Fall from Love

doesn’t let me believe it’s true. Closing my eyes, I’m convinced that I’m just hallucinating, but even then, I still try to burn the image of seeing her smile into my brain. I’ve been missing it so much over the last couple weeks, but I never realized just how much, until now.
    My drunken mind is slowing down my thought process and I don’t realize that this is actually real for a few seconds. Damn! I haven’t seen her in almost two weeks and the first time she’ll see me, I’m going to be shit-faced drunk? I’m off the couch and running up the stairs when I collide with Josh on his way down.
    “What the hell, man? Where’s the fire?”
    “Why didn’t you tell me that Holly was coming over tonight!?” I blurt out.
    “What? I had no idea. She’s here?”
    “Yeah, her and Jenna just showed up.” Just then I hear the front door open.
    “What’s the problem?” Josh says, keeping his voice low. “You’ve wanted to see her, right?”
    “Josh? Carter?” Jenna yells from downstairs.
    “Yeah, babe, I’ll be right down,” Josh yells back.
    “I’m drunk, man. I don’t want her to see me like this,” I grit through my teeth, trying to keep my voice down. As much as I don’t want her to see me like this, it hurts to know that she’s down there right now and I’m not in the same room with her.
    “Go take a long, cold shower and try to sober the fuck up. I’ll keep the girls entertained,” Josh says, poking me in the chest and then jogs down the stairs.
     
    HOLLY
    Jenna and I walk into the house and it seems like no one is home by how quiet it is. Out of nowhere Josh comes running down the stairs with a big smile on his face. I swear, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that guy without a smile on his face. He is always happy. It could be that I’ve only seen him with Jenna around and she’s the one putting that smile on his face. They embrace for a short moment and then Josh turns to me.
    “Hey, Holly,” he says. “I wasn’t expecting you. Jenna said you weren’t gonna be here for New Year’s.”
    “Yeah, I came back early. I hope I’m not crashing your night.”
    “No, no. Of course not. Carter’s just getting ready,” he says, nodding his head towards the stairs. “He should be down soon.”
    “Sweet, tonight may not be a total bust after all.” Jenna smiles. “I was telling Holly on the way over how I kicked your ass in pool this past week. Maybe tonight we can play teams... maybe even a little boy versus girl action.” Jenna raises her eyebrows, looking between us.
    “Care to make it interesting?” Josh challenges.
    “What did you have in mind?” she asks, smiling impishly. I’m not sure why, but I really don’t like where this conversation is going.
    “How about a good ole fashioned game of strip pool?”
    Strip pool? I’ve never heard of it, but I’ve heard of strip poker and I have a feeling the premise of it is similar. “Uh, I’m not so sure about that.” I shake my head, looking back over to Jenna.
    “Well, you two ladies talk it over and decide on whatever your hearts’ desire. I’m gonna go check on Carter.” He takes off, running back upstairs.
    Jenna glances in my direction. “Well, Holly, what does your heart desire?” She’s looking at me with a twinkle in her eye and a goofy ass smile on her face. I know what she’s trying to do, but it isn’t going to work. On the way over, she tried to get me to talk about Carter and I deflected it each time. I’m sure as hell not going to talk about him now, especially not at his house when he’s just right upstairs.
    “You’re funny,” I say. “But it’s not going to work.”
    She rolls her eyes, giving up on the subject. “Okay, fine, but are you gonna leave me hanging on the strip pool or what? I think we could totally take these guys.”
    “Are you kidding me? You’re decent at pool, but I totally suck,” I say, taking my jacket off and laying it across the couch. Between my nerves from the recent game proposal and knowing I’m about to see Carter, a light sweat is starting to break out across my body.
    “Yeah, well, that’s why we’ll have to do a really good job at distracting them. It’s strip pool. There are a ton of fun ways we could distract them.” She looks frustrated that she actually has to explain this to me.
    Josh comes back downstairs, rubbing his hands together. “So, what’s it going to be, ladies? Are we going to shed some clothes or what?”
    Jenna looks over