Chapter 2: Van Ride
"Where did you get this piece of junk?" Collins asked from the driver's seat.
"Just a friend of mine," Mimi told him, "I just got it so we all could fit."
Everyone was squeezed into a large, rust van, rolling down the road toward the beach. Mimi sat in the back, in between Mark and Roger. Maureen and Joanne sat in front of then in a two-person middle seat. Angel was in the passenger next to Collins, who was driving.
"This is going to be so fun!" Maureen told everyone. "I haven't been to a beach since I was a little kid!"
"Do we have the picnic basket?" Her lover asked, eyes scanning the empty spaces.
"Right here," mark said, motioning to the back storage area. "Our swim bags are there, too."
After only twenty minutes, Mark was asleep, his head resting on the window.
"Hey, Collins," Roger whispered, "you got any tissues up there?"
"Here ya go, honey," Angel said, passing back the box.
"What are you going to do?" Mimi asked, watching his sly smile widen.
"You'll see," he said. He took out a tissue, and rolled it up like a cigar. He then stuck one end in Mark's open mouth. "Now we wait," he told her. She smiled.
"I have an idea," Maureen suggested. She reached back under her shirt and unhooked her bra.
"Maureen," Joanne warned.
"Pookie," she rolled her eyes, "It's like I'm showing the world my goods. I'm just taking off my bra."
She pulled it off, and handed it to Roger.
"Will he sleep through it?" Mimi asked.
"Believe me," she said, laughing, "He can sleep through anything!"
Roger giggled like a small child, and slipped his roommate's arm through the first strap. He pulled the other arm through, and tried to hook it behind his back.
"Roger," Mimi sighed, "You are very bad at that. And, you're squishing me. Let me do it."
As soon as she took over, the bra was hooked, and everyone began to laugh.
"I wish I had a camera!" Maureen laughed. Joanne even smirked at the sight of Mark in women's underwear.
Soon, Mark's new outfit began less funny, and Mimi sighed.
"Are we there yet?" she called up to the front of the van.
Angel looked to the map on her lap. Her polished finger followed a red line across the page, and she looked up.
"Ten more miles," she told her friend, who sighed.
"How much longer, though?" she whined.
Collins laughed. "No more then fifteen minutes," he told her.
Mimi leaned back into Roger's arms, and rested her head on his chest. After what seemed like only moments of listening to his heart beat, they pulled into a large parking lot.
"Yes!" Maureen shouted, looking out the window.
"Good," Joanne mumbled, "we can eat."
Collins pulled swiftly into a parking spot and screeched to a halt. The movements shook mark away. He opened his mouth, and the soggy tissue fell to the floor. With no saliva left in his mouth, he made a series of faces trying to wet his dry tongue.
Roger began to laugh hysterically. "Have a good nap?" he asked.
"I guess," Mark mumbled, and looked down at what he was wearing. "I'm in a bra?!" he screamed.
The entire van broke out in laughter.