5,000 miles

A bell angrily jingles as a stiff woman walks briskly into an upscale New York City store. She wears a tasteful light pink silk blouse and straight black pants to accentuate her long legs. She is drowned in pearls, except for the elfin ice rink attached to her left ring finger. She pauses at the top of the stairs and takes in the quiet yet thumping techno music and the rows upon rows of trendy clothes.
As she floats down the stairs, another woman approaches her.
“Welcome to Gucci.” She says smiling ridiculously. “Can I help you?”
The woman turns to take in the lowly woman who spoke to her. She takes in her appearance and turns to check that she has indeed walked into the right store. The sales woman was wearing the usual Gucci uniform of a simple black dress and colorful heels, but her hair and makeup screamed she didn’t belong. Her rich red hair was pulled back into a pony tail at eh base of her head. It would have looked nice if her bangs weren’t hanging in her face. The hair hanging down her back was tangled and frizzy as if she wore the same hair the night before. Her makeup was practically nonexistent, and looked as if a preadolescent teen had put it on.
“Where’s Ellen?” She finally spoke after she got over the shock that Gucci actually let people like her work there.
“I’m sorry?” The sales woman asked with a poison honey smile.
“Where’s Ellen? She’s my usual girl.”
“Just then Ellen rounded the corner from the back room.
“Mrs. Evans!” She cried with arms wide open. The woman air kissed each other’s cheeks and embraced one another.
“Um, Excuse me, but I can help you just as well as Ellen.” The sales woman said, putting a nasty emphasis on Ellen’s name.
“No doubt you can darling.” Mrs. Evans said but didn’t believe, “But I always shop with Ellen. She’s just simply the best!” She grabbed Ellen’s hands and smiled a motherly smile at her.
“Are you kidding? She’s the biggest brown noser here! Not to mention a bitch.” The sales woman words went from subtle to livid. “Oh but I guess that since your a bitch you’ll want to stick to your own kind.”
“Well I never!”
“I mean, I know I have way better taste than Ellen! Seriously what is wrong? I kissed you ass the second you walked in the door and it took her ten minutes to come out and kiss you feet!”
“Stop it Ava, you’re embarrassing yourself.” Ellen softly chimed, pulling her hair behind her ear to hide her face. Every one in the store was staring.
Ava began to continue her rant when a sharp woman barked at her.
“Ava!”
Ava spun on her black Payless heels and stared at her manager like she was about to be hit by a train. Her manager simply raised her hand and with her index finger, beaconed Ava to her.
Ava trudged, defeated toward her and followed her into a small room located behind the cash registrars.
“Sit.” She said sharply. Like a dog Ava plopped into the first char she could get to. “What are you thinking? Yelling at a customer like that. Maybe they do that at the GAP but this...”
Ava stared at her shoes and tuned her manager out. Wow these shoes are really scuffed up. The floor is green? She thought, I always thought it was a grey-purple color.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Her manager’s voice ran her train of thought right off the track.
“What?”
“You’re fired. We’ll send you your last check.”
“What?! No you can’t fire me! That lady was mean!”
“Fired!”
“You’re mean!” Ava stood and started to walk out. “How do you get people to work for-”
“Leave!”
“OK!” With a fire under her ass, Ava left the office, gave a dirty look to Ellen (who returned the favor) and left the store.

***

Meanwhile, at a trendy Soho art gallery. Molly was loosing her never.
“What do you mean he wants to return the piece?”
Molly’s paint stained hands flailed threateningly through the air as she spoke. Her long brown, wavy hair was pulled into a ponytail with hopeless whispies flying in every direction. Her cut off sweatpants had the remnants of several art projects but her tee shirt was actually clean. She speaks animatedly to the gallery owner in the back storage room. He was hiding a tall painting, evidently one that a man wishes to return.
“He doesn’t want it anymore.” Greg, the gallery owner, protested.
“Why? This is a beautiful piece! I painted it when I was in love!”
“He didn’t say why he just wants to return it.”
“Oh so he’s too good to tell us why! That is it! I’m gunna go talk to this ass hole!” Molly stormed from the storage room. She marched straight up to the man who wished to return her art and confidently tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me...”
She was about to go on but the man turned around and took her by surprise. He was gorgeous. His sandy blond hair was cut to perfection and his tanned skin off set his perfect, blinding smile. Molly could swear she could see his muscles through his Hugo Boss suit. He looked as if her had just walked out of a Greek myth.
“I understand that you would like to return a piece of my art.” She said sweetly smoothing her hair and batting her eyelashes.
“Yes.” He said continuing to flash his pearly smile. Molly noticed his eyes that looked like two oceans she looked down on from space.
“Well as our sign indicates, unfortunately, all of the sales at this gallery are final.”
“Oh yeah, I know. But I was planning to put that painting in my bathroom, and it just didn’t fit.”
“Well perhaps you put it in the wrong spot.”
“No, no, I hung it right over the toilet and it just didn’t look good.”
Molly’s jaw hit the floor. The TOILET! “I’m sorry, but perhaps it will look great somewhere else? Like, let’s say, the foyer, or dining room.”
“No. I just don’t want it anymore.”
Molly stared dumbfounded at him and his reluctance to keep the painting, despite being face to face with the artist. “Well... um... a... I... I guess we could, um, make an exception...”
“That would be great! Thanks a lot!” The man reached into his pocket for his wallet. Molly, dying a little inside, headed back to the storeroom.
“Just do it.” She said, exhausted. He knees crumpled and she sat on the floor, Brown eyes staring teary eyed at all her painting around her. “Shit.”

***

While Molly fought with something she loved, Dana fought with something she didn’t.
“You can’t do this to me! This is ridiculous!” Dana cried at her parents. Her mother flinched at her volume.
“Darling please...”
“Now Muffin. Ethan is a good man. I’m sure you’ll be happy together.” Dana’s father offered while inspecting his cigar.
“Happy!” Dana threw the word back in her father’s face. “I’ve never even met this guy!”
“Oh yes you did darling. At the Huntington Ladies Society’s annual silent auction. He was being auctioned off for a night on the town.” Dana’s mother, Judith, said with a proud smile.
Dana stared blankly at her mother with her light blue eyes. They were dressed practically the same in a three-piece skirt suit, with simple heels and tasteful pearls. Dana wore light blue while her mother wore a blush wine color. Besides their dress, Dana and her mother were quite opposites. Dana’s mother had shoulder length poofy brown hair while Dana had shoulder length, sleek, straight, gorgeous blonde hair. She was quite tall and her physique reminded on of a model, without the ribs and bones sticking out.
They all sat in the living room of Dana’s new Park Avenue apartment. Everything was white except for the accents of black and gold. The entire house looked like they had posted life size pictures of a home decorating magazine on the walls and you couldn’t actually sit on any of the furniture.
Dana’s Grandmother had left her a very large trust fund that she tapped into when she turned eighteen. The first thing she bought was a trendy loft in Chelsea just to get away from her parents. She grew tired of it and moved to a gorgeous fifth avenue apartment that overlooked the park. After deciding that too many people let their dogs shit on her sidewalk and too many tourist buzzed around her block, she moved to Park Avenue. Her best move yet.
Now Dana’s parents just informed her that she has too marry a man she doesn’t even know. She had heard his name tossed out at several dinner parties and only heard the best.
“He’s very well off. Also, he is the best lawyer at the firm.” Her father, Joshua, acted like Ethan’s personal cheerleader.
“I don’t care! I’m not going to marry a guy I don’t know. I want to be in love!” Dana was about to explode. Every muscle was tense, and there was tightness from deep inside she couldn’t describe. She felt as if her insides were just dying to pop out and scream, “Believe me”.
“Dear, you can be in love or you can be married. You can’t have both.” Judith added with and odd glances at Joshua. The doorbell rang. “Oh that must be him! Oh he’s right on time!” Dana’s mom jumped up and half ran, half walked to the intercom.
“Who? Who’s right on time?” Dana demanded. She flashed her father a puzzled and concerned look.
“Hello? Ethan? Is that you?” Judith called into the intercom.
“Ethan! Here! Mother!” Dana attempted to pull her mother away from the intercom while scolding her in a whisper.
Judith’s fingers barely reached the speaker button. With stretched to the max fingers she pushed the button long enough to say, “Come on up!” She barely pressed the button to buzz him in when Dana pried her away.
Dana finally let go and swept a blond bang out of her face.
“Mother! I can’t believe you invited him here! I live here! Oh god!” Dana paused and clutched the telephone table next to the front door. “He knows where I live!”
“Calm down now Muffin. I'm sure after you meet him you’ll change how you feel. He really is such a gentleman.” Joseph abandoned his post on the sofa to console his daughter, and pull her back upright.
The door knocked softly.
“What is he the Flash too?! How did- Ow!” Judith stomped on Dana’s toe before she could finish. She motioned to the door with a violent head nod and placed her finger across her lips. Her stern face melted away into an obnoxious smile as she pulled open the door.
***

A steady beep emitted from the heart monitor next to a hospital bed. A young chocolate haired girl leaned intently over an open cut lined with sterile blue cloth.
“Forceps and suction.” She reached behind her with out taking her eyes off of the patient. She moved in to remove a blood clot. “Steady suction there.” She grabbed the clot and slowly pulled it out. She held it in front of her face and let out a sigh.
Right on cue, the heart monitor’s beeping quickened to a rapid pace. The girl looked across the operating table to her partner, a nerdy you man, who shrugged at her.
“Shit!” She spun around and looked at all the monitors; she was running out of time. She couldn’t think. She stared hopelessly from the patient to her partner.
The beeps slowed and blended to one sound. The patient flat lined.
The florescent lights violently interrupted the scene and someone’s clapping echoed, filling the entire room.
The girl, Carla, turned to see her professor, Dr. Chen, applauding her performance. She slowly set her tools on he table and waited to be eaten alive.
Dr. Chen was a tall, handsome Asian man whose stern look masked his sympathy and disappointment for his most promising student. “Well done Miss O’Leery, you panicked and choked. You shouldn’t rely on your partner to save you ass. Now who can tell me what Miss O’Leery and Mr. Vallis should have done?”
Dr. Chen called on a man near the back, who answered smartly. Carla was too upset with herself to listen.
The bell and the students slowly poured out of the lecture hall while Carla and her team cleaned up.
Carla ran her fingers through her short chocolate brown hair. She was tall and gangly. Her pants only executed the fact that she had legs for days and her shirt showed the fact that she didn’t have a chest at all. She threw her lab coat on the chair and pulled her long sleeves down, staring at the ground with her aqua eyes.
Carla fetched her backpack but before leaving Dr. Chen called her over to him. She walked toward him completely focused on the ground. She couldn’t bare to see the disappointment in his eyes.
“What happened?” He asked searching her face.
“I don’t know. I just panicked and couldn’t thing of something. And then when Anthony didn’t know, I just shut down.” Carla answered in her singsong Irish accent.
“Look this happens to a lot of young medical students and it only gets better with practice. I lead an invitation only in the field-training program at the hospital. I really thing you should come and just be around the operating room for a bit.
Carla smiled. She loved studying to be a doctor. It was what she always wanted. She had moved to New York City after she graduated high school to love with her father, a lawyer at a major corporation, and attend pre med school at NYU.
“That would be great! I'd love to.”
“Great! Oh and Carla.” She stopped in her tracks as she was leaving. “I’m going to have to five you a failing grade for today. But I'm sure I can work in some extra credit for your involvement with the training program.”
“That’s ok. You win some you loose some! Thank you so much.” She quickly passes through the door and down the hall. After she rounded the corner, she stopped and leaned against the lockers.
A failing grade! She thought to herself, I can’t have this! I’m never going to get into med school with an F for a major surgery assignment. Then she broke down, literally. Her legs gave way as she slid along the lockers to the floor, crying her eyes out.

***

Ava, Molly and Carla sat in the quaint bakery waiting for Dana to arrive. They chitchatted away about nothing, saving their big news for when everyone was there to alleviate repeating the same story over and over.
Dana entered the bakery and schlepped over to her friends. She plopped down and threw her purse on the floor. The other girls were silent as she heavily placed her hands on the table. “I’m getting married.” She simply said in a monotone voice.
“Oh my God!” Ava, Molly and Carla exclaimed at the same time. They began to erupt with questions but Molly stopped short on her turn.
“Wait,” She said looking very confused, “you’re not even dating anyone. Are you?” The other girls looked to Dana, sympathizing with Molly’s confusion.
“Exactly.” Dana replied. She was zoning, staring at the center of the table.
“Wait a minute. What’s going on?” Carla asked putting a hand on her arm.
“My parents are making me marry this guy, Ethan.”
“Oh my God! Is he hot?” Ava asked, breathless, and leaned into the table toward Dana.
“Ava!” Molly shot her a look.
“What?! It’s a perfectly legitimate question!”
“How about, ‘what’s his personality like’?” Carla chided.
“Ugh. He’s like six foot, gold hair, bronze tan, blue eyes, muscles. Ya know a typical rich guy.” Dana answered. She tipped the peppershaker over and didn’t bother to pick it up.
The girls were drooling.
“If you won’t marry him, I will.” Ava said a little too enthusiastically, raising her hand. Dana looked at her, baffled.
“Yeah! I might have to fight you for him.” Molly pulled Ava’s hand down. Sometimes her public demeanor was embarrassing.
“I mean you must be crazy. I could understand if they were trying to make you marry some fat, sweaty, bald guy with a unibrow. But, Dana, He’s hot! Go for it girl!” Ava punched her fist in the air, practically jumping out of her seat.
“But you’re twenty-five, they can’t make you do anything.” Carla offered.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. But, they can keep me from my money and taking over the family business. And then what am I gunna do?”
“Um, get a job like the rest of us?” Ava said with disdain.
“Like you know anything about a job Ava.” Molly said sternly.
Ava sat back in her seat for the first time since they arrived. She crossed her arms. “You’re right, I go fired today.”
“Again?!” The girls all exclaimed only half surprised.
“What happened?” Dana asked.
“I yelled at a customer.”
“You yelled at a customer?!”
“Well in my defense she was a bitch!”
“She was a bitch?!”
“Why do you have to yell everything I say back to me?!”
“That doesn’t matter! You still shouldn’t yell at them!” Molly ignored Ava’s previous comment. She couldn’t believe her ears.
“Well, what are you going to do now?” Carla asked, truly interested. Ava had been through so many jobs since she dropped out of law school. She wondered how she could still get jobs.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go work in someone’s basement, where I don’t have to deal with people. I guess I’m just not a people person.” Ava said, head in her hand. She was fiddling with the pepper that Dana had spilt across the way.
Dana finally picked up the peppershaker and replied. “Yes you are a people person. You just can’t let everything in your head spill out of your mouth.” She pushed Ava’s hand out of the way and swept the pepper off the table and into her hand.
“Exactly.” Carla said forcefully. She leaned across the table to point in Ava’s face. “You need to show some self control.” Ava looked appalled.
“I actually think that it’s kind of refreshing that Ava can just say what she’s thinking.” Dana, Carla, and Ava all looked amazed at the recently silent Molly.
“Thank you, Molly! See it’s exercising my right of free speech.” Ava said sitting back into her chair, crossing her arms, satisfied.
“What are you doing! Don’t encourage her!” Carla exclaimed practically hysterical.
“I would love to be able to speak my mind like she does. We all think it she is just brave and secure enough to actually say it.” Molly protested.
“Or stupid enough.” Dana added under her breath.
Ava was the only one of the girls to realize that here was something wrong with Molly. She didn’t usually talk passionately, even for an artist. “What’s up?” She asked casually yet concerned, while across the table Carla and Dana were buys being angry.
“Someone returned my painting today.” She said softly.
“What?!” Carla and Dana snapped back to the conversation.
“He said it didn’t look good in his bathroom over his toilet!” Molly was near tears but she pushed them back. She wasn’t one for showing emotions in public, she liked to save them for her art.
“Above his toilet? What painting was it?” Ava chimed in.
“The one that I painted when I was with David. Ya know, the one with all the pink and yellow and green.”
“I love that one! How could he return that one!” Carla was beginning to draw attention to their table.
“Shhh...” Dana shushed Carla hiding her face.
“Well did you give him a full refund or did you keep some of the money?” Carla continued.
“No, two thirds of a discount.” Molly was still mopey.
“Well that’s good.” Ava encouraged.
“And I had to give two thirds of that to the gallery.” Molly went on as if Ava hadn’t said anything.
“Do I dare ask how much the painting was originally?” Dana winced.
“Oh my god, did you chew him out?” Ava asked.
“No.”
“Why not?!”
“I wanted to. I tried but when I came face to face with him, I just couldn’t.”
“You choked on chewing someone out?”
“I know how you feel.” Carla said miserably.
“Finally! I was beginning to think that you never had any problems in the world.” Ava shot at Carla. her tone implied that she had just been told that her vegetable relative would walk and talk again.”
“I choked during surgery today.”
“You were performing surgery?” Ava looked shocked and appalled. “You’re not even a real doctor yet.”
“It was fake surgery on a cadaver you idiot!” Dana called across the table.
Ava gave her a shocked and hurt look, “Ouch!”
Carla ignored them and continued. “I had just removed the blood clot when my patient started crashing. I couldn’t thing of anything to do and of course my partner, Anthony, was useless and I just froze. I couldn’t even think of how deep in shit I was.”
“That’s awful.” Molly said, taking in her friends disposition
“Yeah,” Carla went on, “and the worst part of it is that I got an F for the project.” Carla suddenly leapt to life. “An F! I’ve never gotten an F in my entire life!”
“Oh come on. An F isn’t that bad, I got like two. So you’re catching up to me.” Ava gave Carla a cheerful smile.
I didn’t seem to cheer her up, because she groaned and slammed her head on the table.
“Doesn’t anyone thing it’s weird that we all had really bad days today?” Molly addressed to the group.
“Yeah, it’s a little odd but, I mean, it’s happened before.” Dana said.
“Yeah, but it’s never been anything major.”
“It’s a sign!” Ava called triumphantly. “It’s a sign that we all need to chill. We need to do something crazy and spontaneous and fun!”
“Let’s order the fruit tart! Carla offered eagerly.
“Lets go to Europe!” Ava, in her excitement knocked over the saltshaker completely. She picked it up, shook a little in her hand and tossed it over her right shoulder. The salt sprinkled on to the woman sitting behind her. She turned looking livid. “I mean we can start in London and-”
The woman cleared her throat and hissed, “Excuse me.”
Ava turned quickly, “Oh, sorry about that. Bad luck. Anyway and then we can work our way down.” The woman turned back around to complain to her friend and Ava trudged on. “Or we could start in Italy or Greece and work our way up.”
“Ava, I don’t think-” Molly began.
“Spain!” Ava couldn’t be stopped. She was on one of her rantings and all anyone could do was sit and bear it.
After ten minutes of Ava drawing out several scenarios on paper napkins with Dana’s Channel lipstick, Molly finally spoke up.
“We can’t just up and leave for Europe tomorrow, I mean we need to book hotels and transportation not to mention that airline tickets to anywhere in Europe will cost a small fortune.”
“That’s what we have Dana for.” Ava squeaked, and gestured toward Dana. Dana’s mouth flew open in protest, the words didn’t come before Ava moved on. “ I mean we don’t-”
“We?” Carla raised an eyebrow.
“Ok. I. I don’t mean for you to pay my entire way, I mean, I’ll pay you back.”
“Yeah in twenty years, while paying in installments of three dollars a month.” Dana said and it was Ava left in silent protest. “Even if i did pay for you and most likely every one else, when are we going to find time to go?”
“Next week.” Apparently Ava had been planning the trip nonstop in her head. She never missed a beat. “ I don’t have a job, you don’t work, Molly doesn’t have to be at the gallery, obviously it hurts her, and Carla, you have a break coming up. Don’t you?”
“Yeah but it’s only two weeks and I don’t want to be jet lagged for my exams.”
“Great so we’ll go for a week and a half!” Ava picked up her purse and dug for her wallet as the other girls looked on wondering what the hell she was going to pull out of her purse. “I’ll go look up flights and hotels and train, planes, and automobiles. I’ll let you guys know what the plan is.” With that she threw some money on the table and fled to the door.
After a minute or two of silently staring at the door Ava just ran out of the girls finally came to their senses.
“What the fuck just happened?” Dana asked to no one in particular. The people at the next table could have answered and she wouldn’t have known the difference. Alas, Molly beat them to it.
“I guess we are going on a trip to Europe.” She stated flatly.
All three girls sighed and dropped their cash on the table. When they stepped onto the sidewalk, they hadn't’ spoken another word about their newly planned vacation.
“We need to stop doing these lunch things.” Carla said into space. “A, they get us into a lot of trouble. And B, it is so cliché, I mean, very Sex and the City.”

The cab’s horn blared into the cold, early morning, New York air. Molly stuck her head out of her apartment window and yelled at the cab’s angry impatience. “I’ll be right down! Don’t get your panties in a twist!”
Three and a half minutes later. Molly appeared at her front door. An oversized backpack practically swallowed her whole. She skipped down the stairs and yanked the cab door open. Another oversized backpack fell to the sidewalk with a soft thud.
“Shit.” Ava reached out of the cab and grabbed the pack. She did several maneuvers to get the pack back in the cab and between her legs in the middle seat.
“Why don’t you put that in the trunk?” Molly asked, silently wondering how the hell she was going to get into the cab herself.
“Well, there would be room if Princess Dana up there didn’t bring her entire wardrobe.” Ava said, completely annoyed. “We are backpacking through Europe, the hint there was to bring a backpack.”
“So what am I supposed to do?” Molly asked, cutting into the one-way conversation Ava was having with Dana.
“Squish on in!” Carla’s head popped out from around Ava and her gain bag.
Molly followed the maneuvers Ava had done. In a few minutes, Molly, Ava, and Carla were all mashed together in the back seat like play-dough being smashed violently back together.
Molly surveyed what little she could of the cab. The driver looked exasperated and ready to get the girls out of his car. She could see Dana’s blonde hair peeking through the headrest of the front seat. And with the aid of the side view mirror, noticed she sat comfortably on the front seat with her purse perched on her lap. Molly gave an annoyed sigh, but Dana didn’t hear her. With perkiness and enthusiasm Dana told the driver, “Newark please.”, and the cab went zooming off.

***

“What do you mean we aren’t sitting together?” Ava was on the end of her very short rope. The poor agent at the counter looked like she would shit her pants from fear. Ava didn’t care, she’d had enough. Sitting in the middle seat of a very crowded cab had made her, hot, claustrophobic, and irritable. Once they had finally arrived at Newark airport, they had to wait for a trolley to carry Dana’s things in (she wouldn’t dream of lugging them the thirty yards to the check in counter). Ava’s shoulders were sore from her over stuffed backpack and all she wanted to do was throw the bag into the conveyor belt to send it off to
God knows where and eat a giant cinnamon roll. This, of course, was impossible and entirely too easy. Upon checking in, the Agent told her the four girls were not sitting together. But, Ava knew better than to fall for their over booked (still at least twenty seats left), extra leg room (wow, thanks so much for the three inches), you aren’t sitting together (just a little something to piss you off, as if you day isn’t stressful enough) crap.
“I know for a fact that when I booked this flight, I choose the seats and I put us all together.” Ava spoke to the agent as if she were an idiot, which could, quite possibly be true.
“I’m sorry miss but-”
“Don’t ‘I’m sorry miss but’ me! We demand seats together or we’ll-”
“As long as we have seats on the same plane, we’ll be fine.” Dana raised her voice higher then Ava’s which served difficult. She followed up with a plastered smile, and a stomp on Ava’s foot to ease her angry, shocked look.
The girls finally go their tickets and checked their bags and headed off to security.
“This line is longer than the line outside the bridal store when they are selling gowns for fifty dollars.” Molly observed.
“That’s not a line, it’s a mob.” Carla added with a smile as they joined the masses waiting to be frisked by men with big guns.
“Jesus Christ Carla,” Dana’s mouth hung open as she watched Carla pull cameras, computers, and books from her Marry Poppins bag. “Did you bring enough useless shit?”
“Look who’s talking!” Carla motioned to the oversized shoulder bag stuffed full of God knows what, Dana p[laced on the conveyor belt. “Besides, we have a very long train rides and I have finals when we get back.”
Dana looked over her shoulder. Three lanes down, to confirm that Molly and Ava were still moving smoothly though the line.
After Dana and Carla made it through their security line they were greeted by Molly at the mouth of the terminals.
“Where’s Ava?” Carla asked the obvious question. Molly pointed to a glass box where Ava stood, shoeless and inspecting the ends of her hair.
“Apparently she looks like a terrorist.” Molly said.
At that moment, Ava dropped her hair and let her hands slap down on her thighs. She let out an obvious sigh and rolled her eyes. He gaze came upon her friends and a huge smile came across her face. She waved feverously at them and the girls waved back with significantly less enthusiasm. For her next act, Ava began to press her hands against the glass walls, imitating a mime. The girls laughed, but quickly stifled them when people walking past wondered what they were looking at. Ava kept on, pretending to be swimming in a fish bowl. The girls laughed even harder, as Ava used her hands to create gills by her ears and sucked in her cheeks. The security man snuck up behind Ava and tapped her on the shoulder. The girls tried very hard to hold heir laughter in when his glance hit them. he motioned Ava to follow him with a stern look. Before following him, Ava turned and put her hand over her giggling mouth and gave her friends an ‘oops’ look.
A short thirty minutes later the girls had finished with security, found their gate, found four seats together, and threw their carry on bags to the floor.
Everyone plopped into the plastic seats, except for Carla. “I’m going to go buy a magazine, do you all want something?” She asked, running her fingers through her hair and looking around for the nearest newsstand.
“No.”
“No.”
“No.” Carla began to turn and leave, but Ava changed her mind. “Wait!” Carla turned back to her friend. “I want some peanut butter M&M’s and a water.” Carla started to walk away again. “If they don’t have peanut butter then I want a Butterfinger.” Carla nodded and started again. “but if they don’t have that get me sour worms. Actually, get me both.”
“Both, peanut butter M&M’s and Butterfinger or both Butterfinger and-”
“Butterfinger and sour worms.”
“Ok.”
“Unless they have the M&M’s then those and the sour worms.”
“So sour worms either way?”
“Unless they have the M&M’s and the Butterfingers.”
Carla paused for a moment and tried to sort out what Ava what saying. “Ok, whatever.” With that she practically ran away, for fear Ava would confuse her even more.
Ava sat back and looked over at Dana, who was pushing buttons on her phone, and then at Molly, who was filling out a crossword puzzle. Ava quickly grew tired of watching her friends and scooped the room. She spotted a deeply tanned man with gorgeous black, loosely curled hair. He wore a sharp navy blue pinstriped suit with a blood red tie and a light blue shirt. She jabbed Molly in the arm with her elbow, sending her pen flying across the page. “Isn’t he yummy?” Ava asked her, eyes locked on the man.
“Owe!” Molly said to give Ava a hint that she just gave her a dead arm.
“Oh sorry.” Ava finally turned to cup Molly’s arm where she had hurt it. “But, isn’t he totally hot? I hope I’m sitting next to him on the plane.”
“You just threw a fit because you weren’t sitting next to us on the plane.” Molly said as she massaged her arm. She barely glanced up to see who Ava was addressing.
“Well, if I can’t sit next to you, my love, I might as well be sitting next to him.”
Molly sighed, “Ok, down periscope and help me with this puzzle.”
“Fine.” Ava whined, but quickly leaned on her armrest between them to get a better look at he puzzle.
“Dana’s phone rang and before the first ring ended she answered. “Hello?” She looked at her perfectly manicured nails as she spoke to the caller. “Yes we are at the airport... yes we got through security just fine... yes we are waiting at the gate.”
“Mom.” Ava said with out looking away from the puzzle.
“Dad.” Molly followed as she filled in a word.
“Mom, I’ve traveled before, it’s really not that difficult... Yes... ok, I’ll call you when we get there.”
“I win!”
“Of course I have my passport, how do you think I got this for?... Ok... I’ll talk to you later... Bye.” Dana snapped her phone shut and tossed it back into her purse. She crossed her arms and legs and leaned back in her seat. Two seconds after her back hit the chair, she leaned forward and pulled her book out of her bag. She forcefully pulled the pages open and leaned into the chair and half heatedly gave herself to the story.
Carla returned and dumped some items into Ava’s lap. Ava looked at them and then back to Carla and back to the items. In her lap lay peanut butter M&M’s, a Butterfinger, and sour worms.
“I didn’t want all three. I only wanted two.” She looked at Carla disgusted at the fact she couldn’t follow directions.
“Well you were unclear as to what you wanted and they got all three so I bought all three.” Carla answered, working on opening her chex mix.
“But I only wanted two.”
“Well you got three.”
“I don’t want three.”
“I’ll take the Butterfinger.” Dana claimed while simultaneously snatching it from Ava’s lap.
“Hey!” Ava made a move to retrieve her candy but Molly grabbed her wrist and pushed her hand back. Molly was tired of people reaching across her, besides Ava was practically on top of her already.
Ava settled back into her own seat when she noticed something was missing. She invaded Molly’s personal space yet again, and asked, “Where’s my water?”
“What?” Carla asked through her food.
“My water. I asked for a water too.”
“Ava, get your ass up and get it yourself!” Dana yelled.
“Geese.” Ava began to settle again. “Are you gunna have a stick up your ass the whole time we are there?”
Dana reached over Molly and hit Ava with her book several times. Molly attempted to get her off, but the flight agent saved all three of them.
“Good Morning, and welcome to United Airlines. We are going to begin our boarding process for flight 264, nonstop to Rome at gate C24. Please make sure you have your boarding pass and a photo ID before you approach the podium.” The flight against spoke, surprisingly, quickly and with little enthusiasm. “We’d like to start off with all of our first class passengers, gold members, and those traveling with small children or my need some extra time boarding the plane.”
As the flight attendant repeated her last line, Ava, Dana, and Molly sprung back to life from their frozen position. They slowly packed up their things, making sure they had their boarding passes and a photo ID. The last thing they needed was to be yelled at by the evil, Nazi, flight agent.
“G-25… G-25” Carla said aloud as she slowly hobbled down the aisle, stopping at every row to inspect the number.
“It’s 25-G and it’s fifteen rows down so move it!” Ava, always impatient, screamed. The plane was set up with two aisles, two seats on either side of the plane and four in the middle. The passengers herded in the other aisle looked at Ava shocked and worried that she would soon turn on them. Ava noticed the appalled stares, gave them a sweet smile and said, “It’s ok, she’s my friend.” With still disapproving looks the other passengers continued their business.
Molly kicked Ava in the back of the knee, which sent Ava flat on her face to the floor. “YOU are embarrassing us!” She hissed to what innocent bystanders thought was the floor.
Cool, as always, Ava popped back up, stroked her hair, and played it like nothing had happened. “What, everyone was thinking it. I just said it. Seriously Molly you need to be more out going.” Molly’s jaw dropped but Ava kept on. People were staring so Molly kept her mouth shut. “Ah, 16-G. This is me.” Ava plopped down in the seat and wiggled her fingers at Molly as a goodbye.
Molly trudged on, her giant carryon whacking ever seat along the way. She caught up to Carla, who finally found 25-G and glanced at her ticket. A mini panic attack consumed her when she read 20-E. Slowly she looked behind her and confirmed what she dreaded, a long line of irritated travelers standing in the aisle. Molly just stood there, looking hopelessly to the front of the plane. She sighed, closed her eyes and turned back around. Her only option, without disturbing any disgruntled passengers was to walk to the back of the plane and wait fro everyone else to board. So much for overhead storage.
When she reached the very back, she was surprised to see Dana still behind her. “Did you pass your seat too?” She asked relieved that she wasn’t the only idiot.
“No.” She answered in an irritated grunt. “This is me, 39-E.” She threw her purse on her chair along with her oversized shoulder bag.
“Well at least it’s not 40-E, then you would be the last row.” Dana shot Molly an “I could drop you right now” look and ducked to sink into her seat.
Ava settled her things under the seat in front of her. Her bright pink shoulder bag overflowed with headphones, puzzle books, magazines, and four different books. Ava hadn’t finished a book since she read The Great Gatsby. Everything else was just too disappointing, she often complained. Presently, she starts a book, stops, and starts another one, just to return to the first book. Shortly she will start another, become bored and the process starts over.
Ava looked up to see a large man with a sweaty balding head, puffy cheeks, wearing a Duke tank op ad way too short black basketball shorts. Ava followed his grotesque figure all the way down to his flip-flopped Frodo feet. They let people like this in public?
“I guess this is me,” he pointed out as his gaze fell from the overhead plaque, down Ava’s shirt. Ava flashed a smile that was colder than liquid nitrogen and resumed reading her magazine.
The man’s name, who Ava later learned from the eleven-hour flight, was Larry. Larry worked in computers (go figure), was single (see previous), and living in his parents basement (a fine specimen of man). Two years ago he had an operation to get a painful wart removed from and undisclosed location (of course Ava knows but that would be giving you way too much information). His sister has ten kids (rabbits…) and he himself had never been married (no comment). Either way, as Larry slid across to the seat next to Ava, his greasy hairy, exposed body parts ran along hers. Gross! Ava Attempted not to vomit as Larry began to laugh and spit out his life story. Literally, with ranchy breath.
Dana huffed in her seat. She was pissed at Ava. She had a way of making everything she did fabulous, making everyone else feel insufficient. But Dana was mostly pissed because Ava got the better seat.
She finally got over herself long enough to look up at evil 16-E just in time to see a large and sweaty man sit down in 16-H. Dana couldn’t help but laugh at her friends comeuppance.
“What’s so funny?” an older man asked Dana as he occupied 39-F.
“Nothing,” she started, “It’s just that my friend who took the best seat, received and unfortunate gift.” The man looked to the front of the plane, squinting to make out whom Dana was speaking about.
“Row 16? The red head and the Country Buffet eating champion?”
“That’s the one!” They shared a laugh and settled into their seats for a long flight.
Finally the flight was boarded and the aisles were clear enough for Molly to find her seat. She had been yelled at by the entire flight staff, one attendant yelled at her twice. She explained the situation, which was received by rolled eyes, a fake smile, and a cold turn back to their business.
Molly dragged her carry on to her seat. As she prepared to lift her bag into the minute space let in the overhead bin, the load suddenly lightened.
“Allow me.” Said a man with a dark chocolate voice.
“Oh, thanks.” Molly replied to the faceless voice.
“What you got in here?” He asked as he made several attempts to position the bag in the overhead bin.
“Oh, ya know. Stuff incase they loose my suitcase.”
The man laughed and finally put Molly’s bag on the seat. “That’s a very smart idea.”
Molly got a good look at his face. He looked about her age with very defined features. As he surveyed the situation, Molly couldn’t pull her gaze away from his eyes. They were the perfect blue, like a husky dog. The most beautiful eyes Molly had ever seen, hand down.
He pulled on of the bags out to the overhead bin with his perfect arms and placed it on the floor. The then lifted Molly’s bag and gently shoved it where the other bag had been. He bent over to grab the bag he had removed the turned to smile at Molly.
“Do you prefer the aisle?” He asked genuinely with a heavenly Australian accent.
“Um, well, yes. I mean that is if you don’t mind?”
“Not at all.” He slid into the seat and Molly followed after him.
“You really didn’t have to move your bag to fit mine.” She said, trying and failing to make eye contact.
“It’s no problem really. My bag fits under the seat nicely.” The man settled into his seat and bucked his seat belt. He turned to Molly, who had been intently watching him, to introduce himself. “Hi, I’m Damian Hunt.” He smiled at her with a laughing smile and extended his hand.
Molly grasped it. “Molly Lake.” She answered timidly. She finally took a good long hard look at him. Damian had a gorgeous tan with olive skin. He was the exact color of the Greek Gods that Molly had see in her art books over and over again. His black, wavy, thick locks even beckoned her to stare unabashed. He wore a grey-blue pinstriped suit, which offset his skin color nicely, with a burgundy and yellow striped tie around his muscular neck. Molly could only wonder what exactly was under that suit, and soon became hot and flustered at her impure thoughts. Molly had had many fantasies of boyfriends, husbands, and lovers she wish she had, and a man like Damian appeared several times.
“Business or Pleasure?” Damian asked.
Molly was forced from her reverie. Unsure of the question she simply stared, dumbfounded at his chin. “Oh, umm…” she looked around, why can’t I just listen? Damian was now looking at her quizzically. Molly panicked and soon found herself blurting, “I’m sorry, what was the question? I was lost in admiring your body- suit!
Damian laughed, but not at her, well at her in the sense that he found her very pretty and modest, but the tone was very kind. “This is going to be an excellent flight.”