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“And that was my sister, everyone.” Tahani picked up the menu of the little café they had all crowded into after their disastrous experience at the museum — Jason had whined all the way out that he was dyinggggg of hunger — and scowled at it, probably not at all up to her refined standards, Eleanor thought, even though she had seen her eat a bowl of chili fries when she thought no one was looking and that was most definitely not any sort of refined person’s food.
Eleanor put her own menu down and contemplated Tahani and what had just happened. “I kind of thought you were exaggerating about her,” she said. “But it turns out you weren’t.”
Tahani stared at her in a flabbergasted manner. “Exaggerating?” she said. “Why would I ever want to do that?”
“You know.” Eleanor shrugged. “To get sympathy. Like ‘Ohhhh, poor Tahani just had the worst childhood ever. We should be really nice to her and buy her expensive gifts to make up for it.’” Eleanor realized everyone was staring at her over their menus. She shrugged again. “Or something like that,” she added. “I wouldn’t know from first-hand experience or anything.”
“Of course not,” Chidi said. Eleanor glared at him, before turning back to Tahani.
“But you sister,” she said. “She really is something.”
“She really is,” Tahani said gloomily. “I always envied those siblings who actually got along and did fun things together, like curl each other’s hair and paint each other’s toes and let each other borrow their fanciest dresses and sneak each other into the hottest party in town.”
All of that sounded a bit like The Bad Place to Eleanor, but Tahani looked so sad, and before she could take a sip of her Coke to keep herself quiet, she was spouting out loud, “Why don’t we do that?”
Tahani frowned at her. So did the others.
Eleanor clarified, even though she was a little hating herself for even suggesting it. “You and me,” she said. “We could have like a sister bonding night or something. I mean, you’re kind of like the sister I never actually wanted so …” She shrugged. Tahani beamed.
“Oh, my, yes, I would love that!” She reached across the table and took Eleanor’s hand. “Thank you, dear Eleanor.”
Eleanor yanked her hand back and looked around to make sure people at other tables weren’t watching. “Yeah, okay,” she said. “It’s not that big a deal.”
But Tahani beamed the rest of the way through lunch, even when the paparazzi with the camera popped up out of nowhere and tried to photograph her eating a hamburger.
•••
Later that night, Eleanor threw some clothes in a bag and headed down the hall to Tahani’s hotel room. She was still regretting her rash decision to have this sisterly bonding night or whatever — especially since the boys were hitting up the local bar to watch some game on TV, which sounded a whole lot more enjoyable — but she supposed it wouldn’t kill her to try and improve her own self and make someone else happy, and it really did seem to be making Tahani happy, so here she was knowing on Tahani’s door.
Tahani answered the door. Eleanor stared at the pajamas she had on — pink rabbits covered every inch of them and they seemed to be intermixed with jelly beans — and then she noticed Tahani’s hair was pulled into two pigtails.
“Uhhhh.” Eleanor gestured at the whole ensemble.
“Oh.” The grin on Tahani’s face faltered just a little. “Is it too silly? It’s too silly, isn’t it? I was trying to get into the mood, but I must have gotten too carried away. My sister and I never spent time together unless our parents forced us to really so I wasn’t …”
“No, it’s fine,” Eleanor interrupted, stepping into Tahani’s room. “I just, uhh, didn’t have anything like that, so I just brought sweats and an old shirt .. and maybe I should leave and we can do this another time when I have proper clothes or …”
“No!” Tahani reached out and grabbed her wrist. Her fingers were warm on Eleanor’s skin. “Please. I’ve been looking forward to this all day. I don’t mind a bit what you wear, really.”
“Okay.” Eleanor dropped her bag on the floor and looked around. On the king-sized bed in the middle of the room she spotted two giant bowls of popcorn, two even bigger bowls of candy and a collection of nail polish in colors Eleanor didn’t even know they made nail polish in.
“I thought we could watch a movie first?” Tahani said, probably noticing where Eleanor was looking.
“You want to watch a movie?” She tried to remember if Tahani had ever mentioned watching a movie or TV before in the time she had known her — or at least in the time she could remember knowing her.
“I heard that something called ‘Mean Girls’ would be a good experience?” Tahani said.
“Dude, you’ve never seen ‘Mean Girls’?”
Tahani shook her head. This time, Eleanor grabbed her arm and led her to the bed. “This is going to be fun,” she said.
•••
Two hours later, Eleanor and Tahani lay on Tahani’s bed, stretched completely out, their heads touching, their arms folded over their stomachs, groaning almost nonstop.
“How did we eat all that?” Tahani moaned.
Eleanor couldn’t even lift her head to see the empty popcorn bowls taunting them, nor the mountain of candy wrappers strewn across the bed and littering the floor.
“Why did we all that?” Eleanor corrected her, with a moan of her own. She could feel Tahani’s hair tickling her ear but she had no energy to do anything about it. Plus the heat radiating off of Tahani’s body felt kind of nice, making her feel warm and drowsy and comfortable all at the same time.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to move again,” Tahani said.
“Me neither,” Eleanor said. “I’m going to have to stay right here forever.”
“Well,” Tahani said, and was it Eleanor’s imagination or did Tahani move just a touch closer to her. “It’s gotta beat The Bad Place, right?”
Eleanor laughed, but quickly regretted that. She thought about Tahani in her pink bunny pajamas and the way she had laughed at the movie and eaten candy she had never eaten in her life — “Why did no one tell me Snickers were so good?” — and almost smiled.
“Yeah,” she said. “It totally beats The Bad Place.”