I Asked for It

(Day 7: Saturday Morning)

"Hey," Mal sits down at the table for breakfast. "What's up?" She picks up a strawberry and bites into it as she sees Jay and Carlos give each other a brief, silent look. "That bad, huh?"

"We just don't have much to talk about," Carlos explains away.

"Or maybe a little too much," Jay contradicts.

Carlos shakes his head, "What about you? Where's Evie?"

Mal lightly laughs at the unfunny situation, "She's sleeping in. If she's sleeping, then she's not eating… so, yeah."

Carlos comments, "But her mother can't control her anymore. Shouldn't she be allowed to eat now?"

"Well," Mal heavily sighs, "clearly it's a lot more complicated than just that."

Carlos looks down at his own tray, as he remembers burning himself not even a week after his mother was unable to do it herself. "Yeah. I guess nothing's ever that easy, is it?" The question was rhetorical, but as each ponders over it there's momentary silence.

"We're in Auradon now." Jay tries to reassure, "Things will be easier and better for all of us now from this point forward."

"A fancy place doesn't change anything that's happened to us," Mal negates.

Carlos inwardly laughs, "All it does it make us freaks."

Mal watches as his mouth cracks open and he stares blankly at his half empty tray, "What is it?"

"Nothing," Carlos lets out a soft, slow breath. "I've just been thinking." He looks up at her, "What my mother did to me, what if she didn't always plan to do it to me?"

"She's psychotic," Jay spats. "I'm sure she never plans to do anything."

"No," Carlos shuts his eyes. "I mean—" He takes a stressed breath and opens his eyes, "What if I was asking for it?"

Mal gives him a look, "That's crazy. You never asked to be burned."

"No," Carlos confirms. "But I never did my chores—"

"You could have never finished your chores," Jay interrupts. "There was never any time."

"Yes. There was," Carlos disputes. "Especially with my social life, I definitely had enough time. I just spent all of my time doing other things."

"Like going to school and spending time with me," Jay angrily lists.

"Like going out to collect things and doing stupid experiments in my stupid treehouse," Carlos adds on.

"Still." Jay asserts, "You can't just give up basic needs and the things that make your life tolerable to fulfil your mother's every command."

"All I had to do was do my chores," Carlos looks away from him. "I was asking for it to happen. It's my fault it did."

"No," Mal disbelieves. "You can't blame yourself for something she did."

"But what if she thought I wanted it," he worries. "It wasn't always a punishment, you know. Sometimes she just did it."

"Because she's cruel," Mal states. "No one wants to get hurt like that."

"What if I did— What if she thought I did?" Carlos asks, before he remembers how he'd prepare for it by putting up his sleeve. "You weren't there. You don't know what happened."

"No. I wasn't there," Mal replies a little louder. "But I've been hurt too when no one was around to witness it." She falters into a whisper and shakes her head, "But that doesn't mean that it never happened. You can't blame yourself for what she did to you. I won't let you."

"You don't understand. I never fought her."

"Why does that matter? I've never fought my mother. Jay. What about you?" He merely shakes his head. "See," Mal points out. "As Doug would put it, the… abuse, it conditioned us to follow our parents, not fight them."

I must be saying this wrong. "I never fought it. I submitted to her will, pulled up my sleeve, and kneeled next to her chair as she just sat there placing her cigarette upon my skin, half of the time not even bothering to look at me."

Jay's mouth gapes open, before he quietly questions, "She never even had to stand?"

"She'd tell me to be a good boy and go over to her," Carlos remembers. "I knew what she was going to do, and at the times where it had seemed like I had done nothing wrong, I would still prepare for it anyway." He doesn't look at either of his friends, afraid to see their expressions. "Sometimes she would ask about school or dinner, and then she'd offer for me to sit next to her in front of the TV. I'd pull up my sleeve, she'd glance at me, and then it would happen." After a long moment of his friends appearing to have nothing to say, he looks up and sees Mal's shock. He takes a quick look at Jay too, but his expression seems as neutral as ever. "It wasn't always obvious. What if sometimes I had just prompted her to do it? What if she thought it was something I wanted?"

"No," Jay quickly responds, his eyes shut, clearly not wanting to believe it. "She started it. You got used to it. You knew it would happen. You never prompted her to do anything."

Carlos takes a long, sad breath and stares down at his toast. It doesn't matter what they try to tell him, because looking back on it has made him realize it's most likely true. "Even if you did prompt her," Mal responds empathically, "she should have never done it. Whatever you thought you deserved or however you felt you may have failed her, you didn't deserve it." Carlos looks back up at her but doesn't speak. "What happened, it's not your fault. It was always hers."

- What do you guys think. Did Carlos unwittingly prompt her to do it sometimes, or is he just reading to much into it and that you think she would have done it anyway?