THE DREAM GIRLS
or
THEY WISH THEY WERE US: A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE LIVES OF TWO TYPICAL INSTAGRAM INFLUENCERS
a short novel in ten parts
***
[WARNING: This ten-part story contains graphic depictions of sexual violence, hate speech, elements of non-consent and reluctance, coerced drug use, non-scatological interaction with human feces, and the copious consumption and expelling of various body fluids.]
***
Part 2: Don't Fucking Stop
4:18 pm
Jessa got up on her wobbly arms and legs and weakly crawled up the few steps into her bedroom to see if someone important was calling. Her sore mouth oozed throat slime, bile and tiny chunks of half-digested strawberry and kale down her chin and onto her sweaty, oily, gasping chest. She finally reached the desk, picked up her phone, burped a deep, wet burp, let out a soft, ploppy fart, then looked at the caller ID:
Mom.
Rage built up inside her at this worthless interruption to her precious fuck time. She ripped the phone off the charging cord and pushed herself up to sit shaking on the side of the bed, then tapped the screen to answer and put the phone up to her ear. She barked into the phone—her dry, damaged voice sounded like a combination of nails, glass, and sand.
"What?"
Outside in the main area, Kim got down on hands and knees and crept around the couch to the upper floor, holding her phone in one hand. She held her hair with her other hand, steadied herself with her elbows and bent down low to lap up what she could of Jessa's puddle of gloopy reddish vomit. In the bedroom, Jessa continued her conversation.
"I don't know, some hotel. What do you want?"
Jessa felt another barf coming, one last wave from the passing storm. She didn't try to hide it. Her mom went on and on as she bent over and heaved hard. A debased, awful gut noise barreled out of her throat, but no liquid actually came out. The wave passed.
"Shigght," she said, licking her lips. A little more bile had frothed up in her mouth.
She wiped her face with a pair of new panties from the floor—they still had tags—then tossed them towards the trash can. Her mom asked her something.
"I'm, like, sick or some shit. I fucking threw up." She coughed a few raspy, dry hacks. "Like, it's none of your fucking business."
She burped loudly into the phone from deep in her belly, then hocked and snorted some slime into her mouth and blew a mouthful of throat crap onto the floor. Her mom just kept fucking talking. Jessa interrupted her.
"Mom! I'm in the middle of fucking! What do you fucking want?"
She put one vibrating hand on her hip. Her face gradually crinkled up into a look of fierce, focused indignation. She shot up to full height with the adrenaline rush of sudden anger and yelled into the phone.
"I'm not fucking sending it back, I don't care! I want it!"
In the main room, Kim sucked up as much from the puddle of fresh vomit as she could, closed her eyes and swallowed, then wiped her face and hands on the couch and stood up. She walked back down into the sunken area and fell sideways into the big chair, resting her head on one armrest and kicking her slick wet legs up onto the other. A few flecks of Jessa's bile and a few bits of kale were still stuck to Kim's chin.
"What the fuck, mom? You're being a huge fucking lame bitch! I don't fucking care how much, I said I want it!"
Jessa stood in the doorway now. She grabbed the remaining strings of vomit off of her chin and chest with her free hand and wiped them on the outer wall, leaving thick stripes of multicolored watery puke. Her mom finished whatever she was saying and Jessa made a tight fist at her side. She brought the phone around to the front of her face. Raw fury and flecks of body fluids spattered from her mouth as she screamed at the top of her lungs into the bottom of the phone.
"I ---
WANT IT!
"
On the big chair, Kim made a disgusted look with her face and danced her foot up and down. Jessa slammed the phone back onto her ear, listened for a few more seconds, then brought it right back around to her mouth and screamed into it again.
"GOOD! WHAT THE FUCK EVER! FUCK!"
She mashed her thumb to hang up. The phone hung down by her side in her hand and she breathed hard with hot wrath. She looked over at Kim, who was typing very fast with both thumbs and looking ambivalent about whatever that had been about.
"That was my fucking dumb cunt mom," Jessa said.
Kim made no indication that she had even heard the statement.
Jessa sighed with disgust and looked down at her phone, then dropped it to her side again and glared at Kim. She just couldn't let it go.
"She's just calling to fucking bum me the fuck out! Like what the fuck is her fucking deal and shit?"
Kim spun around to the edge of the seat and slammed her phone on the table, then stood up in a bent over position with her hands on her hips. Her eyes blazed with hatred and she glared at this fucking worthless bratty cousin of hers. Her face squinted sharply into a look of disgusted impatience, a grownup about to absolutely lose their shit on a petulant fucking child. As she yelled, her head jerked around harshly to help make her point.
"Who the
FUCK
cares about your piece of
SHIT
whoever and your
DUMB SHITTY PROBLEMS
. Can you just shut your fucking
ANOREXIC CUNT
mouth
SO I CAN GET BACK TO FUCKING?