“She’s acting,” Ell mouths, turning toward me to shield the words from the woman rushing past us.

I look up from my halfhearted examination of the welcome pamphlet, the words having lost all meaning somewhere between the fifteenth and twentieth readthrough. After over two hours of waiting, these are my options: stare at the pamphlet, stare into space, or stare at the attendees on their way out of the gallery. The ones lucky enough to be free of this interminable line, off into the cool night air with what I can only imagine must be a wholly transformed perspective of the world. This is what I tell myself, because why else wait for hours on end to view an exhibit with just a single item? And for a maximum of ten minutes, at that? Every sniffle, sob and starstruck expression that passes by I file away in my Evidence This Isn’t a Massive Waste of Time folder.

Ell… has a different take.

“Totally faking it,” she continues under her breath as the teary-eyed attendee passes out of earshot.

“You’ve said that about every other person who’s come out of there,” I reply softly.

“Yeah, because they’ve all been crying like they just got pepper sprayed. Which for all we know they might have been! I don’t buy it. Besides, why do you think they bring them back out the same way, parading them past the rest of us like that?”

“Because otherwise they’d be exiting into the alley on the other side of the building?"

“No, dummy, because they know we won’t wait around this long without something to convince us it’s worth it,” she taps a finger to her temple knowingly.

I let out a quiet chuckle and shake my head, wondering if I’m shaking it at her or at the discomforting realization that she was describing my exact thought process.

“But like, it could be my thing,” I say.

She sighs dramatically and pats my arm. “So naïve. You’re going to have to wake up someday.”

I roll my eyes, grinning. “So what are you still doing here, waiting in line with me? Awfully long time to wait for a hoax.”

“Are you kidding? I’m waiting to get my reward.”

“The reward of… a deeply moving art exhibit?” I raise an eyebrow.

“The reward of whatever they’re offering people in there to come out and really sell it to the rest of us chumps,” she responds, rubbing her hands together in mock anticipation.

“Also I drove you here,” she continues, “and as much as it would serve you right for me to abandon you after mocking me so callously, I told Nico and Steph we’d meet up with them after. You’re only in town a couple more days, they’ll kill me if we have to spend the whole time tracking you down at whatever pagan cult these people whisk you off to."

“Hold up, I thought I was getting paid in there. Now I’m getting abducted?”

“They’re getting paid,” Ell nods toward a wide-eyed couple exiting the exhibit, then pokes my chest with her finger, “you’re getting abducted.”

“To a pagan cult."

“Or a sex cult,” she says matter-of-factly.

“Could be both,” I speculate as we shuffle slowly forward in line. Two plus hours of increasingly absurd conversation later, we’re actually quite close to the entrance to the exhibit.

Ell pauses, thoughtful. “Good point. The venn diagram of those is probably more venn than diagram, if you know what I mean.”

“I do, but that could be the fatigue talking.”

Even as I say it, I feel the anticipation beginning to stir again. Somewhere far back in line that spirit of excitement had gone dormant, opting very wisely to sleep through the bulk of the monotony. I envied it, at the beginning. But now we’re mere steps from the entrance, and I’m both relieved and — if I’m honest — mildly irritated to find my enthusiasm returning, well-rested and entirely too forgiving of the wait Ell and I have endured.

A group of four in front of us enters the nondescript door to the exhibit, and we’re greeted at the front of the line by a polite nod from a gallery attendant. I glance over at Ell. Despite her earlier skepticism, I see her eyes are bright with the same eagerness I feel.

I lean in and ask quietly, “What are you going to do with your reward money?”

Ell smiles, eyes locked on the door while she considers. After a moment she sways to the side, bumping me with her shoulder gently. “Buy two more tickets, and get right back in line with you."

She glances over at me for a brief moment, and I can’t help grinning in response. The attendant motions us forward into the exhibit, and I walk toward the door with Ell, both of us on the verge of laughter. Despite all the evidence we’ve seen to the contrary, I’m inexplicably certain we’ll be walking out the same way.