And You And I

Chapter 14: You re-arrange me 'till I'm sane

For the second Friday in a row, Kim slammed the door to her apartment closed and could think of nothing but suiting up in her mission gear and accepting the first job that would take her out of Middleton. Staggering through to her workroom, she turned on the PC and then wrenched open the doors to the wardrobe. Pulling out a light-blue variant of her standard mission attire, she hung it up on the door before lifting her left foot to start unlacing her Converse. Her fingers ineptly pulled at the laces. Come on you stupid... ARGH! she lost her balance and crashed down onto her bruised ribs. The sudden sharp pain was enough to slice through the red mist of rage. "Oww," she whimpered as a tear threatened to escape from one olive-green eye. It was several moments before she shakily managed to get to her feet.

Ok, so I'm too drunk to even take my shoes off. Guess going on a mission would be a bad idea. She ignored the running PC and her hanging mission outfit as she exited the room and made for her bedroom. Fetching a fresh pair of purple pyjamas from her normal wardrobe, she wisely sat down on the edge of her bed to change; wincing every time she had to twist or bend her torso. Heh, I bet mom would give me a serious talking to if she could see my ribs right about... Kim's mouth fell open at the realisation of what she had been about to do before she'd fallen over. Shit, I was about to storm off on a mission and bail on mom again! Fortunately, that was not going to happen now, but it led to a worrying thought, do I care so little for my family now that I can forget about them so easily? Or do I just dislike being back home so much that I'll use any excuse to jet off on a mission? She laughed a little bit too much when a third option crossed her mind, or is this all a product of being drunk?

Flopping back against her pillow, she reached out a hand and plucked Pandaroo off the nightstand. "Am I a bad daughter, Pandaroo?" she asked the Cuddle Buddy; holding him aloft.

As expected, the stuffed toy did not respond.

"It's not that I don't want to go and see mom and dad, it's just..." she trailed off, finding it difficult to articulate the reason. "...it's just... it's just that I wish when I went over there, they'd take more of an interest in all the fun and exciting parts of my life," a bubble of annoyance burst inside her, "not focus on either the mundane crap that happens when I'm stuck here in Middleton or on whatever injuries I might be carrying! I just want them to stop worrying and trying to protect me. I can look after myself! Right, Pandaroo."

The Cuddle Buddy stared back at Kim with lifeless eyes, yet she interpreted its non-existent response as a sign of agreement.

"Yeah, you're right. I don't need people to protect me. I protect other people."

Kim set the stuffed toy down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Tonight totally sucked! ...ok, so not all of it sucked. In fact, most of it was really good fun. She hit the mattress with both fists. That's what makes it so damn infuriating! Everything was great up until the end when Shego threw everything back in my face!

"But wasn't that your fault?" a voice inside her head asked.

In what way was it my fault? Kim replied indignantly. I tried to be friends with her and she pretty much told me to fuck off!

"Geez, I don't know..." the voice replied sarcastically, "...maybe you led her to believe that tonight was supposed to be a date?"

Kim thought about this for a moment, before shooting back, all I did was ask her if she wanted to go for a drink, that's it. A perfectly innocuous drink. It's something that friends do all the time.

"Except you know fine well that she was the one who suggested you ask her out and that the invite had been framed as a date. She never said anything about going out as friends."