Work Text:
You were my Closeface all along
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Stephanie was closing up shop at Buried Pleasures on a weeknight as usual. It was almost ten and she decided to close a little earlier this one particular night since there wasn’t much clientele anyway. She closed the register and grabbed her keys, locking the store’s front door. She made her way to her pickup truck and drove away to the apartment complex.
She walked up to the front door of the Aloneford complex. It was mostly made up of female renters who lived alone. She never really noticed all the names of the tenants on the front door till now. “Miss Sculpthum, Miss Nursula Bendy..” She read the list of names. Some familiar, some not. She’s certain she’s ran into Miss Sculpthum before who lived down the hall across from her. And Ms. Censordoll who was the cranky old lady.
Stephanie shrugged and made her way inside the apartment into her unit. Her apartment was simple but with some dark grey walls she had painted herself. She hated white or any bright colors for that matter. Her room was covered in rock band posters and a dark purple wall. Her bed was undone as she didn’t feel like making it that morning.
She jumped into the shower and then searched her fridge for something to eat.
“Damn” she muttered to herself only seeing a carton of eggs and milk and water. “I should go grocery shopping” She decided to order some Chinese food takeout which was kind of a drive out of town. Luckily they delivered.
Sometimes she wished she had someone in her life to talk to at night. Didn’t even have to be a lover , just a friend of some kind. In this town it was nearly impossible to make friends with most of the other females especially. Orel was the closest thing to having a friend or a younger brother at least. And her dad of course since he came into her life. She was always grateful for both.
After she ate her dinner she decided to go outside and take the trash out to the dumpster of the apartment. Some noise caught her attention in the night air. It seemed to be coming from the building outside someone’s windows. The sounds of someone crying or sobbing could be heard. She turned around and looked up to see if she could see any lights which she did in one of the apartment windows. The crying lasted maybe half a minute then died down. She wondered what was going on or who it was in trouble but again thought nothing more of it after.
The next morning she came out of the apartment about to go to work and was making her way down to the main door entrance when she ran into a young blonde lady who seemed to be having some trouble with her key not closing the door properly.
“Need help with that?” the pierced goth asked the struggling blonde.
“Uh yeah, like this key isn’t working or something” Nurse Bendy replied.
Luckily all the tenants’ keys were the same for the opening and closing the main door of the building.
“I got you” Stephanie reached over and locked the door of the apartment with hers. She turned over to the blond who thanked her after.
“This door needs repair it seems” Stephanie said
“Yeah..Ill ask the manager or whoever for a new one..Thanks again” she waved to Stephanie as she walked down the stairs to get to the hospital.
“No biggie..where you headed to?” she asked Bendy, trying to strike up a conversation. She had seen her going in and out of the building at least a few times before but they never really interacted with each other.
“Oh I work at the Martin Luther hospital..I think I’m running late or whatever” she said with an eye roll. She was never excited to go to work even more so at the school because of that jackass Principal Fakey.
“Oh. I see. I guess I’ll let you go then. See you around” Stephanie looked at her, who had an annoyed look on her face. She won’t lie but the blonde nurse was quite cute.
Nurse Bendy waved bye to her with half a smile and walked off to her job.
Stephanie waved back and got in her car to go to workplace, Buried Pleasures.
Business was always slow in Moralton. There was always the usual two or three clientele that would stop by but that’s it.
Orel stopped by the shop as usual to help clean and broom as his part time job. He only worked twice a week for now cause Clay was getting suspicious of where he was all the time. Stephanie never formally met Orel’s parents but from what Orel had told her they didn’t sound like very good parents. And of course he kept wanting to stay with her so she let him.
By the time seven o clock hit she let Orel go home. After she was done for the day she closed the store once again. That night she decided to stop by Forghetty’s Pub for a drink. She rarely socialized with anyone in town aside from Orel and her dad and she wanted to see if that cute blonde bartender girl was there. She would go to the Pub once in a blue moon and talked to her briefly the last time she went there.
She walked inside the Pub and saw a few town residents hanging there. It wasn’t a packed night. She spotted Dolly Forghetty at the bar counter and walked up.
“Hey” The pierced punk cleared her throat.
“Hi!” The blonde bartender greeted her quite chipper.
“I remember you”
“Yeah me too…” Stephanie sat on the bar stool and ordered herself a cosmopolitan cocktail of all things. Normally she’d get a German beer or lager but she was in a cocktail mood and a cosmopolitan was the only cocktail she’d drink.
“Cocktail huh? What’s the occasion?”
“No occasion. Just feeling “festive” tonight” Stephanie gestured with two fingers sarcastically
“Been a while since you stopped by here”
“Yeah just needed a drink”
The blonde then started making her drink and greeting the other customers that entered the pub. One of them being the blonde nurse she talked to that morning from her apartment with some guy with black hair next to her. Stephanie noticed her quick and was going to say hi to her but the male figure with her seemed to drag her away to another table. Nurse Bendy looked annoyed to be at the Pub.
Stephanie glanced over and saw the two sit at a table and watched as the male was putting his arm around her waist and nearly cupping one of her breasts as she pulled his arm away. Stephanie can tell the blonde was agitated from the pissed look on her face. She didn’t know if she should intervene and just mind her own business. That is until she glanced back again and saw The male trying to slide his hand under her white nurse dress. Nurse Bendy slapped his hand in frustration and got up and bolted to the bathroom.
Stephanie got up from the bar stool after a few seconds and followed discreetly to check on Nurse Bendy. She knocked on the door of the women’s bathroom. No reply first then she turned the knob to see if it was one of those bathrooms with multiple stalls but it wasn’t.
After a minute Nurse Bendy opens the door and looks to be in a bad mood. She notices Stephanie the pierced butch standing in front of her. Her expression changes.
“Oh..Hi”
“I hope you don’t mind me asking but is everything ok?”
“Huh? Oh yeah.. Just fine” the blonde looks down angrily as she lets out a deep sigh.
She then grabs Stephanie’s arm and pulls her inside the bathroom with her and locks the door in back. Stephanie looks confused and not really sure what this is about.
“I’m sick of him. He’s disgusting and is always making me do dirty, adulty things” The blonde starts confessing almost immediately. Stephanie swears she can almost see tears coming out of her eyes.
“I’m sorry..Who?” Stephanie asks genuinely concerned and also disgusted for her.
“Principal Fakey”
“Is he that guy out there?”
“Yeah..”
“Why do you let him do that to you?” Stephanie asks now crossing her arms
“I don’t know.. He’s my boss…”
“Who gives a shit. He’s a douche and needs his balls cut off if he’s sexually touching you inappropriately without consent” Stephanie cuts her off.
Nursula never knew how to say no when it came to men sexually harassing her but she agreed with Stephanie.
“I just want to go home. But I can’t without him”
Stephanie was now getting pissed.
“Look just come with me and I’ll get you home. We do live in the same apartment after all”
Nurse Bendy agreed and the two walked together trying to avoid Fakey but he caught Bendy walking away to the exit with someone else. He couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman himself.
“Bendy, where are you running off to!”Fakey yelled getting up and was going to pull her to him when Stephanie got in the middle and pushed him away.
“She’s leaving with me asshole and don’t try to put your hands on her again or I’ll give you a black eye in front of everyone here”
She didn’t care about making a scene either as everyone now was starring. Fakey backed away, intimidated by a butch lesbian. The two were heading to the door but Stephanie stopped to put the tip for her drink. Dolly nodded at her and then the two left the Pub.
Nurse Bendy got inside Stephanie's pickup truck and started driving away.
There was an awkward silence at first inside the car until Bendy spoke.
“Wow I never had someone like..defend me like that”
“Yeah, well I can see you were distraught about this” Stephanie said in a serious manner.
“I’ve never met someone like you before”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Stephanie raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know ..like you’re strong looking and with tattoos and piercings all over”
“You mean a lesbian. A butch lesbian to be exact”
Nurse Bendy blinked at first not really knowing much about it but something about the dark haired pierced girl intrigued her.
They made it to the Aloneford apartments and Stephanie walked Bendy to her door.
“I guess I’ll see you around…Bendy?”
“It’s Nursula actually” She grinned at her
“Nice name. I’m Stephanie.Take Care Nurse”
“Yeah you too Steph..” She was about to shut the door but then pulled a piece of paper out “Oh wait ..can I give you my number and you give me yours?”
Stephanie was surprised by this considering the two just met today but she didn’t turn the offer down. The two exchanged numbers and said they’re last goodnights.
Stephanie was confused by all this. She just got a woman’s number. She wasn’t sure what to think of what just happened but she knew Nursula seemed like a sweet person..A bit ditzy but nice overall. She was tired and decided to sleep on it. Was this the start of a friendship? She could only hope so in a town like Moralton.