Something changed in Mae. She and another person combined into one, but only mentally. Mae didn't feel any different when she woke up, though. Maybe a little tired, but still the same old stupid Mae. Something compelled her to change her outfit she was wearing. She didn't know what kept knocking her in the head to make do things, but it frankly didn't matter.
Just there was a name her head kept throwing around.
Nate Babich...
Who was this? Someone important? Someone Mae knew about, but forgot about at some point?
Questions for later.
Mae had found a gray hoodie and some long, jean shorts and decided to wear that. She wanted to put some holes in the hood-part to make her ears stick out. Y'know! For cute points. She examined herself in the mirror.
Wow! She didn't look like absolute shit for once! This outfit truly is a game changer. There's still something off, missing almost. Oh! I know! I'll take a book with me for once. Who knows, I might be able to actually read something.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
She decided on this one. Mae is unsure why she gravitated towards this. Hell, she barely understands half of these choices she's making today. Mae finds a drawstring to carry around her book, which is rather convenient.
Making her way downstairs, she finds her 24-hour mom. They have a short conversation - her mom noting the outfit change - before Mae practically throws herself outside. She passes her neighbors and fellow elders to make her way to the Ol Pickaxe.
Mae walks inside - jumping on the counter - to greet her old friend, Beatrice.
"Hey, Mae."
"Yo..."
Mae pulls out Incarceron, reading silently to herself. Bea seems surprised at first but quickly acts like nothing happened, making the whole thing kinda awkward. "I didn't know you liked to read." Bea offhandedly said. Mae was about to say something snarky but she bit her lip, only nodding to Bea.
Mae decided to book away. Putting her book away, she got off of the counter. I'll read later.
"That outfit's new. Cute too."
"Yeah. No idea why I wanted to do something different, though. I'm feeling pretty off today."
Bea could agree with that last statement. First, she walks in - not saying or doing anything stupid - with a new outfit. Then, she starts reading? Yeah...
This is weird.
"I can tell." Mae frowned slightly. Why does everything have to be so goddamn weird between them? Why can't Mae just tell her she's sorry? What the fuck is she doing?
"Why am I such a fucking idiot...?" Mae muttered under her breath. Bea didn't catch it, or at least from Mae's perspective.
"Hey, Bea? Are you free tonight?"
"Yeah. We can go to a Jackie party later, but only if you want to."
Mae thought about her options. On one hand, she can go to the party and make things right with Bea. On the other, she'll fuck it all up. It's worth a shot.
"Screw it. I've got nothing to do anyway."
🍕
There was somber silence.
Mae was currently listening to her MP3 (she's totally not broke to get a phone) with earbuds. Bea was still weirded out from Mae. This is not 'normal' whatever that means.
Bea expected to be bombarded by dumb questions from her feline friend. But no, just Mae listening to music.
This is a nice change.
Then, after thirty minutes of silence, Mae stopped listening to music. "What are these parties like, Bea?"
"You remember Jackie?" Bea asked.
"Heh, yeah. She'd probably burn me to a steak." Mae amused herself. "That was years ago"; Bea wasn't exactly wrong.
"Whatever you say. Just make sure she doesn't make me a corpse."
The two conversed about the party until they finally reached their destination. When they stepped out of the car, Bea got a closer look at Mae. She had two gigantic dark circles under her eyes, making her look like a zombie.
"Mae, you better behave yourself. Ok?" Mae had made a brow-raise to Bea. What did she even do today? She'd been good the entire day. "Whatever. Let's get this over with."
