"Wow, it's just the way I remember it. Filthy, dusty and homely!" She grabbed the few magazines that were left strewn on the futon and flung them over her shoulder before she threw herself on the couch.
"Christ Nina. I told you to clean up before you left. Do you have a brain at all? Or am I just talking to a withered ear drum?" I sighed throwing a couple of scrunched up serviettes in the bin.
"Ai Yai Yai! I'll help you a little later. Now, come sit and 'lax'." She emphasised. "Are you as pooped as I am?"
"If by pooped you mean fucking tired. Then yes, I'm pooped. I'm fucking pooped."
"Oh my baby, come here." Nina grabbed the side of my head and lowered me onto her thighs. "You know what I feel like? What I really feel like? A McDonald's soft serve." I closed my eyes and cringed when I heard this.
"Are you not suffering from just an ounce of jet lag right now?" I groaned.
"I'm German. My soul is in a different time zone."
I lift myself up to look at her. "Germany is an hour ahead." I said simply, shaking my head before walking to the kitchen, preparing a tea.
I see Nina prancing across the floorboards and into the kitchen. She lifted herself onto the granite counter, gathering old, unidentifiable crumbs in her hands and throwing them in the sink. The fluorescent light washed the room in a clinical white. Our apartment was totally mid-century, not the stylish type though, the type that was almost trashy and completely out-dated. Luckily, the apartment was only a temporary abode. A place we could stay until we actually bothered to get our lives in order and find new homes, separately.
"If you could have any type of American accent, which one would it be?" Nina quipped, tucking strands of her orange hair behind her ear.
"None of the above."
"Well, that wasn't an option." She raised her eyebrow, waiting for my reply.
"I'd have a New York accent, I suppose. But my voice would be super husky, and like, broken. Because I would smoke too much."
"But, you don't smoke?" Nina questions.
"I'm talking about an alternate universe? Think Nina." I sigh in frustration. "You need to smoke less. I think we are starting to see some brain damage." She glares at me.
"Well Tati, maybe you need to get out more." She says this as she lights up a cigarette, nice, smoking in our rented apartment.
"Are you kidding me? I think I 'get out' enough. I think I get out a lot, actually."
"I'm talking about 'getting laid', as they call it." I scoff at Nina's statement.
"Ha. Funny. Now, what do you want me to do about that?" I placed the tea cup beside her thigh.
"Gee, I don't know. Chat up a good looking, potential more-than-guy-friend?" I laugh at her as she shrugs, taking a sip of her tea before screaming out in pain, saying the tea had scolded her lips.
"So, what are we going to get for dinner? Are we going to get that soft serve? You know, I was hinting at you before." She wiggles her eyebrows up and down.
"Yikes Nina! Your hunger never falters." She shrugs, agreeing with my statement. "I was just going to make some classic, good old cup noodles."
Nina's face suddenly transforms into a death stare, she was looking at me through her eyebrows, attempting to look any bit scary and demeaning. "We are going to get soft serves. That is my last word."
It was 9:30pm and we were parked in the McDonald's car park, eating vanilla soft serves.
"You see? Now we are sitting in your car, eating yummy yummy ice creams. Bonding and having laughs. All because of me." Nina licks at her ice cream, a ginormous smile on her face.
"Yeah Nina, this is all you. You make my world go round." I pat her on the knee in reassurance.
My phone goes off unexpectedly making us both jump in our seats.
"Christ! Who is it?" Nina leans over, hand on her heart, attempting to take a peak at my phone screen.
"It's Lionne." I slide my thumb along the screen, selecting the speaker option. "Lionne, my friend, you're on speaker with me and Nina."
"Hey guys! What are you doing? Or rather, what did you neglect to invite me to?" We all laugh in unison.
"Nina wanted ice cream. So that's what we're doing, eating soft serves, in my car." I bite into my cone.
"Well, good thing I'm not there, right?" We laugh, except Nina who looks utterly confused.
"Why is it a good thing you're not in here eating yummy ice cream with us?"
"I'm lactose."
Nina laughs uneasily. "Oh I knew that! Just teasing you. You know." She sinks into her seat.
"Anyhow, are you guys going to tell me more about Tokyo. Or are you just going to keep fucking about?"
"Ah, yes! We'll tell you everything Friday night, in person." A drop of melted ice cream lands on my hand, I lick it off.
"What's Friday night?" Nina asks.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I say sternly.
"Holy Moly Nina. I mean, you're only just booked for the night, to do your job?" Lionne says over the line.
"Oh, yeah! Wow, maybe I am jet-lagged."
"Yeah, we should probably get home now. You seriously need to rest up tonight and tomorrow to prepare for Friday, or you'll face plant the deck." I stuff the rest of my soft serve cone in my mouth and start the car. "I'll ring you tomorrow Lionne, if I'm awake."
"Okay, see you Friday my lovely girls."
"Too mushy Lionne." Nina says as she shakes her hands in the air.
We say our goodbyes and hang up, before I begin to drive off
"Do you know where I want to go? Moldova. Or Macedonia. Or Mykonos?"
"Sleep Princess, sleep." I put my hand in her orange hair, pushing her head to the side, hoping she will shut up for once.
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New book!!!! The prologues a lil vague but in the first chapter you will learn more about the girls and meet Matty!!!! I attached a pic of how I imagine Nina btw :)
xxx
