It's Our Time to Shine
Waiting In Line And Playing Rock, Paper & Scissors
“What about you, babe – good, right?”, I could heard Bert ask me vaguely from my right side.
“Hello?”
He was now waving his hand in front of me, trying to get my attention.
“Huh?”, I finally said, focusing on him.
“Did you like the fish?”, he asked while laughing that cute, girly laughter that was his trademark.
I was picking on the raw fish with my chopsticks while still not taking a bite.
“Oh, uhm, I haven’t really tasted it yet.”
“Then do it! Or are you afraid maybe…?”
Bert was having a smirk on his face, raising his right eyebrow while looking at me.
“I’m not ‘afraid’. Hah, of course not. Why would I be afraid? It’s just fish. I love fish.”
I had to laugh. Me being afraid of sushi? Not in this neighborhood.
I took a piece of what I think was codfish and put it in my mouth, chewing carefully.
“Awesome!”, Bert said, before he took a mouthful himself.
“So, what do you think – do you like sushi?”, Jepha asked.
“Yeah, it’s nice. I’ve eaten sushi before, so I kinda knew how it would taste like”, I smiled.
“Oh, really? Did you make it yourself or what?”
The excitement in his voice was somehow amusing as he put down his chopsticks and leaned closer to me, letting me know that I had his attention.
“Well, not really. There were these free samples of a new kind of frozen sushi at my local mall. I figured that I probably wasn’t going to eat sushi again, so I grabbed a sample. Two actually.”
“But you’re here now, right, eatin´ sushi and all, so you got to eat it once more?”, he said grinning.
“Yeah. I’m here, at the airport, about to fly to Japan…”
“Are you still worried about that?”
“I can’t help it”, I replied, taking a piece of the sushi.
I wasn’t even hungry anymore.
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay”, Quinn added. “And if you still don’t feel comfortable about flying, we can drug you.”
“We’re not gonna drug her”, Bert said, almost laughing at his suggestion.
“Oh, great – so when I’m drugged and fallen asleep, I’ll get raped while flying 35 000 feet in the air too?”
“You’re not gonna get drugged and not fuckin´ raped. I’ll make sure of that. You’re sitting next to me when we’re flying, okay?”
“Okay”, I replied, looking at Bert with a grateful smile as our eyes met.
“Hey, maybe we should get goin´?”, Jepha said, looking at the clock that was hanging up against the wall.
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s almost 8:30 am.”
As we all got up from where we were sitting by the table while carrying our backpacks, we headed towards the bar desk, seeing the Japanese waitress standing there.
“Did you enjoy your meal?”, she asked, having the same warm smile she had been having ever since we came here.
“Yeah, it was good”, each and every one of us replied.
Bert greeted her smile as he searched through his pockets to find money to pay her.
“Five portions of Futo Maki Rolls – that will be $30 and 75 Cents, please.”
“Yeah, here. And keep the change”, he said before we all headed out of the sushi bar and into the terminal again.
“Quinn – you got the boarding cards, right?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“All five of ‘em?”
“Yeah, Bert. All five. They’re in my backpack.”
“Good. If we lose ‘em, I don’t know what we’re gonna do.”
“So, are we gonna check in now, or what?”, Jepha asked, scratching his chin that clearly wasn’t shaven today as you could see little, stiff hairs peeking out .
“Yeah. I mean, we don’t have anything better to do here, do we?”, Bert said.
“No, so let’s just check in.”
By the look on Quinn’s face and how he was constantly rubbing his puffy red eyes, I could see he was tired.
“Okay, let’s have a look-see… The gate where the plane is at is down the terminal all the way to the rear end to the left. Wait – which gate do we have, by the way?”
“Hold on, Bert. I’ll check.”
Quinn immediately sat down on a bench, going through his backpack while trying to find the flight tickets.
“Here they are – gate 39. You all want your tickets now?”
“Yeah.”
As soon as I got my ticket, I put it in my own backpack, terrified of losing it – something I was almost positive I would.
We began walking again shortly after we’d all received our tickets from Quinn, and before we knew it, we were already standing next to gate 39, waiting to get onboard.
“Hey, Jeph – where’s your video camera?”
“My video camera?”
“Yeah, where is it?”, Bert repeated.
“What do you need it for?”
“Just film a little. Like, we haven’t filmed or taken some footage or anything at all so far, so I figured that it would be a good idea to shoot somethin´ now.”
“Yeah, sounds reasonable. I’ll get it, just hold on a minute.”
Quinn opened his backpack once more, this time not sure where to look as he was going through every single pocket.
“Ah, man! I put it in my bag which is already on the plane. I didn’t think of putting it in my backpack!”
“Fuck. Well, then I guess we’ll just have to wait here ‘til we’re boarding”, Bert said, starting to bite on one of his fingernails.
“I hate standing in line. It’s so fuckin´ boring”, Quinn complained, sighing while looking at the massive amount of people that was standing in front of us.
We were, of course, all standing at the end of the about 50 feet long queue.
“Hey, wanna play ‘Rock, Paper & Scissors’?”, Dan suddenly suggested with a grin on his face.
“Yeah! That’s always fun.”
“Uhm… I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Lina”, Bert said, looking at me with a giggle while scratching the back of his neck.
I couldn’t understand why ‘Rock, Paper & Scissors’ wasn’t a good idea right now.
We were literally all bored to death at this point.
“Okay, but wait and see. Hey, Dan – you ready?”, he then said, cocking his eye at me before receiving a nod from Dan, indicating that they both were ready.
“1-2-3 – pow!”
Bert had scissors and Dan had rock, meaning that Dan had won, and before I knew it, he suddenly hit Bert with an unclenched fist, aiming on his cheek.
“What are you doing?!”, I burst out in a high-pitched voice, staring at the two of them.
“Relax”, Bert laughed. “That’s how we play ‘Rock, Paper & Scissors’. Now do you understand why I didn’t want you to play?”
I dwelled on it for a couple of seconds, but without knowing it, I felt the sudden urge of playing it myself.
“But what’s the fun in hitting each other like that?”, I smiled awkwardly.
“For real – I have no idea. We’ve just been playing it like this for years. It’s more fun.”
“So, can I play too?”, I suddenly asked while looking at all of them with a curious look upon my face.
“Wait, you wanna play?”
“Yeah!”
“Uhm, okay. But I’m not playing with you”, Dan said.
“Why not?”
“’Cause I’m not gonna hit a girl.”
“Me neither”, Jepha added.
I turned over at Quinn to see if he was up for my challenge.
“Hey, don’t look at me?”
“Bert?”
“Nope, forget it, babe. I’m not slappin´ you either”, he responded.
“Hey, what makes you all think that you’ll even get the chance to slap me? What if I end up hitting all of you instead?”, I asked while hiding a smile.
The guys were all looking at each other now, hesitating as they were trying to come up with an answer…
“Hello?”
He was now waving his hand in front of me, trying to get my attention.
“Huh?”, I finally said, focusing on him.
“Did you like the fish?”, he asked while laughing that cute, girly laughter that was his trademark.
I was picking on the raw fish with my chopsticks while still not taking a bite.
“Oh, uhm, I haven’t really tasted it yet.”
“Then do it! Or are you afraid maybe…?”
Bert was having a smirk on his face, raising his right eyebrow while looking at me.
“I’m not ‘afraid’. Hah, of course not. Why would I be afraid? It’s just fish. I love fish.”
I had to laugh. Me being afraid of sushi? Not in this neighborhood.
I took a piece of what I think was codfish and put it in my mouth, chewing carefully.
“Awesome!”, Bert said, before he took a mouthful himself.
“So, what do you think – do you like sushi?”, Jepha asked.
“Yeah, it’s nice. I’ve eaten sushi before, so I kinda knew how it would taste like”, I smiled.
“Oh, really? Did you make it yourself or what?”
The excitement in his voice was somehow amusing as he put down his chopsticks and leaned closer to me, letting me know that I had his attention.
“Well, not really. There were these free samples of a new kind of frozen sushi at my local mall. I figured that I probably wasn’t going to eat sushi again, so I grabbed a sample. Two actually.”
“But you’re here now, right, eatin´ sushi and all, so you got to eat it once more?”, he said grinning.
“Yeah. I’m here, at the airport, about to fly to Japan…”
“Are you still worried about that?”
“I can’t help it”, I replied, taking a piece of the sushi.
I wasn’t even hungry anymore.
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay”, Quinn added. “And if you still don’t feel comfortable about flying, we can drug you.”
“We’re not gonna drug her”, Bert said, almost laughing at his suggestion.
“Oh, great – so when I’m drugged and fallen asleep, I’ll get raped while flying 35 000 feet in the air too?”
“You’re not gonna get drugged and not fuckin´ raped. I’ll make sure of that. You’re sitting next to me when we’re flying, okay?”
“Okay”, I replied, looking at Bert with a grateful smile as our eyes met.
“Hey, maybe we should get goin´?”, Jepha said, looking at the clock that was hanging up against the wall.
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s almost 8:30 am.”
As we all got up from where we were sitting by the table while carrying our backpacks, we headed towards the bar desk, seeing the Japanese waitress standing there.
“Did you enjoy your meal?”, she asked, having the same warm smile she had been having ever since we came here.
“Yeah, it was good”, each and every one of us replied.
Bert greeted her smile as he searched through his pockets to find money to pay her.
“Five portions of Futo Maki Rolls – that will be $30 and 75 Cents, please.”
“Yeah, here. And keep the change”, he said before we all headed out of the sushi bar and into the terminal again.
“Quinn – you got the boarding cards, right?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“All five of ‘em?”
“Yeah, Bert. All five. They’re in my backpack.”
“Good. If we lose ‘em, I don’t know what we’re gonna do.”
“So, are we gonna check in now, or what?”, Jepha asked, scratching his chin that clearly wasn’t shaven today as you could see little, stiff hairs peeking out .
“Yeah. I mean, we don’t have anything better to do here, do we?”, Bert said.
“No, so let’s just check in.”
By the look on Quinn’s face and how he was constantly rubbing his puffy red eyes, I could see he was tired.
“Okay, let’s have a look-see… The gate where the plane is at is down the terminal all the way to the rear end to the left. Wait – which gate do we have, by the way?”
“Hold on, Bert. I’ll check.”
Quinn immediately sat down on a bench, going through his backpack while trying to find the flight tickets.
“Here they are – gate 39. You all want your tickets now?”
“Yeah.”
As soon as I got my ticket, I put it in my own backpack, terrified of losing it – something I was almost positive I would.
We began walking again shortly after we’d all received our tickets from Quinn, and before we knew it, we were already standing next to gate 39, waiting to get onboard.
“Hey, Jeph – where’s your video camera?”
“My video camera?”
“Yeah, where is it?”, Bert repeated.
“What do you need it for?”
“Just film a little. Like, we haven’t filmed or taken some footage or anything at all so far, so I figured that it would be a good idea to shoot somethin´ now.”
“Yeah, sounds reasonable. I’ll get it, just hold on a minute.”
Quinn opened his backpack once more, this time not sure where to look as he was going through every single pocket.
“Ah, man! I put it in my bag which is already on the plane. I didn’t think of putting it in my backpack!”
“Fuck. Well, then I guess we’ll just have to wait here ‘til we’re boarding”, Bert said, starting to bite on one of his fingernails.
“I hate standing in line. It’s so fuckin´ boring”, Quinn complained, sighing while looking at the massive amount of people that was standing in front of us.
We were, of course, all standing at the end of the about 50 feet long queue.
“Hey, wanna play ‘Rock, Paper & Scissors’?”, Dan suddenly suggested with a grin on his face.
“Yeah! That’s always fun.”
“Uhm… I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Lina”, Bert said, looking at me with a giggle while scratching the back of his neck.
I couldn’t understand why ‘Rock, Paper & Scissors’ wasn’t a good idea right now.
We were literally all bored to death at this point.
“Okay, but wait and see. Hey, Dan – you ready?”, he then said, cocking his eye at me before receiving a nod from Dan, indicating that they both were ready.
“1-2-3 – pow!”
Bert had scissors and Dan had rock, meaning that Dan had won, and before I knew it, he suddenly hit Bert with an unclenched fist, aiming on his cheek.
“What are you doing?!”, I burst out in a high-pitched voice, staring at the two of them.
“Relax”, Bert laughed. “That’s how we play ‘Rock, Paper & Scissors’. Now do you understand why I didn’t want you to play?”
I dwelled on it for a couple of seconds, but without knowing it, I felt the sudden urge of playing it myself.
“But what’s the fun in hitting each other like that?”, I smiled awkwardly.
“For real – I have no idea. We’ve just been playing it like this for years. It’s more fun.”
“So, can I play too?”, I suddenly asked while looking at all of them with a curious look upon my face.
“Wait, you wanna play?”
“Yeah!”
“Uhm, okay. But I’m not playing with you”, Dan said.
“Why not?”
“’Cause I’m not gonna hit a girl.”
“Me neither”, Jepha added.
I turned over at Quinn to see if he was up for my challenge.
“Hey, don’t look at me?”
“Bert?”
“Nope, forget it, babe. I’m not slappin´ you either”, he responded.
“Hey, what makes you all think that you’ll even get the chance to slap me? What if I end up hitting all of you instead?”, I asked while hiding a smile.
The guys were all looking at each other now, hesitating as they were trying to come up with an answer…
♠ ♠ ♠
omfgomfgomfg.i'm so hyper, so happy and so incredibly fuckin' tired!
you guys wanna know why?!
i spent all last night on myspace talkin' to the used!!!
it's insane. i can't believe it. they're love. all four of them. <3
okay, so i've cooled off now - sort of. ahaha. ;D
what do you think of this update? (:
xo
lina.