Mannequins | completed

Two

Thank you to Becca for editing!

ELLIOT’S CAR WAS SORT of a pitiful sight to bear. His car was at the worst state it could possibly be in and frankly it was complete shit. Not to mention it smelled like a rat died in here and was decomposing—it smelled absolutely rotten.

I tried not to cringe at the trash scattered in his car. “Dude,” I said, “you need to clean your car.”

Elliot shrugged and started the engine, one hand on the steering wheel. When the engine started, he started pulling out of the driveway, his eyes flitting to either of the side mirrors or the rear mirror every couple of seconds. Needless to say, Elliot was a better drive than me. Although, I could blame it on the experience—he had been driving since he was sixteen, and he was twenty-five now. On the other hand, I had been driving since I was sixteen, but I was only nineteen.

Even with his excellent driving skills, it didn’t change the fact that his car was basically a dumpster.

“C’est La Vie is downtown, yeah?” Elliot asked for confirmation.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “it’s near Orion’s Belt. Like, the restaurant, I mean.”

Truth was, I had known where C’est La Vie was located even before I’d applied for the job and gone for an interview in Felicity’s office, because C’est La Vie was a really popular shop in Calinton. It was basically like the Forever 21 of Calinton, so it was practically impossible for me not to know where the shop was located.

C’est La Vie was the literal definition of girly. It was like a canister of Pepto Bismol had exploded inside of the shop. And if I remembered correctly from my job interview, Felicity Mayfield, who had interviewed me, was basically C’est La Vie in person form. She was sophisticated, girly, elegant and fun at the same time—everything C’est La Vie was. I liked to think that C’est La Vie was the personification of its owner.

“Orion’s Belt,” Elliot echoed, nodding. “I know the way.”

For the next few minutes Elliot and I argued about what music to listen on the radio. Elliot and I had completely different music tastes, and to be honest, Elliot’s taste just really sucked, which pushed me to be even more argumentative about the whole thing. In the end, we simply agreed to not listen to radio, or we’d end up in a fist fight, which Elliot was certain he’d win.

I fished for my phone in my pocket to check the time. It was already six, which meant I was positively late for my shift. I wondered what impression I would leave on Felicity, being late on my first day of work, for my first job. It sounded bad  just in my head.

“I’m late,” I groaned. Punctuality really wasn’t my thing, it never has been.

Elliot glanced at me and then trained his eyes on the road again. “And whose fault is that?” he sarcastically questioned, chuckling.

I was about to spit out a retort in return of his sarcasm when I got to thinking. “Do you think Felicity will be angry?” I paused. “I’m probably going to get fired, man.”

Elliot shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve never had a job before,” he stated.

I made a sound in between  a grunt and snort because it’s honestly sort of tragic that Elliot’s twenty-five and has never had a job. It’s extremely lazy—Elliot’s extremely lazy. I could see why he had also never gotten a girlfriend.

 “It’s ridiculous that you’ve never had a job and you’re twenty-five,” I blurted out. It was definitely not one of the nicest things I’ve said.

Elliot didn’t respond, but I knew my comment didn’t bother him. He’d been hearing things like that for the past few years; he was basically immune to all the negativity aimed at him on account of his sleaziness and dependence on our parents. Seriously, he probably wouldn’t end up anywhere nice in life if our parents decide to give up on him, which wouldn’t be that hard to do since it was kind of easy to give up on someone like Elliot. He showed no effort to simply even be likeable, which was why it was also surprising that he agreed to give me a ride without asking for anything in return. Although, I was sure that he would ask for something in return sometime soon if the opportunity arose.