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 alarmwent 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.