If you had entered the 7-eleven at 6:35 pm, not the new one with the fluorescent lighting, and cans of Pringles lined up in rainbow order. The beat up one on the edge of town, that the kids in town would dare each other a dime to go in and steal a Slim Jim from, you would have seen a very ordinary brown haired girl filling up the Slushie machine.

Mila sighed. She flicked her brown hair out of her eyes as she finished loading the cherry syrup into the machine. She took an electric blue cup and pushed it against the dispenser. Pillowy looking red slush fled out in piles into the cup. She dipped her finger in, then licked it, long and slow. She gasped. She had forgotten how tasty they were. Say what you would about this old 7-eleven, but it knew how to do slushies. She kept sipping as she made her way to the back of the cash register. Her shift was over at 7. But she could just leave. No one would care if the store had just closed 2 hours early. No, she decided, she would stay here and finish her shift. After all, she didn’t have anything better to do. And she could finish her slushie. She hadn’t had a slushie a long while, which was weird, considering her working at 7-eleven for every day the past two years and her love for slushies. She had thought about it but had never really seen it through. She remembered the first time she had tried one.

It was the town carnival, and it was big that year. They had games and rides, and a huge Ferris wheel that glowed up at night, all red and green and purple. After they had been on it, around twice, she went with Jackie to the snack stand. Jackie ordered a cherry slushie for them. She stuck the straw in and handed it to her.

“You ever had one before Milly?”

“No.” “It’ll change your life, honey.” Jackie slid the straw between her two red lipstick painted lips. As she sipped, her eyebrows raised into arches and her lips parted. She looked so...cool. As Jackie handed the cup to her, she grinned. Her lipstick was smudged. Mila smiled to herself. She was gonna be cool now.She sucked the cool, icy flush of sugar from the straw. She relished the sweetness of the cherry syrup as it dribbled down her throat. It was...marvelous.

“So whaddya think, Mila?” Jackie said, her green eyes sparking as they reflected.

“So good, Let’s get another, Jackie. No… Let’s get ten! Come on, Jackie, would you please please please?” Mila asked, a pleading look in her eyes. Jackie laughed, a fluttering laugh that made you want to stop and appreciate it, that something so beautiful had ever existed. “Alright Milly, we’ll get one for Mom. Now, don’t look so happy with yourself.You’re not getting another.”Of course, Jackie did get her another one. She was cool like that.

Mila sighed to herself. That was then, and this is now. This was the must old gas station, not the carnival 7 years ago. She wondered what Jackie would have thought if she could see her now. She would probably be lost for words. After all, Jackie was the cooler sister. She was wild, uncontrolled, unruly. She was so attractive, with her spider black hair and her eyes so green, the color of fresh picked daisy stems. Whenever she talked to you, she was so compelling you felt like listening to her forever. Everyone wanted her at their parties, cause she was always the best dancer and the hardest partier. Her eyes always sparkled when her eyelashes fluttered. Mila was the quieter sister. She was pretty ordinary looking, with brown hair to match her brown eyes. She was a bad dancer.  Her eyes had no sparkle, or even shine.

Mila recalled the last time she saw Jackie. They were in their shared room, listening to some old record Jackie had found at a yard sale.  Mila was reading a travel magazine she had stolen from the hairdresser mom worked at part-time, as Jackie put plastic curlers in her hair.

“Stop moving, Milly! Don’t you want your hair all pretty?” she said as she popped a bubble with her gum. It was pink, the only kind she would chew.

“Have you ever thought about San Francisco, Jackie?” Mila said, showing her the magazine.

“San Francisco, what? You mean like the place?” Jackie shrugged. “We can’t afford it.”

“I know that. I mean in the future, maybe. Think about it. We save up all our change, take a few odd jobs, in a couple of years we’ll be all set. A new life, you know.”Mila said, optimistic. She thought to herself, “It could happen. It could really happen.”

“You know that can’t happen for people like us.” Jackie sighed, sliding a curler in Mila’s brown hair.“What does that mean, Jackie? Why do you always say that?” Mila asked. “Mila, think about it. If it was that easy, everyone would get out of this hopeless town and move to San Francisco. We don’t stand a chance in San Francisco. We don’t stand a chance anywhere but here. ” “Don’t say that, Jackie. Look at you. You are so beautiful and amazing and everything, why are you wasting yourself in a place like this? Let's leave this wasteland and its nothingness.”“We don’t have a quarter to our name, Milly. We don’t have anything.”

“We don’t need anything, Jackie. Don’t you see? We need this. You need this. We got each other. What else do we need? We’ll always have each other. We don’t need anything else. Let’s do it. Please oh please lets do it.” Mila turned her head towards Jackie. A dream could be more that a dream. Jackie sighed. “San Francisco isn’t real, Milly. Not for me.” Mila swore she could see Jackie's eyes water a little. Jackie stood up and pulled out her old gray fleece jacket. She had bought it with the money she made cleaning up hair at the stylists. She swore she would give it to Mila one day. “Hey I’m going to the grocery store, to pick up some milk. You want anything?”

“No thanks.”

Jackie knelt down on the floor with Mila. Lightly, She touched Mila’s face, dragging her finger softly along her cheekbones. “You’re wrong, you know.” “What?” “When you asked why I’m wasting myself here. I’m not, Milly. You are. I’m already done and wasted away. You are young, you still have dreams, and aspirations. I am going nowhere and getting nowhere, unfortunately.”  Mila stared. This wasn’t Jackie. Not her Jackie. Her Jackie snuck into movie theaters with her when they couldn’t afford a ticket. Her Jackie went diving into the quarries, late at night without a care in the world. Why was she so...Easy? “What are you saying, Jackie?” Mila asked. Jackie stared at her, her pale green eyes, so intense, fixated. Then, She shook her head.

“Nothing, Mila. I’m going to the store now. I’ll see you.”

She was lying. She wasn’t even on her way to the grocery store. She would never go to San Francisco. Jackie drove Mom’s old, beaten up car, into a lake, just 3 miles away. They found her there, frozen and pale. It was no accident. Mila would never get to have her grey coat.

And so, Just as intense as she had been alive, Jackie died intensely, too.

Mila sighed. It had been 4 years ago, she was 12 then and Jackie was 16. She was sixteen now. She didn’t think of her at all, really. Only in passing moments. Whenever she had a slushie, her mind went back to that night at the fair. Then she would remember how she felt around her, her daisy stem eyes, the way she smelled like summer, how she would smirk every time she called Mila Milly, because Mila hated that. She prayed she would never forget.

“Excuse me, lady.” A tall, lanky, guy stared down at her. “Will you ring these up?”

Mila nodded. The guy had lots of things. Crackers, cookies, soda, milk, batteries. Half the store, basically. Weird, since no one ever came here. When she finished ringing up the items, the guy looked up at her with a nervous look. “Hey look lady, I don't got any money. I’m really sorry, here. I got this train ticket, it’s really weird I know. I was supposed to go to San Francisco, but my boss made me stay here. You could sell it online?”

Mila raised her eyebrows. “I’ll take it. Thank you.”

If you had entered the 7-eleven at 7:02 pm, not the new one with the fluorescent lighting, and cans of Pringles lined up in rainbow order, the beat up one on the edge of town, that the kids in town would dare each other a dime to go in and steal a slim jim from, you would have seen a very ordinary brown haired girl filling up an electric blue slushie cup, for her train trip to San Francisco.