The next morning, Mason found himself struggling to open his eyes. He usually felt this way the morning after having edibles, and especially in the mornings before work. He sluggishly gripped the bottle of water on his nightstand, twisted the cap off with his index finger and thumb, and brought it to his mouth, now sitting up at this point. Phone in hand, Mason dialed his friend and neighbor’s number. 

“Hey man,” he began, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing alright,” Tristan replied. “Same time as usual?”

Mason's attention turned to the human-sized cat laying curled up on the floor across the room next to the bedroom door. He probably would have had Domino sleep in the living room if he didn't pass out before they did. “Uhh. Yeah that works, I think.”

“You think? Is everything alright?”

“Uh, yeah! Just waking up still,” Mason replied, his eyes still focused on Domino. “Edibles make my brain slow in the morning, that's all.”

“True,” Tristan replied. “But isn't that the case with edibles in general?”

Mason chuckled. “Ho-kay man, see you in an hour.”

    Mason hung up and began to think. Tristan had been helping him manage his weed consumption for the past couple of weeks. They both came to the agreement that Tristan would be the one to buy him edibles once a week so that Mason’s budget was freed for other things and so that he had only a day’s worth of edibles overall. They'd meet up briefly the day before Mason’s first day off from work so that Tristan could give him an edible, as well as the day after to hang out so that Mason was distracted from any fixations on getting high again. Today was Monday, which was when they’d usually meet up the second time. This time though, Mason wasn't living alone, and Tristan was always quick to judge him, which Mason was worried about. He figured he can't afford to let Tristan see Domino at the moment; Tristan just wouldn't be able to process it and it would be a huge mess.

    Making sure not to wake Domino up, Mason slowly pulled the corner of his covers up and out of the way and slid off of the bed. Domino’s ear twitched, but they remained asleep. He slowly found his way to the other side of the room, where he haphazardly tossed his shirt the previous night. As he bent down to pick it up, Domino's eyes popped open and they got up, stretching their arms over their head. They had been curled up in such a way that Mason nearly forgot that they were anything more than just a slightly larger-than-normal cat.

“Hi Mason,” Domino began. “Where's my food?”

Mason stared at Domino, his mouth just slightly agape. “Dude, I just woke up. I’ll get it in a bit.”

Domino’s ears swiveled down slightly. “First of all, my name isn't Dude, it's Domino. It's on the name tag even,” they began, perhaps a bit more bluntly than they intended. “And secondly, I’m not upset, but I’m just unsure why you wouldn't just make it for me now.” 

“My friend is coming over in an hour and I have to get ready. After that I’ll make some food for you, I promise.”

Domino half-jokingly crossed their arms and sat down at the edge of Mason's bed, rolling their eyes like they recently saw on TV that night. “Fiiine. I wanna meet your friend though.”

Mason's eyes widened. “Uhh… You can't. Sorry.”

Domino’s ears perked up and then folded back slightly. “Wh- why not?”

“He’s uh, shy. I don't wanna scare him off because we don't see each other much. You’ll get to meet him some other time, I promise. Sorry. Just stay in here when he's over and I’ll let you know when you can come out.”

“Ohhhhhhhhh!” Domino exclaimed in realization. “That makes sense. Have a fun time!”

***

     Mason hadn’t necessarily been lying. He and Tristan had been spending less time together lately. They only recently started talking again over the past month, just as Tristan stopped prioritizing his “alpha male” status over his friends. In fact, he’d abstained from watching Andrew Tate for weeks before he and Mason started talking again. A lot of the reason Mason began to get high more frequently in the first place was to distract himself from the distance he’d been feeling between them, so he was excited to see Tristan reach out and apologize. It seemed nowadays like Mason was hanging onto him by a thread, though. He was masking his autism a lot more lately, and it got stressful.

     After getting ready, Mason came back into the room with a freshly opened can of tuna and a fork. “Sorry Domino, this is all I can do right now. Tristan's on his way. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Tristan?” Domino inquired, gently sniffing the food inside the can. “I recognize that name. What does she look like?”

Mason nearly jumped at the use of she/her pronouns. “Uhh, you wanna use he/him pronouns for him. He’s still insecure about his masculinity.”

Domino blinked. “Uhh… I don't know what anything you just said means, but I’ll say ‘he’ if he likes that more. Anyway, you didn't answer my question.”

“Oh my bad,” Mason began. “Uhh, short brown hair- or wait I don't know if you know what brown is- uh… his hair is the same color as…” he grimaced, “Dirt. and he worked out so he has some muscles from that still, and he has light skin, and his eyes are brown, or uh, wait-”

“I know what brown is, but that's interesting!” Domino replied while downing a mouthful of tuna, very much disregarding the fork. “My owner looked like him!” 

“Wait,” Mason began, “How long did you say you were a stray?”

Before Domino could swallow the tuna and open his mouth, the duo heard a knock on the door.

“Oh! That's him. I’ll see you later, Domino.”

Domino nodded before continuing to eat their tuna as Mason closed the door behind him. He rushed to the front door and opened it, the sun temporarily blinding him before his eyes could focus on the six foot tall ex-bodybuilder in front of him.

“Hey dude. Come on in,” Mason began. “I can cook some eggs or something if you haven't had breakfast.”

Tristan stepped through the door. “You can if you want, but I already ate. I assume you haven't?”

The eye contact was already starting to get hard to bear. “Yeah, sorry. I spent most of this morning getting ready.”

Tristan plopped down on the chair perpendicular to the couch. “Do you even do much in the morning? You do brush your teeth at least, right?”

A pang of guilt hit Mason. He didn't know how to deal with Tristan's comments already, but brushing his teeth was something that Mason particularly found challenging. “Sorry. I’ll be right back. Sorry.”

“It's okay.” Tristan replied.

Mason returned a few minutes later, microwaved a burrito, and sat on the couch. “So, uh… what do you wanna talk about?”

Tristan re-adjusted himself. “If you can believe it, I’ve been using Tumblr again.”

Mason blinked, trying not to flap his hands. “Really? What caused that?”

“Well, a friend of mine found a recipe for some easy-to-make, healthy food, so I mainly use Tumblr for that nowadays.” Tristan replied, scratching his head. “Do you wanna hear about it? It's better than that burrito.”

Mason looked down at the now half-finished burrito in his hands. He didn't have many safe foods he felt comfortable eating, which was a double edged sword in this case; he could potentially have something new to eat, but he might have to face an unsettling texture. “Uh, sure.”

“Glad to hear!” Tristan somewhat giddily replied, pulling out his phone. “Okay, you’ll wanna have some yogurt, granola, almonds, and cranberries, and optionally honey. I can buy those for you if you want, but basically you just mix them in a bowl and that's the dish.” Tristan read, now looking up from his phone. “I know your autism makes cooking healthy food difficult, especially in the morning, and I want you to get off of that junk you're eating.”

Mason nodded. “...Yeah, thanks.” 

Cranberries. Bleh. He figured he could probably remove those though.

“You're gonna wanna beat the laziness sometime though, which I’m hoping the less frequent edibles will help with. I know how difficult it is to get up and do stuff, trust me, but you can't function like this forever.”

“I know. I'm sorry, Tristan; I’m really trying here.”

Tristan leaned over and put a hand on Mason's shoulder. “Hey, don't apologize to me. You're trying your best.”

It didn't feel like it.

***

     Tristan and Mason’s conversation moved on from health and the like, which Mason was thankful for. They talked about current events, such as Tristan’s worries as a trans man about the next election, and after roughly an hour or two, Tristan waved goodbye and Mason shut the door behind him. He grabbed some water for Domino and entered his room. 

“Hey Domino. Sorry for taking so long,” he replied, handing the water bottle to them. “How are you doing?”

“Uh, mercilessly bored? Duh.” Domino snarkily replied, snaking his tongue down the opening of the bottle before realizing that they unfortunately had to drink it in a human way. “Anyway, how are you doing?”

Mason sat down next to Domino and fidgeted with his olive-green beaded bracelet. He figured a cat is non-judgemental enough. “I don't know. I guess I could be worse? Tristan keeps… prodding me about being lazy. I know he means well, but it just bothers me. I can't do anything, and I just feel even more helpless when he keeps… botherin’ me, I guess.”

Domino put the water bottle down and turned to Mason, legs crossed on the bed. “Mason, what I do is be lazy. I can stop anytime I want. Based on what I’m hearing from you, it seems like you are actually having a hard time doing things, like uh, making me food?” Domino replied, a playful grin on their face upon mentioning food. “It sounds like you know how to make us both something now, so maybe start with that.”

Mason looked up at Domino and smiled weakly, choosing to ignore that they were eavesdropping, because of course they were. “Thanks, I needed to hear that, I think. Are you sure you can eat it though? I'm pretty sure cats are carnivores, right? There isn't any meat in the recipe.”

“I don't think I’m necessarily like other cats though,” Domino earnestly replied, gesturing broadly at themself. “Maybe my diet has changed?”

“Huh. I guess there's only one way to find out, and I guess that’s a pretty safe start," Mason began. “Like, no definitely toxic stuff I think. I can check though. I already have some of the stuff that Tristan mentioned, just no cranberries or honey.”

Mason got up and opened the door. “You can come out now by the way, but I did have one question, still.”

“Is it what you were asking before Tristan came over?” Domino replied, walking past him.

“Yeah. I just wanna be sure about something.”

“It was about how long I was a stray, right? I was homeless for about a month, I think!”

Mason recalled Tristan saying he lost his cat about a month ago.

“Oh… huh.”