Knock knock knock knock knock - BANG

Silence.

"Wearing out the wood isn't going to get me ready faster!" Marceline shouted through the door to her impatient friend after having chucked the first thing she could wrap her fist around after successfully freeing it from the sleeve of a particularly frigid cuffed button up shirt. A flash of worry made her eyes instinctively travel to the inanimate casualty to make sure it wasn't anything beloved.

Her sight landed on the only thing lying anywhere near the door. Game controller. Good. Nothing important. She hadn't had the mind to play the thing in nearly four years and it didn't look like she was ever going to have a second to consider starting back up. For that reason, the device just sat idle, piled with probably multiple evolutions of dust folk. She had ignored the muffled garble that emitted from the other side of the door, and pulled it open not a few seconds later to reveal a very disgruntled Keila leaning with her cheek pressed against the hallway wall. She shook her head and chuckled at her friend. "What was that now?"

"I said. You take freaking years to get ready. I'm pretty sure I just watched one of my knuckle hairs turn white." Keila held her hand out, fingers curled and tense, veins forcibly popped to emphasize how much life had been wasted.

Marceline rolled her eyes and grinned at her melodramatic friend. "Try calling ahead of time."

"Ugh, no. I'll just keep chipping away at that door of yours." She screwed up her face then. "But when I manage to break through...If I accidentally catch you bare assed then I'll need you to stay calm while I throw myself out the window."

"Gotcha covered. My car or yours?"

"Yours. Mine's in the shop."

She glanced sideways at her friend but decided not to bother with asking her how she had gotten to her apartment considering they lived about ten miles from one another.

Her apartment. located on the fourth floor, had escalators instead of stairs or elevators for the building occupants' traveling-between-floors needs. She knew the owner of the whole place personally, and he was the reason why she was able to get the place for as good a deal as she did. The man had known her since she was a tot. He was close friends with her dad before he got blown to bits in an elaborate multi-vehicle drive by shooting about a decade ago. His friend, though never officially elected to be a god-parent, gladly took the place as one while her grief-stricken mother decided it best to leave her. For. Whatever the reason. The details of just about all of it were really fuzzy.

"Well?" Her gaze snapped up from where it was spacing out between the cracks of the parking garage concrete. Her friend had her eyebrows raised expectantly and upon eye contact, she jutted her chin towards Marceline's little blue convertible.

"Oh right." Marceline dug her index and thumb into the pocket that pouched her keys, blindly brushed her thumb over the pad of the car remote and pinched the unlock button.

The car ride was in it's usual comfortable silence save for the low hum of music. Marceline had never been one to get out much, except for work and basic survival things. The only times where she socially shined the most was at her job. She was a semi-successful art consultant for a retired Nobel-prize winning scientist. For what the prize was awarded for exactly, she could never remember despite their constant droning on about the processes leading up to unthinkable breakthroughs and yada yada. Good times it sounded like.

"You excited?" Her friend queried, voice sounding like it wanted to be teasing but mostly sounded hopeful.

"Yeah, I haven't gone over there since graduation." She wasn't particularly fond of the memory of the last time they had visited the local theme park, a few years ago for their high school graduation.

"Wow, that long, really? Don't like rides or something?" She glanced fleetingly over at her friend who looked a bit worried.

"No no, I do. Just never had a reason to go until you asked." Through her peripherals she could see her friend doing a little head bob. Hopefully not with feelings of guilt. Marceline sent her her best rendition of a reassuring smile. "Hey, it's fine, you know how busy I am all the time." She knew that Keila knew but said it to try and alleviate her anxiety.

"I know." Keila said, sounding as if she'd just realized that she should probably lighten up. "Oh yeah, when we get parked, I have to show you this gnarly bruise I got during one of our gigs a couple of weeks ago." Keila was in a fairly successful local band. They got regular gigs in about a whopping dozen city radius. Marceline was proudly looking forward to the day that her friend calls and tells her that they've finally been signed by the big leagues. "Think it's still there anyway. Someone from the audience threw a bouquet of flowers while we were playing and by the next song, I forgot they were there and slipped on it. Nearly shattered my freaking spine on an amplifier, but on the bright side, I was able to save my Jack Baby from a horrible wreckage." A bright grin graced her features at that.

"Sounds like a blast." Marceline said around a chuckle. "Wish I could've been there to see that one."

"Well thanks to the wonders of the web you can watch me nearly paralyze myself on repeat if you wanted to." Keila said cheerily as they pulled in through the theme park's parking lot gate.

After the car was placed in a spot and they were headed towards the park's entrance, a dissatisfied rumble behind Marceline's naval made her instantly regret not having thought to pack a backpack full of snacks inconspicuously buried beneath a light sweater (since the park didn't allow outside food and drinks). She wondered if there were actually folk that abided by such oppressive regulations.

"How does it look?" Keila had lifted her shirt about a third way up to reveal an indeed, nasty looking yellow, green, and purple bruise. Good god, that thing was like the size of her face.

Marceline cringed from the idea of what pain that must've been and looked at her best friend bewilderedly after the spoiled flesh was covered again by Keila fixing her shirt. "Dude, how are you even still walking? Looks like you almost shattered a rib or popped a kidney or something."

Keila laughed at her gaping friend. "I'm made of steel. You know that, Mar." She said with a wink before her expression fell to a more neutral state. "But seriously, if I ever get another one of those, or any other tripping hazard for that matter, I'm for sure kicking it right back off the stage. Love the fans and all, but not enough to let it kill me."

All Marceline could do was nod and resume following her friend, wondering how the heck the woman wasn't even so much as limping.