“Hey, big sister.”
“Hey, yourself.” Sam pulled away so that Nicole could hug her, which she did with the pinched look of someone struggling to contain their criticism.
“How are you boatholes doing?” Tabby said.
Nicole’s mouth twitched. “Good. Did you get my email about your 2017 tax return? Because—”
“All in good time. Check this out.”
She turned and despite all the shit she was carrying, managed to pull down the back of her dress and expose a huge peacock back tattoo.
“Wow,” Sam said, while Nicole gripped her face like a banshee. “How long did that take?”
“Six sessions! The chick that did it, wait, Sammy, do you know Lisa Loir?”
“Yeah! Holy shit, she had six sessions free?”
“Nope, she owed me for a tattoo I gave her of the Eiffel tower getting sat on by Moby Dick so she squeezed me in. I haven’t posted anything about it yet. That’s my gift to you. I’m gonna show it off on Insta and Snapchat tonight. Let people know I’m back in Melbourne and ready to take work. Good advertising.”
Sam doubted that, but she wasn’t in a position to turn down any advertising. “Sure. So you’re coming into the studio?”
“Of course I am! I want to save SDI. I want to help you earn all the money and rise above the plebs to live like the lizard illuminati we’ve long aspired to be.”
Sam nudged her to shut up before Nicole figured out the illuminati thing was about Aaron. Tabby hated him even more than Sam did.
“There’s a name for people like you,” she’d told him two Christmases ago. “It’s ‘shit-cunt.’ You’re a shit-cunt, Aaron.”
She’d been fairly drunk, but Aaron still hadn’t appreciated the sentiment.
Thankfully Nicole didn’t appear to have noticed the lizard thing, she smoothed a chuck of blue hair out of Tabby’s eyes. “Are you hungry? Do you want to get something to eat?”
“Ooh yeah, I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
Sam shot Nicole a ‘don’t ask’ look. “There’s a pub next to McDonald’s that’s pretty good.”
Tabby stiffened as though she’d just been informed of a runaway leopard. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather get out of the airport.”
Nicole narrowed her eyes. “Why?”
“I’ve got some, uh, stuff, packed in with my granola.”
Sam flicked Tabby’s ear. “Let me guess, Wonder Woman; it’s not granola?”
“You can put itingranola.”
Nicole’s cheeks turned bright red. “Are you serious? You flew on a plane withdrugs?”
“Shut the fuck up!” Tabby gripped her shirt collar, looking as though she expected a SWAT team to come bursting through the roof at any moment. “Are you seriously trying to get me pinged at the airport, Nicole? Is that what you want? To get your own sister pinged at the airport?”
“Of course I don’t want to get you pinged at the airport,” Nicole hissed. “But why you would even put yourself in that position—”
“Like you’ve never done drugs,” Tabby interrupted. “In case you’ve forgotten, I was there at Big Day Out 2012 when you were gakked off your head on—”
Nicole put a hand over her mouth.
“Oppression!” Tabby said, backing away. “Oppression and censorship!”
“Shut up!”