A Very Good Day

"She's working on it, Mom," Amanda interrupted her overbearing mother as she picked up some bags before heading to the door "Actually; Kasey said she might be able to get her a job where she works."

"Well, that's good," Deirdre, Amanda's mother, replied before she added somewhat pointedly "Now if only she could do the same for you."

"Please, mother," Amanda said defiantly as they all walked into the house obviously miffed at the renewal of their seemingly endless argument especially after her mother's ill timed return from shopping. "You know I already have a job and I don't need another one."

Hayley quickly sensed an argument approaching so she made a hasty retreat and she snuck off to Amanda's room to wait there as soon as she placed her share of the load on the kitchen counter. There was nothing she hated more than watching people fight. Sure, she knew from experience that physical violence or a yelling match breaking out over Deirdre's riding Amanda about her job was highly unlikely, but she still hated being around all the negative energy of the mutual low-level sniping that she could hear even as she climbed the stairs to Amanda's room knowing that her presence would not be missed.

Amanda managed to get away from her mother after only about five minutes before she joined Hayley in her room where they spent the next few hours listening to music, talking and pretending to be nothing but two normal girls who totally hadn't just made each other come. It was actually a bit frustrating because Hayley wanted nothing more than to get back to doing exactly that, but Deirdre was apparently in no hurry to go anywhere as the afternoon slowly gave way to the evening.

Luckily, Amanda was, but by the time she was frustrated enough to even think of talking her mom into letting her get her car back Amanda's boyfriend had begun his usual "almost out of work and hoping to hook up" textual assault on Amanda's phone and for a few moments Hayley was certain she was destined to either suffer as a third wheel or skulk off back home to spend the night alone.

Luckily, Hayley's fears of her fate that night slowly started to look like they might have been a tad premature. Might, however, was the operative word. Amanda was still pissed at her boyfriend over something that Hayley admittedly thought was petty and childish, but which she also secretly hoped would be enough to break them up. She didn't think it would because it really was a silly, unimportant thing, but a girl could dream. Still, break up or no, Hayley knew better than to get her hopes up because Amanda didn't always stayed pissed at her boyfriend's for as long as Hayley liked. Hell, more than once she'd gone from breaking up with a boy to making up with him all in the same night and when she did Hayley always ended up ditched, pissed and alone.

Well, sometimes she ended up far from alone herself, but whatever. Even those nights when she managed to passively revenge herself against her friend's flighty, bisexual nature by bedding some random chick Hayley didn't exactly feel any better. If anything those times were actually worse than the nights she spent alone. She couldn't help it. She loved Amanda and empty, meaningless sex (even when it was good) did nothing to cure her of that particular affliction.

It was the phone call that that came after he got out of work that proved to be Hayley's savior as the poorly worded arguments of Amanda's boyfriend eventually caused Amanda to turn her phone off in disgust(for probably the first time since Amanda had bought it), but only after Hayley sat their trying to ignore her friend spewing anger into the phone for twenty straight minutes and then found herself having to sit there and agree with Amanda about how it was all his fault and not at all hers even though Hayley honestly didn't even know why they were fighting over something as stupid as a concert that Amanda wanted to go to, but which her boyfriend thought was, in his own words, "Fucking gay."

Honestly, Hayley normally would have agreed with his sentiment if not his typically idiotic and casually homophobic choice of words because she wasn't much of a fan of the band that Amanda wanted to see, but, of course, she didn't say that. No, Hayley just agreed completely with everything Amanda said while secretly hoping against hope that Amanda would stay pissed long enough to break up with the fucker or at least stay true to her word about spending the night with her until Amanda finally stopped her own bitch session by simply saying "Fuck it. I'm sick of even thinking about his bullshit. Let's get high so I can forget that fucking asshole and we can have some fucking fun."

"Dude, your mom...," Hayley started and then was quickly cut off by Amanda cursing again before going silent as she slumped onto her back looking distinctly childish as she sulked. Still, Hayley couldn't help but think she was also oddly cute at that moment. This was mainly because she was still extremely horny and probably a bit too happy about her friend's current boy hating attitude, but it was also because it was simply true. Amanda looked absolutely beautiful when she was sulking.

"What's going on at your house?' Amanda said interrupting Hayley's reverie.

"What do you mean?" Hayley responded reflexively even though she understood exactly what Amanda had meant almost as soon as the words started to escape her lips.

"I mean, is everyone still gone?" Amanda said before Hayley could correct herself.

"Well, yeah," Hayley replied. "I told you yesterday that they won't be back until at least Sunday and they might not even be back then if they manage to get a hold of some dude that was like my Step Dad's best friend in high school or some shit who's like on their way home or something."

"What about Marie?" Amanda asked even though she knew that Hayley's sister no longer lived at home. Of course, both girls also knew that sometimes it was hard to tell that that was the case, but now that Marie was settled in and no longer living with a roommate she wanted to murder she only stopped by to do laundry and steal food and she'd already done both of those before talking Hayley into hanging out with her just for the hell of it.

"I doubt she'll show up. We hung out last night and her boyfriend was supposed to back from Germany today on furlough or whatever you call that shit so... you know, I'm guessing she's gonna be busy doing it and shit," Hayley said matter-of-factly.

"Well, then what the fuck? Why the hell are we at my house?" Amanda asked and Hayley couldn't help but laugh at her. Sadly, thanks to the high quality of the weed they'd smoked not really all that long ago Amanda didn't get why and came back somewhat sharply "What?"

"You kidding me? We're here because you told me to come here and because your dad is using your car, you dumbass," Hayley replied chuckling slightly.

"Fuck," Amanda said and for a moment she looked defeated before she shot up and said "I'll be right back."

"Umm...," was all Hayley managed to get out before Amanda flew out her door heading for the stairs. Hayley couldn't help but finish her thought as she heard her friend's footsteps quickly heading downstairs and the word "Okay" escaped her lips.

A few minutes later she was still a little dumbstruck as she sat there on Amanda's bed waiting to figure out what the hell just happened when she heard Amanda yell "Thank you!" at the bottom of the stairs before running back up and simply saying "Fucking awesome" as she shut the door behind her, placed her phone on her dresser and then sat back down on the bed.

"What's awesome?" Hayley asked when Amanda failed to elaborate and instead just she leaned over and picked up her backpack and unzipped it.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Amanda said after a second of looking blankly at Hayley. "We're going to drive my Dad's car out to his work and he's going to leave his keys at the guard post and then I'm going to go to guard post and they'll give me my keys and I'll give them his keys and then I can have my car back and then we're going to your house to... you know..."

"Are we?" Hayley replied with a bit of faux anger.

"Oh, shut up," Amanda said immediately picking up on Hayley's attitude. "Don't play games with me. You know you wanna hang with me. I'm awesome and you love me."

"What about your boyfriend?" Hayley said knowing full well that Amanda was pissed at him, but wanting to make sure that Amanda wasn't planning on ditching her. Yes, she was being a bit of a bitch at that moment for no discernable reason, but she couldn't help herself. She simply had to make sure that Amanda wasn't going to flake.

"Dude, did you like just completely forget the last hour? I'm not hanging out with that asshole tonight. I'm going to hang with you, you weirdo, and we're gonna get high and have fun and you're going to fucking love it, so quit being a jerk and just accept it," Amanda responded defensively.

"Yeah, yeah, but seriously," Hayley said testing Amanda further.

"Oh, fuck off," Amanda said. "I swear I'm not going to flake on you. I'm seriously sick of him and I honestly have no interest in talking to him let alone ditching you to hang out with him. You saw me turn my phone off."

"MmmHmm and you turned it back on again," Hayley came back perhaps a bit too bitterly and she was right. Amanda had turned it back on (Hayley assumed to call her father). Sure, she had also set it down on her dresser as soon as she reentered the room, but it was still on. Of course, that wasn't why Hayley was acting bitter. She was acting bitter because she'd heard this all before.

"Fine, look," Amanda said sharply as she grabbed her phone from off of the dresser and placed it in Hayley's hand. "Here, you can have the fucking phone. That way even if I do try to flake you can stop me from calling him. And yes, you can even hide it from me when we get to your house if that's what it takes to make you feel better. Fuck, I'll even give you my keys when we get to your house. Will that be good enough for you, Miss Paranoid? Can you stop being a fucking downer now? Please?"

"Pinkie swears?" Hayley said as a smile began to form on her face almost of its own free will despite her friend's angry tone.

"Fine," Amanda said as she rolled her eyes and held out her hand pinkie extended and allowed Hayley to complete the childish ritual. A slight smile formed on Amanda's lips when the two of them locked eyes, but she still chose to maintain her too cool front when Hayley released her finger. "Now is that better, you fucking jealous overgrown sixth grader?"

"It is," Hayley replied as she leaned towards Amanda to steal a quick kiss while Amanda did the same allowing their lips to meet for only the briefest of moments before they were both interrupted by Amanda's mother yelling up the stairs reminding her daughter to be careful with the car unless she wished to die an early death at the hands of her father.

"Shit. You should probably be like extra careful putting your bike in the trunk, because she's barely exaggerating and my dad is totally not too happy about me taking back my car. We'd better hurry or he might freak out and change his mind. You go put your bike in and I'm just going to pack a change of clothes and a bikini and... you know, so...vaya!" Amanda said before giving Hayley one more kiss then standing up to head to her dresser.

"Pfft, I knew it. You're just using me for my pool," Hayley scoffed as she did as she was told and grabbed her own backpack. She paused just long enough to unzip it and stuff Amanda's phone inside before heading towards the door as Amanda said "Among other things" making Hayley laugh as she headed out to gently place her bike in the trunk of Amanda's father's favorite child.

It honestly wasn't as easily done as one might imagine, but she managed. Still, it did take a bit of effort and by the time she was finished gingerly picking it up and gently maneuvering it into the trunk Amanda had finished packing and was entering the garage. Luckily, Amanda approved of her efforts and helped her carefully bungee the trunk shut before they both hopped into the very nice, frighteningly clean and still oddly new smelling gas guzzler and headed off to the factory.

The exchange at the factory thankfully took no time at all and they arrived at Hayley's empty home no more than fifteen minutes after they'd left Amanda's. Of course, that was mainly because Amanda just told Hayley to shove the bike in her backseat and then ran to exchange the keys before running back because she was eager to smoke the bowl she'd packed before they'd left her house. Hayley didn't mind obliging her one little bit and even agreed to sit in the car for a bit to finish it off after they pulled into her driveway. Still, as soon as the bowl was cashed Hayley was more than happy to head off to the shower and finally wash away the sweat from her earlier bike ride, the car ride in Amanda's non-air conditioned, decrepit old hooptie and, well, other things while Amanda raided the fridge for something to drink before settling into the couch to watch TV while waiting for Hayley to re-emerge fresh and clean to join her to just chill out on the couch to vegetate.

And vegetate was about all they did for the next hour or so after Hayley's shower as the girls sat in the living room watching a stupid, but fairly amusing movie that went well with their buzz. They didn't even talk that much as the weed they'd smoked mixed with the heat of their drive and the coolness of Hayley's home was having a bit of a dulling affect at that point. They didn't even have the drive to go outside and endure the heat long enough to smoke some more. Instead they just cuddled with Amanda placing her head on Hayley's legs while Hayley mindlessly played with her friends hair and read the class list for the community college for seemingly the hundredth time occasionally asking an obviously dozing Amanda random questions about what classes she was planning on taking until Amanda rolled onto her back, looked up from Hayley's lap and said "C'mon. Let's go swimming."

"Really?" Hayley responded with an obvious lack of enthusiasm. "It's still like way fucking hot out there. Just wait a bit."

"So? C'mon. You know the water will feel awesome. Besides, I'm like totally about to pass out. If this is all we're going to do I might just have to find out where you hid my cell...," Amanda came back with a sweet smile even as she teasingly threatened her friend.

"Don't you blackmail me, you bitch," Hayley said choosing to take it as the playful jab she knew Amanda had intended. "We're going to do more. I'm just feeling kind of stoned and tired and I don't fucking feel like moving."

"Well, then get some fucking sun while I swim. C'mon. And I wasn't blackmailing you. I was teasing," Amanda said as she sat up and then stood before Hayley letting Hayley know that she wasn't about to take no for an answer.

"Whatever," Hayley said with a sigh before forcing herself to scoot to the edge of the couch cushion. "We can go swimming, but you gotta promise me not to do that again, you jerk. You already promised, so unless you want me to erase your address book altogether you can shut up."

"Shit, now who's blackmailing who, you lazy bitch?" Amanda came back with some bite over the threat to her precious cell phone before adding somewhat more playfully "But you better not expect me to just get high and watch TV all day 'cause boring shit like that is kinda why I ditched the loser in the first place."

"Fucking fine," Hayley said as she rolled her eyes and then held out her hand for Amanda's to help her up. Amanda did so, but laughed as she called her friend lazy again. "I'm not lazy, damn it. I'm stoned and I'm tired because I barely fucking slept last night and my bitch friend made me ride my bike halfway across town to hang out with her. You're lucky I'm not passed out right now."

"No, you're lucky you're not passed out or I'd have to kick your butt. Now, quit whining and go get your swimsuit. The cute one that shows that sexy belly of yours and not the grandma suit they made you wear on the swim team," Amanda said smiling as she used her grip on Hayley's hand to pull her into a quick kiss before giving her a playful smack on the butt as she laughed and backed away from Hayley towards her backpack.

Hayley wanted to snap back with something playfully mean, but she simply couldn't. Her brain was just too frazzled by combination of the drugs, the teasing compliment and the playful kiss to allow her to think of anything even vaguely witty to do or say in reply. Instead she just laughed a little and smiled to herself as she ran up to her room to grab her bikini then quickly headed back downstairs with it to change in the living room with Amanda where they made quick work of the clothes and helped each other tie on their suits while blatantly admiring each other in an openly flirtatious manner before instantly reverting to their childhood as soon as they were done when they ran out the sliding glass door to jump into the large, relatively cool pool.

Of course, Amanda had a good deal more fun in the pool than Hayley, but Hayley didn't really care. In fact, it was just another example of why she loved Amanda so much. While Hayley was just having fun enjoying the relatively cool water as she hung off the edge of the pool Amanda was busy entertaining her by acting like a five year old as she showed off her cannonball skills as well as the more refined diving techniques she'd learned during her brief tenure on the diving team until she tired herself enough to move on to sharing another bowl with Hayley before enjoying a bit of floating on her back while looking absolutely beautiful.

"Dude, I love this fucking pool," Amanda said after awhile as she floated, "I think I might marry it."

"Why? Wouldn't be easier to just marry me?" Hayley replied as she watched Amanda with a smile permanently affixed to her face.

"Hmmm, maybe," Amanda replied as she stopped floating on her back and instead treaded water for a moment before dipping under the water then popping up in front of Hayley to flash her a smile before kissing her on the nose and laughing childishly while joining her friend on the side of the pool as she finished her thought. "But I really wouldn't want to torture you like that."

"Why? I think you'd make an awesome wife. Besides, I think marrying a pool might get kind of old after awhile," Hayley said half jokingly.

"Yeah, well you're crazy. I'd make a terrible wife," Amanda replied with a weak smile that let Hayley know she too was only half joking. "Besides, why buy the cow when you get the milk for free, right?"

"Did you just call me a cow?" Hayley said trying hard to sound affronted even though she wasn't. She wasn't even really mad about the way her friend was dismissing her less than subtle hint that she wanted more from their relationship. Hayley was used to it. Oh, she still hoped against hope that Amanda would eventually change her mind, but she wasn't about to push her luck more than she currently was because she knew that it would only freak Amanda out.

"No, weirdo, I'm the cow, but, hey, I guess you can be the cow too if you want," Amanda said smiling a bit more brightly then before as she scooted just a little closer to Hayley.

"So we're both cows?" Hayley said keeping the lame, little flirtatious joke going even as she realized what Amanda was doing.

"Sure," Amanda said dismissively as she quickly turned herself until she was floating in front of Hayley reaching around on either side of her friend to hold herself in place. Hayley instantly stopped kicking and instead held herself up purely by the strength of her arms as Amanda leaned in closer to her to wrap her arms around Hayley for support as she said "But don't worry. You're a sexy cow, so ... you know..." before she ended their odd flirtatious dialogue by placing a gentle, loving kiss on Hayley's soft, welcoming lips.