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c.c.
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Feb 06, 2015 08:31PM
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Everyday, mundane, normal grocery shopping wasn't exactly Mara's favorite thing, but it was a necessity, and there was something to the repetitiveness that made it almost as good as an intense TV show for taking her mind off of other things. Namely, the fact that her well-meaning but occasionally over-bearing mother had decided to invite some family friends to her London house. Friends that had a 23 year old son. And Daria was set on having Mara fly or drive or even walk back to London should it come to that, in the hopes of her darling daughter seeing the aforementioned son and falling in love.
At least that's how Daria's fantasy seemed to go. Mara, on the other hand, was definitely not ready for the sort of stable relationship her mother wanted. This guy was probably boring and not good looking at all anyways, and wouldn't be worth even a fling. Decidedly not worth any gas money Mara would waste driving to London.
So while her cell phone buzzed incessantly in her back jeans pocket, Mara stalked the aisles of Tesco with what some would call a bitch face and far more force in her gaze than the occasion of grocery shopping called for, intent on finding the most obscure brand of whole grain bread she could, just for kicks. And because it would waste time. Mara was not going to answer again. Diplomacy had not worked last night, when her mum had first called. Neither had it worked this morning. Yelling was the last resort, and she wasn't ready to draw that much attention to herself in the middle of Tesco.
The phone, which had been relatively quiet for the past quarter hour, began buzzing again, and Mara stopped in the middle of the frozen veggies aisle and finally turned off her phone - something she should have done about an hour ago.
(view spoiler)
Life was nice.
Caragh Sung had read only three sentences in the magnificent mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Granted, she had had only five minutes to get past those three sentences. She was also rereading the entire series for about the fourth time. But while Caragh had been sitting on the couch and trying to read, her little sister had been a terrible distraction, loitering nearby and waiting for Caragh to get up and help her with math homework. Also granted, Lily had waited for Caragh for about five minutes, but Caragh hadn’t been reading lately – was her excuse.
However, if nothing else was impressive about Caragh, it was the fact that she was good with numbers. Numbers were how Caragh’s mind worked half the time. That was why Lily had asked her older sister who was lost in college to help out and why her stepfather had told Caragh to go buy groceries. Because he had to watch over Lily. He had to do this. He also had to do that.
She hated that she didn’t let herself outright hate her old man. But he wasn’t the only one at fault for her family situation. Her mother had cheated on Caragh’s father, and although the old man had known that, he hadn’t made a move. If her mother had never tried to make a move, the old man wouldn’t have happened. He would never have met her.
Cocoa Puffs. Lily’s favorite. Also Caragh’s favorite, but Lily always came first.
Then two dozens of eggs. The young college freshman laid those in the red basket gently, as if they’d shatter if she so much swung the basket an inch to either side.
And then...
She saw a girl with long dark hair standing in the middle of the aisle. She looked vaguely familiar, but then again, a lot of people looked familiar to Caragh. Her boots clacked against the floor in a playful staccato, and she stood in front of the carrots, near the girl. Inevitably, her mind wandered to where she’d seen that girl before, just as curious as her finger brushing over the packets of carrots. She wasn’t reading the labels, just thinking.
Mod
(view spoiler)
The screen went black after a few seconds, and it almost seemed as though Mara's entire body relaxed - muscles she hadn't realized had been tensed up eased their hold, air started to return to her brain, clearing her angry thoughts. Raising her head as she slipped the phone back into her pocket, she found herself staring at a row of carrots and leafy greens, with no clear memory of how exactly she had gotten from the front of the store to here. Mara was 90% positive she had been aiming for the breads, and she knew this supermarket well enough to not get lost.
It must have been her angry feet, taking guidance from her irate mind, she thought dispassionately.
She heard boots clicking on the tile floor behind her, and Mara turned to catch sight of a younger woman with soft Asian features staring at her curiously.
Mara might have momentarily abated the onslaught of her mother's wishes and questions and forceful desires, and she was grateful for that reprieve. Now here was another person, invading personal space - of which Mara was suddenly overprotective - with her curious gaze.
She hooked her thumbs into the back of her jeans pockets and cocked her head, matching the other woman's stare eye to eye.
"Yea, do you need something?" The words were sharp, the rougher side of Mara's London accent slicing through the words in her annoyance.
Me? Caragh almost asked out loud, and her fingers twitched as if they were ready to clap over her mouth. Caragh often spoke before she thought, and sometimes she was lucky -- some people saw her as a sweet girl, so they assumed that her blunt observations were out of concern, not just of simple honesty -- and sometimes she wasn't. Considering the other girl would be pissed if she asked such a stupid question, she had reacted defensively. She turned her entire body towards the other girl and declared straightforwardly, "You're very pretty." She nodded to the girl's boots. "And I want your boots." She shook her head as if she were erasing what she wrote. "No--I mean, I like your boots. They're awesome."
Caragh wanted to push away all the negative thoughts that proved the other girl's already obvious wariness of Caragh. Sometimes she hated her empathic abilities. It was as if whoever gave her that ability knew that she was too concerned for other people but also that she didn't care about their negative opinions of her. So, sometimes empathy made her day; other times, it pissed her off.
Caragh was beginning to become a little pissed off in defense. First with the book, then the maths with her sister, and now grocery shopping. She might as well grab a little box of respect around here.
Mod
(view spoiler)
The other girl seemed momentarily startled, then her body language - the angle of her body, the tilt of her jaw - took on a defensive note. Mara was good at reading body language, something about the way people moved and the smallest hints made sense to her. The minor in psychology helped too, no matter how much she actually didn't care about getting any sort of degree in anything. But it was easy, in a subject she was already gifted in - reading people.
And even though humans didn't make sense most of the time, Mara could guess what they were thinking and feeling with scary accuracy. So the defensiveness in the girl's tone when she opened her mouth didn't surprise Mara. But the words did a little bit.
It wasn't that Mara was unused to hearing that people found her pretty. In fact, she was rather sick of it. It seemed that most people saw only that and nothing else 90% of the time. She heard it far too often for it to be much of a compliment anymore, unless it came from a few specific people - the type of people who didn't notice or didn't care about that kind of thing. And from this girl? It gave a reason for that curious gaze Mara had felt, at least in Mara's mind it did.
Glancing down at her black moto boots disjointedly, Mara finally uttered a single word. "Thanks." It was an acquiescence, an almost lowering of her guard. This was turning out to be one hell of a day - first her mum nagging on her incessantly, now this woman complimenting her boots. It was a day that didn't fit together.
And now Mara felt something odd - was it the smallest bit of apology drifting around her mind? "Sorry I was rude," she muttered simply, almost wanting to roll her eyes.
(view spoiler)
“Ah, don’t.” Caragh winced as the irritation and mixed emotions rolled over Caragh in heavy waves. “Don’t apologize, if you don’t mean it.” Caragh being Caragh, she didn’t notice that her words would sound condescending, and she plucked a pack of carrots and tossed it into her cart carelessly. What harm could carrots do? Granted, her brothers wouldn’t really appreciate the carrots, but nonetheless. She needed something for her fingers to do; a piano would be nice, but she wasn’t going to find one at Tesco. She’d sensed from Mara indifference and surprise chasing each other when Caragh had complimented her. Although the indifference didn’t make much sense to Caragh, she knew the surprise would make the other girl leave soon. She wanted to talk, as she always did. She just needed to shut up for a little while; she’d learned over time that shutting up after being weird made people stay a little bit longer.
“Why was your mother nagging you, though?” she asked casually, out of the blue. She never followed other people’s advice. Caragh was likely to make the same mistake not twice but at least ten times. And so, again, again too late, Caragh realized that not everyone had telepathic abilities. “I mean, I could hear you on your phone.” I guess. Technically. I mean, I could hear you talking, Caragh said in her mind defensively, justifying herself against no one.
Mod
(view spoiler)
Mara pressed her lips together in a tight line, eyes studying this unassuming girl carefully, and said nothing in reply. She watched the bag of carrots fall into the cart dispassionately, wanting her feet to move, wanting her legs to carry her away, far away - Mara needed to get lost - but for some reason she went nowhere. She felt glued, heavy.
She had left London for a reason - to escape this feeling.
Mara blew out a sigh. "She wants me to meet some g- What the hell." Mara had started to reply before she had even thought the other girl's question through all the way. How did this girl know, was the real question. Mara, who had finally convinced her foot to lift from the tile floor, stopped mid-motion and turned back to the other girl. Mara's silence stretched out, a long, thin, fragile thing full of suspicion. She was slightly creeped out - how did someone figure that out from one side of a conversation? And besides, this girl must have been following her for a while to have heard anything of import - that was what set Mara on edge.
"You could hear me on my phone? ...And how long have you been eavesdropping then? Do you get your kicks out of it?" Sometimes the best defense was a good offense, and that was exactly the path Mara took now. She crossed her arms, watching her warily. She didn't seem threatening - it seemed more like curiosity - but maybe, for once, Mara's ability to read body language had failed her.
(view spoiler)
A guy. Caragh could hear the remnants of what the other girl had stopped herself from giving away. It wasn’t really a surprise to Caragh, since the older girl was very pretty, much prettier than Caragh was. It didn’t really bother Caragh, but she felt like laughing. How old was the girl that her mother was setting up dates for her? It just didn’t make sense to her. The mother should leave her alone. Caragh took a sharp intake of breath as she noticed how obvious it was that she had greatly discomfited the brunette.
She swallowed before continuing, deliberately slowing down her words, ready to bite on her tongue if she needed to in order to stop herself from saying anything more stupid. No one knows, Caragh thought, becoming more solid, strong, affirmative. No one will know about you. “Yeah, I could hear you.” She scratched the side of her temple, a little timid, looking up at the other girl with her head tilted slightly downwards. When in times of trouble, be a coward. “Your voice was a little loud, and I was passing by you. And no, it was just really obvious that you were arguing with someone, and you said ‘Mom.’ Considering you’re” — pretty old, Caragh almost said — “old enough not to be a dependant, I figured it was the same old parent unit trouble.” She shrugged, getting ready to leave the aisle, but not leaving yet in case it came across as rude. She needed to be careful. If she dashed off like she wanted to, that girl would catch her in seconds; Caragh wasn’t exactly good at running, even if she was a skilled hider.
“No, of course not,” Caragh almost exclaimed, her eyes wide. She was dumbfounded by the older girl. Who could be so stupid? Wait, do I look like that kind of person? “I couldn’t care less about your affairs, especially if it involves guys!”
She realized that she was making this situation very, very awkward for her who was not running and throwing insult after unknowing insult at the simmering girl. She was also making the situation very dangerous.
