A Sky Full of Stars

| 2 || Muffy |

//

Loud clattering of pans and the sound of a running sink welcomed Tomomi back as she locked the bolts on her chipped door. It's been a long time since she'd come back to any noise at all. Suddenly, a ball of black fur landed in front of her and she hit her back against the door painfully with a yelp. The doorknob dug at her back but she didn't dare move.

"You could barely pay for your own apartment but you can afford to feed a cat?!"

"She barely needs any feeding!" Mami yelled from behind the walls. "She can find her own food anyways." Her friend walked out with her orange hair tied and pink rubber gloves on, looking at Tomomi as if she was the one who had a problem.

"C-could you at least put it in a cage," Tomomi stuttered. Mami gave her the most repulsive look.

"Muffy, shoo, c'mon. This is her place, not yours." The cat hissed and jumped onto the mattress at the right, making itself comfortable.

"It obviously doesn't act like it."

"It's a he. You come in through the back door?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's harder to find. This room's the only one that's got one so I'm a bit proud of that," Tomomi shrugged as she dropped her oversized coat onto the mattress, successfully forcing the cat to jump off.

"Hey, you can't bully Muffy either," Mami chastised. "I'm making grilled cheese, you want?"

"Sounds like the perfect dinner." Tomomi grinned.

Two steps away and across the mattress was the bathroom, small and barely any space between toilet, shower, and sink. She stepped into the tub that lacked any kind of coverage and turned the tap to hot. She admired the somewhat cleaner surrounding as she took off what little clothes she had and threw them under the sink. The ceiling light also got fixed, replacing the yellowness with a bright white. Tomomi shook her head as she started lathering herself. Mami was still such a clean freak.

The smell of melting cheese sandwiches wafted over her own shampoo when she came out in her bathrobe and steam followed her out the door. The TV was on and Mami sat on the couch on the other side of the "bedroom" wall eating. Tomomi picked up the plate on the cushion and joined her on the couch with a small smile.

"I can't believe you don't even have a table," Mami commented lightly. Some action movie was being played on the small screen in front of them.

"It's not like I really needed one."

"Yeah, well I'm gonna need one for my studies," Mami sighed. "I guess I'll have to go ask Rina for some stuff..."

"Wow, she even kept your stuff?"

"No, I mean, I'll be asking if she could give me something to use."

"She'd let you do that?" Tomomi sounded surprised.

"She doesn't like strippers but that doesn't mean she's not nice," Mami chuckled and looked at her friend and then chuckled again. Tomomi faced her with a confused expression but chose to ignore her and continued chewing on her grilled cheese.

"So how're your studies going? You look tired."

"Tough." Mami looked up at her friend again, who smiled sympathetically. "I got fired from my first job, too. So yeah, I need to find another one really quick. That one paid for part of my college tuition..."

"Why'd you get fired?"

"'Cause some group of guys blamed me for messing up a construction and the boss believed them," Mami scoffed.

"Jackasses."

Tomomi let the television drone take over, resting her head against her friend's shoulder. Guilt gnawed at her heart to hear about Mami's struggles and because it had been partly her fault that they were both in these positions. She also sighed. It's been a long time since they had sat together like this and just talked.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just that it's been a while since we sat like this."

"What do you mean? I always came to visit."

"Outside of that room," Tomomi clarified. Mami laughed silently and nodded.

Soon, the plates were on the floor and they fell asleep on the couch. For Tomomi though, it was only for a couple of hours when she woke up by instinct and stared groggily at her phone. She was late for her night shift. From the moment she woke up that afternoon she was planning to skip this shift but after hearing about Mami's struggles, she decided to splatter some makeup on and get it over with. She put a pillow under the orange head and a blanket over her shivering body. She turned up the heat on her way out and zipped the overcoat over her bra top and stockings and walked out into the dark streets.

//