The flight was long. Quinn was reading a book, it's title was "Hopscotch". She kept going back and forth and seemed to skip entire chunks of pages only to go back to the very beginning. Brittany wondered what the hell that was all about, but didn't bother to ask Quinn, since her friend had her "reading face" on and Brittany knew that it'd take her at least five or six tries to get her attention.
Brittany's attention, on the other hand, was all over the place. She watched one of the in-flight entertainment tv series while she listened to the "silly songs" playlist on her iPhone. Then she pulled a packet of Skittles out of her carry on backpack and started to carefully arrange the sweets to form a rainbow on the little fold out table. After she had, quite literally, tasted the rainbow she pulled her headphones off, got comfortable in her seat and tried to catch some sleep. She failed to do so, but she did find a kid two seats to the right and they made faces at eachother for a while. When the kid got caught and was scolded by his mom, Brittany got up to stretch her legs and promptly got scolded herself, by a stewardess, for moonwalking the length of the aisle and bumping into the food cart. She returned to her seat and silently sulked for a while.
Quinn kept reading until the stewardess showed up to hand them some very unappealing food. Quinn stared at her chicken sandwich, as if it were a ticking time bomb she had to somehow manage to deactivate.
After they were done with what Quinn had declared "could hardly be called lunch," they both watched the same movie, a made for tv rom-com. All the while they mocked the lead's overly dramatic antics and made comments about what they would do if they were in the same situation. After that movie was over, they started a second one. About half way through, Quinn fell asleep and Brittany just daydreamed.
Quinn woke up about an hour before they were supposed to land, when the stewardess showed up and gave them some snacks. After the lady left, Brittany looked at Quinn with a smile, "You know, I've been thinking, Q, and I'm so glad that we are doing this together," she said. "This is going to be so much fun, Britt, just wait and see," said Quinn as she shook off the last remainders of sleep with a yawn, then launched into an enthusiastic revision of the plans they had made for their trip.
By the time the plane had touched down on the runway at the airport Brittany was so ready to finally arrive to this country, that, as soon as the seatbelt lights were off, she stood up, grabbed Quinn by the elbow and, simultaneously tried to get their backpacks from the overhead compartment. The stewardess who had caught her dancing in the aisle before shot her a stern look, so she slowed down and whispered a guilty sounding "Sorry." Quinn, who had been watching the exchange, laughed at her all the way to baggage claim.
When the two blondes were done going through customs, they found themselves standing at one of the exits, staring into the cold, foggy nothingness that surrounds Ezeiza Airport at 11pm in the winter. They both took a deep breath, each trying to guess what they would find after the fog had cleared, and the day had come. That lasted until Quinn snapped out of it, because a man who was standing beside her, kept persistently asking her something. Brittany heard Quinn reply "Si, por favor," that one was easy, she thought, it means "Yes, please." The man left them and said something in spitfire Spanish into a radio speaker.
After a minute, a taxi showed up, the man from before returned and ushered the blondes into it as he threw their huge backpacks in the taxi's trunk. Quinn said, "Gracias" and gave the guy a few pesos. Then she turned to the taxi driver, handed him a paper and said, "Llévanos a esa dirección, por favor". The driver nodded "Muy bien, señorita," he answered and started driving.
Brittany hadn't slept on the flight, so she was starting to doze off in the backseat of the car as it speedily glided through the empty highway that connects Ezeiza and the city of Buenos Aires. Quinn took her hand in her own as if to reasure her, so Brittany finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.
She was woken up about half an hour later by the feel of Quinn's hand squeezing her own and her friend's voice softly saying, "Britt, you have to see this". Brittany opened her eyes and looked out the car window, and she caught her first glimpse of Buenos Aires. She read the name of the street they were at,"Entre Ríos" she repeated it out loud to herself, as if she were trying the language on for size. The buildings were a mix of old and new, short and tall, and it would seem like every block was a collage of different architectures and time periods. At one point Quinn pointed out her window and said "Oh, look at that one, I think that's the National Congress building." It was a huge palace with one of those bronze domes that've gone green overtime and a very imposing sculpture of a chariot. "Oh, we have to go back there some day," Brittany said.
They kept looking at the streets and the buildings until they arrived at the door of the hostel that Quinn had reserved for them. It was one of those small french style buildings that were so prevalent in Recoleta, the neighborhood they had chosen to stay checked in and went straight to bed. They fell asleep instantly even though there was a rather loud party going on in the rooftop of the hostel.
In the morning, they could see everything more clearly. And the hostel, which had seemed so quaint when they first arrived, looked more and more like what Brittany would have described as "an antique frat house". They shared their room with four other people, the room smelled like feet and booze. There wasn't enough hot water in the showers and by the time Quinn saw roaches in the kitchen during breakfast, Brittany knew that it was their last day there. It was very soon confirmed when Quinn poured herself some coffee, took a sip, winced and declared, "I give up, let's go find a Starbucks."
They left the hostel and found the coffee shop very close by, on Las Heras avenue. While they waited for their order, Quinn went to the restroom. Just after Quinn left, the barista handed Brittany their drinks: Quinn's was just an espresso and she'd got a strawberry frappuccino because, winter be damned, she was in the mood for something fruity. When she turned around to go find a table, she bumped into a rapidly moving mass which, after closer inspection, turned out to be the single most beautiful girl she had ever seen.
The stranger had long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, perfect olive skin, and the fullest, most scrumptious looking lips. Her big brown eyes looked at Brittany, they narrowed and her lips formed into a smirk. She spoke, "I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Brittany couldn't find the words to answer the girl. "Well, you seem okay and I didn't make you drop that pink monstrosity you got there, so I'm gonna assume that you are fine," she said. Still, the blonde was stuck, she couldn't formulate a reply. She was hung up on the girl's voice, it was raspy and soulful and she had the most particular accent.
The stranger started again,"Blink once if you are okay, twice if you need an ambulance, three times if..." and that's when Brittany's tongue caught up with her and she blurted, "Pink monstrosity sounds like a really awesome name for a gay punk band." As soon as the words left her lips she felt her cheeks heat up and a sense of dread started to invade her. The blonde expected the gorgeous stranger to mock her or just stare at her in confusion; instead, the girl contemplated Brittany's words, smiled and answered, "Yeah, it does sound pretty cool," she chuckled and said "I gotta go, bye now."
The stranger started walking towards the exit. Brittany noticed that she was wearing a sweatshirt and black tights; then she noticed the stranger's legs and ass in those tights and she was tempted to run after her. As soon as she'd gone out of the shop, the hot stranger stopped and shouted "¡Dale, gordo, movete!" then she started to run. Brittany watched in a daze as a big, hairy dog appeared and ran after the girl.
Llévanos a esa dirección, por favor: Take us to that address, please
Muy bien, señorita: Very well, miss
¡Dale, gordo, movete!: Come on, fatty, move!