On the Outside

Lanie

“So.” Erica settled onto her couch, curled her legs under herself, and looked at me with a dramatic pause.

I raised my eyebrows, waiting.

“What do you want for dinner?”

“That’s what you were gonna ask me?”

“Yeah. It’s Thursday night.”

“I remember.”

“I have that recipe for white bean stew.” She ticked it off on her finger. “And then we could make lasagna.” Another tick. “If we want anything else other than frozen waffles, we’ll have to go to the store.”

“Ugh. The store.” I grabbed the folded blanket hanging from over the back of the armchair and tossed it over my legs. “It’s so cold out there, and the store is so far away.”

“True. A block.”

“Don’t you have some leftover candy from that Halloween party you went to?”

“I don’t want to die.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and started scrolling, eyes on the screen.

“That stuff has, like, enough preservatives to make it last for the next century.”

“I’m ordering pizza,” she announced, clicking away.

“No arguments over here.” Pulli