*ೃ༄𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐁𝐎𝐘 𝐓𝐎
𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑
Would a dog brush work on human hair?
The girl didn't know, but she certainly wished to test that hypothesis four hours into her workday. Sweat had matted her otherwise luscious hair and she wished to lock herself into the storage closet and just scream until her throat was raw.
Magdalena May hissed to herself as her fingers got caught in a rather obnoxious tangle when she ran her hand through her flowing brown locks. Moving out from behind the check-out counter, the young woman eagerly made her way toward her best friend who was examining a display of dog toys—a display that Magdalena had organized all by herself at the start of her seemingly never-ending shift.
As the brunette dodged some five-year-old running wildly around the pet store—his parents nowhere in sight—she sighed to herself, content that she would be going on her lunch break finally. Though before Magdalena could reach Lulu, the call of her name caught her attention and forced the girl to turn back around. Her coworker, Vanessa, was holding Magdalena's wallet and shaking it slightly, silently reminding the brunette that she had left it behind. In a nonverbal and equally nonchalant response, Magdalena held out her hand, palm to the sky with an expectant look on her face.
Vanessa—with narrowed eyes and in them, pure concentration—tossed the worn and torn red leather wallet to Magdalena, hoping to be accurate. She was. As soon as Magdalena caught the wallet, the brunette sent an appreciative wink in Vanessa's direction and mouthed a quick "thank you" before turning to keep walking while shoving the wallet into her back pocket. The young woman was in a hurry to evacuate Pet Paradise and take a well-deserved breath away from all the chaos. A lunch break with her best friend seemed like the perfect opportunity for mental decompression. When Lulu heard the sound of approaching footsteps, she turned away from the variety of dog toys—those deep brown irises of hers landing on Magdalena in all her...exhausted glory.
The Hayashi girl let out a subdued, but frightened gasp at the sight of the brunette. With a nervous smile that seemed a bit too forced for Magdalena's liking, Lulu's lips wavered partially whilst her eyes raked over her dear friend's downtrodden appearance. Unlike Magdalena May, Lulu wasn't a very good actress. She had never been good at faking the way she felt. And the raven-haired beauty couldn't help the way her encouraging smile diminished into a worried look, which was accompanied with a minor frown, by the time she finally opened her mouth.
"No offense, babe. You know I love you, but you seriously look like you just crawled out of a sewer."
Lulu divulged sweetly...or as sweet as she could anyhow. The raven-haired young woman shifted her eyes up and down, taking in every detail of Magdalena's pitiful aura. Unable to bear the sight of her best friend in such a state, Lulu interlocked her arm with Magdalena's and pulled her out of the pet store for a much-needed escape. The brunette could only sigh to herself about Lulu's previous admittance—about how she looked like a corpse. Sure, those weren't Lulu's words verbatim, but close enough.
The thing was, Lulu certainly was onto something with her observation. She was so, so right. And Magdalena knew it. The young woman looked abysmal. Dark circles were cozying up underneath her eyes and her skin betrayed her in the worst possible way. Magdalena had gotten a heat rash at the base of her neck because of the poor ventilation inside the pet store. Not only that but her work uniform—consisting of jean shorts and a hideous neon blue collared shirt that displayed the Pet Paradise company logo on the back—was hideous. Both clothing items were matched with white tennis shoes...which were no longer white and instead a light shade of gray. That aforementioned collared shirt was stained by cage cleaning products which Magdalena had accidentally spilled onto herself during the start of the day.
"That's exactly what every girl wants to hear after a hard day's work. No offense, Lu, but you are so not cut out for sugarcoating shit. Today has been...it's been interesting. Just do me a favor and make me forget about the rest of my shift for the next twenty minutes. I am this close to losing my fucking mind."
Magdalena—through a serious bout of overdramatizing—emphasized her words as she put her thumb and index finger close together, the two appendages nearly touching. Lulu blew out a breath of pure laziness in order to keep a loose strand of hair out of her eyes without having to do it with her hand. All the while she listened to Magdalena's complaints. As the two girls traversed through the crowded second floor of the mall, they made quick work of expertly maneuvering through clusters of loud, loitering, and wealthy teenagers gossiping about their summer flings.
Magdalena rolled her eyes at the entitled nature of the unemployed youth in Hawkins. They were just fine financially. They were going out of state for college. They would not be stuck in a never-ending loop, constricted to their hometown. Truth be told, Magdalena May was simply envious of her lack of options. The brunette—because of her social status and broken family—would have to work twice as hard to make it in the real world. Her boyfriend was the same. Maybe that was another thing that brought her and Billy closer together.
"You never listen. I told you to apply for the empty cashier position at Jeanie's Shoe Palace instead of that stupid pet store. Anyway, how does some ice cream sound? I cannot return to the food court for at least another week. This guy I hooked up with, well, he works at that Greek place, you know, the one with the really good gyros. Point is, he hasn't stopped calling. I don't want that creep to see me. I can't face him."
Lulu's aimless tangent about the latest guy she slept with managed to thoroughly entertain Magdalena in her state of melancholy and rage. The raven-haired girl managed to choose the most clingy dudes each time and while Magdalena could not for the life of her make sense of it, she also had no room to judge. Before Billy, her taste in men was just as—if not worse than Lulu's. And so, Magdalena only hummed along understandingly as she pushed past a group of three sophomores who were ignorantly blocking the entryway of the escalator.
The younger girls turned to sneer at the brunette, their lips raising in disgust but what erased all of their pompous demeanors was how swiftly Magdalena flipped them off as she and Lulu stepped onto the descending escalator. The May girl impatiently tapped her foot, fanning herself with her hand to hopefully get rid of the perspiration glistening atop her forehead and the redness of her flushed cheeks. As the escalator slowly approached the ground level of Starcourt, Magdalena became hyper-aware of how the synth-pop tunes of Depeche Mode were blasting through the speakers, converging with the sound of ceaseless chatter. Oh, how Magdalena May despised new-wave pop music.
Her gemstone eyes looked around and conjured up a rebuttal for Lulu's explanation—more like shitty excuse—as to why she could not step foot into the food court. Shifting her head to the right, Magdalena captured Lulu's attention with just that single action. The brunette studied her friend sharply all the while Lulu tilted her head to the side, resembling a dog in the midst of bewilderment. She was cute. Scratch that. Lulu Hayashi's childish innocence and cluelessness were both adorable, but that wasn't going to stop Magdalena's detective work.
"I see just one minor flaw with your mastermind plan: Scoops Ahoy is in the food court so I don't know how—Wait a minute. You sneaky little slut, you just wanna flirt and ogle at Steve Harrington like a mindless weirdo."
Magdalena smirked pridefully once the typical teenage girl-esque accusations she laid against Lulu left her perfectly symmetrical lips. With her arms crossed over her chest victoriously, Magdalena felt inclined to lean back against the handrail of the escalator and peer at her best friend who was—by this point—having trouble keeping her composure upon the name of her crush being mentioned in casual conversation. It was no secret that Lulu Hayashi was absolutely smitten by the idea of pursuing a relationship with Steve Harrington.
From Magdalena's perspective, the Harrington kid was a stuck up douchebag with hair bigger than his brain. It didn't help Magdalena's opinion that Billy had a vendetta against Steve which was petty hatred left over from their high school days. In return, Steve had a lack of respect for Magdalena because she was dating an asshole. But Steve didn't know the Billy that Magdalena knew. No one did. He held onto a tough guy façade for intimidation purposes and to gain admiration amongst his fellow guys. But Billy was so much more than just a scumbag plagued by anger issues.
The awkward and noticeably fake laugh that tumbled from Lulu's mouth destroyed Magdalena's ability to gloat any longer. With a suspicious arch of an eyebrow, the brunette turned away from her friend just in time to see that they had made it to the ground level of the enormous building. As the best friends began walking toward the well-known and very popular ice cream place, the Hayashi girl was digging herself a nice, Lulu-sized hole. Magdalena seemed to enjoy it according to the grin painted across her glossed lips.
"Hah, yeah right. You have no proof of that. Honestly, I'm sensing a smidge of bitterness because your boytoy refused to get a summer job at Starcourt. And by the way, Scoops Ahoy is, like, on the edge of the food court so, technically, I'm in the clear. There's literally nothing going on besides the fact that I wanna eat some ice cream before I pass out from this heat."
Lulu damn near whined out from the embarrassment as she reached out to grab Magdalena's hand to pull her in the direction of Scoops Ahoy. Though as much as the brunette was tempted to fiendishly find hilarity in Lulu's overemphasized misery, the random mention of Billy left Magdalena utterly stunned. It only reminded the girl that she had not received an early morning call from her boyfriend. That phone call was an unspoken routine between the couple and Magdalena's morning pick-me-up—a better alternative than a cup of bitter black coffee. Ever since last night, Magdalena had not heard from Billy.
Suddenly the brunette was beginning to grow worried about her boyfriend's well-being. Was she just being too hysterical? Possibly. But what if—Magdalena thought—What if something did happen? No. Absolutely not. That was stupid. The brunette concluded she being was a fucking idiot—a dramatic dumbass. She wasn't thinking rationally. Nothing happened in Hawkins, like, ever. Billy was probably just not in the mood to talk or he had an earlier shift at the pool. Everything had an explanation. Plain and simple.
But once the saccharine smell inside of the ice cream parlor slipped into Magdalena's nostrils and toyed with her senses, the brunette had no choice but to bring herself back to reality. And what really mattered at the current moment in time was enjoying her lunch break with her best friend. Magdalena was shocked to find Scoops Ahoy relatively empty compared to the crowds that would otherwise show up during midday. The brunette wished she could be as lucky to have a slow day at Pet Paradise. But alas, fate adored to torture her.
Upon Lulu and Magdalena's arrival, Robin was quick to perk up behind the cash register and widely smile at the familiar faces entering the store. Lulu enthusiastically waved while Magdalena did the same, only with less excitement. Stopping in front of the counter, both girls were close enough for Robin to inspect them. Lulu was gorgeous as ever with her perfectly silky black hair cut into a stylish bob and the loose flower pattern dress running down to the top of her knees accompanied by kitten heels. And Magdalena...well, she looked...not as good as her overly feminine friend. But Robin wasn't even going to bring it up. She had no say in the matter. Instead, she chose to greet her schoolmates.
"Hey, Maggie. Hey, Lulu. Oh, shoot, I forgot to adhere to the tyrannical protocol this company enforces on its employees. Let me try again...Ahoy! What would you like? Can I offer you any free samples?"
Robin questioned, lacing a faux dose of pep into her words consisting of mandatory company policy. The beauty of working minimum wage was reflected in the way the girl's eyes were practically crying out for help. Magdalena snorted—whether others deemed it unladylike or not—and shook her head in disbelief at how lucky she got with getting hired by Pet Paradise. As shitty as the job was, at least the brunette wasn't forced to say cheesy one-liners when greeting customers.
Once reaching the counter, Magdalena wriggled her hand out of Lulu's grasp and placed both palms on the available space, leaning forward and invading Robin's personal space. Magdalena was a strange one but she sure knew how to manipulate a person's emotions and make them lose their cool in a matter of seconds. Robin's crimson-hued cheeks and wide eyes were proof of that.
"God, don't sound so excited, Robin. You'll make me want to have a good time. You know what a tragedy that would be? Work comes before fun. I'll take one scoop of vanilla and one scoop of lemon in a waffle cone, please, and thanks."
And as if Magdalena May's day couldn't have gotten all the more dreadful, Robin delivered the most tragic news of all, quick to shut down the brunette's order:
"We're out of waffle cones. Some snotty kid's mom bought the last one. Do you want the flavorless wafer one, a chocolate-dipped cone, or no cone?"
Even in the midst of Robin's effortlessly quick reply, Magdalena couldn't control the guttural groan that climbed up her throat. Not to mention the intensity at which she rolled her emerald-colored irises at the minor inconvenience. Today was seriously not her day. Begrudgingly, Magdalena shifted her focus from Robin to the option of cones resting to her right beside the array of ice cream flavors. The wafer tasted like cardboard and had pretty much the same texture while the chocolate-dipped cone was just not something Magdalena was into. She wasn't a toddler itching for a sugar high. For a second, the brunette's nose scrunched up at her misfortune then she simply had to admit defeat. What could she do? Go after the kid who took the last waffle cone? No. That was ridiculous.
"Damn. Forget the cone then. Guess I'm dieting today."
Magdalena monotonously responded—too mentally exhausted to even think of something witty to say. Still, the delivery of the sentence forced a chortle from Robin while Lulu was oblivious to the exchange. The young woman with the black hair was much too hypnotized by the myriad of ice cream flavors. Some were brand new, therefore she could not decide between them.
Lulu cursed her indecisive nature as she sucked on the mushy muscle inside of her cheek. Truthfully, Lulu was just disappointed that Steve wasn't the one who greeted her and Magdalena when they walked in. She wondered where he was. She wanted to ask Robin where he was. Steve was the person she came to Scoops Ahoy for after all. The purpose of her excursion was to be totally defeated.
"What about you, Lulu?"
Robin's question nearly fell on deaf ears when directed toward the raven-haired girl who continuously pursed her lips in concentration. As Robin began to work on preparing Magdalena's order, Lulu felt a bit lost—still aching to lay her eyes on Steve Harrington and most importantly, exchange full sentences with him. Maybe even ask him on a date if she was feeling bold enough. Leaning closer to the glass protecting the ice cream from contamination, Lulu reread the names of the flavors one more time, hoping to actually pay attention this time.
"Hmm. I don't know—Ooh, wait! Raspberry and cinnamon. One scoop of each please and no cone for me either. Carbs are the enemy."
Lulu pointedly stated as she fidgeted with the ring on her middle finger. Magdalena let out an amused scoff though she managed to expertly transform it into a silent cough upon hearing her best friend's declaration consisting of 'Carbs are the enemy.' As if the ice cream itself wasn't already filled with sugar and whatever else. Lulu was precious. Truly, she was. Magdalena endlessly adored her friend...even if she was a complete airhead at times. With a nod of her head, Robin began preparing the two flavors Lulu picked out after finishing Magdalena's order in record time.
Honestly, Robin worked much harder when it was her friends who visited Scoops Ahoy. She didn't give a rat's ass about any ordinary customer, however. With her hip now resting against the counter, Magdalena vainly held her nails in front of her eyes to examine the state of her sparkly maroon nail polish. It was in fact chipping—the consequence of buying the cheapest one from the drugstore. Mapping out a mental plan on how to fix the condition of her nails, Magdalena's train of thought was utterly interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat from behind her back.
Both Lulu and Magdalena turned to face the source of the noise with differing emotions...or lack thereof in the brunette's case. Lulu brightly smiled at Dustin Henderson, familiar with the middle schooler since the girl had once or twice helped Dustin's mother reorganize her home—he returned the gesture soon afterward. Unlike her bubbly bestie, Magdalena May blankly stared at the boy with the curly hair, awaiting him to say something. He did. More specifically he introduced himself to Robin, forcing the short-haired brunette to do the same with a lack of liveliness. It was a definite contrast from the attitude she had when Magdalena and Lulu entered.
"Pleasure to meet you. Uh, is...is he here?"
Magdalena was left puzzled by Dustin's overtly positive inquiry. First of all, who in the hell was he looking for? Second, why was he so hyped up and smiley? Okay, sure, Magdalena was jealous of the middle schooler's visible joy, but damn, he could've tried to tone it down a little. The brunette was only trying to wallow in her self-pity as the inhumane hours of the corporate world ate away at her—completely wearing her down. Reaching into the back pocket of her jeans to retrieve her wallet, Magdalena sighed.
"Is who here?"
Robin was on the same page as Magdalena as she pretended to give even the slightest shit about what—or who Dustin wanted to see. And as if he'd been eavesdropping all along, Steve Harrington burst out of the back room with a stupid smile on his face, throwing his arms triumphantly up into the air as if he'd won a gold medal for a marathon or something and was now celebrating his victory.
"Henderson! He's back! He's back!"
Steve shouted excitedly, practically jumping up and down as he hurried out from behind the counter to reconnect with his...friend. How was it even possible that someone like Harrington was buddy-buddy with a middle schooler? Magdalena wondered if she got heat stroke from the lack of air conditioning and was now hallucinating the entire interaction between Steve and Dustin. The brunette wondered that notion even more when she witnessed the two dillweeds reenact some nerdy lightsaber battle. Magdalena looked over at her best friend, but seeing a heartfelt grin growing on Lulu's lips made the brunette think she might be trapped in some sort of living nightmare.
"Oh, my God..."
Magdalena exasperatedly muttered to herself as she opened up her wallet and began scraping two dollars and forty-five cents together—the final charge for her and Lulu's ice cream as presented on the digital screen of the cash register. Between observing the embarrassing reunion between Dustin and Steve and the fact that she still had five more hours of her shift floating around in the back of her mind, Magdalena was eager to leave Scoops Ahoy. Not to mention, her melting ice cream was also on the line.
"Hi, Steve. I don't know if you knew but Jeanie's Shoe Palace is having, like, a summer flash sale. You should seriously check it out when you have the time. I can help you find whatever you're looking for. And you can tell me about your weekend plans or something."
Without much hesitation, Lulu began to shamelessly flirt with Steve while moving around Magdalena and closer to the guy in the ridiculous sailor costume. Lulu even had the gall to reach up into her neatly cut hair and adjust it like some model on the cover of a magazine. Between brief glances at Lulu and the money in her wallet, Magdalena saw just enough of what she needed to see; a very flustered Steve Harrington, ripping the stupid little sailor hat off his head and hiding it behind his back as if the damn thing never even existed. The guy let out an uneasy chuckle, seemingly struggling to continue a conversation with a very, very attractive raven-haired girl. Steve—furious at himself for losing his charm—turned to his coworker for assistance. Robin wasn't the least bit concerned with the way Steve froze up and instead, worked to humiliate him further by asking:
"How many children are you friends with?"
Steve looked defeated and dumbfounded all at the same time, no longer able to formulate any coherent thought in retaliation to Robin's mocking question. All the while, Lulu kept sending her crush longing looks as she batted her eyelashes, certainly able to feel the tension building up within the Harrington boy's body—his chest felt constricted from the pressure that Lulu's gaze placed on him. That self-proclaimed "King Steve" character that supposedly ruled Hawkins High was no longer the same person. He had ceased to exist. Without him, Steve Harrington was just Steve—a nobody with rich parents. The guy took the initiative of guiding Dustin behind the counter to get him some ice cream.
"Here you are: lemon and vanilla, raspberry and cinnamon, both strictly without cones. Oh yeah and before I forget, I'll be going over to Pet Paradise to pick up some cat food during my break."
Robin stated as she handed the small cup which housed the lemon and vanilla ice cream over to Magdalena then did the same with what Lulu ordered. The young women thanked their schoolmate in almost perfect unison as if they had practiced prior. But no, that was just the way they were. Maintaining a friendship—a sisterhood—since kindergarten was the key to their strong bond.
"Do you even have a cat, Rob?"
Magdalena asked as she handed Robin the money she managed to fish out of her wallet. Robin clumsily took the cash from Magdalena, almost dropping twenty-five cents onto the ground like the total klutz she was. The girl behind the register shook her head vehemently and Magdalena chuckled at the sight of Robin showing a serious distaste for felines. Cats were assholes to be fair.
"No, and I'm grateful I don't. My neighbor, Mrs. Peterman, you know, the senile bat who yells at children for playing in the front yard, well, she promised to pay me for delivering a few cans. She and her feral cats scare me, but money is money."
The admittance regarding Mrs. Peterman and her many ill-mannered cats forced a quizzical expression onto both Magdalena's and Lulu's faces. Though they struggled to move past it, the minutes devoted to their lunch break were ticking and rather fast. Plus, their ice creams were still melting. So Magdalena gave up attempting to understand and end the conversation:
"That I can agree with you on. Alright, well, I'll see you later, sailor."
Magdalena May's teasing nickname didn't go unnoticed by Robin and caused the girl to give the brunette an unimpressed look. As the two best friends made their way out of Scoops with their ice cream in hand, Lulu couldn't help but lean closer to Magdalena and ask her question once Robin was out of earshot:
"'Feral cats?' What the hell?"
All the disheveled brunette could do was dismissively shrug her shoulders, scoop up a bite of ice cream with the little translucent spoon in her cup, and place it into her mouth. Magdalena's muffled reply was the best she could give.
"Don't even ask. I have no clue."
✧･ﾟ:
It was only a day later that the brunette sat on the floor of her bedroom, back leaning against the mattress while the cord of her phone was stretched to its limit—the device located a few feet from Magdalena. Balanced between her pierced ear and shoulder, the cold plastic of the receiver did little to ease her nerves about Billy and his whereabouts. Magdalena proceeded to push back her cuticles with her pointed nails, still awaiting for the phone in Billy's room to be picked up. But she was much too optimistic. No one picked up.
Until someone did.
"About time you picked up. I was so goddamn worried that—"
Just not the person Magdalena May was wishing to speak with.
"Watch your tone, missy. Who do you think you are talking to me like that?"
Neil Hargrove was a joke. A complete and utter joke and failure of a father. Hence why the young woman managed to get into a heated argument with the man whom she despised very much:
"Doesn't matter who I am. Is Billy able to come to the phone? I gotta talk to him."
"Ah, I know who you are. You're that little whore living on Amherst Street that my son is seeing. That boy must've felt sorry for you because I raised him better than to pursue girls like you."
"You're damn right. I am the whore from Amherst Street. But I prefer to go by Magdalena May. I find it's classier. And you may not see it, because you don't bother to give a fuck about Billy's feelings, but he and I are doing great—Our relationship is great and has been for a whole year now. You're one of the last people who should be morally grandstanding when it comes to Billy considering the torment you've put him through. And for what? To raise a strong man based on your standards? Your constant abuse has created a person who hides his true self from everyone. Even from me sometimes."
"Listen here, girl. The last thing I need from you is parenting advice. You are good for nothing. The same goes for my incompetent son. The way I see it, you two might actually deserve each other."
"You know what? Fuck you! I truly hope Billy will one day be able to say—No, celebrate the fact that he abandoned his cold-hearted, asshole of a father and turned his back on Hawkins. And I hope that you'll feel nothing but sadness and pain after realizing that you will waste your days away in this shitty, good-for-nothing town with your only child out of the picture. You will regret all of—"
"The asshole's gone, Maggie. It's just me. And Neil never hung up so I heard about half of your rant. Wish I had the guts to say something like that to him. I have to play my cards right considering we live at the same address."
The moment Magdalena heard Max's voice, her heart rate dropped from a considerable high to a moderate low. Max Mayfield was, in every sense, like a little sister to the brunette.
"No, I get it, Gingersnap. Don't worry I'm more than happy to scream at him until he becomes deaf or something. Listen, I don't wanna be pushy, but this is serious. Have you heard from Billy? It's like he's ignoring me on purpose. I haven't talked to or even seen him in almost two days. It's so fucking bizarre."
"I haven't either, but I figured he was with you. Like, literally staying at your house. He's done it before and I just thought he couldn't take Neil's bullshit anymore. I don't blame him."
"Do you...do you think he's okay? Do you think he wants to break up with me? I-I know I shouldn't think like this, but it's hard not to considering the situation."
"Don't be stupid, Mags. Billy loves you. Better yet, he fucking adores you—"
"Don't be cussing in front of me, Maxine!"
Magdalena could hear the way Max practically rolled her eyes through the phone after being referred to by her full name. The slightest hint of a smile came to take over the corner of Magdalena's lips. Oh, how she loved the redhead.
"Oh, my God! Fine! Just shut up already and let me finish. As I was saying, Billy would never cheat on you or break up with you or do whatever thing you believe he would do. He would literally die for you. Like, he's crazy for you. Believe me. I'm the one who has to listen to him talk about how hot you are all the time. It's honestly, and like no offense, it's incredibly disgusting."
For the first time since Billy hadn't contacted her, Magdalena felt her heart flutter at Max's statements. The entire talk with the redheaded girl ignited some hope in Magdalena's soul. Everything was fine.
Though that aforementioned hope was bound to expire sometime soon.
𝐕. 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 —
bro,, maggie and lulu are
both so fucking slay !!!!
like it honestly hurts lmao
ALSO; apologies for the
slow updates. i just came
back from nyc and your girl
is currently battling a cold