PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

After walking down six blocks, the hostess told us our table would be ready in about an hour. Our tiredness seeping out from under our feet, we decided to walk back to our hotel, buy some subpar pizza from an eerily empty neon-lit restaurant, and stop at Jewel-osco, a small supermarket, for some drinks. I was carrying the pizza, so I stayed behind while the security guard checked my bag and watched my friends wander throughout the store.

Ashley and Rachel headed for the vodka, while Kate eyed the wine. Claire and Lauren headed towards the freezer for some cranberry juice, and grabbed some plastic cups for good measure. I bought water and some snacks, as I flew out first thing in the morning. We lined up at the checkout, spread out as we came in, as to not bother the cashiers who were ending their shifts. Kate, unable to stay still, was the first one to notice the giant emoji-shaped balloons. They were $7, and unbearably ugly, and she joked about buying one displaying varying expressions. We laughed it off, and paid for our stuff, heading back to our hotel right across the street. As I tried to avoid thinking about what dawn would bring and what I would leave behind, my friends opted instead to sing the night away, and soon enough the drinks were gone and the music was still blaring.

At some point after midnight, Ashley and Lauren headed back out to Jewel-osco, grabbed a couple more bottles, and lined up in the only open register. The balloons loomed over their heads as they neared, and as they stood in line Lauren turned to Ashley and made a tongue-in-cheek joke.

“You should get that laugh-cry emoji balloon.”

“Oh my god, I totally should.”

Ashley was drunk and quick to forget she would be on a plane by noon, and she would not be able to take the balloon back home. Lauren, buzzed by the drinks but not enough to throw away seven dollars on a balloon, quickly retracted her joke.

“I was kidding!”

“I know, but now I want to.”

“Ashley, don’t waste your money on this.”

“But it’s my money! If I want an emoji balloon, I should be able to buy it!”

Lauren fought Ashley’s drunken determination for about five minutes, while the cashier rung up other midnight wanderers ahead of them.

“I am not letting you leave this Jewel with that balloon.”

The cashier was the same young man that had rung me up earlier, and as he looked over at them squabbling away about the balloon, he seemed to recognize them from the start of his shift.

“...Weren’t you just in here?”.

Ashley, forgetting about the balloon, placed the bottles on the counter and drunkenly grinned at him.

“Yes, and I have my ID.” 

The young man ringed them up, and they left the Jewel and wandered across the street back to us, the balloon still gleaming under the supermarket lights.