This is not how Louise intended to spend her evening, holding Jessica's floppy, ginger hair behind her back whilst she proceeded to throw up in a public toilet.
"Oh yes Jessica, I'm feeling the freedom now. You seem to be having fun there too, damn, you showed me," Louise teased, sarcastically.
"You know what – fuck you," Jessica managed to say between gargles. She hurled up the last of her bile before shrugging Louise off and standing up.
"You know; my whole life it's been all about you. I wanted to stay inside, you wanted to go on some ridiculous misadventure, guess which one we'd do. We always had to do what you wanted to do," Jessica slurred, but you could tell she meant it from the tears welling up in her eyes. The furious girl exited the stall and leaned over one of the sinks, turning the faucet, she began splashing her face with handfuls of water. Louise watched, unmoved.
"Jessica, I-"
"No, you shut up and listen for once, Louise. Never once did you think about me. I was like a charity service to you. Oh look at Louise, hanging around boring Jessica, what a kind thing for her to do. Oh look at Louise, not telling the class about Jessica's late bed-wetting issues, isn't she a Saint. Well no – I know you've done a lot of nice things for me in the past – but the truth is it was all to feed your inflated ego!" Jessica was seething now, it seemed as if she had been repressing that for a while. She turned the faucet off and pivoted to face her so-called 'friend'.
"Jessica, you-" Louise tried to explain only to be cut off again.
"I don't need your excuses, Louise. You've always said that the reason you force me to do these things with you is because you want me to be outgoing, and now that I am more outgoing you've done nothing but complain, I was happy tonight. Sure I may be vomiting up my insides, but I don't care, it was worth it. You know, I hated high school, it may have been a walk in the park for you, but it certainly wasn't for me. I had people picking on me everywhere I went – even you, my only friend, made little jabs at me every now and again. You've been slowing grinding down my self esteem, and I'm sick of it!"
"Jessica, plea-"
"Let me guess, you're sorry, well I don't think that's going to work, Louise," Jessica scoffed.
"No, I was just going to say – if you'd let me finish – Jessica, you've got a bit of barf on your chin," Louise chuckled, in her eyes it was meant to lighten the mood, but this only agitated Jessica further.
"Right, I guess that seals the deal, our friendship is clearly nothing but a joke to you, so goodbye Louise," the red-head scoffed, wiping the vomit from her chin and flinging her purse over her shoulder.
"Ahh, come on, I was only kidding," Louise laughed, though clearly Jessica wasn't having any of it.
Louise watched helplessly as her only actual friend stormed out of the bathroom and out of sight. Figuring she'd gone back to partying Louise remained perfectly calm.
"She'll come round by the end of the night, she's probably just a bit of an angry drunk," Louise reassured herself, staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.
"You know, talking to yourself is often seen as one of the first signs of madness," a familiar voice informed, a voice Louise knew all too well.
"Jesus Christ, Millie, how long have you been in here?"
"Long enough, I heard the entire argument, I figured now that Jessica is out of the picture, you should start looking for other friends," Millie enthused.
"No Millie, leave me alone," Louise sighed, knowing what direction the conversation was headed.
Millie Frock seemed like your typical, innocent frizzy haired girl, but the truth was she was insane. She had been obsessed with Louise since fourth grade, perhaps even longer, doing things such as locking Louise in a box fort for the duration of Halloween for refusing to trick or treat with her, or even running for school president just so she could make a buddy system that forced the two of them together. Recently, Louise had discovered that Millie had been collecting snippets of her hair over the years and storing them within a sandwich bag inside her locker.
It was best to avoid Millie for the most part.
"Hey, Louise, remember: When I say Lou, you say…" Mille began that annoying chant once again. The chant she had tried to involve Louise in for years. Louise proceeded to ignore her and head for the bathroom exit but Millie persisted to block her path.
"Move, Millie," Louise demanded, only becoming more fed up.
"No, you're meant to finish the chant with –ise, so when put together it makes Louise, here let's try again. When I say Lou, you say…"
Louise knew she just had to give in to Millie's little incantation, otherwise Millie might resort to extremes – or just refuse to let her leave the bathroom. You could never really predict what someone like Millie would do when agitated.
Louise unenthusiastically added the "Ise."
"Louise!" Millie cheered, finally stepping aside, her eyes glued to the Belcher girl as she passed.
"Goodbye, Lou Lou, nice running into you."
"Uhm, yeah, bye Millie… and don't call me Lou Lou," Louise mumbled, practically sprinting out of the bathroom, only once again to be engulfed in meaningless party music.
Normally Louise would be perfectly content with partying, but it was one of those nights where she'd rather not be surrounded by hundreds of strangers. She tried to find Jessica, to maybe make amends, but she was nowhere to be seen, so Louise decided to just leave by herself. Jessica was normally the one to sort out transportation, and Louise had foolishly left her phone at home on charge, so she had no other choice but to walk.
She didn't know what time it was but the sky was pitch black. The only thing illuminating the sidewalks were the dim fluttering lampposts and a few passing cars' headlights. There weren't any others around except for a hungry stray cat. All the stores were already closed and it gave the town an empty feeling. Louise trudged home with nothing but her own company, she quite enjoyed the peace and quiet as she didn't get to experience it often.
However, of course this 'peace' was short lived as a motorcycle ripped around the corner, it's engine roaring with it's classic deep thrum, like a huge insect. It sped toward Louise, sleek and black and screeched to a halt right in front of her. Louise knew from the jacket that this was a member of the One Eyed Snakes, a motorcycle gang that later became friends of the family through the service of their restaurant.
"Critter, is that you? Could you give me a ride back to the restaurant?" Louise asked.
The motorcycle rider lifted the visor on his helmet, revealing a familiar face. Louise was getting sick of reuniting with her old nemeses. First Mille, now this. Then again, it was a small neighborhood.
"What the heck, Logan?" Louise exclaimed. She was absolutely baffled, not about seeing Logan, but about the One Eyed Snake clan letting his wannabe-ass into their gang, especially after they almost cut his ear off eight years ago (under Louise's command of course.
"Get on, four-ears," Logan snickered as he tossed his spare helmet, which Louise caught in her stomach.
"But-"
"Are you gonna get on, or should I just leave you to walk home?" Logan threatened.
He made a fair point. Louise jumped onto the back of the motorcycle behind Logan, and pulled her helmet on as Logan hit the throttle.
The bike leapt down the street, Louise watched in amazement as the buildings and lots sped by, instinctually wrapping her arms around Logan's upper torso to ensure she didn't fall off the back of the bike.
Louise had to admit, she always had a thing for… motorcycles.