Chapter 18 #2
“Aww, see, you have such a good friend waiting for you!” one of the drunk girls cooed, still trying to cheer Chicot up. Chicot swallowed.
“Elijah’s the best friend,” Chicot explained.
“Want me to take you to him?” The woman still had her arm around Chicot, holding onto her tightly.
Chicot’s mouth wobbled as another sob came out of her, nodding as she cried.
The bartender gently ushering the drunk, worried girls away so she could bring Chicot out to Elijah, who opened his arms up for her quickly.
She pressed in close to him, and Elijah half-carried her back to Ken’s car.
“I’m reporting her. I don’t fucking care if it wasn’t on faire grounds. She hit Chicot!” Ken was loud as Chicot lay in the back seat.
“I know, I know.” Elijah was much calmer in this situation somehow. “But we need to be careful about this. I don’t want her to lash out at Chicot again.”
“She’ll be fired before she does if I have anything to do with it,” Ken grumbled. “I hate that asshole. I hate her so fucking much.”
“You’re preaching to the choir,” Elijah commiserated. His eyes drifted back to Chicot, finding hers and holding. “But we have to follow Chicot’s lead on this.”
“It’s whatever,” Chicot dismissed. “I provoked her.”
“You did not deserve to be hit. That was not your fault.” Ken tried to turn around in his seat, but Elijah promptly directed him to focus on driving.
“Ken’s right.” Elijah’s voice was much more level, but at the very back of it, where it first left his throat, Chicot could hear the seething anger slipping past his tongue. “You didn’t do anything to deserve this, okay?”
“Okay.” Chicot sighed. “Either way, I’ll tell management. If she’s acting like this with me, she’s probably done it before.”
“That is exactly my point,” Ken said, and then launched into another tirade about Brewhilda’s actions.
Chicot just closed her eyes. If it hadn’t happened to her in that very moment, she would probably be just as outraged as Ken.
For now, she was still in shock, and being in the car was making her motion sick. She just wanted to be home.
When they got to the dog park, very few people were out.
With tomorrow being a faire day, most people went to bed early, but a few hung out by fires or sat chatting as they smoked on lawn chairs.
Chicot saw Sunnie’s signature red bandana around his head.
She didn’t want to worry him, so she walked into her trailer, leaving Ken and Elijah outside.
Duchess came running to her, meowing loudly as Chicot walked into the bathroom. She looked in the warped mirror, frowning at the sight of the three scratches that Brewhilda had left on her cheek. They were pretty angry and red, but they’d probably heal fine.
She washed her face with Duchess sitting on her foot, then threw a few treats for her.
Elijah and Ken were still outside, so she stripped off her clothes, which were now gross from falling in the bar, and then climbed into her hammock in just her underwear and the tank top she’d been wearing as an undershirt.
Her arm curled under her as she lay on her side, and Duchess meowed from below, eventually just hopping into the hammock with her.
Chicot rubbed her ears slowly, thinking of the bunny charm and wondering if that had been Monty at the bar or someone else entirely.
She hadn’t even tried to look at their face before she’d run away to puke, so she couldn’t really say.
All she knew was that if it was Monty, she had probably hurt her feelings.
Chicot wondered if that was bad, all things considered.
She shook the thought away quickly because it wasn’t fair to Monty.
Chicot was probably just feeling residuals from years of her mother mocking Chicot for not recognizing relatives in photos.
Chicot didn’t know anything, really. Just that she wanted Monty to be her girlfriend and that she didn’t know why Monty hadn’t said anything about the dating app.
Duchess jumped out of the hammock when Elijah joined them. The two of them almost immediately went to sleep, though Chicot was up a while thinking far too hard about everything.
When they got up, they started doing their normal faire day routine. Chicot was sluggish, so Elijah compensated, already in costume and double-checking that they had everything she needed, even carrying her mask and collar for her. Chicot appreciated it.
The faire was quiet as they entered, carrying Chicot’s costume back to the backstage area since they’d taken it with them to the audition.
Chicot was glad to find they were alone for now, carefully hanging her collar, pants, and vest that went over her leotard for performances.
She then stretched before she started to put them on, getting ready to advertise their show as they always did.
When she stepped out, mask in hand, Elvis and Monty were just arriving, Lyza trailing behind them as she spoke with another performer that Chicot couldn’t place. Monty’s eyes got huge the moment she saw Chicot, stepping toward her with such speed that Chicot didn’t really have time to react.
“Oh my god, what happened to your face? Are you okay?” Monty reached to take Chicot’s chin in her hand, but Chicot recoiled slightly. There was a twitch in Monty’s brow, her eyes narrowing at Chicot as she frowned. Chicot tried to act normal, stepping back as she looked anywhere but at Monty.
“Uh, there was an incident at The Last Frontier,” she said. “You … weren’t there?”
Monty shook her head. “No, I drove Lyza and Elvis to Milwaukee. We didn’t get home until past midnight because of an accident on the highway.”
Chicot relaxed slightly. Even if she needed to talk to Monty still, at least she hadn’t made everything worse by running away from her in the bar. Elijah appeared at Chicot’s side then, Elvis wandering up with his brows raised.
“Brewhilda hit her,” Elijah told them. Monty’s jaw clenched, the muscles in her forearm tensing so hard that Chicot could see her veins popping out.
“Not super hard.” Chicot held up her palms. “And it was really more of a slap.”
“Still, though,” Elvis said. “Have you told management? What happened?”
Chicot recounted the story, leaving out some of the insults and details about Monty, like the sloppy second comment. Lyza wandered up halfway through, her face going from pleasant to hardened in an instant.
“Come on.” Monty grabbed Chicot’s hand when she finished. “We’re going to make a report.”
Chicot shook her head. “N-No, I will. I want to do it after today, okay?”
“Why in hell would we wait? Her performances should be canceled,” Monty snapped. She then let go of Chicot quickly when Chicot twitched, looking at her feet as she apologized.
“I just … I want to get through today and then tell them.” Chicot rubbed her head. “I want to put it out of my mind and focus. There’s too much other stuff happening.”
“What other stuff?” Lyza asked. Chicot clammed up, her mouth hanging open, and she just sort of looked at Elijah.
“Well, we went to Pennsylvania for a callback and now we’re waiting on a response.” Chicot held up her hands, waving them and doing spirit fingers, weakly adding, “Surprise.”
She hoped this would at least seem like enough so she didn’t have to explain to all of them about the dating app.
Chicot didn’t even know how she wanted to approach that yet, and it seemed to work.
Lyza and Elvis squeed with excitement as Monty’s eyes got big.
She looked at Chicot, staring at her directly like she wanted to do something more, hug her, say something, but she couldn’t in front of Lyza and Elvis.
Chicot’s lips twitched into a small smile when she saw Monty’s shining skin and the grin that now sat on her round face.
Monty didn’t look concerned, or anxious, or distressed—she seemed elated.
Chicot’s face split into a smile, her posture curling as she nodded at Monty. She should have known better. Monty wasn’t going to break her heart before her audition. She probably wasn’t going to break it at all. Still, the dating app ran through her mind and Chicot’s happiness faltered.
Then, trumpets sounded through the park.
Opening ceremonies had started and they all had to scramble to get their signs, heading toward the doors where people would soon be streaming inside.
They took their usual places, and Chicot quickly started to interact with kids and parents, adults and teens; people she could make laugh.
It was easier behind the mask. No one could look at her closely, and she could put everything out of her mind.
She skipped and handed out balloons and cards, making her way slowly back to the stage so she could switch into her pirate gear before their first show.
Elvis showed up first, thankfully, meaning Chicot and Monty weren’t alone to talk because Chicot had a feeling if they were, she would spill everything out all at once, and in the middle of the workday was probably not a good time for that.
Their performance went off without a hitch, Monty catching and holding her like a dream. They even hit their third hold with the three of them easily with no wobbling, something they’d been struggling with before.