Stuck

Catra was especially quiet as they walked home. Scorpia had gone and bought them all matching tees with the gift card.

“Hey Catra are you alright? You’ve been kinda quiet”

“Clearly she’s not, she’s shaky, very quiet compared to usual, I don’t think I’ve heard a single sarcastic comment in the last 30 minutes.”

“Well yeah the ride broke down.” Catra said

“No, that's not it, you don’t mind heights. You had something else happen.” Entrapta concluded. “So what happened?”

Catra hand went to the napkin in her pockets. “Oh nothing happened I was just annoyed by it, that’s all.” Entrapta looked skeptical, but she didn’t say anything. The sun would set soon. She and Adora used to sit for hours trying to watch it but they’d always get bored before it happened and end up doing something else. “Hey you guys go ahead, I’m going to go for a walk.”

“Are you sure? It’s getting pretty late.”

“Yeah I’ll see you both later.” Catra waved to them and walked off until she was out of sight then sat down on a bench. She pulled out her phone and the napkin with Adoras new number, she sighed before typing it in. Her finger lingered over the call button before turning her phone off and lying down.
———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-—

Adora kept looking at the clock, and her phone. She was really hoping Catra would come to the party. She was hoping they could start working through their issues.

“Hey Adora, can you go get some more ice!” Perfuma called out.

“Yeah okay!” Adora shuffles out of the building and goes to get ice. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so harsh, I mean Catra’s gone through a lot, especially with her guardian Shadow Weaver. She might have messed up their only chance at fixing things.

Maybe she wrote her number wrong, maybe she should call Catra. But no, if she wanted to call she would, she’s made her choice. It was Perfumas party and people should be arriving soon. She should just focus on that.

———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-—

Catra felt a notification go off on her phone.

Scorpia: hey, my gf is throwing a party, want to go?

Scorpia has a girlfriend? She probably should have known that friendship really isn’t her strength.

Catra: yeah sure, see you soon

She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Adora relaxing could be good for her. She’d gone home and curled up in Adoras old hoodie. It still smelt like her, she hated it.

20 minutes later, Scorpia had texted her the address and she’s admiring herself in the mirror. It’s an old suit but damn she looks good. Parties aren’t necessarily her favourite thing but she’s going for Scorpia. Plus she gets to look good and turning down two parties in one day is probably wrong, and hey free drinks.

She steps out into the cold night, she should probably walk if she wants to drink. It’s only a few blocks away. The world seems so quiet and still. As she gets closer she can hear party music. She does what Scorpia told her to do and goes around to the back door and smacks straight into someone carrying ice.

“Omg I’m so so… Catra? You came! Oh are you okay?”

Catra groans, of course, why would there be two parties one night, she should have pretended to be sick. Now her head hurts, she has scraped her hands and knees and she has to face Adora after not calling her, great.

Adora offers her hand out to help Catra up, but she bats it away and gets herself up. Her hands are bleeding a bit, she ought to find a bathroom. But Adora isn’t letting her leave so easily.

“Come on let me see, are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Or at least she was until you showed up.

Catra walks inside to the bright colourful lights and deafening music. It’s playing Toxic by Britney Spears too loudly than what is probably healthy.

“Catra! You made it!” Scorpia lunges from across the room for a hug. “This is my girlfriend Perfuma.”

“Pleasure to meet you haha. Thanks for coming!” Then Perfuma spots someone else and they both wander off towards a new guest who has arrived.

She gets a drink and sneaks around to try to find a bathroom. The lighting makes her look sickly, her hands are covered in blood and her suit is ripped at the knees. She should just go home. She sneaks out the bathroom and quietly slips down the hall.

Perfuma must be from Brightmoon, on the wall is a graduation picture, with Perfuma, Sparkles, Bow, a bunch of people she doesn’t recognise and Adora. She’s smiling so much, maybe Adora is better off with her new friends, did Catra ever make her smile like that.

She checks to see if it’s clear for her to sneak out. Lots of people dancing, Perfuma and Scorpia slow dancing despite the upbeat song, a guy flirting in the corner, Sparkles and Bow drinking in the corner and Adora, Adora is kissing some tall gorgeous girl.

She can feel her heartbeat in her ears, everything seems to fade away around her. Her eyes are blurry. She can’t let anyone see her cry so she rushes out the back door, and runs down the road and sinks down behind a nearby tree. She just lets it all out, she has tears all over her face. Everything hurts, it’s not fair. She was always there for Adora and Adora was always there for Catra who were these people to just show up and change that.

Her sleeves are pretty damp, and it was getting cold. She was stupid for coming in the first place. Her hands are covered in a mixture of blood and tears. It would be poetic if she wasn’t so miserable.

“Hey Catra.”

Catra turns around to see Adora standing there.

“Leave me alone.” But of course in Adora like fashion, she doesn’t listen and sits down next to her.

——————————————————————————————————-

They sat there saying nothing for ages. Adora probably shouldn’t have kissed Huntara, Catra might have gotten the wrong idea. She should have been focusing on making things better between them tonight but Catra was the one who wouldn’t talk to her. It’s not her fault.

She accidentally ripped the back of her dress when running after Catra. It was cold, the music was still audible even from where they sat. Catra looked so small, and fragile.

“It was nice to see you again today. I’ve really missed you.”

“Uh huh okay.”

“Seriously, I’ve missed hanging out with you.”

“What do you care, you have other friends.”

“But I don’t have another best friend, it sucked not having my best friend.” Catra reached out her arms and hugged Adora.

“I’ve missed you too.” Catra says quietly.

“Do you want to sleep over tonight? Just like old times”

She laughs a little “Aren’t we a little too old?”

“No such thing!”

“Yeah okay, I guess anything is better than dealing with Shadow weaver, even hanging out with you.” Catra says pushing Adora playfully.

“I’ll go let Glimmer know we’re leaving.”

“What is Sparkles your Mum or something? Aren’t you older than her?”

“It’s proper manners!” Adora gets up, dusts her knees and walks back towards the party.

She weaves through the dancing crowd and finds Glimmer and Bow dancing.

“Hey guys Catra and I are going to take off!” Adora shouts over the noise.

Glimmer and Bow share a look and Glimmer raises her eyebrow.

“No! Not like that, we’re just going to go hang out, see you later.”

Adora rushes off, before they notice how much she’s blushing. She just wants to be friends again, they're just being mean. She has a crush on Huntara, they know that. Catra is leaning against the tree with headphones in.

“Alright! Let’s go.”

“Oh you actually came back, yeah cool let’s go.”