A can of Easy Cheese was the only food item Jillian Holtzmann could find in the pantry. She grabbed it, standing on tiptoe to see if there were any crackers up on the top shelf. A round, buttery Ritz would be perfection, but she would settle for just about anything at this point. Even Saltines would be better than nothing, which was ultimately what she found. She sighed in disappointment, closing the cabinet and turning to the refrigerator once again. She had checked there first, hoping Abby had leftovers ferreted away somewhere. Upon a second look, nothing new had materialized, to her dismay. Pickles, a bottle of expired ranch dressing, half a stick of butter, a grease cup that was dangerously full, and a sad, wrinkled green pepper that was past its prime. Holtz shut the door of the fridge, accepting defeat. There was only one thing left to do. She threw her head back, inverted the can, and sprayed a stream of Easy Cheese directly into her open mouth.
“Oh, no. No. What are you doing?” Erin appeared in the doorway, nose wrinkled in disgust.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures, Gilbert,” came Holtz’s reply after she swallowed the sad yellow mouthful.
“I guess. That stuff is so gross. It’s not even real cheese you know.”
“I know. That’s why you can draw with it.”
“Draw with it?”
“Yeah. I’d show you but I lack the necessary canvas.”
“Do you really not have any other snacks you could eat?” Erin was suspicious. Holtzmann’s snacks often seemed to appear out of thin air.
“Well, I do have a few things. But I burned my tongue on Sour Patch Kids earlier and I need something savory. And bland. Something to cut the sugar. And I don’t have anything that fits the bill.”
“You...burned your tongue? On candy?”
“Have you never done that before?”
“I can’t say that I have.”
“You’re missing out. It’s pretty great.”
“If you say so.”
“Do you have anything I could eat this on?” Holtz asked, gesturing with her can of aerosol cheese product.
“No, I don’t keep snacks in my room. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not surprised. I wonder if the others do.” They locked eyes for a moment.
“There’s only one way to find out.”
“Erin Gilbert, I’m surprised at you! Breaking and entering is a serious crime,” Holtzmann chided with a half grin.
“It’s not breaking and entering if the doors are unlocked.”
“You have a beautiful mind.” And that was all it took for Holtz to grab Erin’s hand and pull her up the stairs to the bedrooms.
The door to Patty’s room (which was designated by a bright blue wooden letter P accented by a silk flower) was shut. Patty was in Cleveland for her cousin’s wedding. Despite the fact that it was her suggestion, Erin felt a little uneasy barging into her friend’s private space. Even Holtz hesitated before slowly turning the handle and pushing the door open.
Patty’s room was immaculate and cool, expertly decorated in blues and grays that screamed her name. Floor to ceiling bookshelves crammed full of primarily reference materials with a smattering of historical fiction novels flanked either side of her desk, which was full of neatly stacked articles and dog eared magazines. A rainbow of highlighters sat beside a jar of star shaped paper clips. Vintage maps of the world, the United States, and several parts of New York City adorned the walls. A string of fairy lights ran along all four walls and a tall vase of sunflowers sat on the nightstand.
“Y’know,” began Holtzmann, who had yet to cross the threshold of the room, “Between the two of them, I think Abby’s more likely to hoard snacks.” Erin nodded, relieved. She felt less guilty about going through Abby’s stuff since she’d known her for half her life, and since they’d been roommates many times in the past. Holtzmann carefully shut the door to Patty’s room and they turned to Abby’s door at the end of the hall.
Abby’s room was an absolute mess.
Crap was everywhere. The room was thick with notebooks full of scribbled ideas, articles citing potential ghost sightings were taped to the walls alongside obscure movie posters, take out menus were piled high on various surfaces. Her desk chair had a solid eighteen inch layer of discarded clothing balancing precariously over its back.
“How could I ever forget about the chair thing? One time, she lost her band uniform and her mom was SO mad she had to pay for a second one. We found the original at the bottom of the chair stack later and hid it in her car so her mom wouldn’t find out.” Holtzmann smiled, thinking about the time she’d helped Abby dig through the contents of the chair the morning of an important presentation.
“Where do you think she keeps her snacks?” Holtz inquired as she glanced around her friend’s chaotic living space. Plants, actual living plants, were tucked in various places amid stuffed animals, prototypes and not one, but two life-size cut-outs of Xena, warrior princess. ‘You never know when one of these might come in handy!’ Abby had said in response to Holtzmann’s raised eyebrow when she’d lugged the first one home.
“Night stand!” They said at the same time and Holtz waded through some laundry and an overflowing canvas library bag to Abby’s nightstand. For a moment, she wondered if she would find anything embarrassing in there, but she decided she’d come too far to back out now. She pulled open the top drawer and immediately closed it, blushing slightly.
“What’s in there?” Erin asked.
“You don’t wanna know,” Holtz replied, trying the bottom drawer. She grinned manically and pulled out a box of Sociables and several tiny bottles of wine. “Jackpot!” she cried. “Let’s do this!”
They reconvened in the kitchen. Holtz began to line the counter top with Sociables. “My grandma used to buy these! She’d fix me a tray of snacks to eat in front of the TV. Crackers, cheese cubes, carrot sticks, apple wedges...sometimes a pickle. I always liked the star shaped ones the best.” Once she had a line of crackers arranged in front of her, she reached for the Easy Cheese. She sprayed each cracker with a line of yellow cheese product then stopped to admire the overall effect. The crackers spelled out her name.
“Holtzmann. Cute. Honestly, I’m impressed by your cursive z. I always hated making Zs.”
“I did at first, but I practiced over and over until I got them figured out.” She sandwiched the H and O crackers together and popped them into her mouth, then made an L and T sandwich and offered it to Erin. She took a bite out of the sandwich and her eyes widened.
“These are actually pretty good!”
“You sound surprised, Gilbert. Of course they’re good, it’s poppyseed crackers and cheese in a can. What more could a person ask for?” She popped a few more crackers in her mouth and handed the box to Erin. “Make some art,” she told her.
Erin tried her best, she really did, but her “Hi” came out wobbly, as though it were written by a kindergartner. She frowned. “Let’s drink the wine,” she decided, twisting the top off of her bottle. “I can buy some to replace this.”
“That’s the spirit!” Holtzmann said, opening her little bottle as well and taking a swig. “Oh, be right back!” she called as she slid off her chair and dashed back up the stairs. She returned a moment later with a gigantic bag.
“More Sour Patch Kids? I thought you said you burned your tongue?”
“I did. These are for you. Trust me, it’s worth it. The red ones are the best but the yellow ones are probably the most sour.” She shook a handful into Erin’s outstretched palm. She was surprised when Erin tossed the entire handful into her mouth at once. She chewed, swallowed, and grabbed another handful straight from the bag.
“Where have these been hiding all my life?” she asked, eating those as well. Holtz smiled.
They carried the snacks and wine to the couch and Holtzmann convinced Erin to embark upon a Stranger Things marathon with her. It only took one episode for her to be completely hooked.
They were watching Eleven carry an armload of waffles out of the store when Holtzmann passed Erin a cracker with a letter E on it, winking.
“I still don’t understand how you can write so nicely with cheese.” Erin ate the cracker and washed it down with wine.
“Easy. It’s not actual cheese, remember?”
“Yeah I know. But still. Look,” Erin grabbed the can out of Holtz’s hand and squirted it onto a cracker. Holtz smirked.
“What’s that supposed to be?” she asked.
“A heart, obviously!” It was more like a dented circle but Holtz ate it appreciatively.
“Try again,” she encouraged. Erin reached her hand into the box.
“Bad news. We’re out of crackers. Which is really unfortunate because I’m starting to understand the tongue burn thing,” she gestured toward the bag of Sour Patch Kids.
“Eh, who needs crackers?” Holtz grabbed the can back and squirted a heart onto Erin’s arm.
“Hey!” she frowned at her arm and grabbed for the can back, but Holtz hoisted it just out of reach, smiling playfully. “Now what am I supposed to do?”
“Lick it off, obviously.”
“Gross,” she replied, but licked it off anyway. “Well, I guess it’s not that bad. But it’s better with the crackers.”
Holtz nodded, “It is better with the crackers.” Her hand darted out, quickly squirting onto Erin’s arm again.
“Holtzmann! What the heck?!” Erin complained, squinting at the writing, “What does that even say?” Holtzmann wiggled her eyebrows mysteriously. “Seriously! I can’t read it!”
“That’s your fault for squirming so much.”
“Uggghh, whatever,” Erin whined. “Get it off me. I can’t eat another bite of that stuff.”
“Are you sure you want me to do that?” Holtzmann asked.
“Yes, just get it off me!”
With that, Holtzmann leaned over, locked eyes with Erin, and licked her way up her arm. Erin didn’t pull away or shout or anything, she just stared at Holtz, head tilted slightly, eyes squinting a little. Holtz scooched a little closer to her and rested her chin on Erin’s shoulders, still looking into her eyes. Erin leaned down and kissed Holtz quickly on the nose. Holtz smiled and placed a soft kiss on Erin’s lips.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that Erin was smiling at her.
“Holtz?” she said softly.
“Yeah?”
“What did you write? On my arm?”
“Easy,” Holtzmann replied with a dimpled grin.
“Easy,” Erin repeated, nodding, “Hey, Holtz?”
“Yeah, Gilbert?”
“Let’s get waffles in the morning.”
“Perfect,” Holtz said and she leaned in again.