They were somewhere along Highway 105 when Lauren realized that her goddess was a human being after all.
"Who did you say is playing tonight?" Elisha's eyes drilled into Jennifer through the rearview mirror as they sat in a fresh cloud of dust on the shoulder. Lauren looked from Elisha to her sister then back again. Natalie, next to Jennifer, looked up from her phone.
Having been nearly thrown past the front seats and through the windshield, Jennifer clutched her chest as she croaked softly, "Um, Beautiful Chaos?"
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Elisha threw her head up and closed her eyes to the bright summer sun. Framed by a mess of wind swept, raven black hair, her tension lines beamed like an adorable number eleven in the light pouring in through the open sunroof.
"Wait, wasn't that your band?" Lauren asked.
"Yes. Yes it was," Elisha said dryly. The flesh around her eyes crinkled and her bottom lip started to quiver. Elisha was beginning to cry.
Lauren had learned over the last week that Elisha was perfectly capable of being one of two people. The easygoing, loving friend or the delightfully cruel mistress. The wonderful conversationalist who you would bring to meet your grandparents or the sadomasochistic bitch who would mercilessly whip your tits with a belt while forcing you to drink her piss through a spider gag. Of course, Elisha had never done either of those to Lauren...yet. Those were just pieces of Lauren's imagination. Welcome pieces, Lauren mused.
Earlier, as she waited with her father in their front room, she hoped Elisha would exercise her best judgment in deciding which version of herself to bring.
"Who did you say was picking you guys up?" Alan Thompson ran a massive hand through his salt and pepper hair and rested the other on her shoulder. His warm brown eyes crowed with the deep set lines of concern that had taken root twenty-two years ago and would surely remain for the rest of his life.
"I met her through work," Lauren replied, barely subjugating the quaver in her voice as she peered past the small forest of plants crowding the large bay window. Outside sat a friendly row of pine trees and an empty driveway.
"One of your writer friends then?" He pressed a finger into the pot of a large jade and retrieved a watering can from the wooden coffee table. The pink vessel with a daisy embossed in the center looked like a child's toy dangling from the end of his arm as he poured a mixture of water and plant food into the jade's pot.
"She does more work with video. I interviewed her for an article."
"So, she's a content creator?"
"You could say that." Lauren pulled her waves of blonde hair into a ponytail, picked up a pair of scissors and began casually snipping the dead flowers of an African Violet.
"Well, maybe she can help you. I'd love to see you do something with that film degree of yours." He smiled that kind of smile that would typically come with a lecture. Lauren braced herself, but none came.
"Are you sure Jennifer and Natalie can go? Isn't Whiskey Brothers a bar?"
"You have to be twenty-one to get into the bar, but anyone over eighteen can see the show. The stage is outside. I checked the website." Lauren's eyes continued to nervously dart between the dead flowers in her hand and the empty driveway.
"And who are you seeing?"
"Some band Jennifer and Natalie like. They're supposed to be good, er, at least look really good. Come to think of it, I've never heard Jennifer say anything about how they sound." Lauren giggled. "I think Natalie is dating one of their roadies maybe?" Lauren tilted her head and pulled her lips into a quizzical pout.
"This week." Alan snorted. "I'm glad you aren't like that."
Lauren blushed while continuing to eyeball the driveway. Her heart jumped when she saw the nose of Elisha's car poke through the trees.
She thought of her Dad's opinion of Natalie--and of most of her friends in general. All she'd need would be for Elisha to show up in some revealing leather and start dragging her around by her hair. She was therefore relieved when Elisha stepped out of her candy apple red Volkswagen wearing a pair of artfully torn jeans and a vintage Guns N' Roses T-shirt.
"One of my favorites." Alan nodded towards Elisha's shirt as they walked down the steps to the driveway.
"Mine too!" Elisha grinned.
"Really? Cause I know a lot of kids just see those hanging in a Walmart and think they look cool."
"No way man!" Elisha smiled playfully, flipped her raven black hair over her shoulder and proceeded to belt out the first chorus of 'Paradise City.'
"Take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty! TAKE...ME...HOME!"
Alan let out a huge, open mouthed laugh. "That was...that was amazing! Are you a singer?"
"I used to be." Elisha said wistfully. "In another life. Watch out on Karaoke night though!" She shot Alan a dimpled smile.
"Are you the opening act?" Jennifer appeared in the doorway with Natalie in tow. Natalie's eyes were glued to her phone, her thumbs a blur over its screen. She gave a halfhearted wave before allowing her hand to rejoin its friend.
Jennifer neatly matched Lauren in her high waisted jeans and flowing blouse. The gauzy fabric drifted around her body in a close dance with her billowing golden blonde hair. With her innocent smile, pixie nose and ocean blue eyes, she could be nobody but Lauren's little sister.