Push It to the Limit

"There's nothing like the United States. Do you smell that? It's freedom!" Janna said triumphantly. She closed her eyes gingerly and sniffed the air around her. "I'll even temporarily forget the fact that I have to take another flight after this."

Grace looked at Janna worriedly. "What are you talking about? All I smell is gasoline, McDonald's fries, and cleaning solution."

She didn't dare to breathe it in for fear of overwhelming herself with the stench. The sky was gray and the clouds hung low, drizzle resting on the windows, but the scent of rain was blocked by LaGuardia Airport in New York. She felt sluggish and was in need of a hot shower, even though she had showered in Germany the morning of their flight. The whole airport experience left her lethargic and grimy. Her bed in her apartment at Yale, currently seeming like clouds in a field of picked cotton, was all too far away. With the far away noise of Janna's yapping in the background, Grace was disappointed to learn that she had nothing new waiting for her in her phone since the last time she checked it in Berlin.

"Did he send you a loving text message, liebe?" Janna taunted. Grace gripped the straps of her backpack tighter, sighing in the process. She had slightly forgotten to mention that she denied Bill of any hope of a relationship to Janna on purpose. She had told her everything else. How they met, his quirky yet chauvinistic twin brother whom she was convinced wasn't actually a player, his muscular and beautiful friend who had long brown hair any girl would envy and pretty blue eyes named Georg, his cute brown-eyed blond friend named Gustav who was short and bulky and incredibly quiet but smiled a lot, no matter big or small. It was safe to say she spared no detail, even. She just left out a huge chunk that she didn't want to have to talk about.

"No," She replied quickly. "Are you thirsty? I'm thirsty. Oh look, I found the golden arches! Let's get something to drink. Any size for a dollar? Well that's convenient."

Grace power-walked to the counter where there was surprisingly no line. "Can I have a large Coke?" She asked the petite teen-aged girl working the counter.

Janna slowly walked up next to her. "You are about the worst person in all of time at keeping secrets. What aren't you telling me?"

Grace ignored the dirty blond standing next to her. Janna loomed over her since she was a full four inches taller. She focused on paying the sixteen year-old and receiving her drink. Once that was over, Janna just stood there unimpressed. "I don't travel all over the world with you, live with you part of the time, and play my favorite sport with you and not know you. Grow a pair and tell me what's going on, bitch!"

Grace wasn't surprised with Janna's reaction. Janna was quite honestly impatient and most often a bully. She never pushed anyone too far, though. She was an oxymoronical good bully. She'd bully you into doing something that was good for you, or something you'd regret not doing.

Janna glanced at her watch. "What time is your flight to Connecticut?"

"Two hours."

"We have time. Sit down and tell me," Janna barked. They found a table and sat down. Grace contemplated making something up. Anything to avoid the awkwardness of telling Janna, and the pain of reliving it.

"It's too inconvenient," She thought aloud. She had no idea where to start. That wasn't exactly as organized and she'd hoped to present the problem, but it got it done nonetheless. "I'm not jumping into anything with a guy I met three days ago. I wouldn't do that if he lived down the block from me. Someone living in Germany? He's too far."

"Are you saying you're not going to do a long-distance relationship? That's basically saying you'll never have a serious relationship," Janna pointed out.

"No, I'm not. Say he moved to the house down the street from me, and we establish a friendship. I'm able to trust him and learn more about him, and then we decide to take it further. If he decided to tell me that this is when he plans to go on a six month tour of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, I'd say well talk to me in six months then. If we happen to fall in love, then he suddenly has to leave, I'd give it a try."

Janna stared at Grace, dumbfounded. "You just said the L word!"

Grace raised an eyebrow. "It's not a bad word."

"Yeah, but it's a word I've never heard you say! We're making progress here. By the way, you're dumb for not giving him a chance."

"I'm dumb? I'm being logical, Janna! Yeah, Bill is amazing. That doesn't mean we're good for each other. It doesn't mean anything." Grace said, angered by Janna's casual mention of a huge decision. She really liked Bill. She wanted to give him a chance, but it went against everything else she believed in.

Janna shrugged. "It's your life. I suppose you'll find someone else eventually. You're young." Someone else, Grace thought. She began thinking about never having a relationship with Bill. It seemed horrible to not try, but she ignored the feelings.

"Like I said, it's too inconvenient. If it's meant to be, it'll happen."

"You believe in that fate shit? That surprises me. You're always so in control. I can't believe you don't want to be in control of what happens in your love life," Janna raised an eyebrow, paying more attention to her phone than Grace.

"Has it ever occurred to you that I don't think of my love life 24/7?" Grace asked, finally angered by Janna. She was glad they were going home and she didn't have to deal with her bullying for much longer. She got up, excusing herself to the restroom.

Janna watched as Grace stormed off, entertained. "Oh yeah, she really wants Bill. She's been thinking of him too much and doesn't know what to do. Oh dear Grace, I know you better than you think."

She fished around Grace's bag, finally finding her cell phone. She opened up her contacts and looked through the names. "Not you Bill, that'd be too obvious. Tom? She said chauvinist. I'm a feminist. Not gonna work. Hm, Georg? Well she said he was beautiful, and that he was nice to talk to. Okay Georg. It's gonna be you."

She quickly did her snooping, and returned the phone before Grace could have any knowledge of it.

---

Bill yelled muffled obscenities angrily as he face-planted into the fluffy couch at house. The quartet was relaxing the day before their "Best Of" album release. He was frustrated with his cluttered mind. He kept painfully replaying the entire park scene in his head over and over like a broken record. Each time he felt worse and worse. He had never wanted anything more than a chance. He was so close to the possibility of true love, and if anyone knew Bill, they knew that he wanted to find his one true love. He wasn't going to date just anyone.

"I think there's something wrong with Bill," Georg said sarcastically. Tom didn't flutter an eyelash while he watched the mindless TV program, Jersey Shore. Gustav just looked at Georg sympathetically before returning to his latest level of Angry Birds on his phone.

Georg poked Tom. "Tom! Respond! It'll get worse than poking!"

Tom raised an eyebrow at Georg. "I'm intrigued. What did you have in mind?"

"Help your brother," Georg said, rolling his eyes.

"No, I already know what it is. You prevented me from watching Jwoww gettin' down on the dance floor! He's thinking about Grace."

"You are a horrible excuse for a brother," Georg muttered. He turned his attention to Bill. "So you really like Grace, huh?"

"I'm not a horrible brother!" Tom yelled, a few minutes later. Everyone looked at him questioningly. Georg ignored him and tried to think of what to say for Bill.

Tom showed up with a notebook and pen. "You have feelings? Write about them."

Bill lifted his face from the cushions, taking the pen and staring at the paper. All of a sudden he began writing furiously.

He looked at Georg knowingly. "I'm a good brother."