Barbie: Beyond the Trip

Fourth Month Folly

"Hey, mom! I'm heading up to shower!"

"Alright, sweetie. Make sure you leave some hot water for the rest of us! I swear I had ice cubes falling on me this morning"

Brooklyn snickered and walked upstairs, shouting back at her mom over her shoulder.

"Don't blame me! That would be Malibu!", commenting on how her blonde roommate's love for long, hot showers sometimes deprived the rest of the East Coast Roberts from their warm suds.

As Brooklyn ascended the stairs on a perfectly sunny and crisp April late afternoon, she hummed to herself and walked towards her room. But before she could completely enter to grab her clothes and towel, she heard some shouting on the other end. Loud, squeaking squawks of protest from her roommate.

"Selfish?! ME? You're so wrong! Are you being serious right now?!"

Brooklyn quietly murmured a soft, confused "what the?" and snuck closer to the door, placing her ear against it, listening in further. The door was open a crack, so she ever so gently pushed it open to see what was inside without disturbing whatever was going on.

Barbie was pacing around the room, huffing and puffing, clearly irritated by the conversation she held with whoever was on the other end of the phone she held up to her face. Her eyes were narrowed and pointed, glaring down at the screen, as a sneer curled against her lips.

"I AM being serious! You can't expect me to go along with this, Barbie!"

Brooklyn gasped, shocked at the sound of the other voice.

It was Ken.

Barbie scoffed and rolled her eyes, jutting out her hip frustratedly.

"Yes, I do! If you truly love me, then you know how important this is to me!"

"I do love you! But clearly you don't love ME enough to know that I can't and won't do this for you! It's going way too far!"

"Too far? Wow! That hurts... If this is such a problem for you, then I guess we're finished! I'm done with you, Kenneth!"

"And I guess I'm over you, Barbara!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

—SPLIT SCREEN—

Hot steam wafted out of the bathroom as Chase exited from his own refreshing cleansing soak. Two hours in the gym weightlifting and running on the treadmill wore him down to the nub, and the best thing after a workout that extreme was a nice, long, hot shower.

"Aaaahhhhhh...", he sighed to himself, feeling the cool April air hit his face from the open window adjacent. He hummed and toweled at his hair, but before he could make his way towards the living room, he heard a shouting voice that belonged to his roommate.

"You mean to tell me, you expect me to just drop what I'm doing and go with you? How can you be that selfish!?"

Chase's eyes lit up as his mouth gaped. A quick "whoa" came out of his mouth at the outburst from the man on the other side of the door. He crept closer to the door that led to the living room and peered through the crack. What he saw was nothing short of amazingly disturbing in every so which way.

Ken was pacing around the room, his cell phone clutched tight in his fists. But the expression on his face was none too pleasant. In fact, he looked downright agitated and angry. Frustrated. Perturbed.

Hot red with disgust.

Chase had only witnessed his roommate so angry once, maybe twice. Brian Masters... and the corner of the coffee table that claimed his pinky toe last month...