Lauren found her roommate in front of her computer aghast at what she was seeing. On the screen some whackjob preacher was saying how the world was doomed to end in a week and a half. Lauren knew her roommate was a bit strange in the religion department, but she had no clue that she was this gullible.
"Oh no!" Christy said as she heard her friends footsteps behind her. "It's doomsday. Maybe the rapture. I don't know. But we're all done for."
"That's all nonesense Chris and you know it."
"No, it's real. This guy is a real bonafida prophet."
"He's never been wrong."
For an hour she tried to convince her friend that it was nonesense but after a while Christy started becoming truly offended at her attempts to dissuade her.
"Fine!" She finally declared in frustration. "The world is ending. So what?"
And then Christy started crying. Damn, what have I done now? Lauren thought to herself. She knew her friend was rather sensitive, even for a girly girl, but she could usually avoid hurting her feelings."
Playing up to the girl's beliefs she asked, "Why are you crying? Won't you be happy to go to heaven if it is the rapture?"
"It isn't that Lauren." She looked up at her with tears in her eyes.
"Well," Lauren said softly, "What is it then?"
"I had a life I wanted to live."
"Don't we all?" Lauren said somewhat regretfully casting a shamefaced glance down at Christy's alluring legs and then quickly back up before her friend noticed.
Christy stood and held her friend as if for dear life and cried on her shoulder.
"But, I didn't want the kind of life most people would expect from me. I'm dirty. Bad."
Now that was something Lauren had never heard from her before. You think you know someone, she thought to herself.
"What do you mean?"
"I can't."
"Can't what?"
"Tell you about it. I'm too ashamed."
"You know you can tell me anything right? We've been friends for four years now. If you don't know you can trust me by now, then I don't know what to say."
"It sin. It isn't trust. I can't say the words. I'm ashamed."
Her friend was so distraught she considered for a moment as the poor girl cried on her shoulder. What she really needed was to let go of her inhibitions. At least enough to confide in her. The only thing Lauren knew that worked and was readily available, was....
"Alcohol." She finished aloud.
"What?" Christy asked.
"I'm going to get you drunk my dear."
"Good Christian girls don't drink."
"I know. But the world is ending anyway, so might as well experience it at least once. Right?"
"Well," Christy started, "If I repent in the morning and ask for forgiveness I guess it will be alright. I mean, we're all going to be gone in a week and a half anyway. Right?"
"That's the spirit," Lauren told her, rolling her eyes at her friends weirdness. She grabbed Christy's hand and led her to the car."
This promised to be an interesting weekend she thought as they drove. Christy was absolutely silent during the drive and Lauren was completely flustered as to what to say to her friend. How could she cheer her up without offending her friends weird beliefs? She had been religious since they'd met. The first night they shared their appartment Christy had tried to convert her, bible in hand. It had been a bit awkward for a while, but Christy had apparently, eventually, decided to accept her status as a "sinner" who couldn't be saved, and Lauren chose to do the same for her. And they'd gotten along great ever since.
She often wondered if her friend were a closet lesbian. She didn't date men. Of course she had her religious reseason for saving herself for marriage, but Lauren was pretty sure a good Christian girl could at least date a man to find out if she wanted to marry him. Even if the date had to have a chaperone or something. But Christy never even mentioned guys. Maybe she plans on saving herself for Christ, she thought acidly, and with a tinge of regret.
Lauren was a lesbian. In the beginning that had been a big part of their conflict that made Lauren think she'd have to find a new roommate before Christy's sudden acceptance of the fact that she wasn't going to be converted. That had been a relief. But sometimes Lauren wished she and Christy had been unable to come to terms with each other. She found Christy very attractive and had often fantasized that the woman she was with on any given night was Christy. It was unfair to her lover of course, but she couldn't help it. It was almost always a test of her self control. It was why her lovemaking sessions were often rough. It was also why she had never gone on more than three or four dates with the same woman. At least not after the first year they had lived together. Despite the fact that Christy was such a weirdo when it came to religious belief, she was a good, kind, and caring friend. She did more than her share of the housework. She even cleaned Lauren's room for her once in a while though at first that was a bit weird. She defintely cooked more than her fair share as well. In some ways Christy was a bit disturbing. She had apparently fallen for the old religious beliefs about woman's place in life. What a waste it would be to have her friend marry some guy and live the life that religions like that map out for women.
In the liquor store she bought a couple of kinds of beer, some sweet wine, vodka, orange juice, tequila and seven up. The store clerk had someone help her load it into the car and Christy showed how naive she was about that sort of thing when she asked, " Will that be enough?"
Lauren laughed. "Sweetie, that could get an army of good Christian girls like you drunk."
Christy's eyes widened.
"I don't know what you'll like so I bought a wide variety."
"That must have cost a lot of money I'm sure Lauren, can I pitch in?"
Lauren knew Christy didn't make a lot of money at her job at the church. But she also knew that Christy was adamant about paying her fair share. She always paid her rent on time, and her share of the bills, even when it meant she had to walk to work instead of spending a little money on bus fair. So she told a little white lie.
"Of course you can dear, your share would come to twenty dollars."
"Exactly twenty?" Christy asked.
"Well, twenty and a bit of change, but what's a few cents between friends?"
Christy smiled and got twenty dollars out of her purse and handed it to Lauren.