She's crying.
Again.
Why isn't she over it now? Will she ever be?
"I don't- I don't know why she meant- Why she means so much?" Callie's silent, yet she can still hear her pity. Any other time, the thought of others pitying her would piss her off, but... Not now. She's just so tired. "She's moving on. She hates me."
"Hey," Callie says, voice unusually soft. How pathetic. "I don't think she hates you." Why doesn't Callie seem bothered? If anything, Callie should be exasperated, because Marie doesn't have a good reason to be so upset. What does Three matter to her, anyways? (She feels a pang in her chest - everything.) "What reasoning do you have for that idea, anyways?"
"I-" Marie sniffs. God. She... She feels useless right about now. "I'm just- Ever since she got... Back, I... I've been nothing but mean to her. A-And, I... I shouldn't, but..." She sighs and tries to choke back a sob. "And- And she's..."
Callie gives her shoulder a gentle rub. Her touch is warm, soft, and comforting, but... It's not Three's. And that thought alone just makes it so much worse. She can't even be happy her cousin's alive, can she? Deep down, maybe Marie knew Callie was alive all along. Maybe that was why? But, even then, she should want to spend time with Callie, shouldn't she? Because... Because she'd been gone for a year.
Yet, at the same time, maybe that's why Marie latched onto Three so much. Gramps is, well, old, even if he is family. And... She loved him. But maybe she loved Three more. Maybe Marie has too much room for love in her body, but that's not quite it. Maybe she just has too much room for love for one person. But... You couldn't blame her, right? Everything she did was... Was so perfect. When Callie first... Left? Disappeared? Three had been a source of comfort. Because Three missed Callie, too. At first, Three was just a person she could suffer with. And then they were friends, and then... Then it was more than that. And then it was screaming, angry fighting the morning after, and Marie would be alone. The one thing she was trying to avoid.
Marie doesn't know when it happened, only that it did - Three was her world. It was to the point that Marie forgot Marie was, well... Marie. When Three wasn't around, the world was dull. It was bleak. Empty. When she was, though, Marie had never felt better. And then there were the times when Three messed up - the times where she didn't do what she should. As if she was testing Marie. And... Marie lashed out. Because she didn't know what else she should've done.
And... Marie sees where she fucked up. She sees it clearly and she wishes she could just run back to Three and cry and apologize.
("I'm sorry, Marie, but I just can't do this anymore." The words are still fresh in her mind, as if it was yesterday.)
"It's okay, Marie," Callie says, still as sweet as ever. If Marie was more like her, would Three..? "It's okay to be upset."
"It's almost been four months, Callie," she mumbles. "I just... I can't... Why does she just... Why did she move on already? Did I... Did I mean nothing to her? It's- It's not fair." Marie knows she sounds whiny, knows she sounds childish - but she doesn't CARE.
"I know. It's not fair..." Is Callie telling the truth, or is she just saying that so Marie stops crying? "Life's not fair, Marie. You don't have to like it, though."
No. It isn't. And she doesn't. Fuck, she hates this so much. She could have done something about this.
"Callie, you... You know Eight, right?" Eight mentioned knowing Callie, after all. Or... Marie's pretty sure she did. "What... What was she like?"
Callie pauses. "She... She wasn't very nice. Eight had a set of knuckle dusters that she knew how to use. Um... She wasn't bad to me, though..! Except..." She sighs. "Well, you know the hypnoshades, right? She wore a pair of them. The Eight we met the other day wasn't... The same Eight that I knew. Why?" Marie knows Callie knows the answer.
"Why did she move on so fast? Why... Why can't I?" Then, with another heavy, fucking stupid sigh, she mumbles, "I'm sorry, Callie."
"Huh?" Callie blinks, probably feigning confusion. "Why?"
"I... I just... I'm bothering you, aren't I?" Yeah, because that's all she's ever really been, hasn't she? Just a bother. She's always been Callie's younger, meaner, waste-of-space cousin.
"What..? No, no you're not, Marie." She looks at her, not smiling. Concern? Is that it? No, but, it couldn't be that, could it? Pity? Both? "Hey... Do you remember, when, a few years back, Trey broke up with me?"
God, did Marie remember Trey. He was, in all honesty, kind of a dick. Or maybe Marie just thinks that because Callie was such a fucking wreck after that, where all she did was hole herself up in her room and cry.
"...Yeah," she says, quietly.
"And you remember how sad I was after that? Like, I just spent months beating myself up over it?" Marie nods. "But, you were there to help me, right? Every step of the way, you were there, even when I thought you wanted me dead with how annoying I thought I was being?"
"I... I guess so," Marie agrees, staring down at the floor. "But... Isn't this different, Callie?"
"Mmm... No, I don't think so." Marie looks up to meet Callie's gaze. "You're hurting, right? I wanna help you not hurt anymore. Or... Something like that, okay? You've always been there for me. I just want to return the favor. It won't be an overnight thing, but..."
"Thanks, Callie," Marie says, barely above a whisper. Her voice breaks again, her vision blurs - once more, she's crying.
"You're welcome, Marie."
Marie shoots her a smile, and Callie returns it.
Maybe things won't be so bad anymore.