Cheap as we ever were

 "I just think it's shit," Stu gave Odin a look of distaste as he tied his sneakers again. They kept coming untied. They were both in their tracksuits and puffers. Really, he didn't want to go for a run anyway. "Why do you even listen to  her?" He was bitter about Shelly, but he knew better than to say what he exactly thought of her. Bitch.

"And why do you do anything Mia tells you to do?" Odin shot back as he ran ahead. Stu only sighed as he tried his best to keep up.

"See, you're so out of shape," Odin reminded him as he looked back at Stu.

Stu winced and made a miserable face that he didn't like this, one little bit. His lungs were suffering from the cold. Or so he'd say.

"You know, I'd rather be at the pub watching a game," Stu was in a huff, perhaps out of breath. "I can't...can't  we just walk?" Of course, it was a bitter chill.

"Running will make you warmer," Odin ran in place as he waited. Stu kept an even lip and sped up to Odin who of course, took off again.

"Are you sure this wasn't your idea?" Stu squinted with a scowl. 

"Look, mate, you are just as low on funds as I am," Odin was running backward now along the little scenic stream that of course was only to be admired with the iron fence in front of it. It seemed the older kiddies who should have known better had been trespassing these last few years. Naturally, most were a bit tipsy and fell in. 

Stu looked at the landscape on the gray damp day. Honestly, it was depressing.

"Well, I'll make coffee," Stu decided. "Let's go in. Please?" So they turned back and went to Mia's flat.

"So you just call this home, do you?" Stu knew Odin had wanted to ask for ages.

"I suppose," he shrugged as he went to put in the grounds in the coffeemaker. He was definitely making this a strong trucker's brew. He grinned with delight as he took in the aroma of the Columbian coffee.

"Just supposing?" Odin looked at him as if he was the slacker he always knew he was.

"What of it?" Stu wasn't trying to be something he wasn't.

"Well, you look so settled, as of late?" Odin made it sound as if he was becoming a bore.

"Settled?" Stu smirked. "Is that what you call it? Before I know it we'll be reading BARBARIAN ALIEN and loving it."

"Is it any good?" Odin sat across from him at the dining table as he took a sip of the black coffee.

Stu only chuckled.

a dry start

 

Honestly, Shelly was at her wit's end. True, it was easy to move into the place. There was plenty of help. It was all so cozy and roomy. Yes, she loved how the sun shined in the morning through the livingroom window. So lovely to be close to friends..and yet..maybe not.

The boys were always at the pub. And guess who was always hungover? How in the world could she stop it?

"Look, we really need to have a dry January," she told Odin over toast and tea. Naturally, he looked as if his hair had been in a blender and the crust in his eyes barely let him crack them open.

"Well, Babe, it's a little late for that, don't you think?" He practically snorted over his tea and crunched on a piece of cheese toast.

"The month has hardly started," she insisted. "We can still have a dry January. It's what Oprah and her mates are doing?"

"Oprah?" Odin drew a scowl. Of course, his fist could hardly hold up his chin as he sat at the table so sluggish. "I had no idea she even drank."

"Precisely." She shot him a look and pressed a very even lip. "You don't need everyone to know. But they do, I am certain of it, down at your office. How do you expect to get ahead of the herd?"

He scrunched a face of disgust as if he didn't want to discuss it. 

"We need some rules," she told him. "Now that you see Stu every day, you have to think of something else to do than visit that damn pub."

"What do you suggest?" He looked at her funny, sitting across from her at the kitchen table. His long body stretched a bit too close and Shelly squirmed away. 

"You're still a bit foul for my liking, O.D." She festered a frown and shook her head. "There are many many reasons to have a dry year, you know."

"What?"

"Think about it?" Shelly glared back. "Alcohol makes you old. You are still so young. You two need to be active."

"What? We should be at the gym?"

"It's not free is it?" She told him they needed to get out and jog, maybe learn basketball, and even some football would suffice. "Alcohol cost, you know. Not just the body, but financially too."

She hadn't meant to preach about it, but it was true. "We just moved into a new place together. We need some goals. At least some rules. Especially, with you and Stu."

Odin just stared at her as if he really wasn't fond of any of these suggestions.

More than just a dream

 

Of course, they were as giddy as two schoolboys knowing they should be in trouble by now, but they weren't. The fact remained Odin and Shelly got the flat just around the corner on the same floor as Mia and Stu.

"Is this really the right thing to do?" Shelly asked as she was already making headway with the cheesball she brought to Mia's. Of course, it was a good bit of the leftover cheese she had in the fridge, but it was party food. And they so needed a party this holiday.

"Hush, let them have their little moment, will you?" Mia looked at Shelly as if they really did need a good laugh about now. 

Neither had the time for any Christmas shopping. After all, she'd helped them with the paperwork to get the place. Although, she knew what Shelly was thinking. It was all her doing, and maybe it was, but not all of it.

She poured Shelly a glass of wine. "See, we will all be nice and cozy." Oh, a winter storm was foreboding and annoying cold.

"And I hear, Brad's back." Shelly shot her a look.

"Oh, is he?" Mia couldn't help but smirk just a little more. "I tell you, that Kate, she's the lucky one, don't you think?"

"Not anymore." Shelly was practically mute on the subject. She drank the wine as if someone owed her. 

"I take it, you aren't besties anymore." Mia looked as blankly as she could, yet was glad to hear it. She knew that Kate would never come through for Shelly. 

"She left me high dry. I can't say what I ever saw in her anymore," Shelly shrugged and crunched on a Ritz with nuts and cream cheese. Oh, she was a very pissed-off fan girl. Mia knew it. She understood it.

"Don't you worry about her anymore," Mia did her best to stay put. No time for hugging. She sipped her wine. This was exactly where she wanted to be. After all, she'd wanted to take care of Shelly from the first moment she saw her. Back when Mia was just a boy and didn't have a penny to his name. But he knew if he made it in this old world, who he but now she would tend to first. It was a long time coming. Yet it was turning out quite beautifully.

Trying to stay off the naughty list

 

Shelly breathed in the lemoned tea. Trying to get this all straight with Mia in her little cluttered office at the back of the bookshop. It was hard to believe such hustle and bustle was going about in the store these days. Still, she needed to wrap her mind around the Kate matter.

"I really think she went back to work. I haven't seen her as of late," Mia said.

Shelly nodded. Kate would have a new roomie in no time or maybe Brad would be back. It would all be well. Yes, in Kate's world. Why was it she disliked her so much? Shell didn't mean to wince so much, but no way could she go back.

"What was she expecting? We'd all live together at her place?" Shelly sighed at the thought. Maybe at one time, it would have been perfect. But not now. Even so, they really needed more than Odin's little studio. It was so cramped. They could only have a love nest so long of that size, but even then wings might sprout and they'd need to fly away somewhere.

"Tell me, what's really bothering you?" Mia wanted to know as she took a seat after moving a few books off it. 

"I just have to get used to it, that's all." Shelly shrugged. She could hardly look Mia in the eye.

"Is the sex that bad?" Mia wanted to know.

Shelly practically spewed hot tea. She cleared her throat. "No, nothing like that. I know him now. I know he'd rather be in just his undies after he gets off work as much as I like losing my bra." She sighed. "I just wish the place was bigger."

"Naturally," Mia nodded. That's when Mia mentioned the flat just down the hall from her was vacant.

"Really?" Shelly looked shocked. It would truly be a Christmas miracle if the place could be theirs. Although, she didn't want to get her hopes up.