Page 26 of Holly Jolly July

Mariah

The next day on set is similar to my first. I show up late, having miscalculated how long it would take to get there from

Ellie’s cabin. I look like shit since I overslept on her surprisingly comfortable fold-out couch. Thankfully, my hickey is

faded enough for regular makeup to hide most of it, but I can’t say the same about the bags under my eyes. And my head hurts

from the two(?) bottles of wine we drank. My memories from near the end of the night are fuzzy, of the two of us struggling

to figure out the pull-out, of fighting with a fitted sheet together, of Ellie giving me one of her pillows since the linen

closet didn’t have extras.

And, of course, of finding out Jax is a fuckboy.

I knew he was too good to be true. After all this time I still haven’t learned to listen to the little voice inside my head,

succumbing instead to the little voice inside my pants. Even that would have been okay if I’d got it out of my system and

scratched the itch I’d had since high school, but no, I had to go further and fall for all the tricks in the fuckboy book.

I’m going to swear off dating men for a while.

My workstation is barely set up for the extras and other side actors when my first person shows up for his makeup. I get started

making him look like he’s cold by paling his face, then rosying his cheeks and nose.

“Hell-ooo!” Ellie’s voice singsongs as the door swings open.

I do a double take, having not expected her. She waltzes in as if hangovers aren’t a thing that exist, one hand holding a

tray of Starbucks drinks and the other a pink pastry box.

“What are you doing here?” My voice is crotchety from not having been used yet today.

“Good morning to you, too,” she says, the smile on her face not waning in the least. Ellie sets the coffees and box down. “I wasn’t sure what your drink is, so I got a couple different options.” She lists them, all with varying types of milk and coffee flavours.

“Oh... uh. I’ll take the oat milk caramel one. Please.”

She hands it to me, then opens the pastry box with a flourish to reveal cupcakes, pointing at each and telling me all the

varieties.

“Isn’t it a bit early for cake?” I raise an eyebrow.

She gasps as if I’ve caused her great offence. “Never.”

I take the least sugary-looking one and set it down beside my drink. The guy in my chair takes one, too, and then Ellie grabs

the rest of the drinks and cupcakes and flits around the space giving them all away, returning empty-handed.

“Where’s yours?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I can get one later. Anyway!” She claps her hands, then rubs them together. “We need to come up with a plan.”

I eye the dude in my chair. “Maybe... later?”

“Ah, yes. Wouldn’t want word of our sinister plot getting around, now would we? Even though I’m sure Rick here can keep a

secret. Can’t you, Rick?” She nudges him, and he laughs. How does she know this random extra’s name?

Ellie looks behind her, moves a few things out of the way, then plops her ass down on my table and gets comfortable.

I blink at her a few times. “Are you just gonna sit here and watch me work?”

She straightens. “If that’s okay. Yeah. I don’t have anywhere else to go, and I don’t know of anything to do in this city.

And honestly sitting at home alone all day after what happened is kind of depressing, so I thought I’d come visit you at work,

because, you know, where else would I be? But if I’m cramping your style, or getting in your way, or—”

She moves to get up, but I stop her. “It’s fine. You can keep me company.”

Ellie sighs in relief and gives me a happy smile. “Thank you. Plus, I want to see you at work! Makeup is so fascinating. I can barely put on mascara, and you do a full face—”

She continues chattering away next to me, like a happy little parakeet, but it’s not as irritating as I found it before. The

day passes quickly with Ellie commenting on what I’m doing and asking thoughtful questions or telling me stories that keep

me on my toes and bring a smile to my face. Behind the scenes, she knows so much about the industry and fills me in on the

goings-on between takes. Before I know it, it’s wrap time and nearing dinner.

“Hungry?” I ask after cleaning up my station.

“Starving!” Ellie hops down from her perch and stretches, a little sliver of belly appearing below her Christmas sweater.

“I know a place, but you can’t wear that. It’s outdoors.”

Ellie shrugs, then peels her shirt off. My eyes follow every bit of skin revealed as her tank top tries to leave her body

with the sweater, catching just below her bra line, before she removes it and readjust herself. “How’s this?”

I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry. “Yep. Good. Ready?”

We both jump in my car and drive west toward Vancouver. Ellie scans the radio until she finds a song she knows, then sings

obnoxiously with the window rolled down, her unruly blond hair blowing back behind her. Her energy is contagious, and before

I know it even I’m tapping my fingers on the steering wheel.

We pull into the parking lot fifteen minutes later.

“Mariah, this is a Canadian Tire,” Ellie says, stating the obvious.

“I know.” I unbuckle my seat belt and get out, Ellie following close behind. Once she’s out of the car, I nod my chin toward

an unassuming food truck parked close by. “That’s Lully’s—best hot dogs in BC.”

Ellie squeals, her fists clenched to her sides, and does a little jump.

It’s like she gets so excited she can’t possibly contain herself and this is the only way she can release energy.

Where she gets all this energy from, I’d like to know.

I’m sure if she could bottle it and sell it she’d be a multimillionaire.

She grips my arms and shakes me violently. “Is this like a super-secret awesome place to eat that only locals know about and

it’s like a total diamond in the rough and my mind is about to be blown to a whole other level of awesomeness from hot dogs

alone?!”

I blink a few times. “Uh... yes.”

Ellie does a little happy dance, then grabs me by the arm and pulls me toward the food truck. I coach her through ordering,

warning her not to even mention ketchup in the presence of the uber-grumpy-but-secretly-nice owner, who is just as likely

to yell at you about the sports team you support as he is to donate his kidney to help a stranger. A few minutes later we’re

sitting in the sunshine at one of the picnic tables with foot-longs on pretzel buns and craft sodas.

She takes her first bite, moaning pornographically.

My chest swells with satisfaction. “Good, hey?”

With her mouth half-full, she mumbles some complimentary words, and possibly a few expletives, before swallowing her first

bite. “I tell ya what, that is the best meat I’ve ever had in my mouth!”

Her proclamation is so loud that the owner behind the grill laughs.

“I would never in a million years have thought to eat at the food truck behind the Canadian Tire,” she says, wiping her mouth

on a napkin. “It’s so cool you grew up here. You must know all the awesome secret places. I wish I got to grow up in a small

town.”

“Chilliwack and Abbotsford are cities,” I correct.

“Dude, you have farmland in the middle of your cities. I saw a herd of cows next to a school.”

I consider this a moment, then nod. “True. But it wasn’t as great as you think. Actually, it kind of sucked. I wish I’d grown up in Vancouver.”

“Why? So you could share the Sky Train on your way to school with the unhoused old lady and the pet rat that lives on her

shoulder?”

I blink a few times. “What?”

Ellie shrugs. “Her name was Gertie. The rat was Alfonso.” She takes another huge bite, putting an end to that story before

it even begins. Then, with a full mouth, she asks, “What could have sucked so bad that you left this awesome place?”

“Maybe if I’d grown up in a bigger city, gone to a bigger school, there’d have been more kids like me. I was just... a

little different. I never fit in.”

“Example?”

“I don’t know. While the other girls were going through their My Little Pony phase I was super into zombies.”

“In other words, you were awesome.”

I shrug, glad she thinks so. “In grade six...” I hesitate, unsure if I should continue, never one for sharing embarrassing

anecdotes. I haven’t known Ellie very long, but after only a few days I can tell that she is probably the least judgmental

person on the planet. She waits patiently while I gather my courage, her big round eyes staying focused on my face. I take

another breath, then try again. “You’d think that Halloween would be my time of year to shine, right? It’s supposed to be

morbid and dark and creepy. Guess I missed the memo about that. First year of middle school there was a costume contest, and

I was stoked. I’d been dabbling in costume makeup for a few years by then, and I had this awesome idea I wanted to try. I

got up on stage with my costume I’d worked on for weeks, of a zombie with its guts spilling out, and I made a huge show of

cannibalizing my own intestines since I made them out of gummy worms.”

“That’s awesome!” Ellie shouts, slapping a hand on the table.

“Yeah. No. Someone screamed, a few others cried. One kid threw up. I was sent to see the school counsellor, who called my parents, who showed up and were absolutely mortified since they’re evangelicals and super upstanding members of the church community.

I was suspended from school for a week and my parents grounded me.

I wasn’t allowed to watch my ‘creepy shows’ anymore.

Not that it stopped me, I still snuck them in. ”

“I’m sorry.” Ellie’s shoulders slump. “Who ended up winning the contest?”

I roll my eyes. “Jessica and Brittney. One was a horse and the other a cowgirl.”

Ellie snorts. “How original.”

“Right?” Ellie’s approval is so validating. “I had been a weirdo at school before that, and I was even more of a weirdo after.