Fly Me Away

Jackson kept me company for a bit while I waited for Kelly and Pip. He told me he never intended on getting any lunch and entertained me with stories about the people he’d painted that day. I was laughing shamelessly with my body slouched against the concrete bench.

“It was quite bizarre really, he was wearing a black dress and he didn’t want to take off his backpack.”

He stopped talking and I wiped a tear from my eye.

I waved my hand, “Oh no please keep going!”

“Are these your friends?”

The laughing died down and I sat upright. Sure enough, Pip and Kelly were walking over to me, arms linked. Kelly had two ice creams in her hand and Pip had one.

“They brought you an ice cream. What good friends,” Jackson stated, smiling contently to himself.

I was about to say that they were probably both for Kelly, but thought it would be rude to insult her in front of a guy. She wouldn’t like that at all.

“Hey Mags, we thought we’d surprise you!” Pip sang, gesturing at Kelly to give me an ice cream. But of course, Kelly wasn’t listening. She was smiling seductively at Jackson.

Pip let out a frustrated sigh, “Kelly, we talked about this...”

Kelly snapped out of her daze and thrust the ice cream at me.

“Ahh...Thanks. Are you guys done? We should get going,” I urged. I didn’t want Kelly to be around him for any longer than necessary. I knew what she was like.

“Maggie how rude, you didn’t introduce us to your friend. Hi I’m Kelly.” Kelly swayed from left to right as she waited for Jackson to take her hand.

Well it was going to happen anyway.

I sighed, “Kelly, Pip, this is Jackson. Jackson, Kelly and Pip.” My hands gestured limply.

Jackson shook Kelly’s hand, “Pleasure to meet you both.”

Kelly visibly melted at the sound of his velvety voice just like I had. Pip gave me an apologetic look before reaching over and extending her hand. I waited anxiously for him to ask them to sit and let him paint their portraits. They were ideal models, tall and thin and interesting. Both of them were straight out of vogue – much more exciting then I was.

“So you’re a painter, that’s really cute. I love paintings,” Kelly prattled. She didn’t know the first thing about art.

Jackson ran a hand through his hair, “Cute. That’s a first.”

“Really? I would think you get that all the time. Well paintings more of a, kinda, beautiful, passionate thing wouldn’t you say?”

I almost vomited. It was so painful to watch.

“I guess I would say that.” Jackson casted a quick, unsure glance at me. I just shrugged in response. The sound of Kelly’s false, high pitched laugh made me cringe inside. I looked over to Pip for back up and she looked just as annoyed—no—she looked much angrier than me.

That was it; a fight would break out if I didn’t end this and I had a lot of experience in preventing fights between the two of them. We were leaving. Pip and Kelly had some serious beef when it came to guys.

“Okay well thanks a lot Jackson, I’ll see you around.” I took a long stride in the general direction of our car and desperately hoped that Kelly and Pip would follow.

“Oh, yeah, alright. I hope we see you again Jackson, you seem like a lovely guy, nice meeting you!” Kelly gushed, brazen-faced.

Pip didn’t say anything, just took hold of Kelly’s arm and pulled her away.

-----

Pip started up the car up and reversed out of our park smoothly. Kelly was pestering me about Jackson and it was tearing me up inside.

“Why am I getting the silent treatment?” She asked from the back seat. I could see Pip roll her eyes.

“You’re not Kelly, I just don’t wanna talk about it.”

That was completely the truth.

“Why on earth not? We just left you with a gorgeous guy and you won’t even tell us how you met him.”

I let out a frustrated sigh, “I did tell you.”

“But you can’t be serious? He looks like the kind of guy you’d meet at an acting audition or at star bucks or something, not a walk in the woods.”

“See, you’re not listening to me.”

Kelly scoffed and turned her head away. Pip was staying surprisingly quiet. I was almost tempted to ask her why; I knew she wasn’t concentrating on her driving.

“How old is he?”

“Kelly please. I don’t know, I met him once.”

“See you’re making this up! A guy that’s only met you once can’t be into you enough to wanna paint you—”

That felt like a knife in my back. Was she talking about me specifically?

“—So why aren’t you just telling us everything? I don’t get it. You finally get to talk to a guy that’s, like, insanely hot, and you don’t even do anything about it, it’s just like—”

“Shut up!” Pip hissed, her knuckles white against the steering wheel.

Kelly gasped. God, I think I did too. Pip said it with so much acid. I looked over at her and I could see it plain on her face; something Kelly just said had severely pissed off Pip.

Kelly was a great friend, she really was, but when boys were involved, she turned into a snake. It was just part of her. I prayed that Kelly would leave this. I had refereed far too many fights between the two of them regarding guys, and this was definitely pre-fight behavior.

But instead of listening, Kelly fought back.

“Whoa what’s up your butt Pip? You’ve been acting weird ever since this fellow showed up. Is there some kinda weird triangle thing going on here?”

Pip shut her eyes for a second longer than necessary to try and calm herself. I could see this whole thing ending very badly if I didn’t do something soon.

“I’ve been trying to be a good friend, a concept you wouldn’t know the first thing about,” Pip said, her voice slightly calmer than previously.

“What? So being interested in Maggie’s situation is being a bad friend now?”

“No, being interested in Maggie's man is being a bad friend.”

“He’s obviously not Maggie’s man—”

“See! What is wrong with you? You don’t even deny trying to get into his pants! He clearly wanted to talk to Maggie and clearly wasn’t interested in you but you’re just so—Uh!” Pip screeched.

Kelly responded with equal amounts of screeching, “what?! Excuse me? Are you trying to call me a slut of something? I know what a guy wants better than both of you do so—”

“Stop it! Jesus Christ, he’s just a guy! I barely know him, just take him away!” I howled.

“Maggie you’re being such a pushover about this! Kelly needs to learn what’s hers and what isn't!”

“People are no one’s Pip!” Kelly stated matter of factly.

“Oh my God! I can't believe you!”

The car roared over to the side of the road and Pip slammed on the breaks. Everything went completely silent. I held onto the edge of my seat nervously and I could hear Kelly and Pip’s heavy, angry breathing.

Pip took a sharp breath in, “Get out of my car.”

“No Pip that’s too far.” I defended Kelly. Sure she was being a ditz, but she didn’t deserve that.

“She can walk from here.”

“Don’t be like this," I said.

The door to the back seat opened and I whipped my head around to catch Kelly walk out onto the road and shut it again. I gave Pip I incredulous look, “Pip you can’t just leave her.”

She started up the car.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I’ve had it up to here with her. She’s stolen two of my boyfriends and I’ve forgiven her, but I can’t stand the fact that she’s doing it to you too.”

“He’s not my boyfriend Pip, he’s just a friend. There’s no rule about friends.”

She ignored me and I sighed and got out of the car. Kelly had made her way to the foot path and was pacing around.

“Kelly don’t be stupid get back in.”

“No.”

“...well what are you going to do then?”

“Walk.”

“Come on Kelly, I know you don’t mean any harm when you say things like that.”

“Things like what?”

“Like saying that you know more about guys then us. Can you see how that could be taken the wrong way?”

She was silent for a moment, then nodded, “Yeah I guess.”

Great, progress. Kelly waited patiently outside the car as I got back in to talk to Pip.

“Pip? Just take her home okay? We’ll sort this out on Monday.”

She growled, “Whatever.”

The rest of the drive home was deathly silent. No one dared speak. I thought of several things to say to break the tension, but wasn’t brave enough to initiate any. I could have asked them what they thought of my painting, but we all know where that would lead. The art gallery would have been a good thing to bring up, though that had the potential to end in the same place....I had been wondering how they ended up with ice cream after Kelly specifically didn’t want any.... they probably wouldn’t even answer me. That’s how bad it was. I fiddled with my ring the whole way, eagerly awaiting dinner, bed and alone time.

-----

When I walked through the front door, I tossed my bag against the wall. Subsequently, Mom came rushing out of the living room to greet me. She placed her hands on my shoulders and analyzed my face. I couldn’t muster a smile for her; I was in too much of a bad mood.

“What’s wrong Honey? How was town?” She looked very worried.

“Fine,” I lied. I wasn’t in the mood to talk about it.

“Hmm... if you say so. Did you buy anything nice?”

She searched my hands for bags. I handed her the rolled up piece of canvas I was holding, “you can have this.”

She gave me a dubious look before scrolling it open. I found certain delight in the expression that appeared on her face when she saw the painting—I imagined mine hadn’t looked much different.

“Look it’s you!! Honey, I love it! Thank you! Did somebody paint this today?”

“Yeah, it was free. I thought you would like it.”

“This is going straight into a frame!”

Mom turned back towards the living room with the painting still in hand. I took that as my queue to saunter up to my room.

“Oh Maggie?!” Mom called from the living room.

“Yes?”

“If you’re going up to you room, dinner’ll be ready in about 40 minutes.”

Good old Mom.