Chapter Text
“Flat white?” Enid called, smiling as one of the coffee shop’s regulars stepped forward, taking their beverage and retreating to a particularly comfortable armchair, one they frequented so often she was sure the cushion was moulded in the shape of their ass.
She huffed a soft laugh at her own train of thought, shaking her head in an attempt to clear the quickly descending brain fog that currently had her entire skull in a chokehold. She couldn’t really complain, considering she’d decided it was a good idea to stay up watching tiktok lives until 5am the night before a 12 hour shift (spoiler: it was NOT a good idea).
Enid glanced at the clock on the wall, it’s grandiose roman numerals silently mocking her tired state as she took an extra ten seconds to decipher that it was 6:20pm, thank god she thought, not long now. “I’m gonna start getting ready to close up,” Enid said, squeezing herself through the small gap between Kent and Yoko, giggling as the latter whipped at her legs with a cloth on her way past.
Enid jolted upright with a groan, the uneven path of the subway train causing her head to roll off Yoko’s shoulder. “Good morning sleepy head”, Yoko smirked, tilting her chin down to peer at her over her ever present sunglasses, eyes sparkling with mirth at Enid’s terrible attempt at a glare, “Our stop is in like, 2 minutes anyway”.
Enid visibly perked up at this, hastily looping her tote bag over her shoulder, eager to escape the scalding heat and questionable smells of their train carriage. Once they’d resurfaced from the “Satan’s ass pipe” as Yoko had so aptly renamed it, Enid felt a little more awake, the stifling heat being replaced by the cool air that came as summer turned to fall acting as a soothing balm to her fuzzy head.
Their apartment was a short walk from the subway, a fact Enid silently praised as she dragged her heavy feet the final few steps to their front door, earning a chuckle from Yoko as she fumbled with her keys before opening the front door, allowing her bag to slide off her shoulder as she finally relaxed her tense shoulders.
“Go wash up, i’ll order pizza”
It was times like this Enid was really really fucking grateful for her best friend. Shooting Yoko a smile, she trudged her way down the hall to her bedroom, using whatever was left of her willpower to ignore the way her bed was practically screaming at her to lie down. Since moving in, she’d put an absurd amount of time (and money) into creating a place that was entirely hers, a luxury she’d never had before. Whilst others saw a bedroom, Enid saw her safe space.
She’d strategically placed her desk as close to the large circular window as she could without running the risk of the suns rays burning her retinas on the rare occasion it would peek from the clouds; the desks surface adorned with cutesy notebooks and stationery (and yes, she absolutely had to have them all matching). Her prized Macbook sat central, adorned with stickers and looking slightly worse for wear these days, not that she’d ever replace it.
The sentimentality that it held was perhaps bizarre from an outside perspective, but Enid knew just how many long gruelling shifts she’d worked to be able to splurge on something because she wanted it, and not because it was a necessity. Being able to do so without her mother berating her for “wasting her money” just made it that much sweeter. So yes, she was completely way too attached to her laptop, but it was much more than that. It was a simultaneous pat on the back for her and a huge middle finger to her mother, and kick-started her journey to healing the wounds that came with years of co-existing with Esther - a feat that absolutely could not be done whilst under the same roof.
Any sign that the emotional lacerations were starting to scab over and Esther was there, a rabid carnivore sent into a frenzy over the scent of blood, claws ripping at her carcass, shredding her skin as she searched for a weak spot to exploit.
Which is one of the many many reasons absolutely no trace of the Sinclair’s could be found anywhere in the apartment, but especially not in Enid’s room (safe space, remember?).
Posters adorned her walls of her favourite movies, lithographs from concerts she’d dragged Yoko to dotted in between. Above her bed hung a cork board, every inch covered in pictures of Enid and her found family, each moment with them helped her piece herself back together, and was now immortalised as polaroids, messily tacked above where she slept.
Multicoloured fairy lights had been meticulously wrapped around the bed frame. If anyone asked, they were there because they fit her aesthetic, and NOT because the soft glow they emitted in the wee hours of the morning stopped her from panicking that the pile of laundry on her desk chair had suddenly morphed into a weird, lumpy monster. The vibrant orange of her bed sheets was hardly visible under the mountain of plushies that had taken up occupancy atop the bed, which she begrudgingly had to sweep off onto her neon pink fluffy rug each night, just to make sure she could actually lie down.
Her mother would’ve detested every square inch of her bedroom, which just made her love it that much more.
Grabbing her towel from the back of the door, Enid headed toward the bathroom, eagerly anticipating the hot water pounding the knots out of her sore muscles.
Sliding the empty pizza box onto the coffee table, Enid flopped face first onto the couch, before attempting to speak; “mmph mmmpph mmpph”
“Come again?”
“I said,” Enid had lifted her head a few centimetres from the suffocation of the upholstery to allow Yoko to decipher what she was saying, “I really needed that, thank you” She emphasised her point by patting Yoko’s knee with her foot as best as she could from the position she’d committed to, the strenuity of her shift linking arms with the pizza she’d devoured to pull a shroud of exhaustion over her, both forces trying with all their might to pull her into a comatose state.
Yoko softly patted her ankle, before moving her hand to push her dark, circular glasses up to rest on the top of her head.
“Hey, you okay?”
The weight behind the question wasn’t lost on Enid. She and Yoko had been best friends for years, and with that came a familiarity that offered certain perks; reading between the lines being one of them. After all…
“It’s a year today isn’t it?”
There it is. Any hope of crawling her way to bed and passing out early quickly evaporated, being replaced by a wave of irritation that burned deep in her chest, a growl threatening to escape. Enid forced herself to sit upright, sweeping her blonde hair out of her vision, momentarily catching sight of the fading pink and blue ends as her fingers ran through the strands.
“It’s been ok I guess,” Enid said, shooting Yoko an unconvincing smile, “I’ve kept busy, and I know in a perfect world it wouldn’t affect me and I wouldn’t care, but she’s still my mom, you know? I just don’t know what I did to make her hate me so much”
Enid’s voice was steady, a feat she silently celebrated. They’d hashed this out so many times in the past year, that now when the topic of her mother was brought up, Enid could completely detach herself from the facts, discussing the situation as though it had happened to someone else - Bianca said she was dissociating, but if you asked her, she was simply at peace with the whole affair.
Yoko sighed through her nose, shuffling closer on the couch so she was close enough to rest her head on Enid’s shoulder.
“Enid, I truly believe you could single handedly cure Werewolf Parvovirus and it still wouldn’t be good enough for her. You’re allowed to be upset by that,” Yoko lifted her head to look at her, “But please don’t hold yourself to her standards. They’re impossible and outdated and you would suck the fucking fun out of everything”
Enid giggled, bumping her shoulder against Yoko’s, missing the grin on her friends face at having drawn a laugh out of her.
“I know, I know. I just think a part of me had expected her to reach out by now, maybe..”
Enid was cut off as the entire sofa vibrated, eyebrows knitting together slightly before she realised it was her phone ringing from the bottom of whatever chasm it had dropped out of her pocket into. By the time she’d found it (under a cushion, under Yoko), the call had disconnected. “Hmm, unknown number. Weird. Probably some insurance scam or something” Enid said, locking her device and unceremoniously dropping it onto the discarded pizza box, a dull thunk filling the air as it came to rest.
“You don’t think that was her do you? Esther, I mean? That would’ve been freaky, all things considered”
Enid would be lying if she said the thought hadn’t crossed her mind.
“I wondered, but I blocked her number, and I doubt she’d make the effort to try from someone else’s phone. She’s more of a texter anyway, really likes to have her insults immortalised for all to see”
No sooner had the sentence left her mouth, (accompanied by an eye roll of course), did her phone light up again, two short pulsing vibrations this time, indicating that she had in fact received a text.
“No way,” The way Yoko whispered was near comical, her best friend gawking at her in amazement at her apparent newly discovered psychic abilities. She almost laughed, if not for the panic slowly starting to climb the back of her throat.
The phone buzzed again, causing Yoko to screech in harmony with the loud shing as Enid’s claws made themselves known, both scrambling to lift their feet off the carpeted floor of the apartment, simultaneously deciding that their toes were apparently in danger of attack from a threat yet to reveal itself. They sat, huddled, watching the device as it vibrated again, both whimpering as though they weren’t two of the most feared creatures on the planet with an arsenal of natural defences at their disposal.
One last buzz, and the light dimmed once again from Enid’s lock screen. Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward, grabbing her phone between her thumb and forefinger as though any second it would come to life and nip at her. Setting it on the blanket between them, she gingerly tapped the screen, moving her hand away as quickly as she could.
missed call
unknown number
text message
unknown number
Annoyed with herself for forgetting about her phone's privacy settings, Enid swiped across, the full chat opening itself.
unknown number
answer the phone
unknown number
NOW
unknown number
how dare you ignore me
Enid gulped, lifting her chin to glance at Yoko through rapidly filling eyes, to see her best friend staring right back at her, mouth hanging open in shock before imparting typical Yoko wisdom;
“Holy shit, she’s like fucking Beetlejuice”