Work Text:
Prom Dress
Cater’s day already wasn't going too great. He woke up late and was therefore late for class. Then, he fell asleep and missed the lesson, causing him to get extra homework. That incident caused him to get scolded by Riddle and cleaning duties. Perhaps he went to bed a bit too late the night before. Of course it was his fault.
All through this however, his smile did not once falter. He was still the normal Cater Diamond! He was just having an extremely bad day.
Now, Cater was sitting at a table in the cafeteria eating lunch. He had some of his friends sitting around him talking, but he wasn’t feeling quite sociable at the time. He wasn’t even feeling hungry, which could be assumed by the food that was now getting cold on his plate.
As he scrolled his phone, he did not dare to forget the most important thing to his entire personality. To smile. Even if it was slightly.
He heard someone call his name and he turned to face them, it was Vil.
“You alright Cater?” Vil said, furrowing his brows slightly in concern.
“Huh? Oh! Yeah no- I’m fine! Just kinda tired.” Cater shrugged, smiling nervously.
Azul looked at Cater from where he sat across from Vil, “Tired? Well you are still going to the dance later right?”
Cater didn’t respond immediately, he didn’t understand what Azul meant…What dance? Did he forget something again? And especially something that would usually be extremely important to him?
“You forgot?” Jamil questioned, sitting across from Cater, “That’s not like you to forget something like that.”
“O-Oh! Haha! No no! Just so much on my mind, it slipped my mind.” Cater blurted out quickly.
“My, you must really be more tired than I thought, and you didn’t even eat your food.” Vil said, gesturing towards Cater’s plate which Cater had not taken a single bite off of.
That was the first crack in Cater’s mask. His friends realizing the once tiny crack in his personality really broke something inside him. It made him feel more vulnerable than he should. He felt the tears forming in his eyes, so he did what he always did. Laugh it off.
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Cater’s day only got worse from that point. Since Cater didn’t eat lunch, he was hungry for the rest of the day. And because he forgot about the dance, he had no one to go with.
He asked all of his friends as well, but they got the same answers from all of them, “Sorry, I’m already going with someone.”
He figured it couldn’t hurt to go alone anyways. It wouldn’t ruin his experience.
The dance was in 2 hours and he was getting ready now.
Cater was sitting in a chair he dragged into the bathroom so he could do his makeup. He was staring into the mirror blankly. He wasn’t smiling now as he felt no need. There was nothing to smile about right now.
Suddenly, he heard the door open and Cater regained his focus, making sure to smile once again.
“Who is it?” Cater called out, picking up a makeup brush.
“Trey, I came to bring you a homework packet from Trein, he said you forgot it in class.” Trey smiled, walking into the room and placing the packet on Cater’s desk.
Did he really forget that as well?
“Oh! Thanks Trey!” Cater beamed, looking back at Trey. Realizing something, Cater spoke again, “Oh yeah, by the way, are you going to the dance?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, me and Riddle are going together since he didn’t have anyone to go with.” Trey said, pushing up his glasses, “Why?”
That was the second crack. It made his heart hurt a bit. Of course he didn’t expect Trey to go with him, but still, it would’ve been a nice change to his horrible luck. He felt his smile falter for a moment, but quickly his smile brightened.
“Oh haha! I was just gonna ask you but since you and Riddle are going, I don’t wanna intrude on your fun.” Cater laughed, turning back towards the mirror.
“Oh- I’m sorry, I assumed you were already going with someone.” Trey said, a bit quieter. He felt bad that he had so wrongly assumed.
“No no! It’s fine! I’ll see you later Trey!” Cater brushed it off, waving Trey goodbye and sending him out the door.
As Cater heard the door close, his smile dropped. He dropped the makeup brush he was holding and grabbed a tissue to wipe the tears that were forming in his eyes. He couldn’t cry now. He had to do his makeup and go to the party. Cater loved parties. He has to go.
Cater proceeded to carefully do his makeup, holding in all of his emotions so as to not ruin his perfect face.
Standing up out of the chair, Cater stared at the mirror. He wanted to break the mirror the second he saw himself in it. He wished he could be wiped from history and the minds of all who knew him.
He grabbed his phone and opened the Magicam app, immediately going to livestream. Within a minute or two, there were already about 10,000 people watching, and the number was increasing by the second.
Cater stared at the camera, he was smiling but it wasn’t genuine. Many seemed to notice as well, seeing as many people were commenting and asking if he was alright.
Ignoring it, Cater began to speak, “Hey guys! Welcome back to another stream! I’ve been having a…” Cater paused for a moment, looking through the chat and really thinking about his day.
Cater felt tears forming once again, but he was trying extremely hard to conceal them.
“I’ve actually been having a really bad day hahah…But don’t worry!” Cater smiled, wiping the tears away from his eyes, “I’m sure this dance I'm going to will really improve my mood!”
When Cater looked through the comments, he saw even more concerns.
He laughed slightly, “Seriously guys! Don’t worry! I’ll update you when I'm back!” Cater smiled, ending the live stream and looking at himself in the mirror one last time before leaving the room.
⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰
Cater walked into the gym where the dance was taking place, he saw many of his friends, but he felt more like avoiding them right now. However, that’s what the real Cater would do, not the one he was right now.
And so, Cater walked up to Vil, Jamil and Azul.
“Hey guys! Am I late?” Cater smiled.
“Not at all.” Vil said, turning to look at Cater, “Right on time.”
“Great! Are you guys thirsty? I can go get you some drinks if you want.” Cater looked over at the drink table, which few people were at right now.
The group looked among each other, all of them agreeing that they wanted drinks. They all told Cater what they wanted and now he was walking over to the table.
Carefully, he grabbed three glasses, filling them with the respective drinks. He turned around, walking slowly so he wouldn’t drop any of them.
Suddenly, Cater heard yelling and people calling his name, he looked to where it was coming from. He saw Ace and Deuce chasing after Grimm who was running straight for him.
Quickly, Cater tried to get out of the cat’s way. But of course, he failed. Grimm ran right into Cater, causing him to drop all the glasses and fall onto his hands right into the broken shards of glass.
Cater sat still, not saying a word as many students crowded around him in concern. He slowly lifted up his hands and looked at them. The pain was most likely the worst that Cater had ever experienced. But still he only stared down at the many glass shards that poked out of his palms, stained and covered with blood.
This was the last crack to Cater’s facade. It felt like everything he had once worked so hard to maintain had fallen down on top of him. He was sobbing not because of the physical pain he was experiencing.
Because of the pain he felt mentally. He was exhausted. All he wanted to do was run, to escape this situation. He wanted to escape the situation where he was sitting in the middle of a large crowd of students, crying and makeup running down his face.
The biggest wish he had of all now however, was that he wished he was dead. He wishes he would die right now on the spot. He didn’t want to go to the nurse or back to his dorm. He wanted to die.
And he would never tell anyone. Perhaps that was the real problem with Cater. His inability to communicate.
But they do say wishes don’t come true if you tell anyone.
Cater shouldn’t have had his expectations so high. All he wanted to do was have fun, to do something that would make his day better. But here he was now. Sitting on the floor, the only desire of his that was possible, was to run.
.
.
.