HEART WORM
Chapter 1
"Good Morning Sunshine!" Becca shouts as she bangs the door open to Amy's bedroom. Her voice filled with excitement.
Amy groans at the sound of her best friends' voice. She burrows her way further in bed and shouts "Go awaaaaay."
"You haven't packed!" Becca tells her. "You need me." her tone leaving no space for argument as she takes off her coat and starts taking off her shoes as well.
"No I don't." Amy answers, he voice muffled by the pillows she's buried in. "I'm not going."
"Oh no no no no no.. You are going even if it kills me." Becca exclaims as she takes the steps toward the bed, climbs it and jumps on it. "Wake up Amy!" she chants as she continues her gleeful hopping.
"Jesus Christ Becca!" Amy protests as she pushes the duvet out of her hair-covered face. "It's 5 in the morning!" which should be self-explanatory Amy thinks.
"Yes! And your flight's in 6 hours. You need to pack." Becca informs her in puffs, audibly catching her breath from her rigorous activity.
Amy just grunts in response and does not even bother to change her comfortable position.
Amy is going on a vacation.. or at least she is supposed to. But at the rate she is going, it doesn't seem like she's going to make it. Only a few hours before the flight and her suitcase is still empty.
"We are having breakfast in bed as we start this shindig." Becca announces climbing off the bed and out of Amy's bedroom."Please get us coffee and toast. Amy needs it extra strong." She instructs the maid who is waiting at the foot of the stairs.
Amy is falling back to sleep when a seemingly large object is thrusted upon her side hitting her right leg. She peels her eyes open to see her suitcase open on her bed and Becca coming out of her bathroom.
"Do I really need that much perfume? It's just 12 days." Amy asks as she sees the three bottles Becca is carrying.
"You might want some variety." Becca states flatly. "Knowing you, you would want some variety." Becca knows Amy thinks she's a minimalist, but being her best friend for more than two decades taught her otherwise.
"I do shower you know?" Amy tells her indignantly. She hates it that Becca knows her so well; might a little too well actually.
"I didn't say otherwise..." Becca defends herself. Amy is still lying in bed comfortably watching the brunetter go back and forth of her bathroom and do all the work.
"I hate packing." Amy announces as she tries to sit up and lean on her headboard, finally accepting that Becca won't let her miss the flight for a few hours of sleep.
"And that is why I'm here." Becca reasons coming back from the bedroom with more of Amy's stuff.
"I don't want to go." Amy says stubbornly and plops herself back into the bed face down and fakes a cry.
Becca just laughs at her antics and continues packing anyway. Amy isn't exactly thrilled about going to europe which is surprising as she always gabs about her dreams of touring it one day. She is a busy woman and that is probably part of the reason she is apprehensive about going away, but that is also all the more reason she needs this vacation. A break from her busy schedule would be 'healthy', like Becca reminds her all the time. She has been burning the candles at both ends, or whatever it is they call excessive lack of sleep, for the last few weeks and she needs to unwind.
The maid enters the room with their coffee and toast introducing 'the smell of a good morning' according to Amy.
Seeing the lack of enthusiasm from her usually upbeat friend she asks, "Where's your sense of adventure, Fat Amy?"
It's only Becca who calls her that now. It has been a long time since another person did. Maybe 15 or 20 years? she lost count. Probably since they graduated from college, or maybe after the divorce. She can't remember.
"Oh I don't know? I probably lost it between Charm's prom and David's SAT exams." Amy answers, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
Charm and David are Amy's kids. They are not exactly kids now with Charm going down the aisle in a month and David graduating this spring. Motherhood had changed her, that point got across clearly. But who hasn't changed? she reasons to herself.
"Stop joking!" Becca throws a pillow at Amy's face, "You're going and it's final."
"Ouch." Amy exclaims as the pillow hits her. She swipes it off her face and notices Becca folding some unusual black garments.
"Woah woah woah! What is that?" as she immediately stands to inspect the garments in the brunette's hands.
"Uhm. Underwear." Becca tried and failed to hide the guilt in her voice.
Amy takes the underwear and asks,"These aren't mine.?!" swinging into her hands what seems to be a double D black lacey bra.
"The size respectfully disagrees" Becca retorts, earning her a death glare from her friend. "Their new! I bought them for your vacation.." she explains taking back the bra.
"Oh no.. oh no no no.." Amy laughs and started taking all the new underwear out of her suitcase. "I'm not wearing these! They are black, too tight, too lacy and slightly see-through!" Amy exclaims, a hint of shock in her tone.
"Since when are you conservative about your underwear?" Becca asks loudly.
She has a point there. The night before Amy's wedding she had to accompany her to what she calls a 'dirty store' to buy a set of edible lingerie as a surprise for Bumper during their honeymoon. If going through neon colored glow-in-the-dark adult toys weren't enough to make it memorable, perhaps having a taste test of the different flavoured panties was. "I'm still scarred by your edible thong by the way!"
The blonde laughs at the memory. "That's like decades ago." she argues.
"Come on! Don't be such a kill joy! It'll be fun." Becca tells her as she takes the garments out of Amy's hands and back into the suitcase.
"If you want I can pack some of your usual underwear, so If you don't feel like wearing these they could just stay packed." That seemed reasonable enough so Amy rests her case.
"I have a bad feeling about this trip." Amy glares at Becca as she sits back on the bed and Becca refolding the undergarments.
"What do you mean?" Becca looks down. Lying doesn't suit her well.
"If I die in this trip, I blame you." Amy tells her.
Becca nervously laughs at this. "It's perfectly safe. You're being paranoid."
"No, I'm serious. Have it written in my epitaph. 'I blame Becca Mitchell.'" Becca looks at her and for a moment she feels like confessing but decides not to.
"You'll be fine. I promise." She tells her and closes the suitcase.
"Dude where are you?" Jesse asks over the phone.
"I just got off. Geez, you're bossy today." Bumper tells him as he takes the escalator towards the baggage claim area of JFK Airport.
"I've been waiting an hour for you. What do you expect?" Jesse retaliates.
"Hey! Nobody told you to meet me in the airport which seems very suspicious by the way.." Bumper tells him as he spots his baggage on the other end of the carousel.
Jesse came from London from a business trip and his arrival is luckily just about an hour before Bumper's arrival from LA. They are not the best of friends, not really. But they have been working very closely for the past few years. 20 years after graduation and Jesse is now enjoying his dream job of doing movie musical scores and Bumper had made his way up from singing backup to becoming a musical director. They are regularly getting the same projects for the past few years in which they have developed this weird not-quite friendship they have today.
"Just get here man. I'm starving." Jesse tells him. It's half past 12 and he is waiting at one of the cafes at the airport.
"On my way." and hangs up just before his suitcase arrives in front of him.
It's not really necessary for Jesse to meet Bumper for lunch but he is on strict orders from Becca so he has to disguise this as a brief meeting regarding his London visit.
"Have you ordered?" Bumper arrives and takes the seat opposite Jesse.
"No." Jesse says, "I'm waiting for you."
"Oh how sweet." Bumper rolls his eyes as he signals the waitress for the menu.
They order quickly and an awkward silence follows.
"What was it about the meeting you wanted to talk about?" Bumper gets down to business.
This is the part Jesse has not worked out yet.
"What time is your next flight?" He changes the topic.
"In two hours. I have time. What happened in London?" and Bumper steers back the conversation to business.
Right. Jesse thought. Here comes the string of lies.
"Dammit. This traffic!" Becca pounds on the steering wheel and opens her window, "Move it dumb ass!" she shouts to noone in particular.
They are on their way to the airport and a really bad traffic is getting in the way.
"Geez. We've got time Becca." Amy tries to calm her down. She turns on the radio to try and change the mood.
Becca is getting more nervous as they get nearer the airport. Sure, this was her idea to gift Amy the 12-day cruise but what's waiting on that boat might not be ready for what's to come and she can't even begin to imagine the possible scenarios.
Amy hums as the radio plays and Becca can't help but give side glances to her friend.
"Are you okay?" Amy asks as she notices her fidgeting.
"This trip costs a lot, I don't want you to miss it." half-truth but that'll do.
"Don't worry Shawshank. It'll be fine. We have 45 minutes to get to the airport, it's fine.." Amy reassures her.
Becca sighs. She knows that Amy's calm because she is probably silently praying she misses the trip.
Nope. This is happening. Becca tells herself.
They arrive at the airport with 10 minutes to spare much to Amy's dismay.
"We're here!" Becca exclaims with such excitement! "God! That traffic was a bitch." a sigh of relief escaping her.
"Ha ha. Alright.. We made it. You don't have to rub it in." Amy rolls her eyes and Becca giggles in triumph.
"You'll have fun Ames... You deserve it!" Becca assures her..
"Okay.. I'll have fun.." Amy sighs in resignation and turns to look at her brunette friend."But only because you told me so!" smirking.
"Right. Of course." Becca says. She'll miss her sarcasm.
Amy is the funniest person she knows; also the kindest and most generous. She'll miss her so much even though it's only going to be 12 days. Her nerves come back as she watches Amy gather her things to her handbag. Amy is her bestfriend. They've been best friends for as long as she can remember and this might be the longest time they'll be apart besides from the 2-week honeymoon Amy had 22 years ago.
Becca wants to hug her but that's not who they are. The two of them have never had the conventional friendship. They're best friends and sisters interwoven in a complicated and twisted mess that is their lives. They've been there through everything since college and Becca feels an overwhelming protectiveness at the thought of what might happen when Amy steps out of the car.
"You okay?" the blonde asks noticing the blank stare her friend is giving her.
"Stay safe and call me when you arrive?" Becca asks, her forehead all wrinkled willing her eyes not to get misty.
Amy looks at her funny wondering where all this concern is coming from, "Honey. I'll be fine." and pats her hands for reassurance.
"Europe get ready cause Mama's coming!" she shouts, setting the ambience of excitement for her trip.
She gets out of the car and takes her luggage out of the trunk.
"I'll see you in two weeks!" Amy tells her before closing the door and heading inside the airport.
Jesse shakes his head as he recalls the conversation with Bumper. That man can really be infuriating.
He takes a turn by the exit of the airport and just as he steps outside, he gets the message he's been expecting.
Don't forget to send me the email. I'll wait for it. - Bumper Allen
He was not as comfortable with lying as his wife regarding this plan. He had to tell Bumper that he'd been in and out of the meeting and that he's waiting for the transcript of his secretary before he could discuss the details. So now, he has to make a non-existent transcript and email it to Bumper. He could always blame his secretary for being unpunctual but then guilt creeps in as he thinks of his 64-year old secretary. Poor Annie...
Becca honks at her arrival and he immediately climbs into the car.
"Sorry, there was a bit of hold up as I dropped off Amy at Departure. Have you been waiting long?" She tells him before he can even kiss her cheek.
"No.. no. You're just in time actually. How was Amy?" He asks as he fastens his seatbelt.
"Bought it." She says with a nod. "She trusts me too much. I'm going to pay for this in hell." Turning to her husband, asking him to invalidate that statement. "
"Oh please. What are you so worried about? They'd be fine." He shrugs.
"You really think so?" She asks, her voice a little desperate. Jesse didn't want to answer that. There's just so many lies he could tell for one morning. Becca rolled her eyes at his passiveness and just went on with, "How was Bumper?" maybe changing the subject would make her less nervous.
"Hmmm.." He starts, careful with the words he uses with his wife. "A bit.. suspicious." He thought talking slowly might soften the blow.
"What?" Nope. It didn't make her less nervous. "You had one job!" Becca exclaims, accidentally hitting the steering wheel and honking loudly.
"Can you calm down? I pacified him.. Jesus!" He says loud and fast so he gets the point across before Becca throws a fit. "It's all taken care of." she calms her down.
"Okay.." Becca breathes in and out. "Oh god." She groans...
"What now?"
"They're going to kill each other.. They're going to stab each other until they bleed to death." Becca turns and shouts her startling realization to her husband.
"Eeeeeeeh..." He scrunches his face, hesitant to answer that question.
Their conversation is interrupted when an airport patrol officer knocks at the driver's window.
"Ma'am, if you've fetch the passenger, please vacate the premises.
"Of course sir." Becca answers, suddenly polite and charming with her tone.
She closes her window and Jesse expected the car to move. It didn't.
"Did we not understand the officer?" he asks confused.
She turns to him and says, "Just tell me they're not going to kill each other and they're going to make it back alive." Her face and tone determined to get him to do just that.
"Honestly?" Jesse starts. A word she's unsure of how she feels about. "I'm more worried about the people in that ship. They have no idea of what's coming..."