The girls lay in the middle of Zoe's bed, surrounded by walls of pink blanket like marbles dropped upon rising bread dough. They didn't need any words. Zoe was exactly what she wanted herself to be, and she was exactly what Karyn wanted her to be as well, and that feeling of contentment filled them both as they fell asleep giggling in each other's arms.
It wasn't until Jon came home, slamming the front door behind him, that the two woke up. It was already late evening. But Karyn didn't want to leave. She just couldn't stop smiling when she looked at Zoe. And Zoe couldn't stop smiling back. She wanted to stay like this forever. Or at least until school started the next morning.
So she slid her hand to the back pocket of her jeans, pulled out her cell phone, and dialed her mom.
"Hi Mom. Can I stay over at Jon's tonight? No, Zoe's letting me sleep in her room, you don't have to worry about anything like that. Okay. I'll call you in the morning on the way to school."
Zoe stifled a giggle as Karyn hung up. Then the two started right back up where they had left off.
