hey, whatever, man.

i was sitting on the blue couch. doing what i usually did on the blue couch. nothing. dave on my left on the loveseat. julian across from me on the white soul-sucking couch. they were engrossed in an effort consuming nothing as well.
the mouse came running out from under julian and jumped onto the table and started eating the random food we, as lazy tke boys, had left out. he was small and brown with little paws that had sharp little claws on them. his whiskers were twitchy and long. his eyes were a glossy black. dave yelled something about how the mouse had to go. i didn't like that. how the kids living on the first floor would flip out and try to kill him. i didn't like that. julian just laughed.
i looked at stuart (that's the mouse's name. how do i know? i just knew.). i told stuart that it would be ok. he cocked his head at me in a way that seemed to convey his understanding of my words. i reached out and grabbed him off the table. he wasn't expecting that. his heart beat extraordinarily fast. he looked worried. he told me that he needed protection so he could do what he had to do. and he had to do it.
i set him on my shoulder and told him that it would be ok. he clenched his claws into my skin and sat there in an apprehensive mode--like he didn't like his current position but realized it was still better than the alternatives.
dave and julian asked me what the fuck i was doing. i told them that stuart was going to take a nap, and that anytime stuart wanted to sleep that one of us had to be here to protect him. stuart liked that. he relaxed to the point of curling up and letting his heart slow enough so he could sleep.
after stuart's nap, 5 minutes, 5 hours, i wasn't really paying attention to the trivial passage of time, i took him outside and asked him what he had to do. he looked at me with his little black beady eyes which shone straight into my soul, "you know what i have to do. the squirrels are preparing another assault on the penguins." with that, he jumped from my hand and ran down the steps out into the world to help the noble penguin warriors from the maurading hordes of squirrels.

then i woke up and realized it was only 6:27AM.

for the wpi students in the crowd.