Intensity

by S. Briones Lim

  Chapter 3

  “How much did you pack?” Ruthie huffed as she pushed an oversized cardboard box across her living room floor. Her face broke into a grimace as she thought about all the scratch marks she’d find on her hardwood floor.

  “How long are you staying with me again?” Ruthie teased, placing the box next to her guest room. “I’m not sure my apartment is big enough to hold all your stuff.”

  “Oh please! I only packed the essentials,” Celine answered as she blotted sweat off her forehead. Despite her tiny size, she had somehow managed to lug two seventy pound suitcases up Ruthie’s narrow staircase. “I think I did a great job at packing if you ask me.”

  Ruthie held up a brand new scented candle. “Really? Essentials include 800 candles? Are you getting ready to shoot an 80’s hairband music video or something?”

  “Ha ha, very funny,” Celine snorted. “Can you blame a girl for wanting to smell good?”

  “No, especially when she smells like ass every other day,” Ruthie laughed. She ducked when Celine threw a pillow straight at her face.

  “Excuse me, ladies,” Noah’s voice boomed as he slid passed them. The two jumped out of the way, allowing Noah enough space to walk in. He had two big boxes under his arms, which he carried as if they weighed close to nothing.

  “Is that all the stuff?” Celine asked, whirling around on her heel. She stared at the pile of boxes jammed into Ruthie’s living room. Maybe she did go a little bit overboard.

  “Yeah, I took the other boxes you gave me and placed them in the spare room at the condo. I’ll let you unpack that yourself when you move in,” Noah answered, placing another box gently onto the couch.

  “There’s more?” Ruthie screeched incredulously.

  Noah laughed and playfully squeezed Celine’s arm. Celine, however, didn’t seem as amused. “Hey! I don’t have that much stuff! Like I said, I just have essentials!”

  “Sure, if you think two boxes of books are essential,” Noah snorted.

  “They are!” Celine argued. “Especially since they’re books I wrote.”

  “I’m only teasing, love.” Noah reached out and planted a kiss on Celine’s lips. Her deep frown visibly brightened. He was definitely forgiven after that.

  Ruthie shook her head and began to rub the back of her neck. “Listen, it’s been fun moving your crap in here, but I’m beat. I think I’m going to take a shower and turn in for the night.”

  “Yeah, it’s getting kind of late. I better get going,” Noah replied. He planted another peck on Celine’s lips. “Call me if you need anything.”

  Celine smiled and walked him to the door. “Thanks for your help, husband.”

  “We’re not married yet.” He laughed and pulled her in for another hug before he added, “But I can’t wait to be.”

  ***

  Later that evening, Celine knocked lightly on Ruthie’s bedroom door. “Hello,” she whispered. She carefully nudged Ruthie’s door open and began tip-toeing inside.

  Ruthie rolled her eyes. “Hello! Why are we whispering?”

  “Oh.” Celine straightened herself and began walking normally towards Ruthie’s bed. “I thought you were sleeping.”

  “Is that why you barged in?” Ruthie laughed.

  “I brought treats!” Celine said, defending herself. She held her hands out to reveal two steaming cups of coffee, complete with whipped cream and caramel drizzle.

  Ruthie sat up, exposing her printed pajamas. Raising an eyebrow she asked, “Any reason why you’re bribing me with your special homemade lattes? It’s almost ten! I’m never going to get any sleep tonight.”

  “Decaf lattes,” Celine corrected. She shrugged her shoulders. “Hey, it’s a perk of having an ex-barista as your best friend.” She walked over to Ruthie’s bed and carefully placed the two mugs on her nightstand. She plopped down on the side of the bed and shook her head in disbelief. “Unicorn pajamas? Really?”

  “We’re not all as boring as you!” Ruthie exclaimed, pointing at Celine’s plaid robe. Celine shrugged and pulled a moleskin journal out of her pocket. “What’s that?” Ruthie asked curiously.

  “You don’t recognize it?” Celine asked in surprise.

  “Should I?”

  “It’s our old Plan Book!” Celine gazed at the perplexed look on her friend’s face and shook her head. “Words cannot express how disappointed I am in you right now.”

  Ruthie shrugged her shoulders, still feeling completely lost.

  “You are the worst!” Celine opened the journal to the first page. “This is where we used to scribble all our diabolical plans for meeting Intensity.”

  “Oh!” Ruthie burst into a fit of giggles. “I remember now! Where did you even find that?”

  “Found it when I was packing up my apartment. Must have thrown it in a drawer or something when I moved out of my parents’ house.”

  “Lemme see!” Ruthie reached for the journal, but Celine quickly plucked it away. “Hey! What’s the big idea?”

  “I brought it here for symbolism’s sake. That’s it.”

  “Symbolism?” Ruthie snorted. “You sure there isn’t alcohol in that latte?”

  Celine rolled her eyes. “I’m being serious! All this wedding stuff is really getting to me.”

  “Okay…what does that have to do with the Plan Book?”

  “I guess I’m just really stressed out with being an adult right now, you know? Not that I’m not excited for my wedding and everything…”

  “But?”

  Celine rubbed her eyes. “But it’d be fun to be a kid again. At least for a little bit.” She tapped her finger against the book cover. “I want to be these girls again.”

  “I’m still not following,” Ruthie admitted.

  “What do you say we not only go to the Intensity concert, but try to meet them? For old times’ sake? It’s something we’ve always wanted to do, right? Now’s as good a time as any.” She paused and added, “It also might be our last chance.”

  “I thought that was always the plan,” Ruthie replied seriously.

  Celine grinned. “How could I have ever doubted you?”

  “That’s beyond me!” Ruthie laughed. She rolled onto her stomach and peered at the book, recalling the hours they spent mapping out freeway routes and drawing blue prints of concert venues. All that effort with not one autograph or picture to show for it. “So you said the book was a symbol. What did you mean by that?”

  “What better way to relive our childhood than to actually meet the people that basically made up our childhood? Like really meet them. None of these stupid hare-brained schemes.”

  “I’ll have you know that my ‘hide in the luggage bin of the tour bus’ idea would have been gold!”

  “And we would have probably ended up in prison,” Celine pointed out. She turned around and tossed the book into Ruthie’s wastebasket.

  “Hey!” Ruthie protested.

  Ignoring her, Celine proclaimed, “Given that we’re older now, I say we forget all those ideas and drive down to San Diego.”

  “San Diego?” Ruthie exclaimed. “Why there?”

  “It’s the only venue my literary agent was able to get us tickets and backstage passes to,” Celine admitted excitedly. Her face instantly fell when she saw the look of anger on Ruthie’s face.

  “NO!”

  Ruthie’s sudden outburst caused Celine to jump clear off the bed. Clearing her throat, Celine replied, “I’m sorry?”

  “No!” Ruthie shook her head feverishly. “You just said you wanted to relive our childhood again, right?”

  “Yeah…?”

  “Then I can’t in good conscience meet Intensity by taking the pussy way out.” Ruthie stomped over to her wastebasket and retrieved the tiny book, staring at her friend pointedly.

  “You can’t be serious!” Celine gasped.

  Ruthie pursed her lips and lifted the book in the air, waving it around manically. “We are going to meet him by doing it the way our seventeen year
old selves always tried to!”

  “BY SNEAKING BACKSTAGE?” Images of their old diagrams flashed through Celine’s head. She shook her head quickly. “It’s never going to work! You’re insane!”

  “It will work,” Ruthie replied adamantly.

  “NO WAY!” Celine yelled. “You happen to forget that I’m technically a public figure. I can’t get caught sneaking backstage at a boy band concert. How bad would that look for my career?”

  “You use a pen name,” Ruthie smirked.

  “Regardless, as a grown woman I have to put my foot down and veto this idea. I have gone this long without a criminal record and I’m not about to tarnish that!”

  Ruthie couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, come on! We’re not going to be arrested! The worst that’ll happen is we get caught and kicked out. At least we tried, right?”

  Celine shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you really want to do this. We have perfectly good backstage passes waiting for us. We’re guaranteed a meet and greet with Cash Walker. You really want that to go to waste?”

  Ruthie stopped short. Did she really want them to go to waste? Quickly deciding that it’d be worth it, she ran up and grabbed Celine by the shoulders. “We’re going to do this. It’ll work this time, I promise!”

  Celine sighed in defeat. She knew she’d regret it, but still she relented. “Fine, I’ll call Jayne tomorrow and tell her we don’t want the passes and tickets anymore,” she said begrudgingly.

  “Well, maybe keep the tickets,” Ruthie said sheepishly. “Pretty sure she’ll get us hella closer than nosebleeds.”

  Chapter 4

  Celine placed her foot on top of the bench and began tying her fluorescent colored shoelaces. “I can’t believe you talked me into working out with you. I have a feeling I’m going to regret this.”

  “You’re the one who said she wanted to be right and tight for her wedding. Besides, can’t go meeting Cash Walker looking all busted.”

  “You better hope we meet Cash. I’ll be eternally pissed off at you if we don’t.”

  “We will,” Ruthie replied in confidence. “Just trust me.”

  “Ugh, I hate this!” Celine complained, barely dragging herself from the locker room. “Working out is for suckers.”

  Ruthie tightened her hair tie and smiled. “Well, I love it…At least I usually do.” She scanned the packed building and cringed. “It’s not usually this crowded. I blame the New Years’ Resolutioners. They only show up for like the first two months of the year.”

  “I think that’s why I stick to hot yoga. Only the few, the proud, and the strong seem to show up.”

  “Okay, Bougie.” Ruthie laughed. She placed her hands on Celine’s shoulders and nudged her forward. “Let’s go before the good machines are taken.”

  The two grabbed their towels and walked towards the south end of the building, trying their hardest not to accidentally rub themselves against sweaty meatheads. It was easier said than done, that’s for sure.

  Geez!” Celine exclaimed. “You weren’t kidding. This place looks like Wal-Mart on Black Friday.”

  “Yeah,” Ruthie muttered. “It gets pretty annoying, but at least we’ll have time to catch up while we wait for machines to open up.”

  “Catch up?” Celine laughed. “I see you every day!”

  “Getting sick of me already?” Ruthie teased.

  “Always.”

  “What do you do all day when I’m at work?” Ruthie asked curiously.

  “Wedding stuff, of course.” Celine sighed. “Sometimes I wish Noah and I had just run away and eloped. This whole wedding thing is so stressful! I have about fifty vendors to meet with—”

  “Fifty?” Ruthie asked doubtfully.

  “Okay, like ten,” Celine corrected, shaking her head. “Either way, Las Vegas is looking more and more appealing to me each day.”

  “It’s not too late for that.” Ruthie winked and laughed. “Seriously, I had no idea that it took that much work to plan a wedding.”

  “Yeah, you’d be surprised. Now I understand the term bridezilla a little better.”

  “Well, for what it’s worth, you’re about as far from a bridezilla as you can get,” Ruthie told her. “Just think about it this way, you’re getting married! This coming from someone who was hung up on the same guy all through high school.”

  Brian’s face flashed through Celine’s head and she immediately grimaced. “Ugh, don’t remind me. That crush was just bad news from the start.”

  “Yeah, it was pretty stupid.” Ruthie avoided Celine’s irritated expression and glanced up. Spotting a rare gem in the corner, she quickly broke out into a run.

  “Hey! Where are you going?” Celine yelled after her, struggling to keep up.

  “Better work on that cardio, Celine! We have to get to that machine before someone else takes it!”

  Ruthie was on a mission and reached the empty machine without even breaking a sweat. She grabbed the blue padded handle just as another hand reached up simultaneously. “Excuse me, I got here first,” Ruthie said in a semi-sweet, semi-“I will kill you” voice. She looked up and gaped at the handsome face that stared back at her.

  “No, I think I did,” he replied with a kind smile. He took out his ear buds and laid the cord across his broad shoulders.

  Gosh, even his teeth were attractive, she thought. She quickly shook her head and responded, “If you don’t mind, you can wait in line after my friend here? Like I said, I got here first.”

  The man turned his head and flashed a smile at Celine, who had just caught up with the two. Breathing heavily, she smiled apologetically. “It’s all right. You can take my turn. I’ll just go after you and Ruthie.”

  “Ah, so Ruthie’s her name.” He glanced back at her and winked. “Beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”

  Ruthie ignored him and positioned the bar behind her neck. Without another word, she began doing the quickest squats known to man. Celine’s jaw dropped as she watched her friend complete her ridiculous looking reps.

  “Well, I’m Scott,” he replied, bowing his head slightly. The corner of his mouth crept up into a lopsided grin.

  “I didn’t ask,” Ruthie grunted. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead and into her eye, momentarily blinding her. Not wanting to break form (or give Scott an excuse to grab the bar), she ignored the stinging pain.

  Once again the compassionate one, Celine stuck her hand out. “Nice to meet you, Scott. I’m Celine.”

  “At least one of you is nice,” Scott joked. He watched Ruthie for a little while longer and finally turned away. “I guess I’ll do some free weights. Nice to meet you both.” He waited for Ruthie to reply, but she remained focused on her reps. Silently, he turned on his heel and began to walk away.

  Celine waited until he was out of earshot and hissed at her friend, “What was that about? You were really rude to him!”

  “I wasn’t rude to him! I was…”

  “You were what?”

  “Flirting?”

  Celine threw her head back and burst into laughter. “That was flirting? Seriously?”

  “Not everyone’s an expert in relationships like you,” Ruthie snapped.

  “I never said I was,” Celine replied, crossing her arms. “I just think the best way to flirt is by not acting like a bitch.”

  Ruthie replaced the bar and began stretching her arms. “I was not acting like a bitch!”

  “Um, you totally were,” Celine replied, braving a glance at Scott. He was busy lifting weights and paid the two no mind. “Do you want my advice?”

  “Not really,” Ruthie shot back.

  “Just quit ‘flirting’ with him and go over there and ask him out!”

  “What?” Ruthie gaped. “Are you effing kidding me?” She shifted uncomfortably. “I can’t throw myself at a guy like that.”

  “You won’t be throwing yourself at him.” Celine rolled her eyes. “You’re a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants. Get this
whole flirting thing out of the way, because seriously, you’ll never win him that way.”

  Ruthie huffed and shook her head. “Let’s change the subject. You wanted me to train you for the wedding, so here I am. Get on the machine and do three reps!”

  “Okay, stop yelling at me. Geez, I didn’t know you were that sexually frustrated!” Celine growled.

  ***

  Celine rolled into bed that night sore beyond belief. She grabbed her phone and dialed Noah’s number, wincing as her thigh muscle screamed bloody murder. Hopefully hearing Noah’s voice would help make her feel better.

  “Hey, honey,” he answered the phone in one ring. “What have you been up to?”

  “Getting beaten to death by Ruthie,” she muttered.

  “Sounds kinky!”

  “Trust me it was more torturous than anything.” She laughed.

  “I’m intrigued.” With a chuckle he asked, “How’s it going living with her?”

  Celine paused and answered thoughtfully, “It’s been good. As much as I miss you, this is really good. I love it here.”

  “Uh oh,” Noah teased. “Having second thoughts about moving in with me?”

  “No. Of course not,” Celine assured him. “It’s just that your place is a good thirty minutes away, not counting traffic. As much as I keep telling Ruthie nothing will change after the wedding, I’m afraid it might.”

  “What’s going to change? Your friendship?”

  Celine shifted uncomfortably. “Well…Yeah.”

  Noah chuckled softly. “I can almost guarantee that nothing is ever going to get between you two. Hell, I feel like I’m the one third wheeling sometimes.”

  Celine giggled. “Shut up.”

  “No, seriously! Listen, you tell your best friend that I won’t let anything happen to you two, okay?”

  “Okay.” She smiled, leaning back against her pastel blue pillows. She sighed and shut her eyes. “I hope you’re right.”

  Chapter 5

  “Tired?” Celine asked. She lifted her bronze leg so her foot sat against the glove compartment. Taking out a tube of Cherry Blossom scented lotion, she squeezed some out and began rubbing it into her skin. Ruthie groaned and reached over, knocking Celine’s foot off the panel. “Hey!” Celine yelped.