WHO: Juliet & Mabel WHEN: November 6 WHERE: Mabelâs Apartment SUMMARY: How to face the Weird. CW: N/A
It was not chilly. Nevertheless, Mabel pulled her fuzzy socks up, trying to stretch them to her knees. Though she was short, and therefore her legs not so long comparatively, the socks didnât quite clear the rounded muscle of her calf. She gave another tug and then tucked her feet beneath her, pulling the throw up around her hips.
âJulĂ, what are you doing? Itâs movie tiiiime,â she called out, a faint whine in her voice.
She had Juliet all to herself in her tiny apartment. It wasnât a shabby place, even if it was small. If you were quiet enough at night, you could hear the waves from the beach some blocks away, even if their whispers were dim. The louder noise was people coming and going over the strip connecting IZML to Taboga Town, but it was pleasant city noise, and Mabel liked it. There were really only two rooms to speak of. The bedroom, which really only had space enough for her bed (decorated with white drapes and a legion of pink pillows), and the living-dining room, which had space enough for a hot plate and a sink before it became a living room just large enough for a couch wide enough for three and a television.
Sheâd managed to cram one of those fake palm trees into the corner of the room next to the couch on one side and a small bamboo chair on the other. There was hardly space to move around the coffee table sheâd smashed between the couch and TV, but the room was cozy. Splashes of color against white walls, white couch, and pale wood table. Some might say Mabel had a pillow problem, but she liked to think she had a pillow family.
âJulita,â she whined again. âMy hunger and boredom are growing. They will soon become their own monster and gobble us both up.â
In the bathroom, Juliet was grinning. Her own face, looking pale behind dark plum lips and thick silver and grey makeup, grinned back at her.
âPatience, my little starflower,â she called back in sing-song, before adding the finishing touches to her lips and, for good measure, a stick-on mole beneath the corner of her right eye.
It should be noted that she was not in costume. The black pleated skirt, the white blouse with short, puffed sleeves, the bright orange of her hair and the silk bow tie and knee-high socks, though appropriate for a scary movie date, were not special for the event. Though the ensemble did evoke gloomy midnights and witchy fairy tales. Juliet simply liked the way her pale features mooned back at her through the glass, and darkened contours accentuated this. She liked feeling odd, eccentric in a dramatic way that dared people to look at her twice and also insisted that they must. It reminded her of something, but sheâd never been able to put her finger on it. Like something from a movie she watched repeatedly as a child, but of which now she couldnât remember the title or even the plot.
She swung around the doorframe with another grin, and tapped Mabel gently on the nose as she slid herself into the seat next to her. Mabel was precious to her in a similar way: she felt a responsibility to her that she couldnât place, a tenderness that came from nowhere but that overtook her whenever Mabel asked anything of her. She couldn't refuse her anything.
âIâm sorry I kept you waiting, angel,â she said with another smile. âI just wanted to look my best. This is a big night.â It wasn't, but Juliet was nothing if not committed to the bit. âSo whatâs on the big screen?â she added, with a glance toward the TV.
Mabel had unearthed a plastic bottle from the cushions and had begun applying a liberal amount of lotion to her hands and forearms. The lotion proclaimed itself to be pumpkin pie scented, but mostlyâshe thoughtâit just smelled like cinnamon and maybe vanilla. She didnât really like the smell of pumpkin that much. It had a kind of pulpy, earthy note that wasnât quite smooth on the nostrils. So she was fine with anointing herself in cinnamon and vanilla.
She looked up as Juliet appeared, clutching her eyes shut at the boop and grinning. She didnât really know why Juliet put so much effort just into a night in. Most of the time, when she wore makeup, she considered it warpaint of a kind. A way to face the world with a shield on. So she didnât really find it necessary for hanging out with one of her best friends, but also...Juliet could have an entirely different perspective on the matter. Maybe it wasnât warpaint, but just the way she liked to look to feel good in her own skin.
Regardless, she did look great, and Mabel inwardly sighedâpicturing the interior of her body filling with little red heart emojis, fluttering up the way they did on an Instagram live. She scooted closer and dropped the blanket over one of Julietâs knees in offering.
âWhat are you in the mood for?â she asked, dropping the lotion back where she found itâbetween cushions. âGhosts? Monsters? Or the greatest monster of allâpeople?â After the incident with the tree thing, she herself was in the mood for some monsters, possibly B-rated, but Juliet had been through a few more things than she had recently, so she thought it was more polite to check her friendâs mood before suggesting anything.
Though Juliet was, if nothing else, a truly buoyant individual.
It was not cold. In fact, there was a faint sheen of sweat on Julietâs neck where the dense, starched cotton of her collar had started to cling to her skin and behind her knees. On a night like tonight, Mabelâs apartment was downright cozy. But Juliet pulled the blanket up over her lap anyway. It was, after all, what one did. It was a movie night, and there were meant to be snacks and cuddles, and Juliet never did anything halfway. Not, at least, when it came to her friends.
And Juliet was a tactile person anyway. So she nudged herself closer to Mabel beneath the blanket, feeling too hot already but ignoring it.
âMonsters areâŚâ Juliet started, tossing a strand of her outrageous hair behind one shoulder. Then she shrugged. Well, it had been an odd few months. And monsters didnât quite seem as funny as they did before. Or maybe it was that they seemed somehow even funnier. Funny in an absurd way. They were real. Which was unbelievable. Maybe it was easier to believe in monsters than to believe that they were real. Somehow, having faced a few of them herself, the prospect of a monster flick had lost some of its former allure.
Which felt hollow; Juliet had always loved monster movies. Especially B movies with cheesy effects and lots of high-pitched girly screaming.
She glanced at Mabel. âYou know,â she started, then let out a sigh, cheeks rounded like a balloon with her lips pursed into a tiny cherry to emit a long breath. Then: âIâve been in a weird mood for fantasy, actually.â She shrugged, offering Mabel a kind of sardonic smirk. âI guess thatâs not seasonal. But I keep daydreaming about knights with swords and wizards and shit. I am just in one of my moods, I guess, because of theâwell.â Her voice trailed off briefly, and she shrugged again. âGuess itâs been like a video game lately, so.â
âIt has,â Mabel agreed. Sheâd come out of her altercation with the tree monster unscathed mentally and physically, but the last monster, well, Juliet had seen someone hurt, and Mabel wasnât sure how it would feel to see someone actually get injured. Once or twice, sheâd been witness to a pedestrian being clipped by a motorbike, but theyâd always been generally fine after. It sounded like things had been more serious than that in the last run-in. She frowned to herself, unconsciously drawing the blanket up higher, clutching the soft fabric in her palms.
Somehow, she hadnât believed that the tree would or could really hurt her. That, she thought, was kind of a wild thought. There was nothing indicating that the tree couldnât have killed them even. Just that she hadnât considered herself in any great danger at the time, even caught up in its limbs. But the monsters were actually monsters, and they could really hurt people if they wanted to. It really did take the fun out of the strange things theyâd seen.
She leaned over, to rest her temple against Julietâs shoulder, and then one hand reached out, searching for Julietâs to grip that instead of the blanket. She didnât like that Juliet had been drawn into the patrols. She didnât like the idea of Juliet having to face off against strange men who apparently knew how to call monsters into the world. There was so much they didnât know, and for the first time, she realized that was a scary situation to be in. She sighed.
âFantasy, hm?â she said, finding the remote. Fantasy always made her think of Lord of the Rings, but she didnât really feel in the mood. It was, after all, such a sausage fest⌠âWere any of those Narnia movies any good?â she asked, opening the menu to see what was even available to them. âThere are probably a few things on Netflix, tooâŚâ
Juliet felt her eyebrows lift faintly at Mabelâs sudden affection, but she paused only a moment, before letting her jaw tip against the top of the other girlâs head. She let Mabel take her hand too. She wasnât entirely sure where the gesture had come from, but Mabel often existed in a world apart, so it was hard to predict and even harder to make sense of sometimes. It was one of the things Juliet enjoyed about her, that dreaminess, the way Mabel could slip away and come back from nowhere in particular, carrying something unexpected. But it did, at times, catch her off her guard.
Maybe she liked that too, though. Juliet was easily bored. And, though they had an easy friendship, she was never bored around Mabel.
Still, she felt the air shift slightly at her mention of fantasy adventures and video games. She wondered if sheâd upset Mabel. It wasnât upsetting to Juliet. Just strange. She was still not sure what to make of it all. Of tree monsters and crab beasts, of patrols and mysterious wizards and dreams that felt so real Juliet was almost quite certain now thatâŚ
Well.
âNo,â Juliet laughed aloud, eyes darting toward the TV. âI mean, I only saw the first one, but they werenât great movies.â She shrugged. A gesture more in the face than in the shoulders, as she did not want to disturbed Mabel. âBut theyâre cute. I always liked the characters. Especially Susan. That bitch knew what was up, and she still got the raw fucking deal. Anyway,â she glanced down again at the top of Mabelâs head, where she could just make out the shape of her lashes, âthe story about getting swept away into another landâŚhas its appeal?â It came out a question. She supposed she wasnât sure how she felt about it now that it almost seemed possible. Except it seemed the fantasy land was coming for them instead. Now that was a twist. âDealerâs choice, OdeâI meanâŚâ Juliet sat up a little, separating herself. âM-Mabel?â
âWas Susan theâŚolder sister or the younger?â Mabel asked, searching her memory, but coming up short. She glanced out of the corner of her eye, studying what she could see of Juliet from her present angle. Admittedly, being spirited away to someplace a little less everyday had a lot of appeal to her, even if she couldnât decide how to feel about all the hyper-intelligent animal mascots and mysterious men and monsters.
She laughed, surprisedâat least as surprised as she suspected Juliet feltâat the name. Juliet was already moving away, and so she sat up before she fell into Julietâs lap. Her fingers suddenly felt electric; she couldnât still them. She began teasing her hair, curling pieces around her finger. No one had called her that yet, though she looked exactly like her counterpart from that strange, would-be imaginary place. It was a bit of a shock to finally have someone attach it to her.
For a long moment, she didnât say anythingânot sure what she could say to it. She wasnât alarmed or offended, but it was a strange thing. She might have been that other woman, or maybe that other woman was living a life alongside her in some parallel reality, in which case Ode might be more of a sister than a self. She couldnât say; it didnât seem like anyone knew that answer yet. But the silence was growing too long, so she decided it was best to make a joke about it.
âThoriet,â she suddenly said, drawing her ankles up to the edge of the couch, thighs pressing her belly. She rested her chin on her knees and smiled at Juliet. No harm done. At least she hoped not. âDoes it scare you?â she asked, to be sure.
Julietâs brows had shot up. Her lips had fallen open halfway. Her dark, honeyed gaze was slipping around the room, to the TV, to the doorway, to the fake tree across from themâanywhere but on Mabel.
Mabel, who looked very sweet now, smiling and teasing her own hair with her legs pulled up against her chest. Mabel who looked nothing like the woman called âOdeâ in her head, except that she looked exactly like her. The same huge, round eyes, the same pretty lips. But somehow so much wilder. Wilder, even, than dreamy, doe-eyed Mabel. And how strange that was. As if they were twins, with identical faces, but nothing alike in spirit.
Or maybe that wasn't quite true. Juliet really didn't know what to make of it. She had a crazy sound in her head, of a hunterâs laughter and the sight of an arrow spiraling through the air. But she didnât know who âOdeâ was, or why the name had come to her. And the fact that Mabel seemed to recognize it, but was somehow also unfazed by it made Julietâs stomach tighten in a way she wasnât used to.
At the sound of that odd name, though, her eyes narrowed again, and her gaze fell fully into her own lap. âUh,â she started, glancing quickly up at Mabel, then back again. âDoesâŚwhat scare me?â Then she looked up with a sudden fervor. âHow can you be so chill about this?â
Mabel frowns. Maybe it wasnât a good joke. Juliet looksâŚdistressed. She looks away, looking into her own lap and scrunching her mouth as she considers. âI donât know. I guess I was trying to be funny,â she replies, glancing out of the corner of her eyes at Juliet and shrugging. âBut maybeâŚall of this? Being some kind of superhero from another universe.â Her cheek rounded, the lop-sided smile skewing her expression, and she sighed, sitting back and looking up at the ceiling. She threw her arms back, one resting along the back of the couch behind Juliet, but not trying to embrace her. Just resting there as she contemplated the wider universe beyond her living room ceiling.
âChill? I guess. I feel like resisting it would be more stressful? Because the way things areâŚit seems like itâs going to happen whether we want it to or not. I find with things you canât change, just going with the flow makes your life easier. Plus, you might find something to enjoy about it. But we donât have to talk about it if it does bother you. It seems like you might be closer to the center of things than I amâŚâ
Juliet smiled, light flickering almost blue or indigo at the edges of her gaze. âMaybe you have a point there, starflower...â She kept her eyes on Mabelâs sweet face for a moment longer, the big, round, movie star eyes, the lackadaisical smile that seemed not to have a care in the world.
Even as it was the whole world that had been turned upside-down.
This world, she thought.
But also that one, another voice said.
Juliet didnât understand how Mabel could find it all soâŚunremarkable. She was behaving as if they were discussing what they had eaten last week for dinner. Instead complete lifetimes they had led, magic they had known, worlds that had beenâŚ
Well.
Mabel was a wonder. Juliet considered herself, if not quite easygoing, at least flexible. Amenable. Adventurous, maybe, which was better than amenable; it lent itself easily to change and the unexpected. She was always ready for anything, wasnât she?
âIf itâs right,â Juliet said after a pause, but still smiling, âitâs just right. Better to accept it than fight it. I mean,â she added, turning her gaze away and leaning her cheek onto Mabelâs shoulder, âIâm not fighting it. Itâs justâŚwild. Isnât it? Isnât it at least a little bitâŚincredible? Anyway, itâs not that it bothers me. Not like that.â She shrugged with one shoulder. âItâs just so crazy, I feel crazy saying it. But,â she lifted her eyes upward, trying to see Mabelâs face from the concealed angle, âyou donât seem to think itâs crazy.â She smiled again, almost laughing. âDang, bestie, I amâŚglad we met up again this lifetime.â
âItâs incredible, but I donât thinkâŚitâs crazy?â Mabel said, not sure how to explain it. Just that it was what she had always wanted. It was what sheâd been searching for at the back of every coat closet, at the end of every curious alleyway, inside the thorns of every rosebush⌠She couldnât say she had known such a thing could or would happen, but she could say she had always dreamed of it.
She ran a hand through Julietâs glossy hair and smiled ruefully, because she just didnât have a better answer than that. âIâm glad we did, tooâand that we were friends back then.â Though she had a suspicion that in this lifetime and the lastâŚthat her heart would always long for something plus friends. Still, friends was good enough for now. It was more than good enough. She sighed and leaned her cheek against Julietâs head.
(She thought, for a moment, about kissing it; she restrained herself.)
âOkay, letâs watch something funny. Thatâs my decision. The cheesiest romcom we can find, thatâs what weâre watching.â She sat up a little, though didnât try to displace Juliet, and began flipping through optionsâŚand arriving on The Wedding Planner. She grinned and hit play. That should take their mind of things, at least for a couple of hours.