"Just look at him! He's shedding all over the couch." Maggie paused and waved her small fist at him. "Get off, you little rodent!"

"Ah, leave him alone, Mags. He's happy."

"He's fat!"

As one-year-old kittens go he was overweight, but the first six months of his life had been hard. I'd rescued him from starvation and ever since he got the good stuff. He definitely ate better than I did. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

"Fine, he's fappy," I said with a pouty lip.

I sat down and cuddled him into my lap. His blue eyes popped open and, when he saw it was me, he purred loudly. Maggie rounded the corner of the second hand navy blue couch and hissed at him. Patches turned and promptly hissed back.

"Oh you guys!" I rolled my eyes, feeling like I was in the middle of a sibling fight.

"Hurry and get out of those dirty scrubs. I'm gonna go change the kitty litter. That little beast is sure to have used it again," Maggie said shooing me to hurry with her hands.

It wasn't that I didn't change the litter; it's that I never had a chance to. Maggie is an obsessive-compulsive clean freak and I'm the exact opposite. It worked well. I didn't have to clean up my mess because every time Maggie saw it, her petite little nose wrinkled up with disgust and she'd pick it up. She never complained... I wasn't exactly a pig but I'd been known to let a few soda cans collect. I also wasn't knocking her clean freak streak. She couldn't help it; it was a compulsion. When she was little her idea of 'fun' was to help her maids scrub the tiled floors of the bathroom with a toothbrush. So, she's a little crazy...

"Okay my love," I whispered against his ear before pressing a kiss to his wet nose, "gotta go change."

He mewed and settled back into the couch, but when he realized I'd gotten up he arched his back and jumped off to follow me. The apartment was a two bedroom, one bath, and a kitchen with washer and dryer hook-ups. So we had to cook and do laundry in the kitchen. When we first looked at it Maggie had been appalled. She'd fanned her face, called her father, and told him she couldn't live like this. He hung up on her. Her behavior afterwards still made me giggle when I thought about it. It really wasn't that bad. Two bird's, one stone, I figured. Make food, do laundry.

I stopped in front of the washer and shucked my scrubs in before walking down the hall to my bedroom. I grabbed my favorite red and black plaid button up from my bed and went over to the dirty clothes hamper in the corner to pull out my favorite blue jeans.

I turned to see Maggie standing in the doorway, scowling at me. "I wish you would just let me do your laundry. You would never wear dirty clothes if it was up to me."

I was willing to let her clean up after me and change the kitty litter, but I put my foot down when it came to my laundry. "You're my best friend, not my mother. I can do my own laundry. You do too much already."

"You pay all the bills. Let's call it even. I have a clean pair of jeans..."

I held my hand up, cutting her off. "You're about three sizes smaller than me. I happen to like breathing."

Maggie sighed and dropped her head against the side of the doorway. "Two sizes and besides, you look great in my jeans. They really accentuate your ass. If I had an ass like yours I'd want to wear a few sizes too small all the time."

"I'll stick with my baggy jeans."

"Did you get until next Friday off?"

Her sudden question made my heart hurt and I collapsed onto the bed. It was another problem with being an adult. I shook my head.

"You always ask the week of Halloween off. You didn't get it?"

I shrugged. "I didn't even ask. I can't ask for a week off at a new job."

I loved everything about Halloween; the decorating, the dressing up, the passing out and consumption of candy, and then going to the late night party afterwards. No matter what I was doing, whether it was my part time-job back home or issues with school, I would put everything on hold for that one week out of the year. Haunted houses every day, if possible, until Halloween included, but I was a newbie at work and I couldn't afford the time off. Not this time.

I shook my head, feeling the weight of reality and adulthood rearing its ugly head. I wanted that time off so bad, but my budget wouldn't allow it and if I'd asked they probably would've looked at me like I was high.

"Oh Bee, I'm sorry."

Another half-hearted shrug, life happens and being an adult sucked the big one. "It's fine. I have a meeting with our event coordinator on Monday to see what we can do about a party. I spoke with him on the phone and he seemed pleased with my ideas. I think my group might be the only one enjoying the holiday though. Seems like the other caretakers aren't celebrators, but I'm working on some of the nurses. Old Mr. Benson played off the idea as child's play, but I think he's secretly excited about it too."

Mr. Benson was one of my favorites. He was an elderly nocturnal resident with a sense of humor that would make Richard Pryor proud if he were still alive. Though, sometimes, it verged on the dirty side and would occasionally include a light pat to my tush. It was all in good fun and I usually visited his room one extra time at the end of my shift so I could stay longer and chat with him.

"It's more of a reason to go party... so let's go." Maggie sounded impatient. "Macabre will help you find your missing Halloween spirit. You know it will and since you have the weekend off," she paused, "it is still your weekend off, right?"

I nodded.

"We'll use that spa gift card I got you for your birthday tomorrow."

I bit my lip to keep from grinning too widely. "Thanks for telling me my present early."

Maggie's face scrunched into a frown and she smacked her thigh in outrage. "Damn it!"

Another reason I loved Halloween was because it also happened to be my birthday. I tied my tennis shoes and stood up. "Don't worry about it. I hope you didn't spend too much on that spa gift card."

She clucked her tongue and sneered. "I'm gonna get you something else now."

"You better not, but since it is my birthday in a few days, can I drive your car?"

Maggie pursed her lips, but pulled her arm from behind her back and dangled her keys in front of my face. "I know you too well," she said with a chuckle.

I snatched the keys and darted towards the door. I may have hated my old beat up car, but her three month old Lexus was a different story.