"Kristy?"
Kristy twisted around in the armchair to look at her girlfriend. "Hey, Dawn." She motioned to the TV, glowing in the dark room. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd catch up on box scores."
Dawn made her way over and sat on the chair's arm. "I woke up and I didn't hear you snoring."
Kristy hit her arm, grinning. "I do not snore."
Dawn laughed. "Sure. Right, absolutely you don't." She slid down, landing half on Kristy's lap.
Kristy touched her hair, briefly, before scooting to the side to give Dawn more room. Dawn snuggled in, laying her head on Kristy's shoulder.
"Did you get your scores?" she asked.
"Yeah, I just wanted to see how the Huskies were doing." Kristy's attention refocused on the TV.
"And?" Dawn prompted.
"They won," she said. "Sorry. It was the Yankee rundown. They lost," she said, anticipating Dawn's question.
They watched quietly for a few minutes until coverage changed.
"Do you want to see what else is on?" Dawn asked.
"What about your 9am?" Kristy asked. "It's already almost 2."
"Canceled," she said. "I don't have anything until 1."
"Let's find a movie, then." Kristy clicked through the channels, finding more infomercials than programming, until she hit upon WGN. "Oh, this is great! Noises Off. We have to watch this."
"Sure," Dawn agreed. "But let's get out of the chair, at least." She pulled Kristy to her feet after her and they settled on the couch, Kristy's back to Dawn's front.
"I heard from Mary Anne today," Dawn said sleepily, at the first commercial. She twirled Kristy's ponytail in her fingers.
"That’s nice," Kristy said. "How was that lab this afternoon? Any better?"
"No, it still has me over its knees," she said. "Anatomy bothers me. I’m not going to be a medical doctor. Why do I need to see sliced open bodies and brains? You, the physical therapy student, could benefit from seeing muscles. But me?" She continued her rant, the same one Kristy had heard every Wednesday night all semester. When she finished, she segued back to her earlier train of thought without a break. "She says hello, by the way."
"The cadaver?" Kristy asked. "Oh, watch this part, it’s so funny."
Dawn obediently watched, delighted by the scene. "I’m sorry I haven’t seen this before now," she said. "Mary Anne said hello, though. If the cadaver spoke to me, you’d have heard about it before now. Trust me."
"Good to know," Kristy said, turning her head to grin at Dawn.
"Anyway, she wants you to e-mail her," Dawn said, keeping a firm grip on Kristy’s arm so she couldn’t turn away.
"I know," Kristy said, after a pause. "She e-mailed me last week. And yesterday."
"And you read them?" Dawn asked. "Really?"
"I started to," she said. "But then I just kept getting annoyed. She was so earnest in her apologies, and just didn’t let up. I couldn’t finish them."
"If you told her it was okay, she’d stop apologizing," Dawn pointed out.
Kristy shrugged. "I guess. After she did it in person, anyway. I don’t know. I don’t think I’m ready yet."
Dawn squeezed her. "Okay. Then let’s just watch the movie. Don’t want to miss any more of it."
"I agree," Kristy said, nodding. She snuggled back against Dawn, taking her hand, and settled in for the night.