Jake Barry
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Chapter 43
🕑 Added 2023-07-05 13:00:06 +0000 UTCJeannine's friend caused quite a stir when she arrived.
A well-deserved, mixed reaction from the people she once offered to 'toss away'. If not for her best friend vouching for her, and the Mayor's nigh-supernatural ability to put her citizens at ease, there might have been a panic. How else should they react to the sudden arrival of a Brob other than Jeannine? Especially when she came here alone.
She stood a comfortable distance from the bookshelf. A few feet for her, a few kilometers for us. Despite no longer being at her feet, there was a general unease in the air. A stranger had invaded our space; our sanctuary. All eyes were on her, waiting expectantly. I fully expected her to say something, maybe to reintroduce herself or apologize. Instead, she simply said, 'hello'. Then, she looked around for the earring and earpiece and quietly collected them, with myself inside.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the unfamiliar giantess is acting very differently than the last time we saw her. Her expression is serious, her energy subdued. Even her footsteps aren't as heavy. She seems to have taken her friend's instructions to heart. She's being very careful. Hesitant, even. It took her far longer than I'm used to to latch the accessory to her ear. After that, she promptly left the bedroom, bringing me outside to the sofa.
And here we are now.
"Hi, Nick." She whispers softly, finally introducing herself. "I'm Sara, Jeannine's friend. I don't know if she mentioned me before?"
"Hi, 'Jeannine's friend'." I speak to her through the earpiece. There is a slight annoyance in my tone, hopefully reflecting my feelings at the current moment. "You don't have to whisper. This cabin is soundproof."
"Okay, great." She says, at a more audible volume. "I've heard a lot about you! It's nice to finally meet Jeannine's 'other' best friend."
"It was bound to happen eventually."
There is a brief pause before she continues. "Umm, I have a lot I would like to ask you. This is my first time speaking with a Lilli person."
"Unfortunately, I can't talk much at the moment." I lie. "Need to take some calls for work."
"Okay. Yeah, sure. I understand." She says, sounding deflated.
"Right. If anything serious comes up, let me know. Otherwise, just pretend I'm not here."
As soon as I say that, I mute myself. "Ugh. It's going to be a long two days..." I'm not interested in talking to her. I don't want to engage unless I have to.
She moves to the couch, taking a seat and pulling her bag close. A laptop emerges from it, which she sets in her lap to work on in silence. I'm glad that she believed me, but I know an excuse like this won't last for long. Not even my job involves day-long phonecalls. I slump down in my seat, the harnesses digging into my shoulders. I promised Jeannine I would have a meeting with her once she arrived, like we do. I couldn't say no to her, but really wish I had... I decide to rest my eyes for a while. A nap should help pass the time.
Sadly, she does not let me nap for more than a few minutes.
Over the course of the next two hours, she makes several attempts to break the ice with me. I make sure my replies are short and uninformative. I make it clear that I do not wish to chat, while making sure not to be disrespectful. I can fulfill my duties and promise to Jeannine without entertaining this person.
Another hour passes. There is a silence in Jeannine's living room, periodically broken by quiet sounds from her as she works on an assignment on her laptop. Having given up on my nap, I pass the time by playing some mindless game on my phone and peeking at what she is doing every so often. The quiet helps ease my nerves. If I don't think about it too much, it's almost as if I'm with Jeannine. You know, someone I actually like being around.
"So, like..." She suddenly speaks, shattering the blissful silence. I hear the sound of a laptop being closed halfway. "If I were you, I'd have hung up by now. No one is keeping me hostage in a call for three hours straight." She chuckles.
"..." I remain silent, hoping she will shut up.
"If you want an excuse, I can move to a place where the signal is weak. That'll save you, right?" She jokingly gestures to the opposite end of the apartment, then laughs.
"You done?" I ask, flatly. It causes her to stop laughing pretty quickly. I feel my irritation spiking and her mood becoming less cheerful. The both of us go quiet for a short time. Another awkward silence, followed by her shutting her laptop rather forcefully.
"Okay, spill." Her tone becomes agitated now, no longer as lighthearted. "I have been trying to be friendly for hours, but you've been like a brick wall. Being in a 'work call' is the lamest excuse in the book. What's actually going on with you? Is something wrong?"
"Not particularly."
"There you go again with the two-word responses!" She huffs. "Is this about not needing a 'babysitter'?"
Hearing her use that word sets me off. It feels so disrespectful. Especially from someone who's hardly four years older than me. Still, I try to maintain my composure.
"It isn't." I speak to her through grit teeth.
"Then what is it? Do you not like the sound of my voice, or something?" She scoffs.
I go quiet again, knowing I need to calm down. This is not how I should be acting as Jeannine's friend, let alone the city's representative. I take a deep breath and try to approach this more amicably. That idea goes out the window when she suddenly taps at the earring with her nail. It's like how kids tap on the glass of an aquarium to get the attention of fish.
"Well? Say something." She taps once more.
Just like that, I finally snap.
"You really want to know? Fine, here it is! Yes, you're right, it is your voice! In fact, I can't stand being near you! Or having you anywhere near the city!"
My sudden outburst is met with stark defensiveness.
"Is this because of what I said last time? I was only looking out for my best friend!" She says, noticably louder now. "I never hurt any of you. You have no right to say that to me when we've only just met. I'm not a threat. Hell, you don't even know me!"
"I know enough about you to know that Jeannine put her trust in the wrong person."
"My views were different back then. Is it sooo hard to believe that a person can change?"
"Not you. You're still the same."
She shifts uncomfortably in her seat. Her hand grip her dress tightly in her lap below while the other moves around expressivelt as she talks.
"Just because I'm a Brob, doesn't mean I have to hate Lillis or mean them harm. There can be exceptions. Like, literally, Jeannine!"
"Are you seriously comparing yourself to her?" I let out a laugh at the absurdity. "You're nothing like her!"
"You don't know that for certain!" She shrugs her shoulders, palms out. "Maybe if you got to know me-"
"I know enough about you, already." I snap at her.
"Yet you haven't named a single bad thing." Her hands rush down, slapping against her lap. "Hmm, I wonder why?" She mocks me.
"..." I grumble loud enough for her to hear.
"Yeah. That's what I thought." She folds her arms over her chest. "Typical bigot."
For the second time today, my emotions reach a peak. However, this time I am not angry. As I recall the events that played out at the restuarant, I am overwhelmed by a feeling of cold sadness. Trauma that I had worked so hard to overcome, trauma that I had to work through all on my own, finally resurfaces. I thought I'd gotten over it. Apparently not. Images of my kind on this woman's plate bring tears to my eyes.
"And to think, I came here excited to finally meet you." She shakes her head angrily. "You seemed cool, like someone I could get along with. Guess I was wrong." She lets out a harsh breath.
The way she makes me out to be the bad guy does not sit well with me, as if I'm wrong for acting this way around her. I think this is a perfectly normal reaction, and yet, I'm losing this argument. My unwillingness to be upfront with her is not doing me any favors. It's difficult for me to talk about the real reason for this. It pains me to even say it. But she will never understand unless I tell her. Screw it, I am not keeping this to myself anymore. I draw in a long breath, both to steel myself and to calm my nerves.
"You repulse me." I say in a tone sharp enough to cut. "You took lives." My voice gets more intense with every word, but never louder. "Casually, without remorse. As if they were nothing."
My words pierce her like a bullet through the chest. I feel her flinch and tense up suddenly, her arms slowly unfolding and falling to her sides. Pleased by her reaction, I continue.
"Did you forget about the ones you mercilessly ate, subjecting them to a slow and painful death without any second thoughts?" Both of us stop for a moment; her out of utter shock, and me to compose myself and wipe the tears away. I am fighting to keep talking. My chest becomes tight and my stomach grows upset. This so badly needs to be said. If not for me, then for them. "No amount of 'changing' or 'doing better' will undo what's been done. They're gone."
Any signs of smugness or agitation have now faded. She is still, silent as she loses herself in thought. When she does eventually speak, her tone is surprisingly more intense. Her words come out slowly, as she processes my words. "Back then, at GiGi's..." Her finger moves to the earring to touch it. She seems to make the connection that it's the same one Jeannine was wearing on that day. "Was she wearing this on that day? Damn it, I can't remember..."
"She was. It gave me a front row seat to the massacre."
I see her take a shaky breath. At first, it seems like I got her. Only when I hear her respond do I realize that it is quite the opposite.
"You creepy, little speck!" She spits at me. It startles me, just how angry she is. "You were there. Watching us, litening in, all while I was unaware..." A shiver rocks her entire body. "That's disgusting. I thought I was alone with my best friend!"
"Whether I was there or not, you still ordered that dish." I say, refusing to back down. "You actually paid money for that!"
She makes a sound, like a groan. It's stifled, almost pained. I bet she doesn't want to talk about this either. Unfortunately for her, I'm not going to let her do that.
"I'm going to have a serious chat with her when she gets back..." She thinks aloud, trying once more to avoid addressing this.
"Don't bring her into this. I made her bring me along."
"You...what?" She whispers. Her tone is so hostile that a part of me worries what she might do next.
"You heard me. I asked her to take me with her." I explain, growing more and more annoyed. "Now stop changing the subject!" I yell at her. "You're not mad because I was there, you're mad because I saw you do what you did."
She goes quiet. I wait for her to say something, but she just sits there and breathes heavily. She's clearly worked up. Maybe even more than myself.
"I don't know what to say." She raises her chin, grimacing. "I can't believe I'm sitting her, being berrated by a Lilli." She shakes her head back and forth. "Where do you get off judging me? Huh? Who do you think you are?"
"Someone who knows right from wrong!" I snap at her. "I don't care how big you are. I will still speak my mind."
"You're treading on thin ice, little guy." She warns me through grit teeth.
"Hah! What's that supposed to mean?" I laugh. "You gonna eat me too?"
The giantess goes dead silent. My laughing quickly dies out as I realize what I've said. Even while I am this angry, I feel like that might have been too much.
"Are all of you guys like this?! Huh?!" She reaches for the earring once more, only this time to unlatch it from her ear. "I made a mistake, okay? I wasn't the only one there doing that, either! It's not my fault I was raised to think that way!" She huffs as the earring comes off. She stands up, bringing it down to the sofa, next to where she was sitting. She stands before me, towering and postiviely furious. "It isn't fair to judge me by my worst moment!"
"You mean the worst moment that I know of!" I counter. "All of this yelling, and yet, you haven't apologized once for anything!"
"I'll apologize for what I did when you apologize for how you've been treating me today!"
"Are you joking?!" I yell back at her, physically getting up from my seat. I can't believe what I'm hearing. "These things are nowhere near the same!"
"The fact that you think so says a lot." She bends over to glare at me, resting her hands on her knees. "We're done here. You didn't want to be around me, right? Well, now I don't want to be around you either. How about we just pretend like the other isn't here for the next two days?"
"Sounds good to me!"
"Fine!" She stands back up and takes the earpiece out of her ear, placing it beside me on the cushion. She then grabs her laptop and walks over to sit on the other sofa.
Ironically, she leaves the cabin pointed right at her, leaving me with nothing to do but watch her from this distance. Glad that she can't hear me, I yell a bunch of profanities at her before turning to face the hatch on the opposite side. I can't stand the sight of her! I would rather stare at the wall than look at her for another second.
"Sorry, Jeannine. This time, you were wrong."
Comments
Jake Barry
Not every problem gets solved in one chapter. I hope you enjoy the rest!
Jake Barry
You give me far too much credit, but thank you!
Haroon
This is what people call a bad start! Nice chapter.
Acrophite
Wow. While shorter than I wanted it to be, it is amazing that this series can dive right into the effects of trauma and shame at the same time while using the size genre. Genuinely, can feel both sides here and heavily empathize with both. Like with Sara, knowing you did something while you were a different person, while still wrong, is tough to face when you run into someone you affected. And Nick, who is understandably traumatized, is too wrapped up in anger and unforgiveness that he can’t even trust Jeannine’s judgment here and try to understand the other side. Just some masterful story telling that brought us here.
