Chapter 8: Bad Ideas
"Buttercup wait!" Mitch ran after an angry Buttercup, who was not slowing down.
Mitch had no idea what he would say to her but he knew that he wasn't going to let his best friend get angry with him. She stepped outside the school building and walked to the side with Mitch frantically trying to catch up with her.
"Buttercup!" he was panting. "Please just listen."
"Listen to what Mitch?" her voice came out shaky. She clenched her fists.
"Butters I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this… I was… I didn't know how," he tried to explain.
Buttercup turned back to him. "What Mitch? Tell me what?" she stepped forward. "That you were fucking my friend? Well spare me that!"
He ran his hands through his hair. "Look I know that you're mad about what I did…"
"I'm not mad. Why would I be? You can go fuck whoever the hell you want to,"
"I'm not fucking her. Buttercup, I'm serious about this."
She was confused for a second. "What?"
"Robin. I'm serious about her," he paced around as he said, "I know that I play around a lot and I have commitment issues. I know you're mad because you're worried about Robin. That I'll do the same to her…"
"Mitch..." Buttercup stepped back. She stared at him, her lips slowly parted. She looked like she wanted to say something and at the same time didn't know what to say.
Mitch continued. "I won't do that, ever. She said that she didn't feel the same way and that she was going to go out with Mike, but I asked her to think about it…"
He walked to her and placed his hands on her shoulder. "I never told you Butters but I've liked her for a long time… even before she-"
She wasn't listening anymore. She had tuned him out. The needles in her chest were getting more and more painful by the minute until it got difficult to breathe. She stood until she couldn't take it anymore then she took his hands off her, turned around and flew away, leaving Mitch standing there.
When Robin left town all those years ago, the girls felt like they had to let go of a part of themselves. Having grown as neighbours since they were five, they were always together. Whether it was the park, school and even when crime fighting they'd bring her along.
Robin enjoyed every moment she spent with them. Granted, after coming back from crime-fighting she'd get scolded for letting herself get into danger, but she'd enjoy it.
Sometimes the girls would refuse to take her but then she'd bribe them into taking her along. Her knack for detective novels always came in handy when she'd help them come up with strategies. Always saying that she'd grow up to be a detective or a spy and if that didn't work she'd get the girls to start an organisation of a sort and be the manager. Buttercup never like the idea of having a boss but she was outvoted.
"And different names for you," Robin would say, "Dunno what professor was thinking when he named you guys."
She'd always ask Professor questions, something like if he would prefer to date a girl named Lily or Brenda. He never understood what she meant by this.
"Wonder what Mojo was thinking when he named the boys," Robin snorted and instantaneously received deadly glares from the girls.
Needless to say that they weren't talked about much. Now was an entirely different matter though. Everybody talked. About them, about their looks, about their personalities and about them paired with the Girls.
Blossom tsked. "Why do people love to gossip so much?"
She was walking out the school with Bubbles and Robin. They were quiet the whole time until Blossom decided to speak up. "And that was a bit too harsh… what you said back there."
Robin exhaled and looked up from the ground. "Bloss you and I both know that she needs to grow a back bone. She's been keeping her feelings inside for God knows how long, and it's so painfully obvious, I'm amazed Mitch hasn't noticed,"
"Probably because he was too busy playing around," Blossom stated, "and you should have told us about this."
"I didn't think she'd find out about this… I know how she feels about him,"
"Yet this happened," Blossom sighed. "She took it pretty hard."
"Okay, in my defence, he kissed me and also, I rejected him," Robin tried to explain. It was the truth.
Bubbles took a few steps forward and spun on her heels. "Doesn't change the fact that it happened and now Buttercup's mad."
Then it was quiet again. The only sound was of their footsteps. "Yeah," Robin mumbled. "Though, it's kinda good that this happened. Did you see the way Mitch ran after her? Incredible,"
Bubbles giggled. "I just hope Buttercup didn't break his bones or something,"
Blossom's eyes widened as she considered. "Oh no, that is a possibility, isn't it?"
Bubbles then tried to assure Blossom that it would be fine. They were failed attempts, yes, but attempts nevertheless. The three of them walked to their houses, said their byes. While opening the door to her house, Robin thought of going to apologise to Buttercup but she figured that Buttercup needed her space at the time, so the apology would have to wait.
Blossom slumped on the couch as she entered and Bubbles went into their room. No noise from the basement meant that the Professor wasn't at home either. It worried Blossom that he wasn't getting enough sleep lately.
Ever since the Girls started middle school Professor decided that it was time to actually contribute to the town. So the mayor decided to build a lab for him and have associates help him with his inventions, which was great but that also meant less time with the family.
She turned on the TV as she sat cross legged. She kept changing the channel. News… news… stupid shows… news…
Finally she settled on some documentary about leopards. Crime rate and monsters had decreased drastically since the last 3 years. While growing up, the Girls were also getting stronger, and now for them, every crime was petty and every monster was a bug.
"Blossom," Bubbles called, "Buttercup's not back yet."
"Well she's not going to come back any time soon," Blossom said, and she thought for a moment. If she's not back then…
Blossom looked at her sister, "do you think everything went fine with Mitch?"
Bubbles stared back, considering every possibility, "It's safe to assume that it didn't…"
For a second Blossom panicked. Knowing her sister, she was going to do something stupid. "We should look for her,"
Bubbles nodded without a thought and ran out the house with Blossom behind her. Bubbles stated that Blossom stay behind, in case Buttercup comes back home.
Blossom thought for a minute and then nodded. "That's probably best… call me immediately if you see her."
Then they parted.
The café was bustling. It was as if the food was free and people were attacking each other to get their hands on the last piece of breadstick.
It was hell.
Amidst all that, Boomer kept his calm as he went to serve yet another table, smiling at strangers and humming gleefully, because he loved life. He had a source of income now, even though he had to pool his money with his brother's for groceries and other necessities.
Finally, his shift was over. He went to exit the café and walked down the pavement with a skip in his step as he counted all the tips he made today. Today had been generous.
After counting all the money he decided to buy some ice cream for himself. He looked for the closest street vendor. As he waited for his treat he looked around to observe till his eyes landed on a blue streak.
His gaze followed the streak till it disappeared. The street vendor handed him his ice cream and he ate it all in a few bites. Ignoring the stares, he skipped towards the direction of the Blue streak.
"You look like you're in a hurry," he announced as he caught up to her.
She snapped her head towards him and groaned. He chuckled.
"I'm not stalking you by the way, I saw you and I decided to follow you," he paused, "wait that is stalking… dammit,"
"Please not now… I have something important to do," she increased her speed.
He matched her, "I can help," he suggested.
Bubbles shook her head.
"Why, because I'm a bad guy?"
"I thought you stopped being criminals,"
"We did," he nodded. "Does that mean I can help?"
Bubbles sighed. He was stubborn, like herself. "You know my sister? The green one?" He nodded. "I'm looking for her."
"She got kidnapped or something?"
"Of course not," she paused, "I don't know… she didn't come home."
Boomer asked for a few more details and went his own way. He thought about what their brothers will have to say about this but he decided that he didn't care. He looked for an hour or two for the green sister but came up empty.
He met with Bubbles after a while and then they looked together, but to no avail. Bubbles looked like she was about to faint.
"What if she does something stupid? Oh God, knowing her she might go pick a fight with Mojo." Bubbles fretted. Boomer laughed.
"Sounds awfully familiar," he mumbled, "I think she'll be fine."
"How do you know that? You don't even know her."
"No, but I know my brother… she has the same personality," Boomer pointed out.
He told her that she probably needed to clear her head after all the drama and that she's probably knocking down some trees and shit. She wasn't really convinced so he told her to take a break and offered to buy her ice cream.
After her turning down his offer for about 20 times, he still managed to convince her. After getting ice cream and exchanging only a few words, she went her own way.
A smile crept up to his face as he watched her leave and skipped on his way to home, knowing that between them, something had changed.
Blossom was worried. Her sister hadn't come home at all and then as they were on their way to school she couldn't help but fidget around. Bubbles locked her arm with hers and gently patted her, telling her that it was okay, that Buttercup was probably just cooling her head.
Blossom did believe that she needed some time off but Buttercup was ever too stubborn for that. She wondered if something happened that was so horrible that she actually decided to take a break. It worried her to no end.
As she stepped into the building, she was surprised as her eyes landed on a slightly masculine figure, with a green hood and dark hair cut short to the neck.
She brought this to Bubbles' attention by nudging her. Bubbles looked where the girl with the green hood was and then turned to look at Blossom, who then walked in that direction.
"Buttercup!" she called but no answer was received, so she called her again thinking she hadn't heard her. When she still didn't respond, Blossom walked to her and tried to turn her around by her shoulder.
Buttercup snapped her shoulder forward to take her sister's hand off. Blossom clenched her jaw to keep herself from exploding, because if she did then she wouldn't be the only one.
"Where were you last night?" She asked in a clipped tone. Bubbles walked with them, silent.
She didn't reply, Blossom asked once more and yet again she was given no answer. So she yanked Buttercup back by her arm.
"I asked you a question, Buttercup." She was trying to remain as cool as possible.
Buttercup clicked her tongue and ran her hands all over her face and said, "Would you stop being a fucking interrogator all the fucking time?"
"It's my job to-"
"No it's not!" Buttercup raised her voice a little. "It's fucking not. You just like to be the fucking boss all the goddamn time and it's annoying so just shut the hell up and leave me the fuck alone."
It took all her willpower to not reprimand her on her behaviour and mostly importantly, her language. But she bit back all the comments and let Buttercup walk away from them. It was a feat and knowing that, Bubbles patted her sister's back.
"Buttercup wait!"
It was Robin calling. Blossom and Bubbles wearily turned their eyes to Buttercup as she stood with her back to them. There was something unsettling about it and they knew then, that her anger was not at all lessened.
"Hey," Robin started, "Sorry for yesterd-"
But she never got to finish her sentence because in that moment, Buttercup had reached her and punched her right across the jaw. Robin went flying back due to the impact and laid down on the ground, groaning, holding tightly onto her jaw.
"Don't you DARE apologize you fucking bitch!" Buttercup yelled. "YOU don't get to apologize! …and don't show me your fucking face ever again!"
Bubbles screamed and ran to Robin as Blossom watched in horror like the rest of the people.
After regaining herself she stepped up. "Everybody get to your classes!" she bellowed. And everyone did as she said.
The place was cleared in seconds. Blossom then walked to Buttercup, who was standing there in silent rage, and shook her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
She squeezed Buttercup's arm, her jaw clenched, "you crossed a line this time."
"I don't care what I did!" Buttercup tried, in vain, to yank her arm away. A few moments of tugging and she decided to glare back at her sister, but it faltered; because Blossom's eyes had fire in them, not of determination, but something terrifying, letting Buttercup know that she wasn't going to be forgiven, and it wasn't going to end well, especially not when her older sister was truly angry.
Blossom let go of her arm with a little shove, she took a few steps back without breaking eye contact, then she turned away from her.
He sensed that she was unhappier than usual, not that she was that happy to begin with. Her face was contorted into a constant scowl, her mouth kept twitching and her foot was tapping at the speed of light.
Wonder what pissed her off, he thought and scoffed to himself. After the class was over, while everyone was getting out, she stayed in her seat. So he thought to do what he could do best.
"Who urinated in your cereal, master?" he saw another vein pop on her forehead. "Shall I give you a foot massage to release your stress?"
As he said, he got down on his knee and started towards her foot. She lifted her foot and planted it right on his face. "Behave yourself, slave."
Butch shoved her foot off his face, wiped it and spit out some dirt that went into his mouth. He snorted, "I thought you were too pissy to retort,"
"I'm surprised you noticed," she leaned towards his face. "You're finally learning how to do your job."
"I try my best,"
Buttercup nodded. "I would also like to let you know that, when I'm pissy, you get the hell out of my fucking face."
"Hey you're the one coming close to my face, I don't like to sniff your smelly breath, sunshine."
"Go away,"
He raised his eyebrows at that. She had said that, not in a harsh way she usually does, but almost in a defeated sort of way. He stood up and, even though he didn't want to do as she said, walked out of the class.
He convinced himself that it was because she wasn't being entertaining enough. Only two days of the whole month, and she was already getting boring for him. So he sought out the girl he'd been 'spending time' with to spend some more time with her.
Half an hour later, he walked out of his school looking smug and whistled his way towards his part time job. It was his fourth in a week, last week it was three. Mentally, he made a note that he broke his record for the past week. Only the past week because his actual record was five jobs a week. Boomer was surprised that that could actually happen.
Since it was Butch, he thought it possible. Butch whistled as he walked into the garage, saw a guy welding something and another one working on a car.
He walked up to the man who was welding. "I'm here for the part time," the man didn't respond as he continued doing what he was doing. Butch, thinking he wasn't heard, started to repeat himself but was cut off.
"I heard you the first time kid, can't you see that I'm busy?" the man responded.
He clenched his jaw at the word kid. He was about to say 'no, those sparks made me blind,' when the boy working on the car responded, "Be nice dad, he's new."
The 'dad' just snorted. "New. Not to this world he isn't."
"Ignore him. He gets like this when he's concentrating," the boy slapped Butch's back as the father muttered 'my ass', "I'm Randall. You can call me Randy."
He instructed Butch to leave his bag in an old rusty locker and to change into another shirt he gave him.
"I'm not afraid to get my clothes dirty,"
Randy looked at him. "You wash your own clothes?"
He shook his head. "My brother does,"
"Well, he isn't going to be happy with this,"
"He doesn't have to be."
Butch was experienced in car fixing, though not officially; Randy didn't have to teach him much. Butch asked about the guy who gave him the job and he learned that it was the older brother, who, at the moment, was in university.
The dad, whose name was Harold, ignored them the whole time. Not a word passed between them as he kept on welding.
Enjoy ;)
