3,000 Years

Piña Coladas

A/N: Warning, this is one of the longer entries. (5,000+ words to be exact).

.....

Elizabeth sighed as she spooned yet another scoop of cookie dough ice-cream into her mouth. All day she'd been wearing a slight frown, drowning her negative emotions within the jumbo tub of frozen dough and dairy. 

In all her gloom, she hadn't even bothered to change out of her pajamas, instead lounging about in the living room of her shared apartment as she spooned ice-cream and flicked through useless TV channels - much to her roommate's chagrin.

"Oh come on, Elizabeth!" Diane, her roommate, sighed as she looked at her gloomy friend. Not even Elizabeth's hair was normal, the usually shiny silver tresses appearing limp and dull. "It's not that bad! You can still try and- "

"Nope, I'm not going out today," Elizabeth remained firm, munching yet more ice-cream. "You and King can go without me. I'll just be a third wheel anyway."

Diane had been trying to get Elizabeth to leave the apartment, saying that she had to go out today. She had tried everything to get Elizabeth to leave: blackmail, bribery, even offers to having a girls' night. Nothing worked. 

Elizabeth refused to leave the apartment and actually wanted to drown in her hole of self-pity. Well, it was more sudden depression than self-pity, but Diane felt it was a mixture of the two. It had to be.

No-one pulls this crap for two years in a row.

The reason for Elizabeth's sourly depressed mood was that it was Valentines day. Yep, Valentines. Like most singles on this day, Elizabeth wanted to drown her lonely singleness in discounted chocolates and other crappy Valentines clearance stuff. The young woman had made a plan to stay in her apartment all day and watch trashy rom coms and things like Titanic, allowing herself to feel terrible, while also not ruining Diane's day. 

But that seemed to be failing, Diane having none of Elizabeth's bad mood.

"Well, you have to do something," The brunette plonked down beside her roommate, a teasing look on her face. "Stuffing your face with acne-inducing food isn't going to help your already low self-esteem~"

"Hey!" Elizabeth flushed red, pouting as she took another spoonful of frozen heaven. Her voice came out small and muffled. "It's all that helps right now..."

Diane laughed at her friend's tiny whisper, the light laughter ringing around the room until her eyes landed on the daily paper. 

Both women had forgotten that the mailman had posted it through the slot, providing them with the daily news. Usually one of them would've read through it by now, often looking for stupid stories or really urgent/tragic events. One famous example was the disappearance of Ana Everton, a woman who went missing walking home with her dog. It happened right by their apartment complex too, leading to King often accompanying Diane and Elizabeth everywhere.

However, Diane hadn't focused on the newspaper for the local media trash. No, she had focused on it because she had an idea - an idea that would drag Elizabeth out of her depressed state. 

Grabbing the newspaper from the coffee table, Diane flipped towards the personal ad section. There were a bunch for horoscopes and stuff, along with a few small business ads and prostitutes placing sneaky self-advertisements. But what caught Diane's eye was the special Valentines' day addition. It was a small column where you could do 'Rush Hour Crush' admissions. Apparently it was a permanent addition that would start from today.

So with a cheeky idea blooming in her mind, Diane began to read.

"To the lady with the bewitching golden eyes," Diane grinned as Elizabeth raised a brow. "I loved the talk we had on the metro. The way you were so passionate about the advancement of science was enchanting, not to mention your offer to help me. If you want we can meet for a coffee, I believe you like lattes and already have my number. The man with the lion tattoo."