Claire screams (whispers) innocence.
Massie thinks that if someone opened Claire up they'd find lollipops, and butterflies, and flowers.
Nauseatingly perfect things for a nauseatingly perfect girl.
::
We had seasons in the sun;
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out of time.
::
When Massie first walks into her dining room and sees Claire at the table, with her family next to her, ready to "meet and greet", Massie feels something in the depth of her stomach that she can't quite put her finger on.
There's Jay and Judy and God, they smile at each other from across the table like it's their fucking job. Massie's never seen her parents look at each other like that. Massie idly wonders why. But then again, she kind of already knows.
After them, there's Todd. He's the cutest wittle nine year-old to ever live.
Massie thinks that if you looked up cliché in the dictionary, a picture of the Lyons (and tiger and bears, oh my!) in front of a white picket fence surrounding a peach house would be pasted inside.
When Massie looks at Claire she sees overalls and home-cut bangs and innocence.
Massie self-consciously straightens her four hundred dollar dress with her french manicured hands.
She realizes what she feels inside her stomach. Foolishness.
Claire's the first person in the world to make Massie feel like a fool.
::
::
"Y'know, you're my best friend," Claire says giggling one day, buzzed off the alcohol Massie took from her parent's liquor cabinet. They're watching a movie called 'Coffee and Cigarettes' and it's so fucking boring.
Massie thinks about this for a minute. She watches the gold liquid in her cup swirl and swirl and swirlswirlswirl.
"You're my best friend too. After Alicia and Kristen and Dylan of course." Claire giggles, nodding.
Massie's on the verge of being wasted, but still, she thinks that Claire really is her only best friend.
::
::
When Claire dies, Massie laughs.
She can't stop laughing because it's so 'Claire' of her to die on Massie's wedding day. Only Claire could ruin the day she's been waiting for since she was five years-old and watched 'The Wedding Planner'.
Layne barges in, mascara running down her face, and she announces it while Massie's staring at herself in the full-length mirror, thinking that she's never looked more beautiful.
When she's done laughing she looks at herself in the Vera wedding dress and thinks she can't wear a white wedding dress to a funeral.
Even when she's dead Claire makes her feel like a fool.
::
::
"Ma-Massie?" Claire clarifies, and Massie freezes, her tears half way down her face. Claire can't see her like this. Alpha's don't cry.
"Ye-Yes Claire. I just needed some fresh air. Go inside," Massie says, trying way too hard to swallow her tears.
Claire of course ignores the demand and walks closer to Massie. Massie desperately tries to hide her tears because she doesn't cry over stupid ninth graders that like to break hearts. She doesn't because she's Massie Block and Block's are perfect and they don't get heartbroken.
Claire (with out hesitation, of course) wraps her arm around Massie and lets Massie cry into her shoulder. She doesn't ask what happened and she doesn't tell her not to ruin her sweater with her mascara. She pats her back and she tells her it'll be okay.
Massie thinks Claire's a best friend and she's also a mother.
She'll never tell Claire that though, because that would make Claire superior. And nothing's more important to Massie than her power.
::
::
"I think I'm in love with you," he tells her and Massie knows he means it. He looks at her like she's the only girl in the world and like she's beautiful and that's all Massie's ever wanted.
She kisses him then, and when Claire's face pops into her mind, sad eyes and lip quivering, she kisses him harder. He was Claire's first, and Massie pretends not to care.
She does though. She always will.
::
::
"We stopped searching for monsters under our beds when we realized they were inside of us."
Claire reads, Massie listens.
"That's probably my favorite quote," Claire says, before taking a sip from the sweating glass cup.
Massie rolls her eyes, "And why is that oh great poetic Claire?"
Claire looks as though she's searching for a good enough answer, "It kind of defines people, y'know? Everyone has a monster inside of them."
Massie disagrees then. She knows she has a monster inside of her, but Claire?
Ha.
::
::
Bean dies on her fifteenth birthday.
Massie thinks her heart has never been so broken,
but when Claire tells her she's in love with Derrick minutes after Massie comes back from behind the bleachers, lips bruised and hair tangled from those big, goalie hands, she knows Bean's death pales in comparison.
::
::
"A car accident," her mother says, and Massie wants to punch her square in the face because God, she shouldn't be allowed to say that like she's announcing the weather.
There sitting at the kitchen table two days after the not-wedding.
Apparently Claire changed her mind last minute. 'Even if she was in love with him, she loved Massie more and she would be at her best friend's wedding' she had exclaimed to her mom before running to her car.
She died because (for) of Massie.
Only Claire would do this to her.
::
::
"I remember you said you wanted to be a singer," Claire smiles while Massie takes the microphone charm from it's box.
Massie rolls her eyes. "Yeah, when I was seven."
She gets scolded for that.
Massie quietly puts the charm on her bracelet under the table. She'll never admit she sings in the shower.
::
::
"Mass...what're you—"
"I can't do this Derrick."
"Massie, it's been five years...I think we can get married now."
Massie shakes her head, looking at herself in the same fucking dress.
"She'll do it again. She'll find a way to do it."
"Massie, what are you talking ab—"
"Claire. She'll die again. She'll ruin my life, again."
"Massie you're acting crazy."
She laughs then, doesn't he know she already is?
::
::
Massie leaves him on a Tuesday. There's nothing special about it, except maybe that it's him.
She tells herself it's for Claire.
She's never been so selfish.
::
::
"This one's for my best friend Claire," she says into the microphone.
And Massie, she sings.
::
::
fin.
I have NO idea.
lean with it roll with it, review it?(;
lmao.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Clique or the song Seasons In The Sun.