batshit - euphoria

02.

"That was like... two months ago, Jules," Tabby said.

"I can't believe you and Nate– Nate fucking Jacobs have history! Do-Does Maddy know?" Jules marveled while she scrolled through Netflix.

"Yeah, about the elementary school stuff, but not the thing from two months ago."

"So you two had sex?" Lexi asked, and Tabby whipped her head in Lexi's direction, widening her eyes.

"No," Tabby quickly defended. "Absolutely not."

Tabby really fucking hated the fact that she cared about Nate. You have to really care about someone if you'd let them their drunk ass in your house at 2am and take care of them. It made me wonder if she cared about Jules, Lexi and I that much. Tabby had a big heart, even though she was an emotional wreck sometimes. That was what was so refreshing about her– she was like the manic pixie dream girl in teen fiction novels, except with borderline personality disorder.

Oftentimes, I always wondered what would happen if Tabby never left in middle school. I think she and Nate would still be close, but not boyfriend and girlfriend, you know? Tabby was too smart for that.

"Can we stop talking about Nate, please?" Tabby said, letting her braids fall over her timid face.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Jules said, throwing her hands up.

"Can we watch the new–" Lexi started.

Tabby's phone began to ring, and she quickly scooped it up, trying her best to shield any of the girls from seeing the screen.

On the screen read: Dad (Marcus).

"Hello?"

"Tabitha," her dad started. Something must be wrong. Neither of her dads ever called her Tabitha unless it was extremely fucking serious.

"...Yeah?"

"You have a package, but it has no return address, so it must have been hand delivered. It looks really.... creepy."

Tabby stayed silent for a while, before letting out a shaky sigh. "Okay, alright, uh– I'm coming home now."

The other three girls looked at her as she ended the call.

"There's a weird hand delivered package for me at home," she said. "Dad think it's creepy, and I-I- y'all know I get all paranoid about shit like this. I just wanna make sure no one's like- I don't know–shit, I don't know, like– fucking kill me or something."

"Are you gonna be okay?" Lexi asked, resting her hand on Tabby's shoulder as she gathered her things.

"Yeah! Yes," Tabby said, before rushing out of Rue's window.

After riding her bike home, she quickly went inside and picked up the package in question. It was a pink decorative box with a ribbon that sat snugly on the top.

"Did you open it?" she asked her dad. He shook his head. Going up to her room promptly, she felt it was best to open it there.

It was like an earthquake, the way her hands opened the box. Tabby moved tissue paper to reveal the contents inside.

Pictures and items from middle school. She flipped through the stack of pictures– ones of her and her friends– Rue, Lexi, Kat, Maddy, BB, Daniel, etc. Seeing the girl in the pictures with her classmates brought Tabby joy. It feels like it was so long ago. The last picture she flipped to was a cutout of her biological parents.

While we were seventh grade, Tabitha had learned that her parents had moved to LA and started a business as organic skincare "specialists". They were quite wealthy, and Tabitha hated it. She loved her dads, but her parents never tried to reach out to her. Ever. They'd be on the news all the time– with three other children– talking about how their business has made their family "more resilient", but despite Tabby's anti capitalism beliefs, she wished those rich fucks would cut her a check for her troubles. In middle school, Tabby kept a picture of her biological parents in her locker. The picture had their eyes scratched out and their teeth blacked out– she even added devil horns for extra expression. She hated her mother and father, and could you really blame her?

After gazing at the defaced picture, she looked at other relics for her middle school career– her ID, stress ball, and a compact mirror. Before returning all of these items to the box, Tabby's was eyes met the inside of the lid. It read:

D O  Y O U  W A N T  T O  B E  1 3  A G A I N ?

"What the fuck?"