October brought with it more cold than ever. The girls were both used to harsh weather, but it just kept getting colder and colder and neither of them owned anything thicker than a heavy flannel. And they were starting to go hungry; their bosses were cutting their shifts and extra money made by picking up extra hours was now impossible to come by. Talk about tough times.

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"Noodles, we need noodles! We need--WE NEED NOODLES!"

"I HEAR YOU!"

"THEN ACT LIKE IT!"

Grocery shopping was something neither Charlie nor Alex enjoyed doing very much. They'd gone out to get some food with the few dollars left over from their miserable paychecks after paying their bills, but found the most they could afford were some bagged noodles and canned fruit. That would only last them a couple days (in reality, it should've lasted one, but they'd gotten good at saving food), and they were both paid by the month. Who knew when they'd be able to come back for more.

"If we were rich, this would be so much fun," Charlie said as she pushed the cart.

Alex turned to look at her from her spot in the basket of said cart. "Or if we had money at all," she said with a sour laugh. "Hurry up, I wanna get home already."

"This might go faster if you weren't in there." She was joking; this was their tradition. The one in the cart reached out and grabbed items while the one pushing it simply steered. They traded positions every market trip.

"That's it, I'm movin' out. See ya, Charlie--" Alex started to stand up, but Charlie jolted the cart forward, making her quickly sit back down.

"That's what I thought."

They paid for their food and left, Alex wrapping the groceries in her flannel and throwing them over her shoulder like Santa Claus. That was another funny little tradition of theirs.

They got home to quite the strange surprise: several impatient rockers waiting outside their door with their arms crossed, tapping their feet and looking around in pure boredom. Stone stepped forward when he saw the girls, hands out as he opened his mouth to explain.

"I didn't mean to tell them all where you guys live, we were all just hanging out and I remembered I wanted to bring you something and I also have news but then Sean wanted to know where you lived because he didn't think it was fair that I know where the place is at and he didn't and Ben said the same and I said no because if you hadn't told them then that might mean you didn't want them to know and I didn't want to be the one to bring them here but this really couldn't wait so I came and they all followed...but then you weren't here anyway..."

Alex blinked. "I caught like...twenty-five percent of that. I mean it's no big deal, we don't care if you guys know where we live. But why didn't you go in?"

"You think I was gonna let them know where the spare key is?"

"That's okay, you know. It's right here," Charlie said to the other guys. She took the coat hanger tied to their doorknob and lowered it into a crack between the wall and the floor, fishing around for a moment before carefully lifting it, the key hanging on the end. "It doesn't even matter who you are; if you can get it out of there, you've earned the right to get in."

She unlocked the door and let everyone in. Alex finally got a look at everyone who'd come over: Stone and Sean of course, as well as Ben, the rest of Alice In Chains, and Jeff.

"Sorry, it's kind of small and it's a mess," Charlie began as they all poured in.

"If any of you have some kind of problem with sitting on our dirty-ass floor, you can get the hell out--I'm kidding, it's clean. But really, there isn't enough space for everyone on the couch and chairs," Alex said as she dragged the chairs in from the balcony.

"Not a problem," Jeff said, promptly falling to the floor. The seats weren't even taken yet.

"I...Okay. Well, Stone, what's your news?"

"Um...come outside for a second."

She nodded and took him the by the hand, leading him out to the balcony and closing the curtain and door behind them. "This better not be bad news."

Stone glanced down over the edge of the balcony. "How high up is this?"

"High enough." Alex leaned against the rail and crossed her arms.

"Jesus Christ--here, this is what I brought. I finally found it and I wanted to make sure you got it before I lost it again." He stuck his hand in the pocket of his too-big dark yellow sweater and took out whatever it was in his fist, hiding it from her view. He took her wrist in his other hand and she automatically opened her hand as he lowered the still concealed item into it. She felt something cold touch her palm and he took his hand away, closing hers around the object. Excitement nearly causing her to drop it as she guessed what it was, she took one look at it and proceeded to throw her arms around her friend.

"You found it! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I owe you everything, I never thought I'd see it again!"

"Hey, all I did was find it while finally cleaning the place up...but I'm glad to see you're happy," he said with a big smile that she couldn't see as he hugged her back. "But listen, I also have to tell you something."

"Yeah?" She released him, still beaming.

"Okay, uh...shit. I guess...I mean..."

"Take your time," Alex joked.

He nervously laughed and nodded, clearing his throat. "We found a singer. He's gonna fly up and be here in a week."

"Oh." Alex didn't know what to say. She kept her smile as best she could, trying to act cool with it. "That's, you know, that's cool. I hope he's a good match for the band."

"Is that all?" Stone asked, trying to gauge her reaction but not having much to work with.

"Yeah, I mean...what else is there to say? I think it's great."

Let it be noted that Alex was less than thrilled about this.

"No you don't. But that's okay, you're gonna love--you're gonna like this guy. Now come on, they're gonna think you actually jumped."

"You go, I just want a second."

He nodded, putting a hand on her fist and looking at her face for a moment before nodding and heading back inside.

Alex looked down and opened her hand. In it was one of her most prized possessions: three old pieces of blue rope braided together with two charms attached to the middle. One was a gold heart and the other was a small dog tag in the shape of a bone. She couldn't help a small laugh as she tied it around her wrist and admired it for a moment before heading inside.

"I'm sorry we have no food to offer you guys," Alex said as she sat on the arm of the couch. "Unless you guys are down to split two bags of instant noodles. And some canned fruit."

"That's okay," Jeff and Ben said at the same time. Everyone took a moment to acknowledge the sync before they all carried on assuring Alex that they didn't have to split the noodles.

They ended up watching Monday Night Football, no one really caring about the outcome of the game as none of the teams they liked were involved. Mike and Jeff had to leave early since they wanted to get some sleep before their early shifts at work the next day, but everyone else slept over after staying up way too late. That was surprising seeing as the only places the guests could sleep were the couch and floor, but none of them had a problem with that.

Alex and Charlie stayed up even later, neither letting the other know that she was still awake as both thought the other to be asleep. They were starving, now really regretting not opening one of the cans of fruit before.

Alex sighed and sat up in the creaky mattress they shared, careful so as not to disturb Charlie (who figured she was either headed for the bathroom or out for a smoke, which was odd but not uncharacteristic of her roommate, who was comparable to a chimney). Alex slowly moved back the blanket and turned to sit on the edge of the mattress as she felt around the dark floor for her shoes, grabbing them and standing up and tiptoeing out of the room when she finally found them.

She made it out of the apartment undetected by the guys. The night air greeted her by giving her a few seconds before seeping into the thin fabric of her night clothes (an old hoodie and some sweatpants) as she sat in front of the door and put her shoes on. She shivered as she stood up, shaking her head as if to brush off the cold and running down the stairs and around the back of the apartment. Without stopping she leapt onto the chain-link fence separating the property the apartment was built on and that of the house behind it, climbing up and jumping over onto the other side. She knew she only had a minute before the damn neighborhood dogs noticed her and started barking, so she ran at full speed toward the big apple tree in the middle of the yard. Still not hesitating, she climbed up the tree and quickly but carefully yanked off a few apples, trying her hardest to see if they had any worms but knowing she had to be fast.

She heard a dog running across the next yard over and realized her time was up. She didn't bother climbing down the tree, instead she jumped and took off running with pain threatening to split her ankles. One of the dogs that belonged to that yard barked and started loping toward her, scaring the absolute life out of her. Alex made it to the fence just in time.

She catapulted over it and turned to taunt the dog for a moment. A light on the neighbor's back porch came on and someone yelled at the dog. Alex took that as her signal to get the hell out of there and ran around the apartment, up the stairs, into her own unit (and just about slamming the door closed but stopping it right as she remembered the sleeping people), to the bedroom, and right to the bed.

"Where did you go?" Charlie asked.

"Oh good, you're awake. I brought you something," Alex whispered in an eager tone. She grabbed one side of her hoodie and lifted it, and out came tumbling the apples. "Please God let me not have grabbed any with worms."

"Alex, where did you get these?"

"The neighbor's tree. I only took a few and the dog didn't get me, so I see no downside to this."

"The dog?"

"Yeah, that big old Rottweiler. He saw me and damn near got me, but I outran his old ass." Alex was still panting but was obviously proud.

"Alex, that dog is only around four years old! And he's huge, he could've really hurt you!" Charlie sat up and looked at her friend in disbelief.

"But he didn't, now here." Alex took the apples into the kitchen and washed them under a thin stream of water before bringing them back and handing them to Charlie, who blinked and looked down at the apples with uncertainty.

"This doesn't feel right."

"It's just an apple, calm down," Alex said as she slid under the covers. She grabbed one of the apples and removed the stem, splitting it in two and giving the slightly bigger piece to Charlie.

"Still..."

"They won't miss them!" Alex took a bite of the apple and felt happy enough to die. It was crunchy and juicy and sweet; perfect. "Dude, you have to try this shit."

Charlie rolled her eyes and lifted the apple to her mouth, gingerly nibbling at it. She leaned back in disbelief and took a bigger bite. "Holy shit, these are great."

"I know, right? Damn, these were worth all that."

They ate all of the apples right then and there, unable to stop after that first bite. No longer hungry, they soon fell asleep.

✩✩✩

Alex spent the week leading up to October 8th preparing to meet the new singer. She knew the new band was very important to Stone and Jeff, so she wanted to get along with the guy. After work that Monday she and Charlie dropped by Stone's place, Alex having replaced the tape on her boots for the occasion and Charlie wearing her newest and nicest flannel.

Alex honestly didn't know what to think when she met the new guy. His name was Eddie Vedder and he seemed pretty nice, but was so shy he didn't say a word unless someone spoke to him first and even then his responses were short. She liked him though; as much as she was predisposed not to she couldn't help but find him sweet and interesting.

"So, what do you think of Eddie?" Charlie asked on the way back to her and Alex's place.

Alex sighed and looked up at the starry night sky. "I like him. He seems like a nice guy."

"Yeah, I think so too." Charlie looped her arm around Alex's, noticing the mood her friend was in. "Come on, let's go crack open a can of fruit."

Alex chuckled and nodded, putting a little skip in her step as she walked along. "Man, what would I do without you?"

"Ya know, I ask myself that all the time." They both laughed and hurried home to their fruit.

✩✩✩

;)

please remember to stay safe and hydrated, have fun, listen to good music, be what you wanna be, and stay sober for Layne. until next time!