Abby shook me awake, reminding me we had made plans with Mathilda for today. At least I think that was what she was telling me, but I couldn’t hear clearly over the rustling of the bedsheets as I rolled on my stomach and buried my face on the pillow.

“Gee, how many hours do you need to sleep, lazy girl?” she asked as she sat on me, each bent leg on one side of my body as she used my bum as a seat.

I’d like to say eight, like any other people on average need, but I felt like it was actually more.

“Yeah, in your case it has to be at least ten,” she half joked as she started massaging my shoulders just so I’d stay awake.

“Mmh… that feels nice…”

“Hehe.”

I was too stupefied by my sleepiness to realise how much inappropriate noises I was making as she worked her magic hands, but once I took notice, I became wide awake very quickly.

“I take it you’re awake now?” she teased as she run the tip of her finger around one of my burning ears, her weight shifting to completely laying on top of me.

“Y-yeah.”

“Then, can we start getting ready? Can I pick your clothes?”

I still wasn’t quite ready to leave the bed. I rolled around to be able to face her. She sat up and was going to dismount, but I held her in place.

“Babe, we don’t have time for this,” she told me with a wry smile.

I didn’t care, I still pulled her down, holding her in place and making sure she had an ear over my heart.

“Just five more minutes,” I told her as a call back.

“Pfft, ah-haha. Ok, fine,” she laughed.

I let out a pleased sigh. This was my version of paradise. Not worrying about anything, having her held tightly against me and her perfume flooding my nose as she made her happy noises in response to my sigh.

“Hey, babe?”

“Hmm?”

“…Have you gotten bigger?”

Of course, her teasing me was never too far away to partially ruin the mood. Well, I suppose saying she ruined it was a wrong way to put it. She shifted it to a different one.

“…It’s been getting a bit tight around my chest and hips,” I admitted.

“Oh-ho? You think it’s about time for us to go get you some new clothes?” she asked very excitedly.

“I guess.”

“How about tomorrow? Can we take care of that tomorrow?”

“…Why are you so excited?”

“Because, my dear Violet, I too want to buy new ones, remember? Let’s pick some for each other!”

I was sure she’d be able to choose clothes that’d fit me with no issues, but I wasn’t sure I could do the same, specially with the style change she had planned.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about it,” she told me with her chin resting on my sternum. “Just pick them like you’d pick for yourself.”

“You want to dress like me?”

“You think it would look weird if I did?”

It was a bit of a jump, to be more accurate. It’d suit her, I have no doubts. It’s not like she didn’t have the habit of wearing my own clothes when around the house. The turtleneck I gave her during the winter looked good on her too, as an example.

Hmm… would she be mad if I picked clothes that looked a bit oversized for her?

There was something very charming about seeing her hands half-covered by the sleeves. Then again, it was summer and that was winter clothing. I’d have to have a good think about summer alternatives.

As we approached Mathilda’s address, I was thankful Abby was with me to keep my mouth from hanging open.

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It was a long trip, her house being in the complete opposite side of town where we lived, and it was also the nicest too. Modern, high status, and very, very expensive looking.

“Her parents must be rich!” I hushed after Abby pushed my mouth closed when we stepped out of the bus.

“I suppose these are new news for you, but yeah, they are,” she confirmed very matter-of-factly.

Of course Abby knew, her mother brown-nosed anyone who had cash aplenty.

“Hi girls!” Mathilda cheered at her door. “Looking good!”

My first reflex was to echo her words after saying thanks, but since she was wearing pink shorts and t-shirt and fluffy slippers, I quickly concluded it’d sound silly. She looked very comfortable, I’ll give her that. For some reason, I was expecting her dressed all lady-like, not like someone who just got up. And I’m not saying like she was a mess, oh no, she had her hair neat and held back by a bandlet.

In the end, I concluded it didn’t matter how she presented herself inside her own house, as long as it wasn’t in the nude or with a hockey mask, axe and apron cacked in blood.

“Hehe, I picked her clothes and made her a braid,” Abby bragged, ignoring the fact she had been included in the compliment.

“It’s very nicely done,” Mathilda commented as she reached out.

I had a bit of a chill as she run her fingers through my hair, Mathilda noticing my reaction and promptly apologising.

“N-no, erm… sorry, I’m not used to having others touch me,” I excused, despite the fact Abby was hugging the arm which belonged to the hand she was holding.

“Yeah, it took me about a month of constantly being around her until Violet finally got used to us hugging for more than a second,” Abby added, giving some much-needed context I had been too inept to offer.

Mathilda invited us inside with a gesture while commenting it was hard to believe that with how close we always were.

When we got inside, Abby had to once again push my chin up to shut my mouth. Her hallway alone was bigger than my living room.

“Have you decided what we are going to watch?” she asked as she guided us up the stairs to her bedroom.

“I’d like to see that horror movie you mentioned, but…”

Abby’s words drifted away as she looked up at me, making Mathilda ask if I wasn’t good with scary stuff.

“I am, Abby is the one who isn’t,” I clarified.

“She’s afraid I’ll have nightmares and make her come to the bathroom with me during the night.”

“…You two are sleeping together tonight?”

Was she asking it as a sleep-over, or… no, it had to be the former. No one would be that shameless to ask about our sex life so bluntly. Not that there was one yet.

…I’m sorry, “yet” you said?”

When had I become so dirty minded?

“I mean, it’s summer after all,” Abby answered. “it’s the perfect time for sleep-overs, don’t you think?”

“It’s also the perfect time for horror movies,” Mathilda smiled at me.

“See?” Abby said, tugging my sleeve. “Mathilda thinks the same thing too!”

“Haah, fine. Just don’t come whining to me when it’s three in the morning and you can’t hold it in any longer.”

“I-I won’t be doing that!”

That remained to be seen.

Mathilda was still snickering when she opened the door to her bedroom. It wasn’t a bedroom.

It was a modestly big room with a popcorn machine, six absurdly comfortable looking chairs in the middle, reminding me of those massage chairs you sometimes see in malls, surrounded by sound columns and facing a big screen with a projector on the back. She had effectively a private cinema at her house, all her movies neatly stacked in shelves, from VHS and tapes to DVDs and Blu-rays. She even had laserdiscs, something I had never seen or heard before.

“Unfortunately, it never got such as widespread use like VHS and Betamax it was competing with, despite it having way better video and sound quality. Oh, and despite it looking like an oversized CD, it actually uses analog video signals. It simply couldn’t compete with how expensive it was and with the fact it couldn’t record TV programs like its rivals.”

“…Huh, interesting.”

Mathilda was doing that thing again, where she’d start talking really fast and with such a bright smile, it rivalled Abby’s. It wasn’t a bad thing, not at all, but it made it a bit hard for me not to feel a bit overwhelmed.

“Wanna compare later?” she asked, holding a tape in one hand and a laserdisc in the other, both being the same movie.

Abby gave me a look that told me she already knew what I was going to say.

“Ok.”

Abby acted all fluffy as she snuggled my arm. She knew better than anyone that I had a very hard time saying no when faced with so much excitement.

She told us to take a seat while she prepared the popcorns. And here was I thinking the machine was purely decorative.

She gave us each a small bucket of freshly made popcorn, rolled up the screen to reveal an equally large TV, dimmed the light and started the movie from her pad after taking her own seat.

“This is a fan-made 4K edit,” she told us.

With such a setup, I was wondering why did she even bother going to the cinema. Was there something she’d experience that I was too ignorant to realise? Probably. Maybe it was the communal side of it? That could be it, because it was the only think the antisocial me could come up with. Were it me in her shoes, I’d only go out to the cinema if Abby really made a case for it, otherwise, we’d always stay in the privacy of home.

When we got out of the house, Abby and I clung to each other because that was what we always did. When we got to Mathilda’s, we still clung to each other out of habit and perhaps also to keep my nerves in check. Now, we were clinging to each other because Abby was scared witless. It was exactly as I had expected, only worse, somehow. It was the sound system, you see? It was so well set up, we could hear each and every sound just like if we were in the movie. Abby’s head was constantly snapping in the direction of each separate cling, clang, tap, etc.

With how scared she was, I couldn’t help but tug her in, prompting her to come sit on my lap, not caring about what Mathilda would think. It was a good thing we were watching it in the middle of the day, but I still wasn’t sure this wouldn’t come to bite us in our backside when sleep time came.

“Are you ok?” I asked when the movie finished and lights were turned back on.

“Y-yeah,” she told me with a very shaky voice. She looked just about to start crying.

“I told you this was a bad idea.”

“But I liked it.”

“You did?”

She nodded.

It’s been a while since I felt like I couldn’t understand her, but right now it was what I was feeling.

“Fufu, some people like having their hearts scared out of their chest,” Mathilda explained as she sat back down and gave Abby’s back little taps.

Why would anyone enjoy that? I wondered that as Abby snuggled against my chest, looking for me to comfort her.