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“Hey, Hurricane!”
If the bright pink mohawk hadn’t been enough of an attention gatherer, the loud booming of Julia’s – or, Jules, as her friends called her - voice carried through the bustling market, attracting the stares of passersby.
“Don’t you also live in Hurricane, Jules?” Hurricane, or Joan as she was most well-known, said.
“Didn’t I tell ya? Me and Suze moved up to Lorain after we got hitched”.
Susan ‘Suze’ had been stood nearby – though was now caught in a headlock by Julia-, and if it wasn’t for their bright white makeup, sharp eyeliner and giant, teased hair, they might have gotten lost in the crowd.
“You guys got married?” Joan covered her chest with her hand and gave a dramatic gasp, revelling in the fact that she was now owed twenty dollars, not that the couple needed to know that. “I can’t believe you moved on so soon.” Joan wiped a single fake tear from her eye.
Joan and Jules had dated once, about five years prior. The two had met at a protest about some government official bulldozing a park, realised they went to the same high school, dated for a month and broke it off on mutual terms. The two had gotten matching haircuts during that time, Jules copying the mohawk that Joan had had for at least two years at that point. Joan had changed her hairstyle since then, and Jules had dyed hers pink.
Joan’s response elicited a snort from Suze and a loud laugh from Jules.
“How’d I’d not know you guys got married?” The trio moved through the various market stalls, Joan in search of some accessories for both her and her motorcycle all while hoping the small amount of hurt she felt hadn’t seeped through into her voice.
“It was a shotgun wedding”.
Joan raised an eyebrow, “A shotgun wedding?”
“That means we got married because one of us was pregnant, Jules”.
And just like that, Suze’s quiet spell had broken, and they would soon be nothing but a bunch of rambles.
“That’s what that means?!”
Suze laughed, before addressing Joan, “What Jules means to say is that we eloped last autumn. We would’ve told you, but you never picked up your phone, and when you did, it was at night when we were getting ready for bed and by that time we would forget to tell you.”
Joan took a second to search through the various pins on display, “I work night shifts.”
“Oh!” Jules lightly nudged Suze in their side, “What’d I say? Joan’s always been such a night owl.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured that one out myself that time you two woke me up at three in the morning on a school night to go to some dive bar because some band was playing”.
“Some band?!” Both Jules and Joan violently recoiled, speaking in sync, “Chemical Indulgence wasn’t some band!”
“Chemical Indulgence is the reason I’m as cool as I am today.”
“I’ve seen the band members of Chemical Indulgence, and you’re both cooler than the four of them combined.”
Jules turned to Joan, “See? That’s the reason I married them, so charming”.
“Well, better to be married for my charm than my large amounts of money” Suze flashed their fourth-hand, lace coat while rolling their eyes.
“Don’t act like you didn’t marry me for my killer good looks,” Jules planted a kiss on Suze’s forehead, leaving a red lipstick stain on their forehead, and simultaneously bringing up Suze’s white foundation onto her lips.
“Blech,” Suze swatted away Jules, before leaving a matching black lipstick stain of their own on Jules’s cheek.
The couple turned back to Joan, “Sooo, night shifts? Where do you work?”
“I’ve been working at this pizza place since June, Freddy Fazbear’s”
“I thought that place shut down in ’83?”
“That was Fredbear’s, then they reopened, shut down again and made up this new place I’m working at now.” Joan rolled her eyes, “Five kids go missing and all they care about is reopening, the company’s a bunch of money-hungry pigs.”
“What else is new?” Suze scoffed, taking her new earrings away from the counter and looking at the vendor, “Thank you, Rose.”
“See ya’ sundee, Suze.”
“My boss is a sweetheart though, really, and the pay is decent enough”.
“Well that’s good, then”
“I think we went to Fredbears a couple of years back for a date, they had the freakiest animatronics there”. Jules looked down at Suze, “You remember, right? Those giant golden, what, crocodiles?”
“It was a bear and a rabbit,”
“A creepy bear and rabbit”
“There’s a couple of the animatronics from the last location in the storage room, and I honestly believe they’re haunted”.
“You don’t believe in ghosts”.
“That’s how haunted they look”.
“If I was a ghost, I’d rather die again than haunt one of those creepy bears”.
“The ghosts probably didn’t get a choice, it was probably like a, uh-“
Joan gestured vaguely, and Jules went to finish the sentence.
“Probably a bunch of corporate guys who died mysteriously and were forced by some higher being to atone for their sins against humanity by haunting some creepy robots for the rest of their undead lives.”
A stirring thought passed through Joan’s mind as she subconsciously made the connection between the five missing kids and the five animatronics.
“..Yeah, probably”
Joan focused her attention on the various band posters pinned up on the current market stall, ghost don’t exist, it’s just a coincidence.
“All right, Joan?”
“..Just thinking.”
Suze frowned, “If you’re sure.”
It’s just some weird coincidence.
“I’m sure, Suze, really.” Joan laughed, though mostly to ease the tension, “Just thinking about this thing that happened at work”
“Tell us! Tell us!” Jules spoke in an exaggerated, high-pitched voice.
“Oh, God. Where do I start?” Joan groaned, though happy that what was originally an excuse for her odd behaviour quickly became an excuse to complain about Dave to someone other than her mothers, “so there’s this guy, Dave, and I don’t want to sound too mean, but he’s a total weirdo-“
By late afternoon, the trio had managed to get about two bags full of knick-knacks and different clothes each, eat lunch and dinner before walking back to the carpark located nearby.
“We haven’t hung out in ages, it was nice to see you both again” Joan started putting some of her newly bought stickers onto her motorcycle helmet while turning on said motorcycle’s engine. "we should hang out again sometime soon"
“Hey, when we get enough money, we’ll make sure to invite you to our wedding.” Jules hit Joan playfully on the arm, “We’ll schedule it at night, of course, get a couple of rock bands.”
“We are not having a rock band at our wedding.”
“So it being at night is all right?”
“Yeah, a midnight wedding is probably the gothest thing I could do in my lifetime.”
“You heard them, midnight wedding for your night owl schedule, no excuses to miss out Hurricane!”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”