i was with my brother and a bunch of other people, maybe from high school, in a restaurant like the arena building. there was this cat there and i knew her name was cleopatra, and i also knew the person she changed into was kelli hermans ex-best-friend Erin. back in chriss (red) pickup truck, we saw the cat again, she was on the dash, i said to chris now what the hell did i say her name was and some girl behind us (like calli, alison, etc) said Cleopatra. Oh yeah. Then the cat turned into Erin (only with dark hair instead of red-blonde) and I was talking with her and we were in the mirror-foyer at moms house. Rachel was somewhere nearby, watching with a hint of amusement and an erotically charged (for me) touch of scorn. I said, Erin, just to be sure I was correct about who she was, and she rolled over on her side and gave me a desultory Yeah? Did you ever come to Columbia and meet a girl named Rachel? I dont know, I dont remember. No, why would you. Well, did you and Kelli ever patch things up? No, not really, (with a hint of distaste.) I was sort of pleased by this, tho vaguely ashamed of that pleasure. I was going to say more on the subject, but then she answered a question I dont remember asking, about whether Kelli ever talked about me: Only to say how dorky and sissy you were. Her voice was naturally low and sultry, not as though she were trying to be sexy, which of course made it sexier. When she said this, the old adrenaline shock thrill lust coursed through me. Tell me more, I said, knowing i was not completely concealing a dumb grin. She said you probably had metro-fucks every night. She had to explain this to me; a metro-fuck was when youre such a loser that you always wake up to find youve been left alone in the house. Briefly I toyed with imagining I was a normal guy, imagined being in bed with her, being with that sexy voice and those perfect breasts and demeanor as an equal, but it was far too much sexier that she was denigrating me. Spurred on by my sense of shame-lust, I bent down to help her pick up the boxes she was stacking up in the green-carpeted hall.