Page 9 of Rules of Association

“Tell me you aren’t serious,” I deadpanned, moving toward her and batting her rough hands away from her injury. Taking over, I began unlacing the brace, getting it as loose as possible before carefully pulling it off her arm.

“No, I’m not serious,” she snorted. I motioned for her to step aside while I removed the metal stability bars from the old brace and placed them in the new one. “I knewyouwould be here. I would never do that with the Dr. Fun Police on the loose.”

“You just mixed two very unrelated professions,” I pointed out, beckoning her back my way.

“They could be related,” she said. Sidling up to me with distracted eyes as she watched me slip the new blue brace around her wrist. Her bruise was even bluer now than yesterday, bordering on black with red circling the deepest part of it. I’d have to remind her to soak it when all the excitement of her birthday died down. Luckily, the inside of this brace should not only look better but feel better too, since it was lined with a softer fabric than the default brace the doctors handed out. Without even a wince of pain as I handled her injury, she went on. “You know the whole horrible accident, police showing up, ambulance ride, doctors saving a life cycle. It’s textbook.”

I scoffed, “That is nottextbook, that’s just the plot of every one of those hospital dramas you watch.”

“You watch them too!”

“It’s purely for survival, Ceci. If I don’t stay in and watch bad TV with you at least some of the time, I’ll be forced to be your getaway driver from mayhem like last night even more than I already have to.” With the brace secure on her arm I moved to tying the laces. “I’m really looking out for both of us here.”

“Yeah sure. That’s why you ask meevery Monday nightif we’re on for General ER?For our survival.”

“Correct—you know, I’m impressed you’re listening so well on your birthday,” I said, flicking her an amused gaze. “I thought you were going to be a hardheaded terror like last year.”

She guffawed, no doubt remembering last year. It had been the rainy season during her birthday and after having analmostsuccessful night of calm indoor activities, she’d broken down and insisted on running out on the beach and plunging into the water. The Atlantic Ocean in May was cold as shit, even on the last day of it. She called it her “Arctic Baptism” and had almost fucking drowned in the high tide.

“Yeah well,” she shrugged and attempted to hide her wince when it swayed her wrist too hard. I gentled my hands. “The good behavior’s only for you. Since you bailed me out last night.”

“Hmm,” I hummed.

She continued to peek up at me, “Thanks for staying with me, by the way.”

Sliding the last of the laces into place, I tied the knot into a bow and let go of her wrist only to reach up to grab her cheek between my fingers, pinching. “Yeah well, somebody had to do it. How’s the party? Are you having fun?”

“Ow, Con!” Batting me away with her good hand, she smiled up at me. Laughing, she wrapped her fingers around mine, holding on absently as she kept me away from her cheeks. I gripped her right back. “Yes, I’m having fun. You know I love being the center of attention.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know.”

“But I’ve been waiting forever for you to get your ass here already.”

From the corner of my eye, I gave her a longer look. Cee was never really all that emotional. She teetered on a constant seesaw between happy and angry. It’s like you had two sides of a coin with her. She wasn’t fake and she never sugar-coated anything. She was incapable of easing into any emotion. She either felt something or she didn’t and that’s what made her so easy for me. I knew she’d be either one or the other ninety-nine percent of the time.

Still, I sometimes found myself checking in just to be sure I hadn’t hurt her feelings or burned her in some unknown way.

Thankfully, when I looked at her now, she was smiling softly as she looked out the kitchen window onto her party. She seemed okay. Still happy. Nothing out of order. Which meant my heart remained easy, knowing she was good.

Catching me watching her, she flipped her gaze up her shoulder to peer at my face. “What?”

“Sorry you had to wait for me,” I said

“I’m always waiting for you, Con. You make everything more fun,” she said. Turning my way she put her hands on her hips and cocked her head like she had something other than her next words on her mind. “I need to get back to the party soon. My guests are probably dying of boredom without me.”

I held back my snort because even though she was joking, she was probably right. In the short time I’d known Ceci, I’d picked up on her special energy. The way she gave sparks of herself to everyone she came across. It was electric in a biased sort of way. If you were on her good side, you could bask in her surge forever. And on the wrong side of it, prepare to get burned.

“Don’t tell me you don’t have some kind of scheme for me,” I said, giving her a flat assessing look right back. “No birthday games this year?”

Her grin made me feel like I was being tested. I think the fact that I passed was the only reason I wasn’t offended. Like I’d ever forget this.

Ceci liked to play games. Moreover, Ceci didn’t like being bored. I was convinced she was a bird in another life. Flitting around from place to place, idea to idea at a hundred miles an hour. Another thing that made her easy for me. She was never boring. I never felt the urge to forsake her for my own interests, namely technology. While computers and cyberspace seemed more interesting than most anything, most anything was less interesting than Ceci.

Example being the way she perked up at the sound of my words. Probably already having thought of how she was going to torture me today since it was her birthday and she knew she’d get anything she wanted.

“I’m glad you asked,” she said in a way that told me sheknewI was going to ask. “Okay so,Iwas thinking, whoever can use the phrase‘oh yeah, what was their name again’the most and get away with it, wins,” she said.

Before I could even comment, she piped back up. “And no cheating this time! It only counts if it’s about each other.”

---