Whoo, okay, chapter number two now!

Thanks very much to the anons AwesomeSause and lolly for reviewing!

A few minutes later, I was waiting alone underneath a tree in the park. Liz had gone off on her own, promising to come back with something that would cheer me up.

"Leaving me alone in the first place isn't exactly cheering me up." I muttered under my breath in annoyance. I took another look around, sighing.

"Well, at least it's a nice day." I said, a cool breeze blowing by just as I did so. The sky was blue, the birds chirping, grass was green. All in all, a cliché gorgeous summer day.

"I'm back!" Liz said in a sing-song voice. I looked over to where her voice came from to see her walking towards me, two shopping bags in one hand. One was bigger and looked like it came from a grocery store, and the other was from...

Blockbuster? My eyes widened, gaze locking on the two bags in her hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her roll her eyes with a knowing smile.

"Twelve still-warm chocolate chip cookies!" She announced, placing the bigger bag in my lap, and hid the Blockbuster one in her purse. I didn't mind, too focused on the now exposed cookies in front of me.

"Chocolate chip!" I exclaimed in glee, reaching into the bag and pulling out a warm cookie. I sank my teeth into the cookie, closing my eyes and humming happily as the chocolate flavor washed over my tongue.

"You and your obsession with chocolate chip cookies." Liz said dryly, interrupting my moment of pure bliss. I shrugged, swallowing the cookie and taking out another one.

"Well, at least it's cheap to bribe me." I said before swallowing a bite of the third cookie.

"Yeah." She admitted, then quickly changed her tone. "Don't go eating all of those twelve cookies now! Three at most!"

I paused with the fourth cookie at my lips, glancing at her from the corner of my eyes. She sent me a glare.

"Remember the last time you ate too many cookies?" Liz asked, making me cringe. Cookies were delicious, but when I ate too many...

I put the cookie back in the box, saving them for later. I was now trying to snoop into Liz's purse, wondering what movie she had bought. She snatched it away as soon as she noticed me snooping, holding it out of my reach.

"You're not getting this until we get home!" She said, leaning back as I leant forward to grab at her purse.

"Well, at least tell me what it is." I whined. She opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off quickly. "I mean, I know it's a movie, but it is for me, right?"

"Of course." She seemed amused by that question. "Knowing you, we'll probably end up watching it at least twice tonight as soon as we get home."

I perked up at this.

"DreamWorks? Disney? 20th Century Fox?" I asked, quickly making a list of all the movies that came out about four months ago that I had wanted to see.

"You'll find out when we get home!" Liz sang, smiling as she stood up. "Speaking of which." She looked up at the sky.

I looked up as well, seeing that the sky had turned orange from the now setting sun. I stole one more curious glance at her purse, then stood up.

Cookies in hand, I walked over to Liz. As I came closer, she quickly got in step with me, purse carefully tucked under the arm farthest from me. I sighed-she knew me too well.

I set the pace at an easy jog, hoping to get home soon and find out what movie she had bought me. Liz knew me well, and whatever it was would be a good distraction to my lost job.

I winced slightly at the reminder. Oh, well. It's not like I would die without a job. With my resumé, I would be able to land another job within a month or two. And until then, Liz would help me with the basic expenses. Come to think of it, so would Sky.

Sky!

"WAIT!" I shouted, nearly scaring the daylights out of Liz. She frantically looked around, searching for whatever caused me to shout so suddenly.

"What?" She asked, turning back to me after finding nothing.

"We need to invite Sky!" I exclaimed again, already digging my cellphone out of my pocket. Liz rolled her eyes, then reached over and turned the speakerphone on so that she could hear both sides of the conversation.

"Sky's Butcher Shop; you stab 'em, we slab 'em. How may I help you?" A voice with a bad New York accent answered the phone. I grinned, while Liz only shook her head at his usual greeting.

"Ello ello ello! How are you this beautiful Wednesday afternoon?" I asked pleasantly. Liz once again shook head at my usual greeting.

"I'm great, Z!" Came the enthusiastic reply, now lacking the fake accent. "How are you? And you as well, Liz?" He raised his voice slightly at Liz's question, knowing that the two of us normally listened to each others phone calls.

"Fine." Liz answered, just before I answered, "Not so good."

"Oh?" Sky asked, tone changing to concerned in a heartbeat. That's why he, Liz and I were such great friends. We were all notorious teasers, but could snap to serious in a second.

"I was let go today." I answered, carefully keeping all emotions out of my voice. Liz hooked her arm in mine, and started walking me towards our apartment.

"Oh, so the maniacs that run that company finally let go of the only sensible and somewhat sane person they had?" Sky asked, both sympathetic and exasperated at the same time.

I giggled at his question, narrowly missing tripping over a loose stone at my lapse in concentration.

"You make it seem like I'm the only thing keeping them from total bankruptcy." I said, ducking under the broken overhang that used to decorate the wall above the door to my apartment complex.

"Are you kidding me? Remember that day I went to your work to tell them you were sick? I didn't see a single person in there that wasn't a jackass or and idiot." Sky complained.

"Now that I think about it, you're right. They fired the only other human being with a brain a few months ago. I should've known it would be my turn soon enough." I said, now feeling a bit better about being fired.

"I feel a little better." I said, then quickly continued before Sky could talk. "BUT!"

"But?" Came the amused reply.

"But, I still need a movie night to get over the loss of my income!" I announced dramatically. "And to make the movie night complete, we need you present as well!" I could practically hear him roll his eyes, even though I wasn't anywhere near him.

"Only this once!" He grumbled. I, however, knew him well enough to see past the grumbles.

And though I could see-hear, whatever-past his charade I apparently couldn't see past my own nose. I walked straight into our apartment door, Liz having somehow got me through the elevator and her arm out of mine without me noticing.

"Dammit, Lizzie!" I cried out as I bounced off the door on to the floor, landing hard on my buttox. She grinned evilly at me, eyebrows lowered dramatically just to annoy me.

"What?" Came Sky's voice from the phone I had dropped when I kissed wood. "What happened?"

"Liz made me run into the door." I mumbled, glaring at the aforementioned dirty-blond. She just smiled cheekily at me as she unlocked the door, picking up my dropped purse in the process.

"Oh? What did I tell you about walking and talking on the phone at the same time?" Sky said, amused. I huffed in annoyance.

"I don't run into things that often!" I exclaimed angrily. After which I proceeded to fall ass-over-teakettle over the back on the couch. There was a moment of vertigo, then suddenly I was situated comfortably in my regular spot near the arm.

Liz burst out laughing at the double irony. I just shook my head.

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