Girls Who Play Guitars

•going home feelings•

"Who knows about my parent's weed?" she repeated. "You do realise growing dope is illegal in this country?"

Meg took one more drag of the cigarette then flicked the butt out the window as she deftly changed lanes in front of an oncoming truck, puckering her mouth closed. From the back seat, Meg's driving wasn't a relaxing experience. Ellie shut her eyes, feeling her heartbeat pound in her temples.

"You're kinda mean sometimes," Meg griped. "Everyone knows your olds' are legends. It's not a secret."

"It is a secret, Meg," Ellie said through clenched teeth. "We are surrounded by paparazzi. All the time! You need to shut your mouth. I don't want my parents to go to jail!"

"Yeah," Kim mumbled from under her beanie, "we should probably shut our mouths and keep everything a secret, huh, Ellie?"

Ellie frowned at the back of Kim's head.

Was Kim really going to do this now?

Kim crossed her arms and stayed quiet while Ellie eyeballed her from the back seat. Scrunching her chip packet up, she threw it on the floor and she sat back, crossing her arms to stare out the front window, her mind in worry mode about Kim's mood.

Of course, Kim was pissed about seeing Ellie in Daniel's dressing room. The least Kim could do would be to ask Ellie about it directly.

Not be snide and rude.

Kim pushed her beanie back off her eyes and turned to her. "Where were you last night, anyway?"

Ellie squinted at Kim as Meg sped up right up to the rear end of a red Ute. "Bloody slow coaches! What is this, pensioner's day out?" Meg yelled at the car in front.

Ellie focused her eyes on the road as Meg overtook the Ute, poking her tongue out at an old couple who frowned back as she roared by in the tiny car.

"I came looking for you." Kim gripped the handle above her door as the car swerved close to the shoulder. "And you weren't in your hotel room."

Meg veered back into her lane. "Maybe you were helping Ash with his vacuum cleaner hose?" She giggled and glanced behind at Ellie causing the car to lurch forward. "Shit. Sorry."

"Please don't mention Ash ever again," Ellie said, gripping the sides of the two front seats as Meg returned her eyes to the road. She had no idea what Kim was implying. Then she remembered the quiet knocking that she'd ignored because she was deep in the middle of writing a song about ... Daniel. And she didn't want to answer the door in case it was Daniel. She never imagined it would be Kim coming to visit her that late at night.

"I - I was in my room the whole night," Ellie said to Kim. "I ... I was writing a song."

Kim turned to her and Ellie noticed how fired up her eyes were, but Kim didn't say anything, just turned around and hunched down in her seat with her arms crossed.

Ellie had to sort this out before it blew up.

"Pull over!" Ellie pushed Meg's shoulder.

"There's nowhere to go!" Meg whined as a panel van filled with surfboards and camping gear sticking out the back window overtook the little car. The surf dudes inside leaned out waving tinnies and stubbies at them.

"Pull over!" Ellie hollered.

"I'm stressing out!" Meg put her foot down; kept pace with the van. "I'm stressing out!"

Ellie pushed her sunglasses onto her head, gave Meg her no-nonsense glare in the rear vision mirror. "Pull. Over. Now," she stated before dropping her sunnies back over her eyes.