Chapter Text
“Is it too late to return these things?” The door to the Ol’ Pickaxe slammed open, Mae stomping inside in woe over how completely secure and not falling on her ass she was.
“Yep”
“I hate them” Mae stomped up to the counter where Bea manned the register, leaning over it. “I said I hate them, Bea. I can’t feel my feet” Bea took a deep breath and stared blankly, while Mae laid her entire torso on the counter, stopping just short of crawling over. “My poor feet. Frozen. No blood in them at all. Just shriveled dried up bones where feet used to be”
“Just loosen the laces” Bea sighed.
“I miss my old boots, Bea” Mae rolled onto her back, staring at Bea upside down. She raised one leg into the air, showing off the boot which was now dripping snow onto the countertop.
Bea reached out, grabbed Mae’s raised leg, and gave it a quick push back onto the floor. “If I have to wipe down the counter because of you I’m throwing you out”
Mae grumbled while standing up straight again. “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing, sorry, just… tired today. Little cranky” Bea sighed.
“You’re always tired. I don’t think you’ve been not tired in like years”
“Extra tired. Cold weather does that”
“Really?”
Bea shrugged. “I don’t really know. Sure feels like it”
“It’s only like four days until Longest Night, Bea. Where’s your holiday spirit?” Mae pumped a fist into the air, demonstrating.
Bea repeated the act, giving a half-assed “Wooooo” as she did.
Mae shook her head disapprovingly. “You’re being super boring today”
“You would not believe how much I want to sleep right now” Bea responded, accompanied by a yawn. Not even any snark? This was serious.
“Well no sleeping today. We’re meeting up with the guys as soon as you’re done”
“I didn’t know we were having practice”
“I don’t think we are. Just like… friends being friends” Mae watched Bea’s face, expecting some semblance of a smile. Instead she saw sadness and exhaustion. Classic Bea. “Longest Night coming up, Bea, cmon! Wooooo!” Mae pumped her fist again.
“Wooooo”
“Okay seriously when do you get off?” Mas asked.
Bea stared at the register. “Wait” She said. Mae stood waiting, Bea stood staring, there was a lot of staring around not doing much. Fun fun fun.
“What are we-”
“Wait” She said again. Then a light ‘Ding!’ rang out from the register and Bea gave a sigh of relief. “Now”
“You’re definitely not sliding anymore”
“That’s not the point!” Mae cried, kicking some snow into the air as they walked. “It’s about the principle of the thing!”
Bea dug through her pocket for her dummy cigarette. “You don’t even know what that means” she said. They were about half a block away from the town’s Snack Falcon, wandering through the light snowfall.
“I have a pretty good idea! And that idea is that I should wear my old boots”
Bea rolled her eyes. “Then wear them! You still have them don’t you?” She said, mouth now occupied by the little plastic tube.
“Duh. But you got me these, so I’m trapped by the law of politeness to wear these boots I hate instead”
“Because you’ve been so polite about them so far” Bea stopped the two of them right outside the Snack Falcon’s doors.
“Thank you for noticing” Mae nodded, pushing open the door to let them both in. “Yooooo!” She cried, immediately coming to a halt at the sight of a pyramid of cups on the front counter carefully stacked halfway to the ceiling.
Gregg peeked an eye between the cracks of his creation. “Hey guys!” He cried, flailing arms hidden behind the pyramid. Mae and Bea both entered fully and in combined silent awe of the creation before them. “It’s been a slow day” Gregg said.
“Don’t stop on my account. I wanna see how high this goes” Mae answered.
Bea loudly cleared her throat. cleared her throat. “Maybe do stop. We have to get Angus and get going, right?”
“Okay okay yeah stop, but if you’re gonna stop at least let me knock this down” Mae was instantly at the counterside, peeking between the cups at Gregg, who was peeking out. This might have been weird if it was anyone else in town, but Bea was just gonna let this happen. Much faster than trying and failing to stop it.
“Go for it dude. I get a better view if you do it anyway”
Mae backed away from the counter, crouched and ready to take off.
“Try not to hit your head” Bea warned.
Then Mae was off, running straight at the counter and launching herself over it through the pyramid head first like a wrecking ball. Also launching herself straight into Gregg, who hadn’t had the forethought to stand back.
Immediately the floor was littered with a hundred empty slurpee cups, a truly devastating wreckage that would take at least a few minutes to pick up.
And despite the Mae to the chest he’d just taken, Gregg was instantly joining her in cheering as the two of them emerged from the pile of cups behind the counter.
“How do you still have a job?” Bea asked under her breath.
“Huh?”
“I said are we picking Angus up next?” Bea answered, louder.
Gregg climbed up out of the cup pile, leaving Mae to fend for herself. “Oh Angus is getting us a table at the Clik Clak”
“We’re eating at the Clik Clak again?” Mae asked with a deep frown, still picking herself up.
Gregg shook his head, ‘tut tut tut’ing the whole way. “Dude, you have been seriously hating on the Clik Clak lately”
Mae groaned and pulled herself back to her feet. “I don’t hate it! It’s just-!”
The bell atop the Snack Falcon’s entrance rang, signaling the arrival of someone new.
The three already inside went silent, with both Mae and Gregg wide eyed at just who it was. About their age no doubt, not that you’d know it with the way his face was sort of… lopsided. Not enough to be obvious, but in the sort of uncanny valley kind of way. The kind where you couldn’t quite place what exactly was long until you really gave him a good look, and then you’d see that despite the efforts of any plastic surgeon, his face was undeniably wrong .
He walked with a heavy limp up to the counter, staring Mae in the eye. Then he looked at Gregg, and said “Coal Town.”
Gregg hastily grabbed the cigarette pack by that name from behind the counter and handed it over. The two went about the transaction in complete silence, Mae never taking her eye off the guy.
Finally done, he took one cigarette from the pack and began the process of lighting it as he turned and limped his way right back out.
The bell rang again, signaling his departure, and the three of them were stood in silence.
Bea was the first to break the ice. “Who was that? Haven’t seen you that quiet and awake at the same time in weeks” She asked.
“Oh my god!” Gregg shouted.
“What?”
“That was Andy!” He went on, pounding his fist against the counter.
“Andy? Like, Andy Cullen?” Bea asked
Mae had by now retreated to sitting behind the counter in her cup pile, staring wide-eyed at the floor while the two of them went on talking.
“How do you not know him?!”
“I never met the guy!”
“I can’t believe he’s still alive!”
Mae groaned to herself, covering her face with her hands.
“Of course he’s alive, she didn’t kill him”
“I haven’t seen him in like three years!”
“He probably just moved away. It’s Longest Night break after all, I bet he’s just back in town to… uh…” Bea trailed off.
Mae was quietly sitting, waiting for the conversation to be over when its two participants trailed off. She raised her head to find Gregg staring at her and Bea leaning over the counter to do the same.
“You okay?” Bea asked.
“Uuuuugh!” Mae loudly groaned, covering her face again.
Bea and Gregg stood awkwardly watching her and exchanging uncertain glances.
“So…” Gregg started. “Clik Clak?”
“Haven’t we already had this conversation?” Angus asked.
The quartet was seated at a booth in the Clik Clak, and had been for the past twenty minutes at least. During this time Mae had continually stayed clammed up while the others steadily
“It’s different now that we have a Taco Buck” Mae answered, gnawing on a lump of cheese still connected to the rest of the slice that was held a foot away from her mouth.
“Yeah that doesn’t mean anything” Bea mentioned.
“What, you don’t like tacos?” Gregg asked.
“You just don't go out to eat tacos, bug. It’s like hot dogs” Angus pointed out.
Gregg forced down the ball of cheese and bread still in his mouth to more quickly be loud again. “Okay I’m on your side with the taco thing but I’d definitely go out to eat hot dogs!”
Bea shrugged. “Yeah but even Mae wouldn’t go out to get tacos”
“It’s not my fault they deliver! It’s convenient!” Mae exclaimed.
“And besides, that’s not the point” Gregg said. “I think it’s the principle of the thing”
Bea sighed. “Oh my god, how long have you two known each other that neither of you know what that means?”
Gregg looked over at Mae for an answer, who had become unresponsive as she took more of her pizza slice into her mouth to gnaw on. Her first pizza slice, when the others had finished their second each.
“Dude you okay?” He asked.
“Hrm?” Mae looked up from the table, mouth full. “Yrr mm rrr rnnm-”
“Okay, swallow before you keep talking” Bea interrupted.
“Yrr nnr mr mmm!” Mae mumbled through her pizza. Then she swallowed, and repeated “I said you’re not my mom, Bea!”
“And wipe off your chin” Bea handed over a napkin, which Mae readily took to do so.
Gregg leaned over into Angus, whispering as loudly as possible “Dude, Andy stopped by the Falcon today!”
Angus’s ears perked up. “Andy Cullen? Oh yeah, I heard he was spending the week back in town”
Mae groaned again, going back to gnawing on her pizza slice and looking ever so slightly frustrated.
“Yeah he came in earlier and was super weird” Gregg continued.
“Weird how?” Angus asked.
Bea shrugged. “He wasn’t really weird. Just bought some cigarettes and left. Shitty brand though”
“Did he see Mae?” He asked.
“Yeah but he didn’t say anything. Like a weirdo” Gregg said, waving his uneaten crust as he spoke.
“Huh” Angus shrugged. “Maybe he’s over it”
“It did happen like what, six years ago?” Bea asked.
Mae loudly groaned yet again, resting her head on the table. “Can we not talk about this?”
“Sure” Angus conceded the point, much to Mae’s appreciation. “Water under the bridge”
“You’re not a little bit curious?” Gregg asked despite that.
“Gregg-” Bea started.
“Sorry!” Gregg quickly covered himself. “I’ll drop it if we’re gonna drop it. I’m just saying, you gotta wonder right?”
“Then let’s drop it! I’m not curious, and I don’t care!” Mae cried out with another groan.
Silence fell to the table, Gregg looking guilty. Which in turn made Mae look guilty. Which in turn made Gregg look even guiltier.
“Sorry” he said.
“Nah, I’m sorry” she said back.
“No dude, I’m sorry”
“Sorry”
“Sorry”
“Sorry”
Bea sighed, watching the exchange. “I think they’re stuck in a loop” she whispered to Angus, who quietly nodded but gave no attempt to stop them. It was kind of sweet in its own really dumb way.
Soon enough, the two went silent, content that neither was really more sorry than the other. Mae pushed her last uneaten pizza slice over to Bea and stood up from the booth, stretching out.
“You’re not gonna finish?” Bea asked.
“You can have it” Mae said, inbetween cracking her neck from side to side. “I’m not really feeling it tonight”
She gave only a quick wave and started wandering towards the door. Didn’t leave any money for the pizza either but that was kind of expected at this point.
“Whatever you say” Bea mumbled. Then she thought it over, and quickly added “Hey! Message me later if you need to talk or… yeah”
Mae looked back if only to wave again, then disappeared out the Clik Clak’s front door.
“What was that about?” Angus asked with a raised eyebrow.
Bea shrugged and pushed her new pizza slice over to Gregg for him to have instead. “Probably nothing”
“No like, with you” Angus clarified.
“Also nothing” Bea crossed her arms and slumped forward on the table. Closing herself off did nothing to dissuade the questioning looks that Angus and Gregg were giving her, so she sighed loudly, shutting her eyes. “She asked me out” Bea admitted.
Instantly a half-wheeze, half-high pitched squeal emerged from Gregg, who has squeezing both his cheeks in to hide his enormous grin.
“Really? When did this happen?” Angus asked.
Gregg squealed again, looking from Bea to Angus and back again in unbridled excitement. He looked to Angus, pointed at Bea, then squealed again.
“Like a month ago? A little less?” Bea answered, trying her hardest to ignore Gregg.
Gregg squealed once more, pounding his hands on the table until all of his excitement was thoroughly spent.
“Really?” Angus asked. “Why didn’t we hear about this?”
Bea shrugged. “I don’t know. It didn’t come up I guess”
“Huh. I didn’t know you… uh…” Angus trailed off, tapping his fingers on the table uncomfortably.
Gregg, finally catching his breath, asked “She what?”
“Yeah. Me neither” Bea answered Angus, again ignoring Gregg.
“She what?!”
“Don’t worry about it, bug. Congratulations to you both” Angus nodded with a smile.
And well, two out of three people at that table were happy enough, Gregg looking between them both.
“Someone tell me what’s going on!” He cried.
“Helloooooooo?” Mae called out to the empty foyer.
She shut the church doors behind her, wandering up to the front desk. No Mom here. Her car hadn’t been outside so that wasn’t really much of a surprise, but part of Mae was still hoping otherwise.
Mae took only a quick peek into the back room filled with books before concluding that no, even if she was slacking then Mom definitely wasn’t here today. Or like… anymore at least. It’d already gotten dark, so that really shouldn’t have been much of a surprise.
She poked her head through the door of the main chapel next, and was as usual completely unsurprised to find it devoid of all life. Well, most of all life, Pastor K was seated on the chapel stairs at the far end of the room, an open book in her lap.
Well as long as she was already here…
Mae squeezed through the door and jogged over, stopping as Pastor K raised her head. “Hello Mae”
“Hey Pastor K. Have you seen my mom around?” Mae asked.
“I think she just left, actually. Might be at your home if you haven’t already checked”
Mae shrugged. “Yeah, I kinda figured”
“Everything alright? You look worried”
“Eeeeeeh” Mae mumbled out, completely unable to voice her thoughts at the moment.
“Same old same old?” Pastor K asked.
Mae shrugged again. “I guess? I mean when you put it that way”
“Hmm” Pastor K shut her book and leaned forward expectantly. “Well if you want to talk, that’s what I’m here for”
“Mm” Mae stared, some mental debate going on in her head.
“Everything okay?” Pastor K asked.
“I’m thinking about it”
“Take your time”
And Mae did. Take her time that is. She must’ve been standing there for at least a full minute before she finally admitted “I saw Andy at the Snack Falcon today”
“Ah, Andy” Pastor K confirmed.
Mae nodded. “Yep”
They stood in silence again, before Pastor K admitted “I don't know who that is”
Mae lowered her eyes and sighed. Of course, everyone in this town knew every detail about what happened until she actually needed them to. “Andy Cullen, the kid I had my incident with in high school”
“Oh. That must have been…”
“Awkward?”
“That’s a word for it, sure” Pastor K nodded, tapping her foot lightly.
She didn’t actually seem to have much to say though, much to Mae’s annoyance. “So like, what do I do?”
“Hmm” Karen thought it over a moment. “I’m not sure. Sounds like it’s up to you”
“That’s not even real advice!” Mae cried.
“Well the way I see it, you’re worrying because you want to do something to make it better, right?” Pastor K asked. Mae gave a silent nod. “Well, you could, but it’s been years. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to just leave it in the past”
“So like… you’re saying I shouldn’t worry either way?” Mae asked.
“I’m saying I don’t think it’d make you less of a good person if you wanted to leave things alone. And you’d be a very strong person if you tried to make things better anyway” Pastor K explained. “That’s all”
Mae stared at the floor a few awkward moments. “Huh”
“That help?”
“Yeah, sorta” Mae raised her head and gave a quick wave. “I’m gonna go”
Pastor K returned the wave. “Have a good evening, Mae” she said, before opening her book again and retreating back into its pages.
Mae turned and hurried out. Running always helped sort her thoughts, and she was eager to get home anyway.
Or at least, that had been the plan. In reality, Mae had completely gotten lost. In her own thoughts this time, thankfully. So much so that she’d run down the sidewalk straight past home, trying to sort her head together.
Andy. Andy Andy Andy. An-dy. Ahn-day. Undoy. And deed.
Andy.
Six years ago the last thing she’d wanted was to see him again. Well to be fair, that was the last thing she wanted right now, but it was conflicted. Like… he was here. In town. For one week. Longest Night week of all weeks. Here to ruin her holiday.
Yeah, there was nothing wrong with wanting to just ignore him. In a week he’d be gone and she’d be back to mooching off Bea and stealing things with Gregg and talking Demontower with Angus and doing whatever the hell Germ wanted to do with Germ. And then he’d be gone, and she’d never have to think about Andy Cullen again and how she totally ruined his teenage years and potentially his life from the looks of things.
Yeah. Just don’t think about that.
Mae was yanked from her thoughts as her foot caught on the slightly raised section of road when she started running on the bridge out of Possum Springs. Naturally she immediately ate shit against the snow covered pavement, which if nothing else served as a good wake up call. Mae dragged herself back up and shook her head off, ear twitching. Then as she made the mental decision to turn back and head home, her eye spotted light from far below the bridge, in the ravine. A flashlight.
Hm. Germ.
A minute later, Mae was stumbling down the rockface and arriving safely at the bottom, where an old sewage drain waited wide open. Inside was Germ, who had no doubt heard her come down but hadn’t bothered to look. He instead had one of those huge clunky yellow flashlights and was shining it into the tunnel at an ever familiar opossum.
“Hey Germ” she said, wandering in.
“Hey Mae” he answered, tucking the flashlight under his arm for a second to open up a potato chip bag in his other hand.
“Here to check on Rabies?” She asked, taking a seat on a neatly placed rock sitting off to the side.
“Wait”
Germ opened up the bag nice and wide, then set it down and stepped away, keeping his light shining on it.
Rabies skittered forward, immediately sticking his entire head in the chip bag and bringing a grin to Mae’s face.
… yeah. She could use this tonight. Nothing like feeding vermin to take your mind off things.
“Waaaait foooor iiiit…” Germ said again.
“For what?” Mae asked, squinting into the darkness of the tunnel. “Oh my god... is that…” Mae’s eyed snapped wide open as a second opossum emerged from the shadows.
It scurried over beside Rabies, lightly nipping at him before joining in on scarfing down the chips from Germ’s offering.
Germ nodded. “Yeah I think it’s his wife”
Mae was instantly beaming at the sight. This was easily the best thing she’d seen in a week. “Did you name his wife too?”
“Nah. Rabies needed his name. Wouldn’t be right to name his wife. Like, I couldn’t just come along and name you”
“Huh. I could see that”
The two of them then sat in silence watching the two opossums gorge themselves on brand name potato chips. The good stuff. Suddenly Mae was wishing she’d finished eating back at the Clik Clak. She was also inwardly questioning just how good of a father figure Germ was being to his children here. Chips all the time could not be healthy.
“You know, I used to grab pretzels from the Trolleyside News in town for my rats” Mae suggested.
Germ shook his head. “Rabies just likes the chips and ice cream”
“What about for when he has babies? Now that he’s married and all” She asked.
“That’s what the ice cream’s for. Can’t give them solid foods I think”
Mae tilted her head to the side. “Oh yeah, that makes sense” Huh. Maybe Germ did have this whole parenting thing down. And here was Mae having not called her babies in weeks and judging him. For shame. “So you’re just gonna take care of these two and their babies forever?”
Germ shrugged. “Eh. As long as they keep coming back”
That was fair enough. Rabies looked up from his food at Mae, staring wide eyed. He gave a loud half-honking, half-growling, all gurgling noise. Mae opened her mouth wide and returned the favor as accurately as she could manage.
Rabies’ mate raised her head and joined in, and within another second or two all three were making the same ungodly noise with Germ just quietly watching.
Then it ended, the opossums went back to eating, and Mae was back to beaming.
“Awesome” she concluded. She hopped up from her seat. “Thanks for… yeah. I’m gonna go” she waved to Germ.
“Yep” He answered, still watching his opossums dig through their food.
“See ya Jeremy”
“See ya Margaret”
Yeah. Quit worrying, Margaret. You’ve got this. Nothing’s really changed, everyone’s still here. Just deal with this like with everything else.
Mae climbed her way back up and out of the ravine, feeling newly invigorated. Nothing like Germ to completely reset your head after a weird day.
As always, the front door to the Borowski household was left unlocked purely for Mae’s return. It probably would’ve freaked some people out, but then again Stan and Candy had little to worry about considering the person most likely to break into the house already lived there.
The kitchen was devoid of life, as was the usual what with her mom always heading to bed early. And also as was the usual, the living room TV was on with a plump older man sitting on the couch with an adorable face.
Mae wandered in, leaning on the couch armrest. “Yo Dadders”
Mae’s dad turned down the TV volume before addressing her. “Hey there Kitten. How’d your day go?”
“Eh” Mae said.
“Well it’s ‘Eh’ season alright” her dad confirmed, nodding quietly to himself.
“I thought it was the holiday season”
Stan mentally weighed this. “Well it depends. When you’re young, it’s holiday season. When you’re older and working, the holidays are ‘Eh’ season. Looks like you’re just getting old”
Mae shook her head, hands on hips, now in pure sass mode. “Not on your life!”
Stan chuckled under his breath. “You’ll like being old. We get to drive anywhere we want, buy anything we want…”
Mae rolled her eyes. “Preach to anyone you want…”
“Exactly!” Her dad nodded, smirking.
Mae groaned. “I’m going to bed!” She sad, arms raised.
“Hehe. Goodnight, Kitten” her dad chuckled, turning up the TV’s volume again.
Within seconds Mae was up in her safe haven: the attic. A few seconds more and her new horrible boots were off, stacked neatly under her bed so as not to risk destroying them quite yet. Her old ones were both still laying uncared for next to her mirror, because she respected those. Mae nodded to herself. “Respect”
Then she crawled under the covers and opened up her laptop. Immediately three lights in her messenger were set to green, and naturally Gregg was the first to notice her own.
G: hey duders. sry about dinner
M: its cool. i saw germ so im p much back at 0
G: if germ puts u at 0 wuts andy do?
M: andys like -100
G: r u saying im not +100 at lest?
M: dude you know im bad at math
G: dude
M: yea?
G: dude
M: im all ears
G: U HOOKD UP W/ BEA?!!
M: oh yea haha i did do that
G: y didn u tell me?????
M: dunno. you never asked
G: who else r u secretly dating?
M: angus. its been goign on for a long time
G: i always knew itd come to this
G: i get him on weekdays and u can have holdiays
M: deal
M: k seriously tho im tired
G: same. nite dude!!
Gregg’s status went from green to white, and Mae mentally checked off another obligation for the day. Not that talking to Gregg wasn’t a joy either. It was an obligation because she wanted it to be. Nobody gives Mae Borowski a job but Mae Borowski.
Mae opened up a chat with next person on her list.
M: sup kid
L: Sup adult.
M: do anything cool today?
L: The usual. Jelly.
M: is the jelly for a prop?
L: I just like jelly.
L: I mean it’s for a prop but also I just like jelly.
M: sweet. when are you fonna teach me how to make these props?
L: You’re already gonna be my first victim. I can’t give away all my secrets.
M: fine fine
L: Hey, I heard Andy Cullen’s back in town.
M: okay great talking to you night lori
L: Night Killer.
Mae shut her laptop, sighing. That kid was lucky that she was freaking awesome.
Then Mae opened her laptop back up, taking a deep breath. One more, then bed.
M: XOXOXOXO
B: Are you having a stroke?
M: rude
B: How you feeling? Sorry about earlier.
M: yea its fine. just thinkin about sfudd
M: stuff*
B: Well just keep me posted. Don’t do anything stupid.
M: you have like no faith in me
M: i think im gonna try to fix things
B: I just said don’t do anything stupid.
M: funny
B: Sorry, that was funnier in my head.
B: It’s late. I’m gonna get some sleep for work tomorrow.
M: night beebee
B: Goodnight.
Hmm. Yeah well, Bea was always like that. Mae shut the laptop and rolled over to face the wall, tightening the blanket around her until she was naught but a fluffy ball of warm.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow she’d fix everything. Mae held that thought in her mind as she drifted off to sleep to the sound of a violin.