Peppermint Tea

"Chloe, you need to understand this critical factor," Milka said, taking her friend's hands. "Bobby is a Grade A dumbass in the emotional department."

She frowned at Milka's insinuation. "He is not," she insisted, a slight edge to her voice. She crossed her ankles and twiddled her thumbs in her lap. "I wasn't clear with him. I can easily see how my intentions were misconstrued."

"Oh, my fucking God," Milka groaned and dragged her hands down her cheeks. She leaned over and snatched Chloe's shoulders. "If you weren't my favorite hoe, then I'd beat you to death."

"As always, I appreciate your consideration."

"You're welcome."

In the kitchen of Milka's apartment was Elton brewing three cups of peppermint tea. He telekinetically bobbed the tea bags in each cup of boiling water, the clear color turning a nice shade of green. He listened to their conversation turn for the worst. What had once been a chat about workplace mishaps turned into Chloe's relationship debacle with Bobby, who seemed none the wiser that she harbored feelings for him. The idea that anyone could find Bobby appealing made him want to gag, but he decided to keep his opinion to himself and simply enjoyed the steam wafting from the cups.

"Chloe, Chloe, Chloe." Milka punctuated her name with three shakes of her head. "Tell me again what you did today."

She huffed out a sigh. "Do I have to? It seems counterproductive." Her frown deepened. "Actually, it is counterproductive to retell a story I said not less than five minutes ago."

"But I need the play-by-play to tell you where you went wrong," Milka retorted, her smirk inching into her cheek.

Chloe sighed and focused on the rather sparse interior of Milka's flat. On the rather basic couch colored in a muddy hue, she spotted stray magazine articles with information pertaining to the people Milka spied upon for the Psychonauts. She would have preferred reading them than retelling the embarrassing fiasco that was the defining moment of her day, but Milka began clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth like a ticking grandfather clock.

"Fine. Just enough with the noise," Chloe grumbled, Milka stopping at once.

She glanced at the plain white walls, her eyes falling on the pink yoga mat tucked away in the corner of the room. Focusing on it, she noted the few umbrellas stuffed inside the velcro straps. It seemed odd to place umbrellas inside a rolled up yoga mat. Milka had a method to madness, which Chloe would not criticize when Milka urged her to speak again.

"If you talk, I'll stop reading your mind, and I'll tell you why I keep my umbrellas in there," Milka promised.

"Yes, yes," Chloe said, peering over at Elton from her spot in a rather large leather chair. She felt herself sinking into it and quickly adjusted herself. He seemed to take his sweet time making their tea. Any hope of a distraction from him was quickly dashed when he announced he was going to make more tea in case anyone wanted seconds.

"Well, as you know from our discussion that occurred exactly five minutes ago," she said, glaring at her wristwatch, "I located Bobby around noon. I had hoped to see him earlier in the morning, but he was suffering from jet lag. He was returning from a late night mission in a timezone several thousand miles away, after all. He was leaving headquarters to recuperate his mental strength at home, and I couldn't go with him because I had my own tasks to accomplish."

Milka's cheeks dimpled as her smile tightened. "And?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Your enjoyment of my humiliation speaks volumes of your character."

Milka shrugged. "I can admit to being a mean hoe at times. I mean-" She snorted. "-you have to admit this is funny."

Chloe sighed, rubbing her temples. "'Funny' is not the word I would use."

"Maybe not to you," Elton replied, approaching them with a plastic, circular platter, their teas on top it, "but it kind of is to us outsiders."

"Thanks, babe," Milka said, winking at him as Chloe drummed her fingers on her thigh. She cupped two teas for herself,and Elton offered them to Chloe.

"Careful, it's spicy," he warned, grinning.

Chloe's lips met the rim of the cup as he spoke. Her eyes widened at him, but she decided against imploring how her tea could possibly be spicy. The taste of peppermint soothed her, and she finished her first cup in seconds. Sighing, she gently wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looped her other fingers around the handle of the second cup.

"To make a long story short," Chloe said as Milka grinned at her, "I misspoke."

"And you said…?" Milka gestured for her to continue.

Chloe leered at her, tightening her grip on the handle. "I told him to take care of himself, which was not the worst thing and was very much meant to imply what it implied." She sucked in a breath through her teeth. "To finish my rambling concern about his health, I concluded with the statement 'I like you.'"

Chloe immediately took a long sip of her tea to avoid looking at her friends. Milka whispered to her boyfriend, and Elton hummed, his face growing long in somber shock. When she pulled the cup away, she resisted the urge to toss it at Milka's head when the other woman placed her face in her hands, softly laughing to herself.

"Chloe, you are so cute. You can make programs that program rocket launches or programs to program those programs, but when it comes to telling that big, repressed lug about how you feel, you do it in the most roundabout way humanly possible," Milka remarked, and Chloe childishly stuck her tongue out, her cheeks burning. "There you go being cute again."

Elton gasped, his eyes lighting up. "Oh! Maybe that's part of your alien heritage? You know, messing up on earthling stuff? I still have trouble with that, and I'm a full-blooded human," he suggested, but Chloe shook her head at them.

"Trust me when I say that I no longer entertain those...notions," Chloe said, pushing away several years of misconceptions before they could breach her thoughts.

Elton nodded. He set the platter on the glass coffee table in front of them. He wrapped his arm behind the couch, and Milka nestled into him, a cup of tea snug in his grasp. "Well, uh, what happened next? Um, sorry, I know this part is, well, kind of hard for you, but I forgot what happened while I was making the drinks."

"No harm done, Elton," Chloe said, waving her hand. "Anyway, Bobby…" She trailed off and tapped her finger around the mug.

To say he had looked shocked was an understatement. His eyes had bulged, and his mouth had fallen open for her to see all of his teeth. The color from his face had drained like water down a gutter. He had seemed to snap out of his exhausted stupor, mouthing something she could not understand, when he suddenly laughed and itched his neck.

"He said, 'Yeah, I like you, too. You know you mean a lot to me 'cause you're my…'" She grit her teeth. "...'best friend and partner.'" She sunk into her seat so far down that her chin touched her chest. Levitating the teacup above her head, she telekinetically snatched one of the couch pillows and smothered herself with it, breathing in the residue of stale coffee stains.

Elton and Milka exchanged a look. They watched Chloe kick her legs out and growl to herself. She shook her head from side to side, her humiliation so palpable that it made the peppermint tea taste sour.

"The rare Chloe Barge tantrum. Seen only once every decade," Milka murmured. "What a sight to behold."

"Man, Bobby sucks," he said, taking a sip of tea and wincing. It was too spicy for his liking, and he set his cup on the armrest.

Chloe slipped the pillow off, saying, "He does not suck."

"Your defense of his moronic nature is understandable but unnecessary, and you know why," Milka refuted. She finished her tea, sighed, and stood up. "That's it. I'll talk to him."

Before Chloe could process Milka's declaration, Milka teleported. She stared at the smooth wooden floor where she once stood. As Elton tried drinking his tea and grimacing when it did not meet his expectations, her mouth fell open and her brows knit together. She threw her hand out, gawking, and Elton shrugged.

"She kind of does her own thing," he said, smiling. "Awesome, right?"

"Awesome to do things without asking for my permission," she bemoaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Yeah, that's another one of her great quirks."

Discussing any of Milka's impulsivities with Elton was like talking with a brick wall. She drowned herself in tea and closed her eyes, already feeling an incoming headache.

"O-oh! Back so soon?" Elton exclaimed, the sizzle of psychic energy crackling in the room.

Chloe peeled apart her eyelids and narrowed her gaze on Milka, who returned to where she stood. Milka evenly met her stare, fists clenched, lips a thin line. They remained quiet, Elton filling the silence by eagerly asking what happened.

"He's just as much of a dumbass as I thought," Milka said, reaching over and placing a comforting hand on Chloe's shoulder.

"What exactly did you say?" Chloe inquired.

"Through his screaming at my sudden intrusion, I asked him, 'Are you aware that Chloe loves you?' And he stared at me and said, 'In a best friend way, yeah.' Milka rolled her shoulders back. "So, I threw my tea at him and said hi to his cat while he screamed some more. Then, I left."

"Oh, uh, he probably deserved it," Elton mumbled as Chloe put her face in her hands, her scream muffled.

Milka affirmed his point with a solitary nod. She brought Chloe into a hug, sighing and rubbing her back. Elton walked over and offered his embrace, which Milka gladly accepted.

Feeling cocooned between two of her closest friends, Chloe raked her fingers through her buzzcut and wished she simply kept her mouth shut, her face hotter than the simmering peppermint tea.