Absent Friends

Noelle is done preparing dinner, and we're sitting on the kitchen stools, just conversing. She seems excited.

"You know, it's been a long time since I gossiped this much," she says.

I smile. "Really?"

"Yeah. I feel so much more alive after gossiping." She says it, and I laugh.

"Don't you have a friend to gossip with? Oh, wait. You said your friend is in prison."

"Yeah, she is. But I got another fr