Two Broke Girls

The following chapter is written in 3rd Person POV…

At an abandoned warehouse in the city…

“THAT is what you fought over?” Courtney asks Elaine with incredulity.

“Oh! I’m sorry! I’m sorry my life’s story doesn’t even compare to yours. I should grab a time machine so I can make it more dramatic for you.” Elaine replies back sarcastically.

“Can this thing do that?” Courtney asks, both amazed and afraid at the possibility.

“Do what?” Elaine asks in confusion.

“Time travel.” Courtney answers innocently.

“NO!” Elaine answers back in a shout. “That’s not how the app works!” Elaine tells her.

“How the fuck should I know that!? You fucking already said it’s magic! That’s why I’m asking!” Courtney shouts back, and Elaine can only rub her head in exhaustion.

“You should know that because I already fucking told you!” Elaine shouts back in equal agitation. “Let’s do this one more time then.” Elaine adds in exhausted frustration.

“Yes, it’s a magic app. Yes, it enhances the positive emotions people have for you. And, yes, it can influence how people think or feel, or even change things about them physically. BUT, that’s only when its full potential has been unlocked with the trait shop. The trait shop works on currency you get by reaching score thresholds with different people. The more people a trait has to influence, and the bigger the change you want to turn into reality, the more points you’ll have to spend for the trait.” Elaine explains to Courtney again, but a lot more exasperated this time.

“Tell me, what part of that explanation includes fucking time travel!?” Elaine rhetorically asks, her emotions finally exploding.

“Alright! Geez!” Courtney concedes. “So no time travel then.” Courtney adds, and Elaine just sighs and rubs her forehead again. Her frustration over Courtney’s attitude has obviously taken a lot out of her already.

“Well, since you’re already in an explaining mood — why did you tell me your sob story with your brother again?” Courtney asks, uncaring for Elaine’s frustration.

“Because you asked me why I’m spying on him and his new girlfriends!” Elaine answers in irritation.

“And what about your sob story answers that question?” Courtney continues, and Elaine looks like she almost wants to **** Courtney with her bare hands.

“Look, fine. It’s obvious you want to blame your brother and his ex-wife for what happened with your family, and that’s why you’re tricking yourself into hating him and siding with that human personification of a God complex. But, one — and hear me out here — it never sounded to me like your issues with your family were your brother’s fault. Sounds more like your parents were the ones who fucked up.” Courtney points out, making it clear to Elaine that she just asked the earlier questions to irritate her.

“And two, what part about MY sob story made you think I’d even sympathize with you being neglected by your family, huh?” Courtney asks. “Bitch, I WISH my family neglected me instead of what that bastard chose to do to me.” Courtney adds, and Elaine can only shut her mouth and calm down after being reminded what Courtney went through for the app to consider her to be gifted by it.

“I… I’m sorry.” Elaine apologizes.

“Oh fuck you! I don’t need your pity.” Courtney immediately says in reaction.

“Oh, and here’s a novel thought, don’t keep siding with the guy that’s fucking blackmailing you!” Courtney shouts, matching Elaine’s volume earlier.

“What the fuck should I do then!? I’m being BLACKMAILED! You do fucking know what that means, right?” Elaine shouts back.

“Uh~, yeah!? I’m pretty fucking good at it.” Courtney answers. “And as a fucking expert, **** is a transaction. The only way it works is if the one being blackmailed is dumb enough to think they don’t have a choice but to be a bitch and bend. When the truth is, they can just call the other person’s bluff.” Courtney adds.

“Easy for the one not on the receiving end to say.” Elaine correctly points out.

“Just as easy for the bitch who’s bending to come up with that excuse.” Courtney retorts.

“What he’s blackmailing you with isn’t even that easy to do. So what if he’s threatening your ex-husband’s bullshit legacy? If your ex-husband’s art is really all that fucking amazing as you claim it to be, then no amount of bad publicity can change that.” Courtney argues.

“Face it. You’re letting your years of blaming your brother and your family to cloud your judgment. If you want to hurt him in some way, then don’t be a fucking pussy about it and admit that. Otherwise, call the bluff of that asshole that’s blackmailing you and walk away.” Courtney points out to Elaine.

“I’d have walked away from all this bullshit if I could. But for some fucking reason, the world finds a way to mess with MY life with my brother’s bullshit all over again.” Elaine continues.

“You can only blame your problems on the world for so long, before it all becomes the same old song.” Courtney replies, shocking Elaine and leaving her dumbfounded.

…

“Did… Did you just fucking quote Fall Out Boy on me?” Elaine asks Courtney.

“Is that where that’s from? I know I heard it from somewhere.” Courtney replies, and Elaine can only look at Courtney with even more annoyance that she didn’t think was even possible at that point.

“Oh! And news flash, genius, the guy that’s blackmailing you doesn’t have magic. The guy he’s asking you to spy on does. What about that scenario makes you think you’re going to be on the winning side when it’s all said and done?” Courtney argues.

“The guy that’s blackmailing me has the money, the power, and the influence. With all three, I know for a fact he can find a way to do what the app can do if he uses enough of those three things at his disposal.” Elaine argues back.

“Not gonna argue how infinite money is basically magic, but your brother has all those things too, dummy. Or did you forget that he has that rich uppity girlfriend of his on his side?” Courtney counterpoints. “Oh, AND he~ has the app.” Courtney adds as a kicker, and Elaine can only purse her lips as she doesn’t have a logical argument against Courtney’s line of thought.

“Well thanks for summing up how lose-lose my fucked up situation is.” Elaine replies sarcastically. “Either I switch sides to my brother who definitely fucking hates me based on how he reacted when he saw me, or I stick with a guy who can easily ruin my life even with all these fucking traits if I betray him.” Elaine concludes.

“Tough shit.” Courtney tells Elaine. “I’d still go for the guy that has a track record of being a pussy despite hating you, than the guy who’ll fuck you up just for slighting them once.” Courtney argues, and Elaine has to think about this for a moment.

…

“Why are you suddenly on his side!? You were fucking afraid of him just earlier!” Elaine asks in frustration, feeling like her intended play on Courtney massively backfiring.

“Oh! Excuse me for being afraid of something I didn’t fully understand. That’s so human of me!” Courtney fires back sarcastically, and Elaine’s urge to **** a bitch is reaching its breaking point.

“Blame yourself for how I’m thinking now then. If you didn’t explain shit so well I’d still be the paranoid bitch you met earlier. But I was only afraid of your brother because I didn’t know how he was doing what he was doing, and I was fully ready to go against him because I thought he had my closest friend in a trance to do shit against her will.” Courtney explains.

“But after everything you told me, about how the app works, about how it can’t multiply by zero, or how the app’s traits can only make things easier for other people to accept certain things but not entirely change their opinion of you…” Courtney starts listing off her reasons, to the surprise of Elaine.

“Yeah, bitch. I know how to pay attention. Why are you so fucking surprised?” Courtney calls out Elaine’s reaction.

“Anyway, yeah. All of my fears and worries have been addressed thanks to you.” Courtney continues, and Elaine only groans in frustration upon hearing it.

“Your brother’s not dangerous. He’s not even close to it.” Courtney concludes.

“He has the world at his fingertips with this fucking app and what does he choose to do with it? Get a few hot chicks to genuinely fall in love with him and give them the time of their lives when they fuck? That doesn’t sound bad at all in the grand scheme of things.” Courtney explains.

“And now that I think about it, how could my friend be brainwashed by him with this app and be doing things against her will when he obviously told her that he has it?” Courtney adds in realization. Elaine wants to argue, but she has to admit that Courtney isn’t wrong about that. Vicente told her about the app too, and she never felt **** or tricked into consenting to the stuff they did to make the most of the app.

“But what that asshole partner of yours is planning to do… ruining his daughter’s relationship to punish her? Blackmailing you to be on his side and taking advantage of your anger for your brother? All that for what? Because his daughter has a mind of her own? Bitch, didn’t you even stop to think you’re on the wrong side?” Courtney asks.

Elaine covers her eyes with her hands while she leans her head back from stress. “This is not how I imagined this would go.” Elaine admits in frustration.

“How did you plan this to go, hm?” Courtney asks. “You thought you could convince me to side with you and maybe use my app to your benefit because you gave me a tutorial on how it works?” Courtney shares her assumption.

“Did you really think that would work?” Courtney asks sarcastically, while Elaine remains sulking in her seat.

…

“Oh. You actually did.” Courtney says in surprised realization, unable to hide the hint of sympathy from her eyes. “Always used to having your way, aren’t you?” Courtney asks smugly, trying to mask her sympathy, and Elaine doesn’t respond because she doesn’t want to admit the truth.

“Let me guess, all these traits your ex-husband bought for you made it real easy for you to get your way, huh? You’re not used to it suddenly not working to your advantage.” Courtney surmises, and Elaine slumps her head knowing Courtney’s right. Elaine failed to consider that the magical traits that have been quietly working in the background all these years for her to get her way aren’t going to work on someone with the app.

“Or maybe I thought you were just a dumb blonde I could trick into helping me out of this mess.” Elaine jokes with a conceding chuckle.

“Well, jokes on you. I’m a natural brunette.” Courtney tells her, and Elaine can only chuckle.

“Didn’t even bother disproving the dumb part, I see.” Elaine jokingly points out, and Courtney smirks at Elaine’s stubbornness.

“I’m smart enough to recognize how dumb I am… unlike some people.” Courtney counters, and Elaine just turns away from Courtney now. Exhausted from trying to match wits with her.

“Look, I appreciate you being straight up with me. Ulterior motives aside, that’s more than what even my closest friend decided I deserved. So you’re good in my book.” Courtney assures Elaine, before standing up from where she was sitting.

“But I got enough shit to deal with.” Courtney says with finality.

“You know you can’t just leave, right?” Elaine asks threateningly to Courtney.

“Who’s gonna stop me? You?” Courtney can barely hold in her laugh as she asks it. “You revealed your hand way too quickly. I know those thugs with you earlier haven’t followed us. It’s obvious you saw me as a solution to your problems too, so I’m sure nothing we talked about here would ever get back to him. I know you’re not gonna tell that asshole my secret either, let alone your brother’s, since it’ll reveal yours too.” Courtney easily counters.

“Now for the most obvious part… you and I both know you alone can’t stop me.” Courtney tells her defiantly.

“I might have a trait that makes me a martial artist. You don’t know.” Elaine weakly argues.

“You didn’t listen to a word I said, didn’t you?” Courtney surprisingly asks. “I don’t bend.” Courtney adamantly replies, before turning away from Elaine and walking away.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Elaine asks, making Courtney stop and turn her head to look at her.

“Me? Isn’t it obvious?” Courtney asks.

“I got a party to crash.”