Work Text:
Uzi really, really, doesn’t want to be here.
She’d rather be lying on her bed, melting her eardrums with her favorite Pierce the Veil songs, or crying to TV Girl. Whatever fit her mood more when she got there.
The music blaring from the speakers around the prom court made her head hurt. The hot bodies of students dancing were pressing around her, and they were drinking the alcoholic substance they managed to spike the anti-freeze with - which the scent of hung in the air with their breath - it all made her want to vomit.
She was elbowed in the head, and winced. No apology followed. Not that she expected one, of course, she was too lowly for that. For once, she didn’t try to stir up an argument to maybe earn one by the means of fear.
No, Doorman felt too sick to her stomach to do much.
She was overwhelmed, exhausted, and just wanted nothing more than to go home. She couldn’t even find N. He was most likely off talking to V, which Uzi was fine with.
However, she really wished he’d just taken her with him. Even if she’d been reduced to just standing there quietly while the male tried sheepishly to flirt with V, while the woman was amused. Anything would beat the feeling of suffocation that plagued her in this crowd.
Her head was pounding, worse than before. Getting hit in the head certainly hadn’t helped. That’s what she got for being short within a tall crowd, she supposed. She added that to the mental list of reasons to cry tonight, her stupid appearance.
Maybe she would get some anti-freeze.
No, she was too good for that.
Someone swayed too hard, and slammed into her. This created a domino effect, sending Uzi into another drone, who hit another. This soon turned into two drones fighting before Uzi had time to process what was happening.
“Way to go, Doorman!” Someone jeered. Uzi whirled to see who had uttered the sentence. But, no one met her eye.
She felt something wet hit her, and a cup clunking against her followed. She sparked, smelling anti-freeze, followed by alcohol. Laughter roared, mixed with people screaming from the fight nearby.
“Aw, what’s wrong? Is the little freak upset cause she got all wet?” A drone sneered, getting in her face. Uzi didn’t know their name. “She looks like she’s gonna cry, oh my god.” Another drone hissed, followed by laughter.
Uzi blinked furiously, trying to keep the formerly pointed out tears from slipping. “Bite me!” She snapped.
The drone that had been in her face paused, before they laughed. “Hear that? She wants me to bite her!” They howled, before grabbing her wrist. Uzi yelped, trying to take it back. “Well, let me give her what she wants!” They yelled, before biting her arm, hard.
Uzi screamed, yanking her arm away, feeling the drone’s teeth scrape her arm’s metal. She backed away.
“Aww, she’s scared. Look at her hands shake!”
Uzi didn’t have the mental energy to say or do anything. She just turned and ran.
As she left, a gunshot rang around the court, followed by V’s yelling. But Uzi couldn’t understand her.
She ran. She ran, and ran, and ran, until she was back at her dorm. She didn’t stop running until she was safely in her room. And then, only then, did she let herself lean on the wall, and sink to floor, before being enveloped in heaving sobs.
It wasn’t like her to cry. No, she rarely did. Only when things truly hurt her, or when she was overwhelmed. Tonight, she was both of those things.
Overwhelmed and hurt by the same thing.
Her arm hurt, really bad, but part of her considered that maybe she deserved it. She considered, maybe if she wasn’t so weird. So creepy. So freakish. Maybe then she wouldn’t be bleeding from a bite wound from someone who could’ve been her friend.
Uzi leaned her head back against the wall, drying her digital tears from her visor. She took shaky breaths, trying to stop her sobbing, but the tears wouldn’t stop. That only frustrated her more, which made the cycle repeat.
She heard thumping in the vents, but she didn’t care.
At least, until the vent cover on the roof of her room clattered to the floor. She screamed, the paranoid thought that the drone who had bit her was coming back for more.
This wasn’t the case, however. No, it was N. The drone carefully climbed out of the vent, dropping onto the floor, and looking up at her.
“N, what the hell!?” Uzi croaked. Embarrassment flooding her as her crying still refused to cease.
N stood, walking over to her, and dropping to his knees beside her. “Sorry for just busting in, but your door was locked. V was worried you were going to do something to yourself.” He said. “Oh.” Was all the came from Uzi.
N waited a moment, before he held his arms out to her, offering a hug. Uzi took it almost immediately. She wrapped her arms around him tight, crying into his shoulder. He didn’t shush her or anything, just simply removed her beanie, and ran his fingers through her hair. He did this when she was stressed. It reminded her of her mom, during a much better time.
The two sat in silence for some time, until Uzi’s sobbing finally died down to shuddering breaths. She slowly leaned back from N, drying her eyes again. She tried to apologize, but N stopped her. “You don’t need to be sorry for having feelings.” He said.
Uzi nodded gratefully.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?” N offered, “No pressure.” He quickly added. Uzi slowly nodded. “Sure.”
N gave a single, downward, nod. “You have the floor, then.” He said, going silent.
Uzi swallowed hard. “Everything was going fine, sure I was a little overwhelmed, but it wasn’t awful,” She started, “But then someone bumped into me really hard, which caused me to bump into someone else, which made them bump into someone else- You get the picture,” She paused to inhale, “Then two people started fighting, and someone I didn’t know came up to me, and started getting all up in my face when they spilled their drink on me, and then they bit me,” She held up her injured limb, “Then the crowd got all pissy, so I ran, and now here we are.” She finished.
N took a minute to process everything, slowly nodding the pieces fit together in his head. “That’s awful,” He finally said, “I’m so sorry, Uzi.”
Uzi blinked, it didn’t really matter to her, she liked to think. She, honestly, thought she was being dramatic, now that she’d retold everything to someone.
It really did matter, didn’t it?
Uzi slowly got up, picking her way around N, and picking up the vent cover. She winced, as moving made her bitten limb ache. “It doesn’t really matter. The more I think about it, the more I think I was being dramatic.” She said. N stared at her in disbelief. “Uzi, you basically got assaulted, what do you mean it doesn’t matter?” He protested.
Uzi shrugged.
N only continued to stare, as she set the vent cover on her desk with a sigh.
“I may go to bed,” Uzi said, changing the topic rather suddenly, “I’m exhausted.” N didn’t have the heart to stop her, despite how much he wanted to argue that what happened to her was important. “Okay.” Was all he said.
Uzi shooed him out, and wandered into her closet to put something more comfortable on.
She was never good at being left alone with her thoughts.
Maybe I should’ve confirmed V’s fears.
Everyone would be so happy.
She sighed.
Maybe another night.