It was evening, and Kate was getting ready to leave for Mari's. She cast a glance at the sparsely decorated living room corner of her apartment. One photo of her parents - the adoptive ones - hung on the wall along with a handful of landscape photos. She wondered if other people hung photos of their friends in place of landscapes. When had she last gone to visit someone else than her parents? Save for her recent date with Rose, if a date counted as visiting someone. She couldn't exactly remember, but thought it must have been back in middle school, before her magic broke through.
It was a good thing Mari was not the one visiting her.
Kate waved her hand and a brown jacket gently slipped its left arm over hers, lined up against her back, and then slipped its right arm into place. She beckoned for her phone and tapped a quick message to let Mari know she was on her way.
It barely even took a second for a response to arrive. "Got movies and popcorn. Looking forward to it!"
That almost sounded like a stereotypical friend meet-up from the movies. Kate drew a sharp breath, reminding herself that this didn't mean she was going to privately involve herself with Mari in the future. They were colleagues. At arm's length. She was only helping Mari with her problem so she could help Kate with her own conundrum.
Mari's neighborhood was a short drive away. Pinpointing the specific house was easy because one half of was painted pink and the other yellow. Mari hadn't specified whether that was because the house was still being painted or it was supposed to be two-tone. Considering the owner's personality Kate deemed both options equally likely.
She walked up to the door and raised the arm to ring the doorbell when the door suddenly opened in front of her. Kate instinctively jumped back.
"Mari! Don't scare me like that. Do you have me on satellite camera or something?" Kate found the fact that she had so precisely known of her arrival to be slightly unsettling.
"Of course not." Mari huffed and crossed her arms. Then she raised one arm and pointed to the side of her head. "All that's necessary are a pair of well-trained ears. Being great at telling alarms apart and picking up on small changes in sounds has the added bonus of always knowing when visitors are arriving." She grinned and ushered Kate inside.
"Sounds like you have an enviable sense of hearing," Kate responded, though she wasn't entirely sure whether Mari was telling the truth or just messing with her.
"It's enviable until you're sitting in your office trying to do paperwork and some beeping from the other end of the hallway keeps throwing you off. Not that I'm complaining. Well, mostly."
Mari turned around and led Kate down a hallway, before they took a turn to the left and entered what Kate supposed was the living room. The centerpiece of the room was an emerald green couch covered in cushions in a wide assortment of colors, reminding Kate of the post-its in Mari's office. Accompanying the couch was a low oak table. She sat down and looked around the room. Scattered across it were crocheted animals, though at a second glance it turned out to be parts of crocheted animals. A head here, an arm there. Sitting between two cushion on the couch was a tiny body with just one leg attached.
"What's going on with all the," she trailed off trying to find the right words.
"Oh, the animals? They're works in progress. I figured I might as well put them on display to motivate myself to finish them faster. Cute, huh?" Mari's chest puffed out slightly as she spoke.
Kate rubbed the side of her neck. "Not exactly what I was thinking. Doesn't it strike you as rather morbid to have body parts scattered all across your living room?"
"Kate, really?" Mari's expression made it clear that she did not agree with Kate's assessment in the slightest. "Out of all people I don't think the surgeon would be the one having an issue with my animals. Besides, they're just," she paused and waved her hand in the air, "waiting to be fully born. Or something."
"That doesn't make it sound any better, you know."
"That's enough!" Mari's chest heaved and she rested her hands on her hips. "Were we going to spend the evening complaining about our exes or not? You're free to walk away if the animals bother you that much, otherwise I'm going to get us some snacks and put on a movie."
"I'd prefer to complain about our exes," Kate hurriedly answered. She couldn't afford to leave Mari's problem unresolved. The thing about the animals had just been an observation from her side, but it seemed to have struck a nerve with Mari. She would be more than happy to let the topic rest. "How come we're watching a movie?"
"Romantic comedy about getting over one's exes," Mari called from the kitchen where she was presumably preparing snacks. "I figured it'd help set the mood."
The scent of potato chips marked Mari's return. She was carrying a huge, polka dot-patterned bowl in her left hand and gripping a two liter bottle of soda with her right.
"And this is for energy to vent about all our frustrations," Mari announced as she set the bottle and bowl down with a thud. "Figured we'd need it."
She sat down next to Kate and switched on the television. It didn't take long for Mari to start ranting - the movie was just past its intro from what Kate could tell. She wondered what it was lately with people putting on movies they didn't actually intend to pay attention to.
"...not to mention he'd get all up in arms over how the bed sheets were folded, can you believe it? Such an inconsequential thing. And don't even get me started on how he'd place things in the washing machine, they were miles apart! So I told him, come on, it's not like you're loading a sterilizer..."
By the time the second main character was introduced Mari had already rattled off a dozen complaints. In that respect the evening seemed to be going well. Kate only nodded and offered confirmatory responses. The point was for Mari to get things out of her system, after all.
It wasn't before the trio of newly single women had gathered to discuss revenge plans that events in Mari's living room took a slightly different turn.
"Whoops, I've been going for a while, haven't I?" Mari asked, turning to Kate. "Your turn now. Let's hear all the dirt you got on that Rose girl."
Kate couldn't help rolling her eyes. "You're exaggerating. It was just one date."
"So what? You already know the two of you won't work out, you said it so yourself. On with the complaints!" Mari loudly clasped her hands together.
Granted, it wasn't the worst of ideas. It should reduce the chance that wishy-washy part of her brain decided to try dating Rose again. The fact that she felt reluctance against the idea was proof enough that she needed it, Kate concluded. She drew a deep breath.
"All right. It's unfair that she looks so cute, and when she's teasing me I just want to be with her even more. She knows just how to play my emotions to make me cave in. When she puts her mind to her she's a relentless pursuer."
"More negativity Kate, more negativity!" Mari raised one fist into the air. "Remember that we're here for trash talk!"
Kate found that her voice increased in energy and loudness. It appeared that Mari's state of being was contagious. "She's emotionally manipulative, she wants to know every little thing about me, and she even tried using her charms on me the first time we met!"
The fist was lowered and Mari leaned in Kate's direction, grinning. "She tried using her charms on you? Now this I've got to hear. Full story please!"
"Nope." Full stop. Kate crossed her arms and regarded Mari with a frown. "You're just as bad as her now. It's talk trash about our exes night, not story night, remember?"
"Aw jeez, you're no fun."
Mari pouted for a few minutes, but soon enough she was back to complaining about Bron. Her complaints grew in intensity to the point where Mari was nearly shouting, then she slumped back and rested her head on the back of the couch, effectively turning toward the ceiling.
"Whew, I'm beat. That was exhausting. But I think I feel better now. How about you, Kate?"
"I think so." She had listed some bad points about Rose, true, but they lacked the forcefulness behind Mari's words. Her own words felt like they lacked commitment. Not that she would admit it, lest she prolong the night. Kate stretched and rose from the couch.
"I'd better make my way home. I need to be properly rested for tomorrow."
"Yeah." Mari smiled sleepily. She was already sitting with her eyes closed. "Thanks for coming over. I needed this."
"Speaking of needs, I still have the matter of avoiding Rose to contend with. You don't think we could discuss plans tomorrow?"
Mari lazily waved a hand in the air. "Of course. I'll dream up the best plan ever tonight. Or the next best. A good one. Whatever." A big yawn escaped her. "See you tomorrow."
Kate smiled. "Yeah, see you."
There was hope after all.