"I know how much you hate the bus," Anne sighed. She nestled under the warm covers of her queen-sized bed, allowing the soft hum of the air-conditioning unit to lull her to into a peaceful state.
Connected to her calm friend- two hundred miles away via a fiber optic network- an anxious Ellie groaned and climbed onto the familiar bus, small backpack in tow. "It's not that I don't love you, Anne," she groaned as she searched the rows for an available window seat. "I do. But do you even understand how fucking abominable this drive is? Not to mention, I can't ever sleep. When I do manage to fall asleep, I get awoken every hour by some rickety old bus driver screaming, 'GET YOUR MUFFINS! GO GET YOUR MUFFINS, WE HAVE TEN MINUTES'." Ellie yelled the words to emphasize her frustration, gaining stares from nearly everyone on the small coach bus. "I hate the fucking Greyhound bus."
Anne smirked into her cell phone. "I know you do."
"That's the only fucking thing Tony Lovato ever got right, you know," Ellie hissed as she found an empty row of seats and threw herself against the window. She quickly placed her backpack into the seat beside her, praying that no stranger would attempt to fill the third seat. She hated strangers, and even more, hated being pinned into such a tight space for the eleven hour drive from her hometown to Anne's ridiculously far, Eastern Long Island abode. Why did Anne have to live in fucking Guam, anyway?
Anne giggled at this. "Ellie, are you saying that you agree with Anthony Lovato?"
Ellie nodded into her cell phone, pulling her legs up against the chair in front of her and trying to breathe a sigh of relief. She was in for a long trip. "Yeah," she offered slowly. "I think I do. Isn't that deranged?"
Anne nodded into her phone again. "So what CDs did you bring for the trip? I'm falling asleep here already, so I hope you have some Adam Lazarra to sing you to sleep. Or maybe some Andrew....Uh, Andrew, uh...."
"McMahon?" Ellie questioned her friend, great amusement evident in her voice. She has always known far more about the band Something Corporate than Anne had; and yet, Anne had enjoyed the band for a greater span of years. Strange how they worked like that: complimentary to one another's likes and dislikes. Where Ellie enjoyed more hardcore tastes- like Sick of It All and Bleeding Through- Anne had always cherished '80s hairbands and bubblegum rock. That was okay though: they amused one another with their often off kilter musical tastes.
"Anne?" Ellie questioned, snapping her friend back to reality. "Are you falling asleep? Fuckin wake up, bitch. I'm doing this for you and I don't have a Walkman. So you better stay awake with my ass."
Anne's eyelids fluttered and she strained to open her eyes against the harsh overhead lighting of her bedroom. "Why didn't you bring a Walkman, dumbass? You know it's an ass long drive and you know I have to be coherent enough to come pick your skanky butt up in the morning."
Ellie gasped. "SKANKY?"
The two girls giggled.
"You heard me," Anne grinned, feeling herself catch a burst of sudden energy. "Skanky ho!"
"SLUT!" Ellie giggled.
"Trashy whore!" Anne chided and tried to sit up in bed, readjusting the small Nokia against her shoulder.
"Excuse me," Ellie smirked. "Who's the one that's been talking about sucking dick for the past three weeks?"
"Elle?" Anne laughed softly. "That's you! You can't stop talking about the B word."
"Mmm," Ellie cooed. "B word."
"Yeah, so," Anne chuckled softly. "What plans do you have for Thursday? I mean, how are you and Gnome Boy going to amuse yourselves while I'm off getting impregnated with sextuplets?"
Ellie sluck down in her seat and made a disgusted noise. "Gross, Anne! I don't even want to think about Fat Boy naked. Please. Much less, impregnating my best friend. Who happens to be beautiful. Far too beautiful for Fat Boy."
Anne felt her cheeks warm. "I wish, Elle. I wish."
"Don't even get me started," Ellie argued playfully. "You are just...."
Anne held her breath and waited. "Yeah?"
"Too good for him," Ellie finished with a frustrated sigh. "In fact, we're both too good for them. So why does it feel like we're not good enough? That I'm not good enough?"
Anne took a deep beath before attempting to answer her best friend. They had this conversation often, too often, in fact. Ellie had a perpetual gut feeling that the man she'd adored for the past, oh say, seven years, did not return her affections. She wanted nothing more in life than for him to adore her as she adored him; and yet, everyday of the week she questioned if it was even worth it. The invested time, the invested emotions. The hours it would take for her to find him, place their bodies together, and see that look in his eyes....for ten seconds. Anne wanted more for Ellie, wanted her to either have him- and have him completely- or to move on. Yet, she didn't want Ellie's heart to be broken.
So she listened on. "I mean, he wants a little blonde Barbie doll wife who'll pump out 22.5 kids and they'll have a-"
Anne interrupted with hysterical giggles. "22.5 kids? Holy fucking stretched out pussy!"
Ellie paused to consider what she'd said, then shrugged. "I meant, 2.5, okay? You know what I meant!"
"Carry on," Anne grinned as she calmed herself.
"I was saying," Ellie emphasized with her characteristic, frustrated huff. "That he wants a skinny, blonde Barbie, who loves dogs, wants a zillion kids, will do his laundry and clean his house, and when he's away she'll-"
"There aren't many Barbie dolls that love Cradle of Filth, BT and Sick of It All," Anne interrupted with a grin. "In fact, I think most Barbie girls are deathly afraid of circle pits."
Ellie paused, chewing on her lip. She considered her friend's statement with a flick of her pierced tongue, then sighed. "He doesn't want me, Anne. Bottom line. He'll never want me."
"Did he say that?" Anne challenged her friend. "Did he say, 'Ellie, I'm sorry, you're not my type?' No, he's never said that. In seven years. He's hit on you relentlessly, and you always make fun of him! He says he'll get naked for you, and you shriek and run away disgusted. Elle, that's not such a-"
"When did he offer to get naked for me?" Ellie huffed. "Where was I?"
"The shower incident?" Anne reminded her friend.
"Oh," Ellie sighed. "Yeah. Well. That doesn't count."