Olivia wasn’t looking forward to her sister, Maddie, coming home for the summer. Last year her older sister had stayed at Ames University and taken summer courses. This year she was coming home to work at one of the local seasonal restaurants, the kind where the waiters doubled as models, or vice versa.
The sisters couldn’t be more different. Maddie was gregarious, outgoing, and didn’t have a musical bone in her body. In fact, Olivia was sure that Maddie was actually tone deaf. They were both smart girls though, and luckily for their dad, Maddie had gotten a full-ride scholarship based on academic merit. Although for being so smart, Maddie hid it well. She masked her intelligence with a mane of dyed blonde hair, dark cat-eye eyeliner, and her trademark fire engine red lipstick.
Olivia wasn’t looking forward to sharing her car with her social butterfly sister. She sighed as she headed to pick Maddie up from the bus station.
As she pulled up to the station, she saw the legs and sea of blonde hair that were her sister, from a mile away. The exhaust sputtered as she parked the old car next to the curb and popped the trunk.
“Liv!” Maddie smiled and ran around the car to embrace her sister.
The two girls hugged and then set to heaving Maddie’s bags into the trunk. When they loaded the last over-stuffed suitcase, they both pushed down on the hatchback together to get it to latch closed.
“It’s nice to see you Mads.” Olivia smiled at her sister.
“You too, kiddo. Thanks for picking me up.”
“Well, I didn’t really have a choice…”
“I’m driving!” Maddie interrupted and grabbed the keys from Olivia’s hand. She ran around to the driver’s side of the car. Olivia sighed and walked around to the passenger side.
“I’m starving, what have you got for food in here?” Maddie asked as she pawed around in the console.
Olivia dug into her giant canvas purse and pulled out a homemade granola bar wrapped in cellophane. Maddie squished up her face and tossed the granola bar into the back seat.
“We’re going out for lunch.”
“When that melts and makes a giant mess, you’re cleaning it up.”
“Roger that, kiddo,” Maddie responded.
Olivia knew that there was no way Maddie would ever clean the granola bar up. She knew that at the end of the summer the old car would be littered with clothes, spare shoes, and food wrappers.
“How about Casper’s?” Olivia suggested.
“No way, that’s where I’m working this summer. I’m in the mood for a giant burger. Is Fred Funkman’s still there?”
“Yep, in all its greasy divey glory.” Olivia leaned back into the passenger seat.
“Funkman’s it is!” Maddie gunned the little car and zoomed off toward the waterfront.
As soon as they sat down on the patio Olivia cranked up the red and white striped umbrella and positioned herself in its shade. Maddie leaned back in her chair, basking in the sun with her wire-rimmed sunglasses. She reminded Olivia of Penny from the movie Almost Famous.
“What have you been up to? I mean, besides playing the cello. And practicing the cello. And tuning the cello. And doing sheet music for your cello.”
“Ha. Ha. Actually, I’ve been jamming with Steve’s band.”
“Steve? Dad’s stoner buddy?”
“That’s the one. It’s actually a lot of fun – I’m getting pretty good at the guitar.”
“That doesn’t surprise me, can’t you play every instrument?” Maddie perused the giant laminated menu. “What are you going to get for lunch?”
As the two of them pored over the menus, Olivia heard the rumble of a bike pull up to the restaurant. Ever since she had seen the hot biker, her ears perked up at every growly sound reminiscent of a Harley.
It was him.
Her pulse started to race and she hoped that she was hidden in the shade so that he wouldn’t see her. Her heart sank a little when she saw a woman on the back of his motorcycle. A really slutty looking woman to boot. Olivia watched the girl slide off the bike and giggle at the man. She had on tight jeans and a brown leather vest that practically evicted her tits from the neckline. She clearly spent a lot of time in tanning beds - her skin was the same color as her vest. Olivia grew angry as she felt herself judging the girl. She’d never done that before, what was happening to her?
“What the hell are you looking at?” Maddie said and turned to follow her sister’s gaze. “Oh, hellooooo.” Maddie sucked in her breath and turned back to face Olivia. “Are you serious? I’ve never seen you go moony over a boy before. Does Olivia like her boys bad?” Maddie said, laughing.
Olivia flushed red.
“Want me to call him over?” Maddie asked and turned in her seat once more.
“Eeeek. Don’t you dare!” Olivia squealed and grabbed her sister’s arm. Maddie wasn’t kidding, and Olivia knew it.
“Alright, kid. I won’t embarrass you.” Maddie turned to face her sister and settled into the metal patio chair.
The biker and the vest girl clomped up the wooden steps to the patio, and Olivia tried her best to avoid eye contact with either of them. As they walked by, Maddie yawned, stretching out her long thin arms, knocking Olivia’s beer off the table in the process. Its contents spilled all over the deck and splashed the vest girl.
“Oh, my god. I’m so sorry!” Maddie exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. The biker picked up the empty glass and handed it to Maddie. “Thanks so much” she gushed and gave him her best doe-eyed look.
“No problem,” he started to walk away, completely dismissive of Maddie’s attempt to get his attention.
“What kind of a fucking twatty klutz are you?” the vest girl screeched. She grabbed a napkin off the table and blotted at the beer splatters on her vest. She balled up the wet napkin and tossed it directly at Olivia. Olivia instinctively grabbed the napkin and her pulse raced when Blaine’s eyes followed the napkin, and met hers.
“Easy now, Lizzie,” Blaine said. “She had nothing to do with this.” Olivia blushed and smiled at him before breaking eye contact.
“Oh, well then…” Lizzie didn’t finish her sentence. She grabbed the pitcher of beer and dumped it over Maddie’s head.
Maddie sat in shock. Her cat eye mascara ran down her face in thin black rivulets. Her white t-shirt clung to her breasts and, not unlike a wet t-shirt contest, revealed her lacy pink bra.
“Jesus Christ, Lizzie. What the hell?” Blaine yelled at Lizzie and threw his arms up in the air. Lizzie cackled, tossed her huge teased bleached blonde hair over her shoulders, and stamped away into the restaurant.
Olivia didn’t know what to do. She sat there with her eyes wide open, her body, frozen.
“I’m sorry about that ladies. That woman has a way of overreacting. As you clearly can see.”
“Do you mind passing me a napkin from that table over there?” Maddie asked Blaine and pointed to a neighboring table.
Blaine scooped up the table settings and proceeded to unroll all of them. He handed the stack of napkins to Maddie.
“Thanks, Sir.” Maddie blotted at the black streaks on her face in an attempt to mitigate the forming raccoon eyes.
“Sir.” Blaine chuckled.
“I’m Maddie and this is Olivia.” Maddie extended her hand, her bangles jingled, and she smiled her million-watt man-killer smile. Blaine shook her hand, but the whole time his eyes were trained on Olivia.
“Olivia, I’m Blaine.” He reached across the table to shake her hand. Olivia reached her hand shyly to meet his, her delicate fingers enveloped by his massive calloused hand.
“Blaine, nice to meet you. If your girlfriend needs to get her vest dry-cleaned, please let me know and I’ll take care of it.” She let her hand linger in his grip.
“Oh, that’s too much and definitely not necessary. I’m pretty sure that she did ten times more damage to your friend here.”
“Sister,” Olivia blurted.
“Sister?” Blaine took a closer look at Maddie. “I can see it. You both have the same pretty eyes. Nice to meet you, Olivia and Maddie.” Blaine got a few strides away from the table, then turned back to say, “She’s not my girlfriend,” then disappeared into the restaurant.
“What is wrong with you?!” Olivia seethed. “Why did you have to create a scene like that?”
“Wrong with me? You can’t tell when a guy is into you, can you?”
“What are you talking about?” Olivia leaned in closer to her sister.
“That biker dude, Blaine, is into you.”
“How can you tell?”
“Women’s intuition, I guess. And where’s my thank you? You got to meet him, and now you know his name!”
Olivia couldn’t help but smile. ‘Blaine. It suits him,’ she thought to herself.
Olivia couldn’t stay angry with Maddie, she was a trooper and sat through lunch in a beer-soaked t-shirt. When they asked their server for their bill, she said that it was taken care of by the man inside.
“What should we do?” Olivia asked Maddie. “Do we go in and say thank -you? Do we not accept?”
They didn’t have to make that decision; as if on cue, the door to the restaurant swung open and Lizzie and Blaine squinted into the bright sunlight. Maddie turned and waved at them.
“Thanks for lunch!” she yelled.
Lizzie snapped her head to look at Blaine and slapped him on the arm. She marched over to the girls, slammed her bony hands onto the table and leaned into Maddie’s face. “You stay away from him, you’re nothing but a college whore.”
“Woah, lady. I was just thanking him for paying for our lunch” Maddie knew she was pushing the biker girl’s buttons, but couldn’t help herself.
Lizzie stood up and adjusted her vest. “You’re not his type, anyway.”
“Oh really, and what is his type?”
“Me.” Lizzie smoothed out her vest and puffed out her silicone chest.
“You might want to tell him that,” Maddie said coyly. She smiled sweetly and then turned away from the enraged woman.
“I’m done with you little girls.” Lizzie turned and stomped off to the bike.
Blaine held his hands up in front of him, shook his head, and followed Lizzie to his bike. He looked over his shoulder only once and flashed Olivia a smile. She involuntarily flashed him a grin back and felt the butterflies in her stomach wreak havoc on her lunch. She gripped the arms of her chair and willed herself not to throw up.
After the bike growled off down the road, Maddie looked at her sister and smiled. “Alright kiddo. It looks like we’re in for an interesting summer. Let’s get home now.”