OR: the core four healing slowly from trauma? i think yes.
mal thinking about how far her mother’s love extended, whether it would immediately be withdrawn and leave her drowning as soon as she revealed she was nothing like the girl her mom wanted her to be.
she comes home after a long day with her hair cut in a shaggy bob, nothing like the clean-cut usual style she wears. she feels the anxiety bubble up inside her, coil around her intestines like a dragon. her friends are surprised but congratulate her, jay clapping her on the back and carlos complimenting the layering. evie giving her a quick kiss and gushing over how good it looks on her. jay makes her a bowl of her favorite soup and they all pile around the couch to watch a movie, interjecting with compliments on her new, authentic hair. she’s okay.
evie meticulously making sure she was pretty but never too pretty, dumb but never too dumb, airheaded and cute enough to attract boys but not enough to upstage her mother, who blamed and projected.
evie dresses up and goes out with her friends for ben’s birthday and quickly rejects some guy who comes up to her, claiming that she’s cute and just right for her, backed up by her friends and her girlfriend. momentarily, she feels ashamed and wrong, the familiar thought of her worth only being determined by how she’s desired and viewed. then she looks over at mal, who sees her just the same when she wakes up in a tank top and sweatpants, hair a rat’s nest, face pillow-creased, and her friends, who love her every which way. she’s okay.
jay wondering which has father cared more about, the things jay stole for their shop or his son himself, and which would be worse to him - if jay came back empty-handed or didn’t come back home at all.
jay shows up to their house later than usual and is met with a worried carlos who gives him a rib-crushing hug and demands to know where he was. evie and mal rush in as well, evie mumbling in relief and mal punching him gently in the shoulder and asking what took him so long. he responds with a confused explanation that he was helping clean out the chemistry lab as he’s led to the kitchen. carlos nestles closer to him with a kiss and tells him they missed him. he’s okay.
carlos puzzling over the fact that cruella was kind and gentle sometimes but the moment he screwed up she would turn cold and furious and if it was his fault, because what mother would treat a child like that.
carlos burns a piece of toast and has to unplug and pour water on the toaster so the smoke doesn’t set off their fire alarm. he feels the familiar fear rise in him and his body start to shake. jay speaks to him gently and tells him it’s okay, they can always get a new toaster and it was on its last legs anyway. evie sits by him, promising none of them are mad and everyone makes mistakes. mal pats his back and makes him a new slice of toast. he’s okay.
dededos
snowghoul
theartofmadeline
2087
germansingergirl
stormborns
blakekathryn
