Adrenaline

11 | getaway

Seira squeezes honey onto her fingertip and licks it off. "Want?"

        "No thanks." I yank the bowl from her. "How was the phone interview this morning?"

        "Fun!" Seira grins. "It went on longer than I thought it was going to so I'm sure they'll cut down some of it before they release it."

        "Send me a link when they do so I can scream about how I want to be you when I grow up."

        Seira laughs and rips a piece of avocado skin off to throw at me. "Shut up, you dork."

        "Can you sign this old avocado so I can sell it on eBay?"

        Music skips through the air as Lauren rejoins us in time for face masks, pulling her braids up in a loose bun as she lowers herself to the ground.

        "We haven't done this in a while," Lauren sighs, leaning back against the cushion so Seira can put the mask on. "I missed it."

        Seira takes a sip of merlot before dipping the brush into the mixture and spreading it across Lauren's skin. "Too much testosterone in this house."

        "The women outnumber the men."

        "I said what I said."

        I lift my glass of wine. "I love our men but you have a point."

        "Of course I do," Seira replies.

        Lauren laughs. "They can have rights."

        "Some." Seira presses another glob of avocado mask on Lauren's cheek. "But if Jun comes back with pineapple and ham on that pizza, I'm revoking them."

        Since it'll be a while before the boys come back with the pizza, I grab a pretzel from a bowl of trail mix.

        "Do you ever miss being back home?" Lauren asks, her eyes closed. Seira finishes her mask and scoots away, allowing her to sit upright. "Obviously not this smoggy mess but Hawaii."

        "Every single day of my life," I scoff while pulling my hair into a bun. "This pollution is getting to me. I get a pimple every other week now."

        "That's because you keep forgetting to wash your face," Seira jabs.

        Ignoring her comment, as true as it might be, Lauren and I switch places. "And the food. God, I miss the food."

        Lauren takes a sip of wine. "It's criminal how long it's been since I've had lau lau."

        "We should make kalua pig and cabbage," Seira suggests. "We can get that stuff here."

        "You're talking to two people who consider making a peanut butter sandwich a form of our finest culinary excellence."

        "There are sacrifices we need to make to get what we want."

        "Maybe we can get Marty to make us some."

         Seira laughs. "Right. He'll call us a bunch of lazy slobs and go home to make it for his actual kids."

        "It's worth a shot." I grab my phone and set a reminder for tomorrow morning to grovel to Marty.

        "I actually want to show you something," Lauren says before yanking her backpack to her side. Out comes her song notebook.

        Every member of the band has their way of writing music, and, generally, we blend well when the collaboration portion takes effect. It's a balance of compromise and creativity, but, somehow, we make it work. Even though Jun tends to jot most of his random thoughts into his phone, we all have a notebook that perfectly reflects how our creativity manifests.