Chapter 7: Summer Break
Frisk rested her head against the car window, watching the trees fly past. Asriel drove this time. Her thoughts kept drifting to places other than where she presently was. It was wiser just to give the keys to him and let it all go.
"I swear, babe," he said at the start of the journey, "I really need to buy an SUV at some point. Your car is tiny."
"Lose the horns and you'd have more room," Chara remarked from the back seat. Once again, she joined them on the trip to Hometown. Asriel, offended, stated that he liked his horns. Frisk did as well, though she often stared glumly at the dents and scratches underneath her roof. She'd never get any value from reselling the car.
Toriel was in the front garden when they pulled up at her house. She tossed down her trowel and greeted them with dirt rubbed into her clothes. "Oh, Asriel! How was your trip."
"Backbreaking," he groaned, leaning on his mother as he hugged her. "Thanks for letting Frisk crash for the summer."
"It's quite alright." Toriel then embraced Frisk. "And how are you faring, dear?"
"So-and-so. Again, thanks for letting me stay." Frisk had not spoken with her mother since before the exam period. After the last conversation that they had, Frisk chose against going home during the summer break. Asriel had suggested that she stay with him, instead. Any time spent with him and Kris was preferable to being alone on campus for three months.
"Of course, dear." Toriel moved on to Chara. "Thank you for coming, as well, Chara. Are you sure that you don't wish to stay with us? We're more than happy to have you."
Chara shrugged. "Last time I was here, it was a bit too cramped around the house." She pulled her bags out from the trunk and slung them over her shoulders. "I'll dump these over at Asgore's and join you later."
Frisk was thankful that Chara had decided to come along. She claimed she had nothing she couldn't drop for a few months, and that Asgore had helped her find work while they were in Hometown. No matter what Frisk and Asriel argued, Chara adamantly refused to squeeze into Toriel's home with them.
When Chara left, Toriel clapped her hands together. "Let's get your things inside and I'll put on some tea."
Asgore's flower shop sat just down the road from his ex-wife's house. A dirty, blue pickup truck was parked to one side. There, Asgore lowered a large potted plant into the cargo bed. He caught Chara approaching and waved with a hearty smile.
"Ah, Chara. You're already here. Howdy. Did you enjoy the drive?"
Chara remarked indifferently. Asgore accepted her reply with a nod and slapped the wall of his truck. "I'm just putting a few deliveries together. Why don't you go inside and leave your bags upstairs? Kris is minding the register."
Sweet fragrances hit Chara's nose when she entered the shop. The tables and shelves were filled with a wide collection of flowers, succulents, herbs, and other plants that she wasn't familiar with. Kris looked up at her from the service counter. They hugged halfway through the shop.
Kris showed her to the apartment on the second floor. It was mostly one room and smelt of earth. A folding screen had been set up around an inflatable mattress, her little private corner during her stay. Dingy and cramped. It already felt like home.
"So, how's things with your dad?" Chara asked, setting her bags down.
"Getting better," Kris replied. "I… talked to him about the college money. He's starting to take care of himself more. I'm going to help Dad with the shop from now on and save up the money he gives me. Still not sure what I'm going to do with it yet."
Chara approved. "So, thanks, Chara," Kris continued. "It really helped, talking last time."
"So long as you're doing something about it," she replied.
They heard the bell ring from downstairs. "I should go," Kris said. He left to greet the new customer.
Chara opened her bags and started to unload her possessions onto the side table that Asgore provided. Then she laid upon the mattress. It was made from cheap canvas, which let her body slip over its smooth surface. Still, it felt nice not having old springs press into her back. Chara pulled out her phone and unlocked the screen.
She gazed into the background image. Chara and Mew Mew pressed their faces together, smirking at the camera like they were the toughest bitches in the world. They were the toughest they knew in Ebott City, at least. Mew was not scared of anything. Nothing could put her plastic shell down. She was a terminator among monsters. People in their neighbourhood knew to get off the street when they heard her bells ring.
Chara let the phone fall from her hand. She wished things had gone better when they last spoke.
"So, you're leaving again?"
Chara didn't look at her. Mew Mew huffed, resting her chin on her hands whilst her tail flicked around the leg of her kitchen stool.
"How long is it going to be this time?" Mew asked.
"I don't know," Chara finally answered. "Maybe a few months? Frisk and Kris have summer break, so I figured I'd…"
"A few months?! You're going to ditch everything you have here for a holiday?"
"What the hell do I have here?" Chara snapped. "A shoddy job? A run-down apartment? A rap sheet as long as my arm?"
"How about your friends?! Me?! The Spectres?!" Mew Mew threw up her hands. "You're packing your bags right now and this is the first time I find out that you're running off somewhere! It's back to that Hometown, isn't it?"
"What do you want from me, Mew?! Frisk and Kris are my family."
"We're your family! When you had no one else, we were there for you. I was there for you! Now suddenly you run into these humans you haven't met in a dog's age and you no longer want anything to do with us! What the hell happened to the real Chara?"
"The real Chara?" Chara slammed her hands onto the counter. "The real Chara went to stay with his brother's family for a few days. She saw the town that he lives in; the life that he got to have! Mew, you should have seen it! There were only monsters living there. No humans! In Hometown, nobody hates my guts or looks down on me. It felt like I could breathe for the first time in years."
"So what?!" Mew Mew yelled. "That makes it okay to just leave behind the people who care about you without saying anything?"
"You know what? Fine! I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner." Chara raked her fingers through her hair. "God… please, Mew. This could be my chance to get out of this cesspool. If I go to Hometown, I might actually get to have a normal life with my brother and sister again! I can start over."
Mew Mew stood. She slammed her fist down. "Fine," she hissed, glaring to the floor. "If that's how you really feel, then happy trails. Have fun with your stupid siblings in your stupid Hometown. Don't let the door hit you on the way out."
Chara called out to her, but Mew Mew had already stormed out of the apartment. She couldn't look at that human anymore. She didn't want to see her cry.
Mew Mew stared at the image of herself and Chara on her phone. Curled up on her mattress, she tried to nurse off the hangover turning her body into a fishbowl for her swimming soul. She didn't return to the apartment until long after Chara left, having spent all night drinking alone before the bars and clubs kicked her out. Thank God that ghosts didn't need fleshy bodies to get completely sloshed.
Her eyes focused on Chara. She was like a little sister who grew up faster than the blink of an eye. When they met, Chara was lost; long-since abandoned and with nothing left to love. Mew Mew felt that more than she ever admitted to anyone. It had been over a century since they had met someone who they could relate with like that.
When another ghost Mew Mew met introduced her to the Spectres, she felt like she could build something for herself there. She brought Chara into the fold, hoping that would help her, too. The monsters in the gang were mostly idiots; clowns with big ambitions but no real plan on how to realise them. Chara, however, was different. Even with no path in life, she always acted with a purpose. A steely edge lined her gaze like a knife. Mew Mew could always count on her when things got dicey.
Until now, that was… Chara was gone, probably on the other side of the county by now. Mew Mew bet that she was living it up with pot roasts, sparkled water, and apple pies steaming on the windowsill.
It wouldn't hurt so much if Chara had just given a little bit more advanced warning. Did she mean so little to that damned redblood that she'd run off without a single word? Mew Mew chucked the phone across the room. Ectoplasm burned her eyes.
"Fine," she sniffed. "Go on without me. See if I care."