Becky has a run in with her ex-girlfriend, Mattel Masters, while clothes shopping. Words are exchanged; though perhaps not the kind of words Becky was expecting…. 1,105 words.

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content warning:
mentions of racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and abuse

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Becky had told her friends to go ahead to lunch without her.

She’d given them Don so that he could have a break; as he’d been extra alert to her, since that extra-bad nightmare she’d had in school. And he needed some time off, even if it was just to sit with her friends in the food court and eat a chicken schnitzel (which, Becky had discovered, he was partial to actually chewing).

Becky had wanted to keep looking at the clothes, but she hadn’t thought it was the most productive store for the others to be in. Malinka was the only one with the right build for the outfits they stocked and, as far as Becky knew, she was not too interested in pre-shredded booty shorts and dresses cut so low they might as well have been skirts.

Well, maybe Portia could fit in some of the clothes? But most were made with taller girls in mind and would probably look weird on her.

Becky sniffed and picked out a pair of jeans.

She wasn’t getting much, today. Just a couple of shirts and a pair of pants to wear as the weather warmed up.

She was still examining the tag as she walked up to join the line— And misjudged the distance between her and the person in front of her.

She bumped into them, and let our a surprised squeak.

‘Oh my god, sorry! I’m like, so distracted and— Oh,’ Becky’s voice fell as she realised who it was that she’d walked into. ‘Uh… hey, Mattel….’

Mattel half-turned to glare at Becky, before snorting and turning away again. ‘Still haven’t learnt to watch where you’re going, huh?’

‘I guess not,’ Becky mumbled back, glancing back in hopes someone else had lined up, so she could scoot behind them and use them as a buffer between herself and her ex… but it looked like they, and the two women in front of them, were the last people in the store.

Just… don’t look at her, Becky told herself. Keep your eyes on the ground. Look at the ground. Look at the….

Becky’s gaze trailed up, and at the same time Mattel’s head turned slightly, and they met eyes before hurriedly looking away again.

The two stood in a very, very awkward silence. Both shuffling and casting each other stray glances as the woman being server at the register complained about a mistagged price.

Please, for the love of god, hurry up, Becky willed. Hurry up. Stop complaining and just pay the fucking twenty dollars….

For a moment, Becky considered just putting down the clothes she was holding and leaving the store entirely. But, then, she thought that walking out would be even more awkward than waiting; it was an active sort of awkward, which was a billion times worse than a passive awkward—

‘Why did you save me?’

‘What?’ Becky asked, taken aback by her ex’s sudden question.

‘With Helena and her crows,’ Mattel clarified, whirling around to face Becky. ‘Why did you save me? I heard you talking about how much you hated me literally like, two days before that happened. So why did you risk your life for me?’

‘I dunno,’ Becky answered, honestly. ‘Malinka told me to get everyone inside. And I was too freaked out by everything going on to remember to hate you, at the time. I just reacted.’

‘Hmp,’ Mattel’s nose twitched into a half-scowl. ‘Do you still hate me, now?’

‘Do you still hate reborns and trans people?’ Becky asked, returning Mattel’s sharp look.

For a moment, Mattel was quiet. Then she slowly turned around as the person in front of her finished at the register. ‘Well. It was fun while it lasted, I suppose,’ she said with a haughty sniff. ‘Good luck with your… breakdown or whatever it is.’

‘Thanks,’ Becky scoffed after her bitterly. ‘And good luck being a reflection of your mother.’

It hit a nerve. Becky could tell.

Mattel slammed the dress onto the counter, her ears folding down in disgust as she eyed her ex.

‘Don’t compare me to her,’ she hissed.

‘Don’t make it so easy,’ Becky retorted.

Again, Mattel was quiet. She paid for her dress in silence, not even thanking the clerk before turning back to Becky and glaring at her with a vicious scowl that dug into Becky like sharp needles into her arm.

But under the horrible look, Becky saw something else….

Hurt.

She’d hurt Mattel’s feelings.

‘Mattel—’ Becky cut off with a sigh. ‘Listen. You can still change, you know. You can still be a better person.’

‘A better person?’ Mattel scoffed. ‘Who are you to judge how good a person I am?’

‘I’m your victim,’ Becky grumbled back. ‘One of the people who your actions directly affected. I think that gives me a pretty good standing to judge you.’

Another long silence yawned between the two woman, before Mattel straightened her back and tightened her glare.

‘You know, Becky,’ she said, half-growling, half-sighing. ‘I wasn’t lying when I said I loved you. I really thought we might have had a future together. I risked everything, just for the chance to be with you. I lost my mother. Maybe not in the same way you did— But I did. And it really hurts that you just threw me away like I meant nothing.’

Becky tensed her jaw, running her tongue along the back of her teeth as she stayed silent.

Mattel had never meant nothing to her.

She’d meant everything to her, once….

‘I guess we were just too different,’ Mattel shrugged. Then, to Becky’s surprise, her eyes softened— As did her voice. ‘I hope you feel better, soon, Becky. There are a lot of people that I’d like to see miserable; but you’re not one of them.’

Then, before Becky could even think to respond, Mattel turned and made for the door; vanishing into the main store without as much as a glance behind her.

Becky swallowed down the lump in her throat as she watched her ex walk away. Then, after a moment of hesitation, she made for the counter.

She paid for her clothes with trembling hands and mumbled a robotic thanks to the clerk before she found herself standing outside the store, still so stunned that she couldn’t remember which way Adam had said the food court was….

So, not knowing what else to do, she slowly lowered herself to the floor and pulled out her phone to text the group chat:

im sittin on the grund plase cum and get me bery stress stressed out thankies babes HELP thanks u

-End-

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