Page 4 of Sparks
“What the hell?” Holly groaned, and I could hear her stomping her foot. “No, no, no!”
I had the vodka in my bag that I’d picked up from the Duty-Free shop. I could hear all of the girls behind her booing and pretending to cry.
“Stop,” I groaned. “You’re giving me major FOMO.” The Fear of Missing Out was real.
“We have Telestrations After Dark all set up,” she said. My favorite adult game! “It won’t be the same without your really bad oblong penis drawings.”
I laughed, despite the disappointment I felt. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said with a sigh. “It does look nasty out there. Willa’s morning flight was already canceled.”
“Hell yeah, bishessss,”Willamena sang in the background, making me laugh again. Ugh, I really wanted to be there. This sucked.
“So…” Her voice tilted upward. “How mad are you at us?”
Huh? “For what?”
“Um…” She let out a nervous laugh. Was she drunk already?
“What did y’all do?” Did she think I’d be mad that they were having fun without me? “You guys have fun! Don’t worry about me. I’ll try not to be too jelly at all the inside jokes.” I laughed, and she laughed too, but she sounded weird. I made a face, wondering what I was missing.
The shuttle slowed, arriving at the motel.
“Looks like a full house tonight,” the driver said.
“I gotta go,” I told her.
“Okay. Call us later?”
I shook my head and laughed again. “Girl, I’m going to bed. I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” she said in a sing-songy voice. “Talk to you later…”
“Bye, weirdo.”
I hung up on the bizarre conversation and craned my neck to see out of the snowy front window. My insides jumped. Piling out of two shuttles ahead of us was a sea of camo.
The Marines were here.
“What are you smiling about?” Silas asked as we clomped through the snow, holding our bags up since we couldn’t pull them.
“I’m not smiling,” I said, feeling stupid because I’d definitely been smiling. “I’m grimacing against the frigid winds.”
“Okay.” He laughed and we rushed inside the packed lobby, shaking off our arms. I stomped snow off my dress shoes onto the rug. Then we saw the huge line of military guys and other passengers waiting for their rooms, and Silas whispered, “Fuck me.”
I pretended not to look around too keenly, but my heart gave an excited pound when I found the commanding officer at the front of the line, his arms on the desk, talking pleasantly with the desk clerk, a woman older than my mom. He said something and she laughed like she was being flirted with. I found it beyond cute.
“You’re smiling again.” Silas was watching me too closely, and I frowned.
“What is wrong with me smiling?”
“Nothing. It’s just that you usually have thatconcernedlook on your face when you’re thinking.”
I glared at him and he wiped a hand over his mouth to hide a smile.
“My resting bitch face,” I said, making him let out a burst of laughter. This was an ongoing joke with Silas and all my FA friends. They took pictures of me whenever I was “thinking” and made fun of how seriously pissed off I looked. It wasn’t like I was always thinking of negative things. I could be thinking about puppies and I’d look like that.
“Oh, hey, Ma’am! You’re staying here too?”
