Sam opened one eye reluctantly, turned his head toward the clock, and turned
the light on for a glimpse of the time. Then, wincing as the bright light
sent sparks of agony shooting through his head, he hurriedly turned it off
again. The ghostly after-image of the time floated on the inside of his
eyelids: 2am.

Sam tossed and turned for a moment, finally rolling onto his stomach with
his pillow clutched firmly over his head. After a minute he threw the pillow
to the foot of the bed and rolled over again. Unfortunately, he rolled in
the wrong direction and fell off the bed, landing with a "thump!"

After a moment, a soft groan floated up from the ground. Sam got to his
feet, staggered to the door, flung it open. The steady hammering sound that
had been coming from his living for the last hour got louder. Sam moved
resignedly towards the source of the noise.

"Joshua," he said accusingly, "What are you doing?"

Josh glanced up from his carpentry and beamed. "Hey, buddy, you couldn't
sleep either? I thought I'd make a shelf above your TV for your video
machine! I noticed it was kind of precariously balanced, so..."

"Josh, please," Sam whimpered, "It's two o'clock in the morning. We have to
work tomorrow..."

"I only wanted to say thanks for letting me stay here while my apartment is
being fumigated." Josh pouted petulantly for a second, then
brightened."Let's get an ice-cream! I know a great all-nighter down at the
park!" Josh had been downing espressos all day, and was now showing the
effects.

"Josh..."

"It'd help me sleep," Josh wheedled. "Buddy? Pal? Please?"

Sam lowered his head in defeat. "I'll get my coat."

"Triple fudge!" Josh ordered. "And a mint for my friend."

A weary-looking old man handed over the ice-creams before once again falling
asleep in his chair.

"Isn't this great?" Josh asked, happily wolfing down his triple fudge. "Just
you and me, mon ami, doing some best-friend bonding."

Sam declined to answer, instead unenthusiastically licking his ice cream as
he carefully stepped over a sleeping vagrant. As he passed, he
self-consciously dropped a note next to the man's hand for him to find when
he woke up.

Sam delicately wiped his fingers on the serviette the ice-cream man had
given him, watching distastefully as Josh licked his fingers. Shaking his
head, he fumbled for his car keys.

"Gimme the keys!" a rough voice demanded from behind him. "Wallets, too,"
the voice added as an afterthought.

Sam looked away from Josh's startled face and slowly turned around, to see a
young man, no older than twenty, holding a gun on him.

"Keys!" repeated the man.

"I'm too tired for this," Sam muttered, abruptly running out of patience.

The young man waved his gun. "Keys?" he said again, sounding worried. They
were usually screaming in panic by now.

Sam stepped toward the man. "Name," he snarled viciously.

"Uh... Billy," said Billy, taken aback.

Sam grabbed Billy by the shirt and pulled him forward until they were nose
to nose. "Billy," he growled, "this is your lucky day. Drop the gun, leave
now, and I may just let you live."

Frightened, Billy briefly considered shooting the crazy man, but something
in his eyes made him reconsider. He had the feeling that this guy would come
back from the dead to hunt him down. He dropped the gun and ran straight to
the nearest police station to turn himself in, begging for protection.

Josh was impressed. "Wow! That was awesome!"

Sam glowered at him. Josh was oblivious.

"Wait until I tell Toby! He'd better not mess with you again. That was so
cool!"

Sam watched sourly as his companion literally jumped up and down in
excitement. His hands twitched at his sides, itching to murder his best
friend. Firmly balling the murderous hands into fists, he said, "Josh."

Josh stopped talking. "Yeah?"

Looking his friend straight in the eye, Sam said, "We are going to go home.
We are going to go to sleep. You are going to be very quiet until tomorrow
morning. Also, get your greasy hand off my car."

Josh looked at his hand. It was, indeed, on Sam's car. He moved it. "Okay,"
he said carefully. Sam nodded tiredly, and drove them home.

Josh lay awake for the remainder of the night, struggling to make no noise
whatsoever for fear of waking Sam up. He'd been afraid of many things, but
not quite as afraid as he was now, of Sam coming into his room and *looking*
at him. Sam, on the other hand, slept peacefully right up until his alarm
went off.

Josh never suggested a 2 a.m. ice-cream again, and occasionally, when he
thought no one was looking, he would shoot his friend fearful glances. Sam
never noticed.

End.