Room 203: Thursday

[mother_forker]

Anyone walking by room 205 would note that:
A. The room is a mess.
B. Eleanor was still in bed listening to Tahani on the radio being totally judgmental.

"Make better choices, Eleanor," She repeated in a mocking faux British accent. "While I continue to namedrop celebrities because I'm totally better than you. I'm so pretty with perfect skin, perfect hair and luscious lips that-"

Wait. Where did that come from? Right. Back to indigation.

"Make better choices, Eleanor. Mew. Mew. Mew."

[Open]

Comments

[white_oleander]

"That's..." said Astrid, after a moment, and a faint, wry sound. Not quite a grunt, not exactly whimper, but somewhere in between, "sort of a 'we'll need more than cupcakes' sort of thing."

There was something oddly appealing in the idea of just spilling it all out to Eleanor, though.

Her smile was faint and apologetic. "It's just really complicated."

[mother_forker]

“Fair enough,” Eleanor said with a nod and a stretch. “That kind of shirt can be tough to deal with. My personal motto? You might as well just look out for yourself because no one else is going to do it for you. Plus that way you won’t be disappointed.”

[white_oleander]

"I mean," Astrid countered a little wryly, "I'm sure you can still be disappointed."

She was looking at Eleanor thoughtfully now, though.

"Sounds like you kind of had to take that on pretty early," she said, with the tone of someone who should have taken it on earlier than she had, because then maybe when she didn't have a choice, she'd be a lot better at it than she was now.

[mother_forker]

Eleanor shrugged. “Yeah. I guess so. I mean my parents were shirtballs. My Mom killed the family dog because she was so forking self-centered. My dad was in and out of jail so much the best picture I have of him is his mugshot.”

She let out a laugh which wasn’t really about anything funny. “And I mean, those ash-holes couldn’t bother to even remember my birthday. How could I expect them to forking take care of me when I spent more time taking care of them?”

And if that came off with Eleanor sounding self-centered it’s because she’s totally self-centered.

[white_oleander]

But it didn't sound self-centered at all, and Astrif was pretty sure she knew self-centered.

"Your mom sounds like my mom," she admitted, her small laugh pretty humourless, too. "And the only picture I have of my dad is one I found in one of my mom's books. I've never actually met him.

"I'm glad you got out of that, though."

[mother_forker]

"Oh?" Eleanor said looking sympathetic. "Does your Mom pretend to be your sister and attempt to sleep with your boyfriends too? Man, I'm glad it's not just me."

[white_oleander]

"I've...never even had a boyfriend," said Astrid, almost regrettably, not for the fact itself, but for the fact that it wasn't something she could actually relate to Eleanor over, "so, yeah, you do sort of have one up on me there."

And Astrid didn't even want to think about how it would have gone over if she ever had

[mother_forker]

"Never had a boyfriend? Shiiiiiiiirt," Eleanor said, now pulling herself out of bed. "Well, fork me. I can help you out with that. All we need is a local bar with a ladies night."

You may not want this kind of help, Astrid.

[white_oleander]

"I....don't think I really want one," Astrid said, laughing a little with the
nervous implication underneath that she was not going to think about right now. And while she was not afraid to let Eleanor know that she definitely didn't want that kind of hip, she couldn't help being a little curious of what a local ladies' night bar hop with someone like Eleanor might be like.

"But that does sound kind of interesting."

[mother_forker]

Annnnnd now Eleanor was giving Astrid an amused look.

"Oh. Sorry. I just assumed," Eleanor said. "So if you're looking for a girlfriend? That's an entirely different kind of ladies night. No worries, I know a couple of places that fit the bill."

[white_oleander]

"No, it's not that..." Astrid started quickly, but she faltered, because that maybe did strike a lot closer to the truth, but her generally inept social upbringing didn't leave her very prepared for any of that on a healthy level, "...either. I just...

"It'll be fun, I guess," she tried that tact instead, "whichever way it went."

Which was not picking up anyone, boy or girl, and just being what she could only assume was an actual normal human girl.

[mother_forker]

"Okay, Okay," Eleanor said seeing this was a touchy subject. "No worries. If you haven't figured it out yet there's plenty of time and opportunities to work that out. I think to start off you need just a night out. So. How do you feel about jello shots?"

Because getting Summer to serve Astrid Jello shots and somehow maybe involve Rosa and Amaya in the same bar sounded like a wonderful idea.

[white_oleander]

"I'm not familiar enough to form a conclusive opinion," Astrid admitted. "You're thinking Caritas on Wednesday, then?"

Because that was an easy line to draw, and also, who needed a brain, anyway?

[mother_forker]

"Well unless you have a fake ID and we can head into Baltimore," Eleanor said with a shrug. "I've got a solid one that always works."

At least in Arizona.

"Anyway, it sounds to me like you could use a night out so you can forget about your parent shirt. What do you say?"

[white_oleander]

"Well, my actual ID says I'm 42," Astrid pointed out, "but it expires in 1995."

The expiration dates'll get you.

"But I think you're right. We can invite some.other people, too, make a night out it...Sounds fun, actually."

They needed more.distractions around here, really.

[mother_forker]

"Abso-forking-lutely," Eleanor agreed. "We need a girls night out. We can even invite Tahani-butt so she can see what a real night out is like."

And not because of her lips. Nope.

[white_oleander]

Oh, no, definitely not those. Or her butt.

"Definitely Tahani," Astrid, who was going to suggest that anyway for no particular reason, agreed. "Instant prestige for our girls night out. And if we add Alexis? Instant entertainment, too."

[mother_forker]

"Hmm, If we do that we'll probably have to score some additional cash. Or make them pay for everything," Eleanor said thoughtfully as she began to pick through the clothes on her bed to find something somewhat clean. "And I still owe them money for dry cleaning."

[white_oleander]

Astrid would have thought that that seemed a waste of money, if it weren't for the fact that she had a hunch that money wasn't going anywhere.

"Maybe Summer will cut us all a good deal."

[mother_forker]

"True. And if we all get sucked into Anakin's insane weekly torture session we can all get the first round of jello shots for free," Eleanor added cheerfully. "I believe the next one will be shrimp inspired."

[white_oleander]

Astrid kept up on radio enough to not be surprised by this, but that didn't mean she was going to look forward to it.

"That's going to be an experience," she said.

But she figured the possibility of witnessing Tahani even in the same room as a shrimp jello shot would be enough to sway Mae to come along too. She hoped.