had been utterly boring the past few weeks. She’d done nothing but work and write papers. Maybe it was time to relax a little and just enjoy herself for the night.

******

Five joints and three bottles of cheap champagne later, Cee and Carter were literally plastered to the couch, their cat nestled in between their tangled bodies.

“Carter.”

“Hmm?”

“You know what Aristotle said?” She asked, her speech slightly slurred. Not waiting for him to answer, she continued. “Friendship is one soul dwelling in two bodies. This,” she said, lazily gesturing to their intertwined bodies, “is love.”

He blew kisses at her and began to mercilessly tickle her side. “Babe I love you too.” For several moments they giggled insanely. Each time their laughter subsided, one of them would break out in a fresh fit of giggles. This happened several times until; at last, their laughter fits had come to true end.

“Cee. I want you to be happy,” said Carter abruptly.

She rolled over to look at him, her brow furrowed. “I am happy.”

He shook his head. “No, you’re lonely college student who works too hard. Before you know it, you’ll look up and the best years of your life will be gone! When was the last time you had a date?”

Cee glared at him. “I went out with that boy from my Arabic class a little while ago.”

“Bitch, that was almost five months ago.”

“Fine!” Cee huffed. “I just can’t seem to find anyone I like enough.”

“Maybe you should try online dating?”

Cee sat up completely, looking at him in disbelief. “Are you fucking serious? Online dating is for weirdoes. “

“Hey! You aren’t being fair! Plenty of people find love online. And lets be honest, has doing things the normal way been successful in getting you that good good?” Cee glared at him. “Well, it hasn’t,” He continued. “That’s why I made you an ad in the personals section on Craigslist.”

“You what?” Cee screeched. “How did we go from online dating to Craigslist? Out of all the dating sites, you expect me to find love in the creepiest, darkest corner of the internet? Are you trying to get me a date with John Wayne Gacy?”

“Okay, so I admit that Craigslist probably has its share of creeps, but there has to be some genuine ones among the bunch. Besides, even if you don’t find the one, at least you’re bound to have some interesting experiences. Which is good, because I actually need some new material for my script writing class.”

“Fuck you. I can’t believe you’re doing this just to get inspiration for a class.”

Carter got off the couch. “Please, I’m mainly doing this for you. You seriously need a change of pace. Check your email tomorrow, I’m sure you’ll have some replies by then.” He stretched and patted her on the head. “Night, baby girl,” he said before heading to his room.

Cee flopped back down on the couch. Too lazy to get up and go to bed, she fell asleep, scowling.