Susie nervously knocks on a nice wooden door adorned with a large golden letter ‘H’. She frowns when isn’t Noelle who answers.
“Yes?” condescends Noelle’s mother, in a tone seemingly designed to irritate Susie. “Is she here?” Susie asks, politely enough, looking up as kindly as she can at the old lady.
“Who is she?” the voice responds.
“Noelle.” Susie answers, trying her best to hide her irritation.
“Yes, why?”
“I was gonna see if she wanted to hang out for a while.” Susie replies.
“Do your ‘hang outs’ typically involve drugs, Susan?” Noelle’s mother responds accusatorily.
“No. No, Mrs. Holiday, we don’t do drugs. Even if I wanted to, it’s not like I can afford them.” Susie groans.
Noelle emerges from the darkness atop a staircase, running up behind her mother and almost tripping over herself. “Susie!” she exclaims.
“I will be testing her when she gets back, Susan.” Mrs. Holiday growls at the dinosaur girl as her daughter squeezes between her and the doorframe. “And I want her back here before the sun goes down.”
“Cool. Whatever.” she says as Mrs. Holiday slams the door on the both of them. Once they’re sure they aren’t being watched, Noelle wraps herself firmly around Susie, who reciprocates pretty quickly.
“Is your mom always this stuck up?” Susie groans. “You just get used to it at some point.” Noelle responds.
“You wanna go throw garbage at traffic, or something?” says Susie, already practically set on the idea.
“Why don’t we go to your house?” Noelle asks. “I’ve always wondered what it’s like.”
Susie winces a bit, her plans derailed. “My mom kicked me out last night.” she confesses. “I was gonna see if your mom was cool with me staying over for the night, but…”
“What happened?” Noelle prods nervously.
“Well, uhh… my mom… it’s not that important, honestly. She just kinda really doesn’t like me.”
“Does she think you’re a failure or something?” Noelle asks, all too familiar with such a thing.
“No, she just… she drinks.” Susie admits.
“Oh.” Noelle dejects.
“So, uhh… Oh! Kris’ mom might let us hang out at their place for a bit.” Susie says, snapping her fingers mid-realization.
“You’re gonna have to tell me what happened. You know that, right?” Noelle asks.
“Fine.” Susie growls. “We are going to hang out with Kris, though.” she says, noticing Mrs. Holiday peering through the window with binoculars… even though they haven’t even left the porch. Her eyes seem to bore through Susie’s very soul, filling her with a certain discomfort. Susie drags Noelle along as she speedwalks away from the Holiday residence.
The two climb down onto the sidewalk, resuming normal pace, and set off to Kris’ house.
“My mom and I got into a fight.” Susie admits. “She called the cops.”
“Oh.” Noelle says, frowning. “What was it about?”
“I forgot to take the garbage out earlier.”
“Something that small!?” Noelle exclaims.
“You haven’t met her.” Susie groans, frowning a little herself.
“So, you forgot to take the garbage out… and then…?” Noelle prods, hoping to learn more.
“She yelled at me for it, but I was in the garage and I was drumming to a tape, and…”
“You play the drums?” Noelle interjects, smiling.
“Yeah.” Susie replies, smirking. “Anyways, uh… I couldn’t hear her. She got really mad, opened the door and threw an empty soda can at me.”
Noelle gasps quietly, her smile quickly fading. “What happened next?” she asks.
“I got mad and I hollered to stop throwing shit at me. Then she heckled me over the garbage again and I told her I’d get around to it…”
“Why didn’t you just go do it?” Noelle asks.
“You try doing something for someone you really don’t like, especially after they’ve hurt you, even in a little way…” Susie replies. Noelle’s expression curls into a soft frown.
“Anyway, it just… it just spiraled, man. She came over and kicked my kit, I can’t even remember what she was yelling. I… I just… I couldn’t really control myself. I got up and started yelling at her myself, and I guess I was holding the sticks threateningly, or something…”
“Susie, do you think it was self-defense?” Noelle asks, a serious tone in her voice.
“I never hit her. I didn’t hurt her in any real way. No more than she hurt me.”
“I know, but… were you defending yourself? When you lashed out at her, was it out of self-preservation? I- I don’t mean to attack you or anything…”
“Yeah. I think so.” Susie says, tugging at Noelle’s arm to keep her from distractedly walking into an intersection. She yelps and then sighs. “S- sorry, and, uhh… sorry for, uhh… putting that awkwardly.”
“It’s alright.” Susie says, ruffling her hair. The two smile softly at each other as they deem the road safe to cross. Susie continues as they walk.
“She acted like I broke a snare over her head or something. She ran out of the room pretty much the second I got close.”
“Have you… hit her before?” Noelle asks. “No.” Susie says with confidence, kicking a tin can down the sidewalk.
“She uhh… she locked the door from the kitchen to the garage, and then she lowered the outer robo-door-thing.” she laments. “I- I couldn’t get out, because the button inside wasn’t really working…”
“Th- that’s… really messed up, actually.” Noelle interjects. “I- I’m sorry.”
“I mean, I was probably gonna stay in there regardless, but…” Susie says, scratching her nose nervously. “It sucks to have your freedom taken from you, I guess. Sucks even more when the only reason the door opens is because there’s a cop in your house.”
Noelle tenses up for a moment. “Did you get arrested?” she asks, as if it were a dirty word to her.
“Undyne scolded my mom a little bit and told her to get both of us back into therapy. We, uh… we used to go, but her habit, it, uh…”
“Did it help?” Noelle wonders aloud, a sad look on her face.
“A little.” Susie replies, struggling to maintain her composure. “I didn’t get kicked out pretty much every week, which was nice, I guess. It just… it just sucked when she stopped going, she… she was getting better, she really was… now it just feels like she wants me dead.”
“I hope not.” Noelle remarks, wrapping herself around her girlfriend’s arm for comfort. “I really, really hope not.”
Susie feels a little better as they cross the street, practically tangled in each other.
“But, uhh… Undyne left, kinda stormed off actually… then as soon as she couldn’t see the cop car anymore she gave me my backpack and a couple of old granola bars and told me to fuck off.”
“I don’t like your mom.” Noelle groans.
“I hate her.” Susie admits with vigor. “I don’t want to hate her, but I do. I feel like I should love her, but I can’t. Every time I try, I catch a can with my head or something… it’s… not fucking worth it anymore.”
A silence creeps into the air, broken only by the occasional passing of a car. Susie keeps her composure for Noelle’s sake.
“…Did you come straight to my house after being kicked out?” Noelle asks, a small smile spread across her face. Susie nods. “That’s sweet…” Noelle coos, patting Susie’s backpack.
“You know, Noelle, I wonder what your life at home is like.” Susie says. “You seem real stressed all the time, and it makes me nervous, you know?”
“I am.” Noelle admits. “They want me to go to, like, a real fancy university. They want me to be the biggest academic success in the family, or something.”
“They want you to be a dork with no life outside school, don’t they?” Susie asks.
“It’s… yeah, kinda. Part of me likes history, part of me likes math, I even like Mrs. Alphys, I just… I can’t take much more of this. They’re always putting so much pressure on me, it just builds up and I spend my weekends dreading the week and studying and barely doing anything for myself, and…”
“Do you have those days where you just can’t get out of bed?”
“Yeah.” Noelle replies, a little embarassed. “Too often.”
“I hope I can help with those a little.” Susie says, pulling Noelle a little tighter to her. “You already do.” Noelle assures.
“They seem pretty controlling, your parents. Do they… let you have a social life, really? Like… I’m pretty sure your mom’s spying on us right now.” Susie guesses, looking around nervously.
“Well, there’s my sister, but aside from her, not really. My mom was probably just about to tell you no, but… she knew it’d just make me emotional, and when I’m emotional, I don’t perform well at school, or whatever…”
“Is your sister cool, at least?” Susie asks.
“Yeah, her and her friends are great, I just… you know, they can’t be the only people I have.”
“I hate that they see you as your grades instead of as yourself.” Susie growls. “It’s like they’re overcompensating for being shitty at school, or something, and that’s coming from me…”
“Do you ever think your mom hates you because of your grades?” Noelle asks.
“She doesn’t really care about my grades. She just didn’t want a kid.”
“What? She doesn’t… she doesn’t even look at your report card?” Noelle stammers.
“No. No, she just throws letters from the school away and she hasn’t paid the phone bill in months, so they can’t call her or anything.”
“Your mother is spiraling.” Noelle states. “She’s- she’s just… isolating herself, yeah?”
“No, no, she has her stupid friends over a lot. They’re just… worse than her, somehow. I’m more of a purse to them… like an accessory instead of a kid, you know?”
“As if your mom had you for vanity, or whatever.”
“I’m convinced she did.” Susie remarks grimly. “Not that I’m impressive to them anyways. She spends half her time talking about how godawful I am, and how much better her life would be without me in it.”
“Mine would be worse without you, Susie.” Noelle counters as they enter a nice, shady neighborhood. By this time, the sky has gained a slight orange tinge as the sun continues to sink.
“She wanted you back before dark, didn’t she?” Susie asks.
“Yeah… I’ll probably never hear the end of it if I don’t get back in time–”
“Aren’t Toriel and your mom, like… acquaintences or something?” Susie asks with a hint of mischief in her voice. Noelle nods. “I think so, yeah.”
Susie knocks on the door. Toriel answers, looking down at the teenagers on her doorstep with a .
“Hey, Toriel.” Susie says, smiling. “Is Kris here?”
Toriel nods. “I’m working on dinner, if you’d like to come in. There’s more than enough to go around!”
“Oh, hey, uhh… could me and Noelle stay the night here, or…”
“Are your parents okay with it?”
Susie nods. Noelle looks a little conflicted until Susie plants her elbow in her side. “Yeah.” she says.
Toriel looks a little suspicious for a moment, but then nods. “Just make sure you all get to bed at a reasonable time, okay?”