Epilogue 2

Epilogue 2
We ate in relative friendliness, given that two of us were plotting revenge on the third. His eyes kept darting between us, obviously sensing he was in danger. As already established, we didn’t give a flying forklift about his law enforcement status. The boy was going to pay.

After dinner, VD excused himself and quickly disappeared up the hidden stairs after reminding us we weren’t allowed to leave. Rolling our eyes at the reminder we gathered up the bedding he had brought down with the food. To our delight we also found a bag full of snackies.

We were staring at the couch trying to figure out how to make a bed for two grown adults when a thought occurred to me. Smiling I looked at her, she looked at me at the same time. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Oh, yeah!” Excitement colored my tone.

“Pillow fort!” We both exclaimed. Choosing to divide and conquer, I went to get some pool cues to use as poles and she went to the closet to get out any pillows or bedding in there.

Elle met me by the couch with a couple of folding pillow beds. I frowned as I looked at it. Then raised my eyes to her’s in confusion. “How long have those been down here?”

“Um.” She chewed her thumbnail. “They are Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake. So, I’m guessing the eighties.”

I nodded. Pops had gotten them for us when we were little. As kids we used to have grand sleepovers. Sometimes we would come down here away from the adults. Pops had gotten us all kinds of sleep over paraphernalia. He’d even order us takeout pizza and get us soft serve frozen yogurt sometimes. I headed over to the closet. “What else is left in there?”

Looking in the closet I saw a box of various games. On one shelf there was an original Nintendo and some games. Old VHS tapes that made me smile. The newest one was Beauty and the Beast. But what I saw on the top shelf made my eyes light up. Strands of white Christmas lights. Yay.

I took down a couple of the boxes of lights and grabbed the box with the gaming system. In front of the couch, Elle had used the pool cues and sheets to create a fort. Giggling, I showed her my score. Her eyes lit up too. Still giggling like we were five, we strung the lights up. Now we had a proper fort.

Strawberry Shortcake sheets were draped around the couch and held up by the pool cue. The white Christmas lights strung around it like fairy lights. In the floor the pillow beds had big fluffy pillows on them. Our bag of snacks sat between the beds.

We went to the bar to get a drink to celebrate our architectural victory. As we sipped our Tequila Rose a thought occurred to me. “Where does your husband think you are?”

“That’s just occurring to you?” She rolled her eyes. “He knows I’m having a sleep over with you. He’s hoping we play truth or dare and I have to call him and talk dirty to him.”

“Dude.” I rolled my eyes. “Like that wouldn’t be a dare. You married the man.”

“Yeah, but he’s still the hottest man I know. Big crush.” She giggled as she threw back another shot.

“Hotter than a certain actor we love?” I challenged as I matched her shot.

“Have to see him in person to determine that. I’m totally willing to make that sacrifice and look at him objectively.” She nodded seriously.

Feeling slightly tipsy, we went back to our fort. She settled on the Rainbow Brite bed and I took Strawberry Shortcake. Laying on our stomachs facing the flat screen, we fired up the Nintendo. Mario is a lot hard after four shots of Tequila.

We worked our way through the classics. TMNT, Duck Tales, Wizards and Warriors, and of course, more Mario. Still doing shots based on challenges issued. At some point our vision was too blurry to play anymore. Both of us just slumped forward, dropping the controllers. Then I got the giggles.

“What?” Elle slurred from beside me.

“It’s funny.” My speech was equally slurred. “We big drunk while sitting in our fort playing Mario.”

Then she giggled too. For the next hour or so, we just talked, covering a wide range of topics. Things we had missed in each other’s lives. Old memories. What we hoped the future would hold. Shared sadness at the loss of Pops.

“We gotta get even with VD” I was drinking straight from the bottle now. “He played us for fools.”

“Yep.” Elle took the bottle from me for a swig. “He lied too.”

“Yay. Made it sound like we weren’t sneaky anymore!” I shook my head. Oh, that wasn’t smart. The room spun. I held my head in place. Elle, realizing what was happening, leaned over help. Only she fell off her bed. “Oh! I’ll help you!”

I tried to reach her, but I fell over too. Then we were just laughing the laughter of the drunk. The last thing I remembered before I passed out was that we could plan revenge on VD after he let us out tomorrow. We were in no condition for such heavy lifting.