Heightened Tensions- Chapter Five
Holy shit.
Bubbles burst through the door, a questioning look on her face. She peered around the room for a second, as if expecting someone else to be standing there other than Blossom.
Holy shit.
Blossom stood by her window, her face turned to the door, and she was looking at Bubbles, shocked, as if she'd been given quite a start. She fumbled her hands nervously in front of her, trying to make herself look calm, but was doing a horrible job at it. For some reason she couldn't shrink her eyes to their normal size.
Holy shit.
"Hey…. Um… who were you talking to? I heard you yelling up here," Bubbles asked, stepping into the room. She looked around again. Blossom shook her head quickly and began flattening the sheets on her bed to make herself look busy.
"I was just talking to myself," she said simply, dropping one of her frilly pillows on the floor. She was trying desperately to even out her breathing, but was finding it very difficult to do over the thudding of her heart. She leaned down to grab it, and blocked herself from Bubbles's line of vision. She took a deep, shocked breath and bit her lip nervously, becoming increasingly more and more disappointed with herself.
Blossom stood again, and saw that Bubbles was staring at her strangely, a blonde eyebrow raised in suspicion.
"You were talking to yourself?" she said coolly, leaning her elbow against the doorframe, a small smirk gracing her features. She was obviously making fun of her without actually coming out and saying so. For some reason Blossom didn't really care all that much.
Holy shit.
"Yeah, I was… um, it helps calm me," Blossom stuttered, slapping her arms down at her sides. She looked at Bubbles expectantly. "Er- did you need something?"
Bubbles lowered her elbow and folded her arms lightly across her chest. She motioned out the door with a nod of her head.
"The professor wanted you to help him with the new microwave," she said, before turning to walk back out the door. "He needs help with the directions."
"Oh, alright," Blossom said, and she moved to follow Bubbles out of the room, but not with out turning back to the window. She stared at the empty space, as if something was supposed to be there, but really it was because she was still quite rattled over what had just happened.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Bubbles said, startling Blossom out of her empty staring. She jumped when she felt Bubbles grasp her shoulder, and finally realized that she'd been gazing open mouthed at her window in a complete dumbfounded stupor. It must have looked rather odd.
"Yes, yes! I'm fine! Move!" and she pushed Bubbles playfully towards the stairwell down the hall. Bubbles stumbled and let out a horrified giggle, before finally leaping towards the stairs on her own accord. She bounded down them, taking the last four steps in one giant leap and quickly disappeared behind the pillared stone fireplace that sat in the middle of the living room. Blossom followed her, her pace hampered by the mere fact that she was trying to run everything through her brain at once.
Holy shit.
That was pretty much the only thing she could think for a good long while. Her brain was a muddled mess of confused fear and anger. What the hell had just happened?!
That had all happened, she was sure of it. She certainly hadn't dreamed that Him had entered her room and had just obviously tried coming onto her.
What in the hell was the deal with that?!
That wasn't the worse part. The part that angered her most was the fact that she'd actually warmed up to him. No, she didn't approve of his advances at all, and certainly had no intention of returning them, but why in the world had he even been doing that in the first place? Was he trying to prove something? Did he actually have a very sudden change of heart and suddenly not want to kill her? That seemed positively ridiculous. Why on earth would he now want to be her friend and be kind to her, waltzing into her room unannounced even after the last time they'd met he'd stabbed her in the gut (literally). Was he actually being truthful?
NO! Why do you even think that! ? He's planning something! That whole kindness thing was just a big scam! He's trying to trick you!
He wants you to trust him, and then he's just going to take advantage of that in the end.
Be CAREFUL. If he comes around again… don't let him fool you like that!
Why the hell did you give in and start confessing your anger?! That was really friggin' stupid!
That had been stupid. Why had she caved in so easily? That was probably the part that was angering her the most. He barely even had to try when he was trying to get her to warm up to him. She did it totally on her own, and even wondered if he'd had some sort of influence over how quickly she'd let her guard down.
No, she was only kidding herself. She screwed up. It was entirely her fault and she knew it. Why had she let herself get so comfortable around him so quickly? She'd even turned her back to him for crying out loud- twice even- and he definitely used that to make his point: that he didn't want to hurt her. He wanted her to trust him, and stupidly, she'd given in much too quickly.
BUT HE TRIED TO KILL YOU!
That was definitely true, she would never forget that. But… he did have a point. He could have easily attacked her when her back had been turned. Hell, he could have attacked her at any point and it wouldn't have made any difference. His point had clearly been made. He didn't intend to hurt her now, but why, she didn't fully understand. Why had he suddenly changed his mind?
He didn't change his mind you moron. He's still going to kill you. Just be on your guard from now on.
Whether or not that was actually true she could only guess. Maybe he did plan to hurt her… but it would have been so easy for him to do it right there, and nobody would have even known until it was too late. The point was, he hadn't tried anything… so maybe he was telling some shred of truth…
She rubbed her neck roughly, trying to erase the feel of his breath on her skin. That part of the ordeal was completely dumbfounding. He had, in his own strange way, been flirting with her, and that was so horribly obvious she didn't even need to think about it. Although, it disgusted her completely, she wondered if that was possibly why he suddenly didn't want to hurt her. Perhaps, he, daresay it, liked her?
Nah, that was absurd. He was just doing it to get under her skin: to bother her and annoy her. It definitely worked. She was absolutely repulsed and really didn't want a repeat performance. After all, once again, he did try to kill her. That normally doesn't make for very good intimate relationships.
Or maybe he was just doing that as another way of gaining her trust, by being affectionate? That part seemed stupid, because she certainly couldn't picture Him being affectionate, much less ever having an attraction to someone. It was positively laughable.
No, he was definitely doing it to annoy her, nothing more. But if he really wanted to be her friend, was annoying her at the same time really a good way to go about it?
Then again… it made better sense to say that was why he didn't want to kill her anymore. Perhaps he did just want to be her friend? But god, she'd been so careless, it was bordering on shameful.
Whatever the case, she definitely had to stay alert. She wasn't going to turn her back to him again, and she was going to keep a closer eye on his activities if he ever came back again. She didn't want to be caught unawares.
"Hey, Blossom, you going to stand there or help?" Bubbles voice cut into her wandering and snapped her back to attention. She'd been standing in the middle of the kitchen for five minutes and hadn't even noticed that the professor and Bubbles were staring at her.
"Huh? Right. Microwave," and she kneeled down the help the professor open the box; putting on the best attitude she could come up with.
***
Buttercup was angry. No, she was enraged.
She really couldn't understand why she felt this way. After all, she was used to being treated like an outcast from her family. For as long as she could remember she had been dubbed as the doomed "middle child", despite the fact that her and her sisters were the same age. It had started long ago, even to the very day that they had gained consciousness and the professor had named them. She was constantly shut out, and regarded as not being quite as special as her other, perfect sisters.
Buttercup sat at her desk in the room, the lights completely out and the curtains on the windows drawn. She preferred being in the dark in her times of distress. It helped her relax.
But it was hard to relax, not when she felt so crappy. In fact, she wasn't even quite sure if it was anger she was feeling at all. It was just a constant tugging at her heart that was trying to goad her into snapping, trying to pull some sort of string that would perhaps make her finally go crazy. It was a sickening feeling, so desperate and depressed, that it was making her feel very torn apart.
She fingered the string on her desk lamp, letting the darkness swell around her as it provided some measure of shelter from the inner turmoil she was battling. She felt so sick and confused, that she just wanted to stay there in the dark forever and never come out again.
She heard Bubbles's voice outside in the hall, and then Blossom's more muffled voice followed. She didn't hear what they said, but didn't even really care. She didn't give a damn about anything they said right now, because they were the main cause of her problems. Something happened earlier in the day that had sparked a hidden anger in her, one that had been left to fester in the recesses of her soul for who knew how long. It had been Blossom, using her stupid ice breath in front of her as if it was nothing more than being able to cross her eyes.
Perhaps it was actually jealousy. But no, she couldn't be jealous, because that would make her weak.
But she had every right to be angry and hate them. Everybody loved them, and for what? Just because Red could breath ice and Bubble-head could talk to stupid animals. And naturally, everyone forgot about little old Buttercup in the fuss and oogling over them, even though it was always her who ended up cleaning the mess. Time and time again she was completely, utterly shafted, left to stand in the dark while her other two sisters took the spotlight.
Shouldn't she have something special too? Why was it, that she was the only one of the three of them who had nothing going for her, who had nothing that people could admire and fuss over? After all, wasn't she the sister who was swimming in the highest Xantium frequency? Shouldn't she, out of all of them have her own special power with all the extra Chemical X in her body? Perhaps, even have something better, seeing as she was the strongest out of three?
But it didn't work that way. Of course it didn't, because she was just nothing special. She was the outcast who was left to tidy the mess after the two super sisters passed through in all their cutesy glory. It just wasn't right, because it made her feel increasingly useless, and made her feel like she had no reason to be hanging around. Why should she hang around when Townsville could have so much better, and something much more exciting and perfect?
Buttercup sighed, and looked to her door as she heard Bubbles and Blossom pass by. She scowled to herself, and in her anger she flung the lamp of her desk and let it shatter against the wall. Stupid Blossom, stupid Bubbles. She didn't need them anymore. She didn't need anybody.
Buttercup sat silently in the dark, letting her mind linger on her hatred, a burning sadness telling her that she just wasn't good enough for anything.