“Oh. Yes. Absolutely nothin’ better to do,” Sally deadpanned, deleting the photo of herself sharp-shooting upside-down between her legs. Lou leaned against her shoulder and pouted.
“Aww, come on, that was a good one!”
“The aliens don’t need to be starin’ at my ass right off the bat, Lou.”
“What, like they’re gonna know what an ‘ass’ is??”
“Well I’m assumin’ they havesomekinda comparable biology, else-wise it would’na made sense for ‘em to reach out to us, would it?”
“Well I guess we’ll find out when you submit your profile and let us go lookin’, won’t we?”
“I ain’t downloadin’ no alien ass pics on my computer—”
Their playful bickering was interrupted by pounding knocks on the outside of the trailer. Tracy’s voice called in through the open screen of the tiny window on the door.
“Let me in, ya varmints! I brought the wieners! Oh, and Chet’s here too, I guess.”
An indignant “Hey!” came through in Chet’s voice as Llewellyn wriggled up from around the table to open the door.
A bubbly, bottled blonde with big hair bounced her way up the steps, depositing her goods into the tiny fridge and around the miniscule counter space as though she lived there. Chet followed, his lanky frame ducking down to avoid the door frame. He held up his bags in self defense, goods in offering to the perpetually hungry rodeo riders.
“I brought snacks!”
The kettlecorn, twizzlers, and double stuffed oreos were snatched almost as fast as they appeared, the three girls cooing in appreciation. Llewellyn leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek, her mouth already full of cookie. A pat on his rear followed.
“Knew you were good for somethin’ besides awesome dick!” she told him around her mouthful of snackage.
Chet rolled his eyes, but grinned. Their late-night post-show get togethers had taught him pretty quickly just how feral his gals could get when they were hungry and tired from performing all day. The one time hehadn’tshown up with food, they’d nearly eatenhim,and not in the fun way.
“Quit makin’ out in my doorway and let the boy in, Lou!” Sally hollered at them, rescuing her laptop (and her nachos) from the sudden flood of snack bags on the table.
Several chaotic minutes later and a round of chili-cheese dogs joined the table roughage, disappearing with impressive swiftness into the bellies of the four friends doing the eating. Sally could, in fact, swallow an entire hot dog in one go, but refused to do so when offered the delectable flavorings of Tracy’s chili.
“Sal-ly! Sal-ly! Sal-ly!”Llewellyn's enthusiastic chanting was cut off by Sally’s forceful ‘NO’ on the subject. A round of boo’s erupted from everyone, including Sally, making them all crack up in laughter.
“I ain’t wastin’ good chili on tricks!” Sally tossed out when she could breathe again.
“But think of the PICTURE!” Lou slapped her hand on the table in excitement. “We could teach those aliens a thing or three!”
“Wait, y’all were serious about that?” Chet put in, rescuing his cup from Llewellyn's excited gesticulating. He then rescued hers and moved them both out of range as she got really fired up.
“Of COURSE we were serious about that! When have we ever NOT been serious about Sally’s love life?” Lou scoffed at him, then dove across the table to grab the laptop from Sally.
A general screech of protest went up from all involved as popcorn went flying and the nearly empty nacho tray slid dangerously half off the table’s edge. Llewellyn plopped down happily, her misbegotten gains balanced in her lap. She looked up, feeling the multiple glares aimed in her direction.
“What?!”
“You’re cleanin’ that up,” Sally griped, pointing to the spilled popcorn that had scattered across the entire kitchen floor.
“Nearly had chili on mybrand new shirt,” Tracy muttered in annoyance. She gestured at Chet to hand her the apron hanging on a peg just behind his head. He obliged.
“Oh shush. You spent a dollar fifty on that thang. I’d have bought you another one!” Lou huffed, turning her attention back to the profile screen.
“Yeah, I paid a dollar fifty on theshirt, Lou. Paid a lot more for the sparkles and patches I put on to juj it up! Swarovski ain’t cheap and neither is—”
“—lookin’ like a winner.Yeah, yeah, I know! Just calm your titties and take a look at this. I think we’re ready to submit so we can start lookin’ at sexy aliens!”
Tracy did look, her curiosity overcoming her ire at nearly wearing her own chili. It was impossible to get Lou to take anything seriously for longer than about a minute, anyway. At least, outside the ring. Inside it, she was all focus, all the time. They all were, really.
