How Important Is Getting There? (7/10+1)

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Chapter 7

Rose and Chiquita wake up at the same time around 3 AM. Chiquita mutters something about how her neck is sore while Rose complements her as the best pillow ever for a road trip.

It doesn't take long before one of them notices that someone doesn't originally belong in the backseat. The other one senses the tension that's currently slicing the air like cucumbers and sends a text message to the person sitting on the front passenger seat.

Text Message
From: Rose (work)
U ok?

She gets a reply and it just says, “peachy.”


Rose shows the texts to Chiquita and they share a silent conversation with looks.

Glad you're here.

Same.

//

It's that time again for a break for the bladders so they all agree to stop at another 24-hour diner and take turns visiting the restroom. There's always been an unspoken agreement between the four, probably out of habit, that Rose and Chiquita would always be the firsts. Then again, the other two already took their bathroom breaks at the last diner. So, once again, Penny and Tara get seated in a situation they both have become to familiar with— in a diner, in a booth, in silence, and in rage.

Thinking she should probably sit out of another probable fight, Penny gets out of her seat and heads outside.

//

It's almost sunrise and Penny is smoking on the side of the building when Chiquita finds her.

“You're smoking again now,” Chiquita asks, leaning her back against the wall next to her friend.

“No. One time thing,” Penny says, blowing an O-shaped smoke. “Stole these from Ro's purse.”

“You thief,” Chiquita laughs. “You know she's gonna go apeshit about it.”

Penny laughs with her. She toss the cigarette butt to the ground and puts it out with the sole of her shoes. She takes a deep breath, inhaling the quiet, looking at the faintest dots of what were stars last night.

“Sorry I slept almost the whole drive through,” Chiquita says, making a goofy grin on her face. “You know me.”

“Don't worry about it,” Penny says with a smile. “You had meetings to go to. You were tired.”

“Yeah, but so does Tay. And she stayed awake.”

//

“Hey.”

“You done?”

“Yeah,” Rose takes her seat. “Where's Cee?”

Tara shrugs. “Outside with the witch.”

Rose laughs, shaking her head. “Come on,” she says. “If you're going to call your sister a name, at least use the right consonant.”

//

“I just don't get why she doesn't get it,” Penny says.

“She does.”

“Then why does she act like she doesn't?”

“Because you act like you don't get it.”

//

“We missed you, you know,” Rose says between her bites. She's ordered a burger and a side of fries for the whole table which is still missing two people. “You guys need to get your head out of your asses, really.” Rose says. It earned her a glare from Tara. “What? I'm just keeping it real. I bet Cee's been saying the same thing to you over and over again.”

“We missed you too,” Tara twiddles with her fingers. “Hey, Ro,” she calls, “I'm sorry. I never meant for you to take sides— you and Cee.”

Rose looks up at Tara and smiles. “Funny,” she says. “That's exactly what P said to me the other day.”

//

“She broke her promise.”

“No, she didn't. In your eyes, maybe. But Rose and I know she never did,” Chiquita says.

“Yeah, right,” Penny takes another drag.

“Yeah. Right. The same as how Rose and I know that you didn't break yours.”

//

“I'm not the one breaking my promises.”

“Not to me, you're not.”

“To her?”

“Well, you should've let us tell her,” Rose sips her milkshake. She knows it's going straight to her waist but screw it, she thinks. I freaking love strawberry milkshakes.

“Tell her what?”

“You want me to spell it out for you,” Rose cocks an eyebrow. “Fine. I'll do that. You should've let us told her about your huge collection of books in your bookshelves— by the way, awesome apartment you got there. I heard you didn't settle for anything with less than 4 bedrooms. And then, how about how you wanted Cee to come home instead of keeping you company so the three of us can be together? And how you make sure Sally always, always send us her homemade cookies every month so that your sister, a.k.a. the bitch who just stole my cigarettes, feels a little bit better about herself because you know she will always be insecure about losing everything again.” Rose takes a deep breath. “Did I miss anything? Oh, and one of our Media guys got an email a couple of months ago, from an investor in London. Hm. Yep, pretty sure that's your doing too.”

Tara scoffs listening to Rose's monologue. “Why would let you tell her all of that? She'll just dismiss it cause she's still pissed.”

Rose looks at Tara like she just said the strangest thing she's ever heard. “Well, for one thing,” Rose puts her cup down. “We wouldn't be having this conversation now, would we?”

Tara crosses her arms and huffs. “I guess.”

Rose smirks. This switcheroo with Cee is going better than I thought.

//

“The books in our shelves,” Chiquita says softly, but reassuringly. “None of them is from a local bookstore. And that's saying something cause we pretty much can get anything in a snap— you know, we have 'people' now,” she uses her fingers to airquote. “But we always get them shipped.”

Penny furrows her eyebrows. “That doesn't make any—“

“From New York.” Chiquita cuts her off.




(end of Chapter 7)