Two best friends

Alexis and Jessie had known each other for most of their lives. They had been best friends growing up; they had played house and tea party together as little girls, and gossiped, cried to, and confided in each other as young women. One of the hardest decisions they had ever made was to go to different colleges. Then The Flu happened and they found themselves back at home with little to do. Of course, they weren't really supposed to be leaving their houses, but it was a small town and there was a lot of nothing around it to disappear to for hours.

Jessie was already waiting in the small stand of trees they used to meet up when {t_fist1} arrived.

"Fancy meeting you here," Jessie laughed. Alexis laughed too.

"What should we do today?"

"The regular, unless you have a better idea?"

The regular meant just walking around and talking where they were far enough away to not bump into anyone else. It wasn't the most entertaining thing to do, but it beat being in their own houses binge watching WebVids.

"It snowed quite a bit last night," Jessie said.

"It always snows this time of year."

"I saw John in the grocery store last night, he was looking as good as always," Jessie smirked.

"I'm sure he was."

"You can't tell me you wouldn't date him--or just ride him--even now? You talked non-stop about him for six years."

Alexis shook her head and looked away. John was a rare kind of guy: good looking, good at sports, and smart as hell. But she'd never been more than average in the looks department and had the coordination of a marionette with all of it's strings tangled. She was smart, and good in school, that's about all she had to offer. That and about 25 pounds that she never seemed to be able to drop no matter how well she watched her diet and exercised.

"Oh, you've always had the wrong impression of yourself," Jessie said. "You're not tall and blond like those cheerleaders that he never once showed interest in. He always dated girls who were short and smart."

"And pretty," Alexis added quickly.

"You are pretty," Jessie sighed, "Your hair is like fucking silk and I know you don't do anything other than condition it, and your eyes are the bright green. How many black haired, green eyed women do you know?"

"I have no ass, no tits, and no hips."

Jessie opened her mouth to say something, then snapped it back shut. A bright flash broke through the clouds in front of them, then was gone. A second later a loud impact broke the silence.

"What was that?" Alexis asked.

"I'm not sure, there was a flash, that way," she pointed.

Neither of them needed to say a word, they both just took off running across the stand and across the open field--at least as well as one could run in snow boots through knee deep snow.

Finally they found where the thing had landed. The snow had all melted away around it, and in the center of the crater was a pitch black and perfectly round sphere.

"What is it?" Jessie asked.

"I have no idea, are meteors usually round like this?"

"I thought they were always lumpy rocks."

They both walked down into the crater, closer to the thing.

"I wonder what it's made out of?" Alexis asked, as touched it. "It's cold already."

"Are you sure it's smart to touch it? What if it's radioactive or something?"

"Radioactive things feel warm."

"Really?" Jessie asked.

"Yes. At least things that are dangerously radioactive. This must be part of a satellite, since it's so dark and perfectly round. I don't think it could be natural," she stood up and turned her back to it. "What should we do with it?"