“Hey, guys.” I held the door open as Alex and Jasper came inside, Jasper with a suspicious look on her face.

It looked like Alex had dragged Jasper here straight from bed, because Jasper was wearing black sweatpants, and her hair wasn’t brushed. She had a ratty jacket thrown over an oversized black t-shirt, and she looked vaguely grumpy.

Alex, on the other hand, was a ray of sunshine and looked like she had taken the usual two hours to get herself ready.

Jasper looked at me as soon as they walked in, and raised an eyebrow as she asked, “So, do you know why Alex decided to drag me here as soon as I woke up?”

“You didn’t tell her?” I looked between Alex and Jasper.

“I figured it’d be easier to just show her. Where’s Zesper?” Alex sauntered past me.

“I am right here.” Zesper came out from the kitchen, holding a piece of toast in his hand (once I showed him how to make it, he spent most of his time in my kitchen, using up all my bread).

I watched as Jasper narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth wordlessly, staring at Zesper for a long, silent moment before going, “Well shit, alright then. You got any more toast?”

~~~

The four of us were sitting in the living room, Alex and Jasper on the couch, and Zesper in the armchair with me sitting on the ground beside him. We had just finished filling in Jasper on everything that had happened so far.

“Alright, so, to recap- You two found Zesper in the bushes, brought him here. You-” Jasper pointed at Zesper, “-have been staying here, and we have no idea how you got here and there is basically no chance of getting you back. Oh, and you two are together, right?”

Zesper’s face fell in the span of a second, but as soon as Jasper mentioned us being together, his brows knit together in confusion.

“Yes.” I answered Jasper’s question, and I turned to Zesper, saying “It means dating,” as an explanation.

Zesper nodded at me, but we both turned back when Jasper said, “So, what do we do now?”

It was completely silent. Alex was staring at my ceiling, and I was fiddling nervously with my hands. I couldn’t see what Zesper’s expression was from where I was sitting, but I assumed it wasn’t a positive one. The silence was suffocating, and the atmosphere grew tenser every second.

What could we say? Jasper had highlighted our problem, which was that none of us had a damn clue what we were supposed to do next. It was blatantly obvious that Zesper wasn’t going to be able to go back home, and we all knew it.

A full minute passed, then Alex finally broke the tense silence, changing the subject entirely. “How about we play a game or something?”

Jasper stretched, then yawned. “Sounds good to me. If we sit still any longer I’m gonna fall back asleep.”

I was on board, if only to get Zesper’s mind off his planet. “I’ve got Uno.”

“What is that?”

I craned my neck to look at Zesper, and said, “It’s a card game. We can explain the rules to you, it’s not very hard.”

“It’s tons of fun!” Alex bounced off the couch, already going to the shoddy bookshelf I kept to hold all my books and knick-knacks.

“It turns people into savages, just wait and see,” Jasper warned Zesper, moving down onto the floor, adjusting herself so she was across from me.

“I am very good at being a savage.” Zesper slid down next to me, and slipped his tail around my waist once he was comfortable.

“Hell yeah!” Alex threw down the pack of cards and collapsed on the floor next to Jasper.

After explaining the rules to Zesper, we played a trial round, and it wasn’t long before it was a complete free-for-all, with all four of us vehemently cursing out one another.

More than once Alex distracted Jasper long enough to where Jasper would play the wrong card, and then smirk in victory once Jasper realized what she’d done. Zesper, it turns out, was extremely competitive, and it made me laugh when he turned dark blue in rage.

At some point I made popcorn, and it didn’t take very long before we were shoving it down each other’s shirts. This naturally led to the cushions being taken from my couch and thrown, too. An all-out war began, cards and popcorn flying through the air, yelling and laughing filling my apartment.

We had the time of our lives.

It finally ended when me and Jasper teamed up to take down Alex and Zesper. All four of us fell on the floor, laughing our asses off, looking like we had just gone through a war. My living room was completely and totally wrecked, but it was definitely worth it in the end.

Every time we fell silent, one of us would start laughing again and set us all off. Zesper’s laugh alone made me giggle, because it was this loud rasping sound, and he looked so cute while doing it (not that I told him).

More than anything else, I was glad Zesper wasn’t dwelling on the current situation, and that alone made me smile.