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"Hey, you. Purple girl." Susie blinks and points at her own chest. Me? "Stay for a minute."
The three of them glance between each other. "Um... we'll wait for you outside?" Ralsei says, stepping towards the shop exit.
"...Sure, I guess," she says.
Kris exits behind him. "Be nice," they toss over their shoulder as they leave, and she's not sure who it's directed at.
Uncomfortable, she crosses her arms over her chest. Pink's brow twitches as she scowls at her, doing nothing but stare for a moment. She ends up mimicking her pose when she finally breaks her eyes away. "My body has something to say to you," she explains, "so I'm gonna say it for her. Or with her. I don't know, it's confusing."
She's not gonna enjoy this. She can already tell. "Uh, okay. What's your deal, then?"
Pink scratches behind her ear briefly, relaxes, then tenses up again quick and re-crosses her arms more stiffly. Kinda funny. "Even though we got rejected anyway..." she says, "...my body's still pretty upset that you got in the way of our confession. We deserved... she deserved a fair chance."
"...That's what this is about?" Susie asks.
Pink's scowl returns full force. "Of course that's what this is about! What else could it have been!?" She sniffs pompously. "If you hadn't eavesdropped and stuck your big nose in our business, then who's to say that it would've... that they wouldn't have..." She flushes and looks to the side. "A-anyway, it wasn't any of your business. Stay out of other people's love lives."
She grinds her teeth for a moment. "...Sounds to me like stepping in was the right call, actually," she says, "if you think you actually had a chance with them."
Her eyes narrow at her. "What the mew?"
"Kris never says what they're actually feeling," Susie says. "You always gotta, like... figure it out. If I hadn't stepped in, they might've just gone along with it as some sort of joke." She realizes that makes them sound too mean. "Or, just, y'know. Not a joke, but... to be nice. Or something."
Her head shifts, bangs shadowing her eyes. "Would that be so bad?"
For some reason, Susie feels as though she's just choked on something. "H-huh?"
"Would it be so bad for them to go along with it?" she says. "It's not like anyone forced them into it. I wouldn't force them into it. Even if it took a while for them to really return my—my body's feelings... we could still make them happy."
"They wouldn't return your feelings," Susie blurts, mouth too fast for her brain. "Kris isn't like that. They don't—they don't feel that way about anyone."
Pink's head lifts to glare at her with glassy eyes. "What the mew do you know?" she hisses.
"I wasn't lying when I said they flirt with everyone," she quickly tries to justify. "Dude, they've even flirted with me. It doesn't mean anything. They just don't feel that way about anyone. And that's, y'know. It's fine. They don't have to."
Her heart is beating abnormally fast. For some reason, flashes of memory race through her mind: their hands clutching her shirt, dragging her close until her mouth was mere inches away from theirs; their window drawing at the diner and the way they looked at her so softly; how they leaned into her at the baths yesterday, their fingers nearly touching on the edge. "They just flirt for fun," she says. "It doesn't mean anything."
For some reason, Pink is... no longer glaring at her. Her eyes widen, brows lift, like she's realizing something. Then a couple beats after Susie finishes speaking, a nasty smile sweeps across her face. "Oh. Ohh, I see," she says. Susie rears back a little, put on edge from the unexpected response. "Oh, that's rich."
"The hell do you mean?" she snaps.
Pink shakes her head. "It's so funny it makes me sick." Now the glare is back, but this time accompanied by a sense of superiority, and Susie hates it all the more for it. "You know, I heard from Blue about you asking about flowers for your girlfriend. And Green even helped you with some baking, right? So why do you care who Kris dates or doesn't date?"
Susie's hands clench at her sides. "They're my friend, obviously," she says through gritted teeth. "I care about their happiness."
"Oh, do you, mew?" Pink leans forwards, looming. She steps forward. Susie nearly steps back. "Is that why you're making sure they don't start dating anyone else?" Another step. "For their happiness?" Step. Susie recoils as she gets closer. "Have you even asked what they might want?" Step. "Who they might want?"
She swallows nervously. Pink stops in front of her. "Have you even asked yourself who you want?" she says quietly with a malicious smirk.
Susie's heart thumps in her ears. She stands still, unbalanced and leaned backwards away from the other girl. "I like Noelle," she rasps. She thinks about Kris' smile. "I mean." She thinks about their hand in hers. "I mean, obviously, right?" She thinks about how they stare at her and she never knows what's on their mind when they do. "Who wouldn't like her." She thinks about falling through the endless dark of the Titan with them and how everything else seemed to fade away, leaving just her and Kris and the bright light between them, blowing away all the darkness, and nothing else in the whole world mattered. "And she likes me, so..."
The smirk on Pink's face falls, leaving her expression flat and dangerously empty. "If that's who you choose," she says, "then back off." She pulls back entirely, standing properly upright once more. "And, if you ever come to your senses..." A cheery smile blooms on her face and she extends her arm with a peace sign. "Just know you have competition. So you might want to step up your game."
"I—" she starts, then bites down whatever was going to come out of her mouth. "There's no competition. Kris doesn't like you like that."
"Sure, whatever you say, blah, blah," she says, waving her off lazily. "I guarantee I'm not the only one who's noticed their charm. And I'm not giving up just yet, either. Not until I know for sure that they're not interested, without meddlers like you getting in the way." She turns her back on her. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."
"They don't like you like that!" she insists again, more desperate this time.
"But they could," Pink replies, not turning around. A pit forms in her stomach. "I still have a chance. If it'll make this part of me that I love happy... then that's enough reason for me to try."
She doesn't have a comeback for that. She stands there for a moment, trying to come up with one, then grits her teeth and turns on her heel to stalk out, slamming the door shut behind her. Ralsei and Kris stand just outside, facing each other. They look like they were talking, not listening in, and that's probably for the better. "Susie!" Ralsei gasps, turning to face her. "Are you okay? You look upset..."
"I'm—" she starts, then stops. "She's—" A shake of her head, trying to dislodge her feelings from her brain. "Whatever. It was stupid."
Ralsei looks at her with big, compassionate eyes that she still doesn't really know how to handle. Even so, she tries to focus on him. "What'd she say?" Kris asks, traitorously drawing her attention towards them instead. Staring at her curiously. Her heartbeat quickens.
"...She blamed me for you turning her down," she says awkwardly, glancing away and back to them and away and back again. "Whatever. It's stupid, like I said. Not like she has a chance with you anyway, right?"
Why she tacks on the question at the end, she has no idea. Kris hums and shrugs casually. "Dude, what's with the shrug?" she asks. Can't help herself. "You don't even like her."
"Don't dislike her," they say.
"That's—it's not the same," she insists. She can feel Ralsei looking at her inquisitively, too, now, but she can't stop her mouth from running. "You can't just... I mean... You gotta like the person back, right? Otherwise it's all just... pretend."
They chew their lip for a moment. They turn their head to the side and speak quietly, like they don't want to be heard, but she manages to catch it anyway. "Sometimes it's nice to pretend like that."
It feels like something is stuck in her throat. Pretend like what? she thinks but doesn't want to ask. Pretend like you like her? Is that what you do?
"...Yeah?" she says without really thinking about it. Barely aware she's even speaking. Her hair covers her eyes, stopping her from looking at them. "Maybe you should go ask her out, then. And I'll get out of your way."
"Susie's never in the way," they say. They don't mumble this time. They say it with real conviction, and she shifts her head to be able to see that they look it, too.
"I mean," she fumbles, "thanks, but if it would make you happy, then..."
"I'm happy with Susie," they say. Their face goes red. They turn away again, visibly embarrassed.
She rubs the back of her neck. "...Well, uh. Good. I'm... happy with you, too." Her own cheeks flush. "And, uh, Ralsei, obviously. With both of you."
Ralsei giggles into his hand. She hardly hears it when she catches Kris smiling through their re-bitten lip. Her heart stutters. "A-anyway, like I said, it was stupid. We've got other shit to do around town, don't we? Let's just go."