Work Text:
She loved this. This feeling of ‘better than.’
Always had.
She was competitive. People said it was by nature. Brooke knew better.
Brooke was competitive because she had to be to stay alive. To keep from killing herself she had to find something more interesting. More exciting. More thrilling.
More…
more
A cigarette finds its way to her mouth. A shitty lighter makes its acquaintance. Brooke pretends to not see them flirting.
She looks out over a bar parking lot. Not sure where exactly she is, or how she is supposed to get home. Not that she really has a home anymore. Yes, Nashville is where her physical address is, but home…she hasn’t had a home in a while.
She thought she had a home at Drag Race. Thought the fans would be in her corner. Doing the best and all. But the breakup changed things.
She knew it would.
Hoped it wouldn’t.
Still holds out hope that she may have a chance to set the record straight. She thought maybe the fans would think and ask her again, so this time she could get it right.
That time she would say it differently.
She would say, “The distance was hard”
“We were both hurting”
“I never saw him.”
“I miss him like crazy.”
Missed*
“You can’t fall in love with a FaceTime call.”
“I still care for him.”
“We still have love for each other.”
“We are still good friends.”
Hopefully, this time the lie wouldn’t sting her mouth as it left her lips.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t sting Vanessa’s ears as she tried not to hear it.
But the fans didn’t ask her more. They were predictable.
Predictable was boring.
Fans took Vanessa’s side without a second thought to Brooke. No care to her personality, or upbringing, or the way her heart still clenched in her chest when she saw him.
Brooke was the bad guy. Always has been. She was the one who left. She was the one who had commitment issues. She was the one who broke poor little Vanessa’s heart.
Except she wasn’t.
Well…she was…just not in so many words.
To the outside world, it looked as though there was only ever one person to blame for the breakup.
Brooke and Vanessa knew better.
Brock and Jose knew best.
Brooke knew that she looked better on camera as the Ice Queen. The lights hit her better. Her dress fell in all the right places. The pictures turned out crisper.
The fans could stomach it. And so could Brooke.
For a time.
She wouldn’t mention that in every picture Vanessa took there was a shadow behind her. A dark outline hiding her part in things. In how things broke down.
Vanessa always looked smaller behind her doe eyes and straight teeth. It made her more personable, less…out of reach.
If it’s true that it takes two to make a relationship work, it takes two to break it up.
Brooke knows that Vanessa isn’t innocent in all this. But it doesn’t really matter what the truth is, because public perception is everything. In the eyes of everyone she knows, she broke up their relationship by being a horny piece of shit. And when interviews ask her about it, she echos the sentiments she said at the reunion, adding bits and pieces of the truth here and there. Desperately hoping someone is reading between the lines.
They aren’t.
And Brooke is the bad guy.