Megan was still in bed when the doorbell rang. It was Saturday morning, and she liked to sleep in, because she didn't really have anything to get up for, anyway.
The doorbell rung again, and she ignored it. She stayed where she was, hoping whoever was at the door would go away.
The bell rung a third time, and now there was knocking. After a moment her phone started buzzing too.
That meant it was someone who knew actually knew her, not just someone selling things.
She decided she'd better go and look.
She went and opened the door, and then stood there scowling.
It was Travis, her annoyingly healthy and cheerful friend.
She had one healthy friend because one was enough, and not that many cheerful friends either. Not cheerful this early in the morning.
Healthy was probably something to do with why Travis was here. He'd probably been for a run, or at his yoga, or whatever else he did, and then just had to stop by to see her. Because he felt so unspeakably perky and cheerful after all his early-morning exercise and wanted to share it with everyone.
She stood there and looked at him and tried to decide what to say. She needed something bitchy, something so harsh he'd never do this again.
She couldn't think of a thing.
After a moment she realized he'd brought food, too. That just made it worse. He was standing there holding two paper cups and a paper bag, and she didn't need to look to know the cups held some kind of uncaffeinated hippy drink and the bag a high-fiber granola bagel, or something equally awful.
He was standing in her doorway with that shit. First thing in the morning.
She couldn't deal with it.
She turned around and went back to bed.
She didn't actually speak. Just turned, and went back to bed. She left the door open, though, so he could come inside, even though she'd been tempted not to.
She went to her bedroom, and Travis followed her. He followed her right into her bedroom, and sat on her bed.
That was a bad sign.
That he was here at all meant he'd forgotten how crabby she got first thing in the morning. That he was in her bedroom as well meant he wanted something, and was going to be persistent, so she wasn't going to get to go back to sleep no matter what.
"Please don't fucking wake me up," she said, hoping he wouldn't.
"You're awake already," he said. He was sensible like that.
He just sat there, holding his shitty breakfast, waiting. She pulled the covers up, and put her pillow over her head, hoping he'd go away.
He didn't.
She gave up. She sat up. "Why are you here?" she said.
"To see you."
She looked at him for a moment, trying to decide how someone could like her, and be around her, and not know her at all. And decide why she still wanted to know him when he acted like this.
And why he answered all her questions in such a stupid fucking way.
"I'll still be here later," she said. "When it's not so early."
"It's eleven."
"Yeah, eleven on a Saturday. Early."
He kept looking at her.
"What do you want?" she said.
"It's a lovely morning. I wanted to see you." He held out one of his drinks. "Here."
Megan ignored it. "What do you want right now?" she said. Slowly, since he was acting intentionally stupid. "Why are you here? Right now?"
He kept holding out the paper cup.
Suspicious, Megan took it. She sniffed carefully. It was something herbal. She put it down on the beside table.
"Could you go make me coffee?" she said.
"Coffee isn't good for you."
"Waking me the fuck up isn't good for me, but you just did."
He looked at her for a moment. "Will you be in a better mood if I do?"
"Ah yeah," Megan said. "Fucking obviously."
To her surprise, he got up and went out into the kitchen.
He really must want something. Something big.
It was probably sex. They'd slept together a few times, just for fun, and he seemed to see her as a kind of convenient fuck-buddy when he couldn't pull anyone else.
Like she did him.
More than a few times, actually. Enough she should probably think about why she wasn't getting laid enough anywhere else.
"How do I work it?" Travis called from the kitchen.
Megan shouted instructions until she heard noises that sounded approximately right.
"Could you bring water too," she shouted. She'd been out last night and had a dry mouth.
Travis brought her both.
She sipped the coffee, and he hadn't fucked it up. It tasted all right. She started to feel a lot better. Better enough to be suspicious again. "So why are you really here?" she said. "What do you want."
He looked a bit embarrassed.
"Oh fuck," she said. "You've got a rash you can't reach, haven't you? You need me to rub something on it."
He laughed, like she was the funniest person in the world, which was nice. Except how she hadn't actually been joking. So apparently it wasn't a rash.
"Just tell me," she said.
He nodded, but kept looking uncomfortable. "We're friends, right?" he said in the end.
"Yeah." Megan shrugged. "Of course."
"And we're still sleeping together sometimes, yeah?"
She had think for a moment to work that out. She was still waking up. "We're still fucking? Is that what you said?"
"Ah," he said. "Yeah."
"You want to fuck?"
"That isn't what I said."
"Well we can. I mean, I'm not doing anything else right now. So yeah, if you want." She kicked the covers back a bit, to show she meant it. "Get undressed. Hop in."
"That's not what I mean."
This was getting a bit weird. Too weird for first thing in the morning. "So what do you mean?"
He looked around a bit, and didn't answer, and that looking around, and being all evasive, made her suddenly realize.
It was sex, and it wasn't just fucking. It was something weird.
"You want to do something kinky," she said. "Don't you?"
He didn't answer, but his face said yes.
She almost laughed. She almost called him a perve and laughed herself silly. She didn't because he was a friend, and because sex with him was actually been pretty decent and she wanted to again.
And because he might be into something she wanted to do too.
Although it was a bad sign he was so embarrassed.
"So," she said. "What is it?"
"Do you remember I said I was working on flexibility in my yoga class."
Megan sat there, completely blank. She didn't actually listen when he started going on about his new-age stuff, but she wasn't sure he realized that.
"Um," she said carefully. "I might. Remind me anyway?"
He sighed, so he probably did realize she didn't listen.
"I've been concentrating on flexibility," he said.
"Cool. Good for you."
"A specific kind of flexibility."
She shrugged. "Okay."
"You teased me about it at the time."
Megan sat there for a moment, then suddenly remembered. "Oh right," she said. "Sucking your own dick. That?"
Travis nodded.
