When we finally made our way downstairs forty-five minutes later, we found Nat lying on the couch watching a tv show on her phone, seemingly completely unaware of our absence.
"Hey." I said, patting her on the head. She reached up to smack my hand. "Took you guys long enough."
Alex smirked unabashedly.
"So." Nat turned off her phone and turned to look at us, putting her hands on the couch like an excited child. "What are we going to do now?"
Rain continued to patter down the windows, so going out again was out of the question.
"Play cards?" I suggested.
"Hell yeah." Alex said. "But only strip poker." She produced a deck of cards from her pocket and tossed them onto the table. "Meanwhile, I will fix us some drinks."
"I'd like an old fashioned." Nat said as Alex started pulling bottles out from our box of booze.
"Coming right up." Alex said as she got to work measuring the ingredients. "And you?" She asked.
"Rum and coke." I said, eyeing the bottles that we had.
"Sure thing." She said. Alex made no attempt in hiding that she was making doubles for all the drinks.
"So...who's ready to play strip poker?"
***
"Man, my cards all suck." Nat complained as she was forced to fold. She was on her third old fashioned already and was down to panties and a bra. I laughed, my tipsy mood made everything funnier than usual. The two drinks I had were hitting me hard too, but I still had my jeans on. We had turned on the fireplace after the two off us had complained about being cold without shirts on. Alex was the most clothed of us all, and much more sober. "Maybe you should have shuffled the cards better then."
"Bah!" Nat said as we all revealed our cards and Alex had the best hand again. "Fine, I know you really just want to look at my tits." She said to Alex, sticking her tongue out.
"On three?" We both unclasped our bras and tossed them at Alex, who let out a cry of surprise as she caught them both.
"Happy?"
Alex eyed Nat's pink nipples and grinned. "Well...maybe just a little."
I smacked her on the arm as Nat flushed.
"Ok ok, I'll make you guys a treat." Alex said, standing up.
"Not another alcoholic drink, I'm done." Nat said, swaying gently.
"No no, this will be good. It's my special ice tea. No alcohol!" Alex took out the ice tea bottle and a bottle of pineapple juice. I eyed it dubiously but took the drink when she offered it.
"Hmm...not bad."
"Tasty." Nat said, sipping it. "Ah fuck, I need to pee now." She hopped up and ran out of the kitchen.
I got up and started preparing pizza rolls for us to have as a snack. Alex got out her phone and started looking through things. "Can you even get reception here? Mine is so spotty."
"Your carrier sucks." Alex said without looking up from the screen.
"Gee, thanks." I said sarcastically. I put the rolls in the toaster oven and looked at my own phone. A text I had sent earlier in the day had failed, and I resent it. Then a message popped up that was dated several hours ago. It was my friend Shawna asking if I was attending Julie's birthday party next week. I looked over my schedule before I started typing a reply. Finally, I looked up after I sent the message. Alex was in an all too familiar phone trance, completely unaware of what was happening.
