SSS(SS) - Part 17

“Oh god,” Sal mutters, joining Athena in front of the backdrop.

“Are we posing? Let’s do this one,” Athena suggests, making a gun with her fingers and pivoting as though to stand back to back with Sal.

“No!” Meri approaches excitedly. “OK. OK,” she says thirstily. “Let me think. Athena in Sal’s lap? No. No. Sal.”

Seconds pass.

“Uh, yeah?” Sal replies.

“Pick her up. Pick her up like a princess,” Meri orders.

“What? No. What do I look like to you? Wonder Woman?”

“Don’t be a pussy! I know you lift weights every day.”

“It’s not every day. And it’s not what you think. I’m not a bodybuilder,” Sal says, appalled.

“Don’t be a little bitch! Pick her up!”

“Why are we shouting?” Athena asks, taken aback.

“Did you give her meth?” Sal mutters to Athena.

“No. Did you?”

“I can hear you! Pick her up!” Meri waves her arms in the air.

“OK. Jesus. Take the picture quick, because this is going to jack up my back,” Sal says tiredly.

“Wait, seriously?” Athena says, looking surprised.

“If this is what it takes to shut her up,” Sal says with a groan.

“Oh. Gosh,” Athena says, standing nervously. “Oh!”

Sal heaves Athena up in her arms like a princess, as ordered. But unlike a knight in shining armor in a movie, she doesn’t appear to be effortlessly carrying Athena. Her arms quiver with the strain, and she’s gritting her teeth.

Athena looks up at her sympathetically.

“Sorry,” she says quietly.

“You’re not the problem here,” Sal bites out, glaring at Ellie. “Get on with it?”

“Um, can you smile?” Ellie asks.

“And straighten up,” Meri adds, hopping up and down gleefully. “You’re so big and strong, Sal! I love you! Now smile!”

Athena awkwardly smiles at the camera.

Sal just tries to hold on. “Meri, if we’re doing superhero shit, you got about five seconds before I turn into the Joker,” she warns.

Athena puts her arms around Sal’s neck and gets cozy.

“Yeah, but think what the committee’s going to think when they see this,” she whispers.

Sal laughs at the thought and Ellie takes the shot.

“Okay,” Sal gasps, letting Athena down. Athena immediately turns.

“Are you OK? Was I heavy?”

“You’re not heavy. I’m just not She-Hulk,” Sal says with a groan, rubbing her lower back. “Fuck!”

“Yeek!” Athena jumps as Meri appears between them.

“Ellie! One more!” Meri has an arm around each of them, sandwiching herself between Athena and Sal like a pro boxer with a couple of hookers. She puts on her biggest smile.

“Um, OK,” Ellie says, going back behind the camera to take another picture.

“Yes,” Meri says, doing a triumphant fist pump as she releases them. Sal shuffles achily over to the camera to check the pictures. The one where she laughed with Athena in her arms is cute. The other one… Meri beams at the camera while Sal and Athena look exasperated.

“Great,” Sal says. Like an old, hunched woman, she drags herself out of the room.