Fleeting

Tradition. Tradition, or a momentary lapse of judgment. These were the only two possible reasons that Lisa was now sitting awkwardly on her favorite couch in the world at her favorite home in the world with her favorite person in the world sitting nearby.

...maybe her favorite person in the world.

The frenzied clacking of the keyboard stopped abruptly, and Lisa almost looked up, but decided against it when Jim Carrey shouted "smite me, o mighty smiter!" obviously begging her to pay attention. This, she convinced herself in a dark and useless corner of her brain, was why she didn't turn to look at Kelli, her best friend, when she joined her on the couch.

"How's Barry?" Lisa inquired politely.

A ridiculous grin spread over Kelli's face. It would have been sort of cute if it hadn't been so annoying. "He's good..." She went on to relay some cute--but annoying--thing Barry had said, while Lisa nodded idly and tried to tune her out so she could hear Jim's meeting with Morgan Freeman. Barry did cute and annoying things all the time. Jim Carrey only had seven fingers once. Once per viewing, anyway.

"Hey, Lisa?"

A tad surprised, Lisa turned to face a suddenly-serious Kelli. "Hmm?"

Kelli shifted a bit, not quite meeting Lisa's gaze. "Are you...okay?"

"Um..." Lisa found herself caught off guard by this question, thought not as much as she was by what happened next. Kelli unceremoniously looped her arms around Lisa's shoulders and squeezed-a gesture which would have been returned, Lisa decided in the same useless corner of her brain, if Kelli hadn't been pinning her arms to her sides. After 40 years or 15 seconds, Kelli let go and looked Lisa in the eye with what might have been pity, but also might have been self-satisfaction or mild confusion. "See, this is why you need your best friend."

And with that and a cute--but annoying--grin, she returned to the computer and most likely to Barry, leaving Lisa to wonder why exactly she needed her best friend to invite her over, talk to her boyfriend through their whole movie marathon, not notice the dark circles under her "best friend"'s eyes, and make her miss her favorite part of Bruce Almighty.