Ellen and Meena made their way up the staircase in silence. Meena was seething, a profound frustration coaxed out of her by their nightmarish journey on public transport in the battering heat. Swathes of warm bodied passengers had been pressed into her sides. Meena had been texting Quinn and Will with updates, but got no response, even her calls didn't go through, which only fuelled her mood. Every shove by a Spanish local, and each bump in the road sent her deeper into quiet fury, and it didn't help that Ellen had observed her descent into vitriol with bemused interest.
"I told you we should have just got a cab," Ellen goaded her several times during the hour. Ellen was always trying to get a rise out of someone, but Meena knew better than to react, doing her best to ignore it. It was amusing to her when she watched Ellen teasing others, but unpleasant to be on the receiving end for a change.
Meena huffed a tuft of hair out of her face as she heaved her case up another flight of stairs. Ellen followed loosely behind, airily carting all she needed for the weekend in a backpack. She had emerged unscathed and unaffected by the heat, smiling patiently and absorbing their surroundings with excitement. As they ascended, music came bellowing down the echoey stairway, the peppy remix growing louder as they continued upward. The idea of putting up with noisy neighbors further infuriated Meena, until they arrived at the fifth floor and realised it was actually coming from their own apartment.
"Holy shit!" Ellen yelled as she approached the front door, having to raise her voice over the noise, even from outside.
"Guess that's why they haven't been responding..." came the grumble from Meena, panting from the climb, her clothes clinging to her sticky skin. She wiped her brow with her forearm, and only further smeared her mess of melted makeup. She felt disgusting. It had been months since she'd properly seen Quinn. Ever-immaculate Quinn, with her rich family and smarmy perfect husband, and here was Meena turning up in an utter state. She was desperate to get out of her warm clothes and freshen up.
They had used the pin code in the instructions Quinn had emailed them to get into the building, but now they were at the flat door Meena groaned as she saw there was no doorbell. She knocked impatiently, her frustration palpable in her assault on the wood with her fists. No reply came, the music was far too loud. As Meena erupted in an exasperated growl, Ellen tried the handle and found it open. She shot her friend a teasing smirk before pushing it open. Meena couldn't even feign amusement.
The door was thick and heavy, doing a lot to withhold some of the sound, as it was practically three times the volume once they got inside. It seemed to be coming from the room to their right, but it was loud enough to carry through the rest of the flat. They stepped in, letting the front door swing shut as they looked around. It was so loud, it made their eyes squeeze shut, but thankfully the noise was accompanied by delicious, velvetine cold air. It made Meena feel even more disgusting.
Ellen was smiling, bopping along to the beat as she appraised their surroundings. She dumped her backpack down and decided she approved of their new digs. This Quinn girl seemed a bit uptight and annoying in her messages and email exchanges, but she sure knew how to travel in style! For the meager price they had each paid, this was a total steal, Ellen had stayed in squat grotty hostels for not much less.
Meena watched as her friend swayed to and fro ahead of her, looking on from the hallway as Ellen went on towards the living space. She couldn't purport to know Ellen all that well, having only met her a few months ago, but she was fun and sure to be great company for a drunken break away. Meena couldn't wait to see what Quinn made of her, Ellen was practically her antithesis.
Ellen could be brash, but was also wickedly funny, so somehow it worked in her favour, usually playing as witty rather than rude. It certainly helped that she was dazzlingly beautiful. She had a model's physique, tall and slim enough to fit comfortably into a size eight. Her defining feature was her hair, thick chestnut locks set into tight round curls that bobbed to just below her shoulders. Today her smoky pale blue eyes were accentuated by dark navy eyeshadow and thick black eyelashes that drew the attention from the light smattering of freckles down her narrow face. Her breasts were modest, but perky and flaunted flatteringly by her dress with a deep V neckline. She had funny little eccentricities like her fascination with making her own clothes, combining parts of various outfits she liked. Today's dress was made of a sheer patterned fabric reminiscent of a peacock feather motif in brilliant colours, with a flourish of white knitted trim along the bottom, where the dress met her upper thighs. It was short on her, so flaunted the full benefit of her long slender legs.
Meena was a little more reserved in her dress sense. Her thick black-rimmed glasses took up much of her small face, with dark bangs hiding the rest. She knew her bookish looks played in her favour, even with the club of male pupils in her class who had contests drawing her in lewd positions. She was strangely flattered when she had found some of the sketches. Some were even coloured in, a crude attempt to capture the coffee brown of her skin. She was of Indian descent, with dark features, a curvaceous build, and long straight dark hair that ran enviously long down her back. Given her shortness, her sizable breasts caught considerable attention, especially from the fathers of her students, who seemed to take every opportunity to oggle her.
"Oh, hi!" Will said, emerging from the spot on the couch where he had been lying out of view. He seemed startled, having been enthralled in his drawing, smudges of ink on his hands and cheeks. Meena noticed his eyes flutter with surprise at her flustered appearance, before his gaze flicked over to Ellen and softened.
"Hey," she cocked an eyebrow at him, talking unnaturally loud, "Will, right? What you working on there?"
"Just sketching while Quinn is unpacking her stuff." he mumbled in monotone, Ellen beckoning with her fingers for him to show her. He shrugged, leaning minimally towards her and passing the sketchbook carefully. She snatched it from his hands, flipping through the pages and nodding, mildly impressed. He was actually quite a talented artist, but she did her best to hide her reverence.
"How was the journey?" he droned, slumping back as Ellen sifted through page after page. Someone with more tact might have avoided such a question given Meena's palpably sour demeanor, and Ellen revelled in the knowledge it would infuriate Meena to no end. Neither of them responded, but Meena's cheeks flushed in anger and embarrassment, it had been years since she had seen Will and she had forgotten just how ridiculously, painfully good looking he was. Back when she lived with Quinn he would be over all the time: for dinner, to watch TV, join for occasional games nights. It was torturous. The first time seeing him again properly in all these years of intermittent social media exchanges and she looked her absolute worst.
"I'm gonna take a shower real quick," she stated, capitalising on the fact that Quinn hadn't seen her yet. A small blessing.
