Craig was in the shower when Jay arrived. Jay came inside without knocking like he always did. I stood up to greet him.

"Hey Spin, where should I put this?" he asked, gesturing to the bottle of liquor in his hand.

"You know it doesn't matter," I replied with a smile.

Jay placed the bottle on the kitchen table, also smiling. He walked over to the refridgerator and looked inside.

"Don't you have ever eat? You never have any food," Jay said plainly.

"Hey, shut that door," I snapped, "Do you know how much it costs everytimesomeone opens that?"

"No," Jay snickered, "But then how can you afford to keep the shower running when no one's in it?"

"Huh?" I said, not realizing what he meant at first.

"The shower--"

"Ohh," I said quickly, "Actually, Craig's in the shower."

Jay raised his eyebrow. Then he started to laugh. I didn't think it was very funny. For the first time in over a year I had my friend back.

"It's not a joke," I added defensively.

Jay stopped laughing.

"So you're serious?" Jay inquired, "Craig Manning is in your shower?"

"Yeah," I confirmed.

"I thought that kid hated your guts...?" Jay said cautiously.

"I guess not," I stated, "He needed a place to stay, so I told him he could stay here."

At that moment, Craig came out of the bathroom door wearing nothing but a towel. Both Jay and I turned quickly at the sound of the door.

"Hey guys," Craig said politely, "What's going on?"

"Nothing," I said.

"Hey Jay," Craigacknowledged himwhen he realized that Jay was uncomfortable.

"..Hey.." Jay responded uneasily.

"Don't mind me," Craig said after a short silence, "I'll only be here a couple days."

There was an awkward pause in which we all stared at each other. Suddenly, Craig smiled uncomfortably and then went into my room to change. WhenCraig shut the door, Jay turned to me.

"He hates me too," Jay said sadly.

"He doesn't hate you and he doesn't hate me," I assured him.

"Then why was he looking at me like that?" Jay asked.

"Come on, you don't care about stuff like that," I reminded Jay.

Jay was speechless. I guess he felt defeated or something. He never liked to admit that he had emotions. He'd just wait until he was piss drunk and let them come out in a wave of self-pity and regret.

"Let's open that 151," I suggested, trying to make Jay feel better.

Jay smiled again. I grabbed the liquor bottle from the table and we sat down on my couch. We sat there for a few minutes admiring the bottle before opening it.

"Bottom's up," I said, puttingit to my lips andswallowing hard.