Reflections of the Past | Ghost and Pals fanfic

11# When reality hits

TW: Alcohol.

Cakey woke up to the sound of someone's voice, grunting as she held onto her aching head. She slowly opened her eyes, her vision still blurry, and realized that she wasn't at the party anymore. It was mostly quiet, other than the familiar voice of a girl scolding someone... Wait, Teto? As Cakey quickly sat up from the couch, she felt the overwhelming nausea, causing her to throw up into the bowl that was conveniently lying beside her.

Teto heard Cakey's gagging and she perked her head up before approaching her. "Flower Jefferson..." she sighed.

"Hm...?" Cakey squinted at the blurry image of her friends Teto, Dennis and Tamari looking upon her. "What happened? Where am I..."

"I think you'd wanna ask your friend Tame-ari." Teto harshly nudged the shorter Tamari with her elbow, and he flinched.

Then they looked at Cakey with a bit of regret filling their only open eye. "By any chance, are you able to recall the events of yesterday? You were consuming alcohol like you would never see the light of day again."

Cakey furrowed her brows, trying to remember.

"Aw, c'mon Cakey, drink another one!" one of the girls said, filling up her cup with more rosé wine.

Cakey was already having trouble to stand straight without holding onto something. She would tumble and perhaps even fall if she tried to walk. "Nonono, I've had enough..." she muttered, barely able to process her surroundings.

"Oh, Cakey, you're such a lightweight!" Sabrina exclaimed. "You've had only three cups and you're already tipsy? C'mon, have another one!"

Cakey hesitated, before grabbing the cup and quickly drinking. She liked the taste, but she had enough of this nonetheless. She slammed the red plastic cup on the counter and didn't say anything. All she did was stare at it while trying to pull herself together, ignoring the cheers of the girls. "See? Wasn't that hard now, was it?" one of them said, to which Cakey silently shook her head in response.

The group said something and ran out of the kitchen to get to the dance floor, but everything was a blur to her at this point. She watched them dance in the living room and having fun, and the sudden loneliness made her overthink, now that she didn't have a distraction from that hole in her heart.

Her entire life felt like a lie. All the time, she forced her soul into many different forms to fit in with people. And most of them would have never stayed if she wasn't such a stupid fucking people pleaser that only gained happiness from other people's contentment. One boundary, one "no," one mistake, and a lot of relationships would be over, and she would be alone again, and she would have no personality, no use in her existence at all without these people... But it hurts to pretend, it hurts to get deep wounds while you're healing someone's paper cut, it hurts to change yourself to the point you don't recognize yourself in the mirror, it hurts to ignore your own needs so many times until you break, break into millions of pieces, feed the people with your pieces, only for them to leave you to starve in return, starve so much that you feel satisfied just from the tiniest drop of affection...

She snapped back to reality, remembering Tamari. "Tamari?" she called out. No response.

The effects of the alcohol increased, causing Flower to lose balance even more and fall to the ground. She crawled behind the counter of the kitchen and curled up into a ball, burying her face in her knees.

I just wanna go home.
Where is Tamari?
My stomach hurts.
I'm starving.
I'm nauseous.
I've not eaten enough.
Or too much?
I don't remember.
Please.
Please.
Please.

Flower then threw up all over the floor, lying in her own warm vomit. She then felt two hands grabbing her wrists, helping her up from the floor. Two people walked alongside her while holding her. Familiar voices spoke out to her, but all she could make out was "What happened?" and "Are you okay?"

The littlest amount of concern shown for Flower was enough for her to burst out into tears. "No...! No, I'm... I am what I eat, and it's always either too much, not enough or nothing...!" she cried, slurring her words. "I'm sick of everything... I wanna go home, please, take me to Tamari, I can't do this, please, please..."

"Shh, Cakey, it's okay..."

Everything else seemed too much of a blur. Flower must've been taken to Teto's home by her and Dennis. Not a surprise that they were at the party, it was a big thrown by one of the popular girls, after all.

Back to reality. Flower was still sitting on Teto's leather couch. "Oh... Thank you for... helping me, guys."

"No problem, Cakey," Teto said and gave her a genuine smile.
The microwave from the kitchen made a 'ding' sound, which Teto followed by leaving the living room. "Oop, be right back..."

Dennis glanced over to Tamari, then at Cakey. "And who's that devil guy?" he asked as he pointed at the android.

Yeah, some dude she met in a mirror dimension...! That would totally not get her hospitalized...

As Cakey opened her mouth to try and make up a fake story, Tamari already started speaking. "The first time we met eyes happened in a library," they said full with confidence, sounding quite convincing. "We were reading the same book and noticed, so we started conversations." Cakey didn't know what to add and just nodded. "And at this moment we are writing a fantasy story!"

Cakey turned to look at Tamari, then at Dennis. She had the feeling she understood what Tamari's plan was. They were asking some nerds about physics.

"Yeah, it's about a mirror dimension..." Cakey adds, playing along. "There are magic mirrors, and when people from the real world look into them, the copy of them, or also called reflections, appear in the mirror dimension."

"...the fuck?"

Tamari nodded. "For which we require an idea for one very specific issue that has occurred during the writing process." Not an idea, but rather a theory to something that could explain an issue that existed in reality. "Imagine if a being from the original world receives access to the mirror dimension. Not a single reflection, but just a person being capable of jumping from between the realities. How could it be scientifically possible for the person to enter? We are aware that it is fantasy, but we would prefer a scientific explanation that is close to reality."

Dennis confusion vanished as she was then holding laughter back. "Really? Fantasy?"

Cakey and Tamari exchanged awkward glances, their ask for help obviously unsuccessful.

Teto reentered with a plate of microwaved leftovers, the scent of lasagna filling the air. He then placed it down on Cakey's lap and gave her a fork. "Be careful, it's hot."

"Have you heard?" Dennis cackled. "Fantasy!"

Ignoring Dennis, Teto sat down at the edge of the couch as she watched Cakey poke her lasagna with her fork. "I only made it yesterday evening before going to that party," Teto reassured.

"I know that you wouldn't give me food that has gone bad..." Cakey mumbled, separating each layer of the lasagna.

"We need to raise your blood sugar levels to break down the alcohol in your system," Teto explained. "And I know you don't eat enough."

"But—"

"Just eat it. You'll feel better afterwards, trust me."

Cakey sighed and stabbed a single layer of lasagna pasta with the metal fork, watching a bit of the tomato sauce drip down the pasta. She then stuffed it in her mouth...

...just for her to feel the burning sensation on her tongue. "HASHAFASHASAHA—"