She made things. And, in her opinion, she made them pretty darn well, all things considered. She didn’t have a proper sewing lesson, no, she just watched her mom when she used to hem Bea’s clothes for elementary school and the little pigtailed girl had taken off like a rocket when she discovered she could use scraps and bits of fabric from here and there to stitch things together. From machine to hand, she practiced her craft over the years, from the first hybrid plushie she did in junior high (she still had Mr. BunnyBear, to this day) up through high school and beyond.
Problem was… Bea never actually bothered to learn how to do anything but mutate dolls and stuffed toys. She never figured out how to hem (what was the point to begin with?), she never bothered to figure out how to work with dress patterns or to make her own clothing… why would she have any need, when she could spend her time, money and effort on making little shirts and overalls for her deformed little friends?
So when it came time to come up with presents for friends, it was easy. She figured out their favorite animal (or most of the time, animals) and combined them together to form a new animal to delight them with. You liked dogs and cats? Why not a dogcat? You like dragons and unicorns? Then how about a dragicorn or a unigon?? Even if a person only had one favorite, that wouldn’t stop her from making some sort of evil chaotic unicorn or a fluffy, friendly looking dragon.
But this… this was a whole different ballpark.
Marnie Rogers had been given plenty of plushies in their time as friends. Aside from Kelly, she’d probably gotten the most out of Bea -- flops and wins, all in between. She’d gone out and doll shopped with her, picking things off the clearance racks for Bea to mutilate and transform into better, cooler things… but now that they were technically girlfriends and not just best friends…
What was she supposed to get her?
Stuffed animals simply didn’t cut it anymore but Bea had never really worried about any other kind of present to offer people. Sure, she’d given some flowers recently but big whoop, a single flower was a pretty crappy gift when one was supposed to spoil their significant other.
Oh, chaos. Bea had a significant other.
It was a really weird, really strange thought. There was someone significant and she was her other. There were no rulebooks or guides or instruction manuals for this sort of thing so Bea was having to just wing it as best she could… especially considering how she’d… well. Never really thought of dating before. Kelly had kissed her and that had been weird and heart palpitation-inducing but then she’d sent strange signals afterwards and dropped of the face of the world so Bea just figured it was…. Well, she didn’t know what to think anymore.
She’d only been working at the movie theater for a couple months now and most of her checks were pretty pitiful. She managed to scrape up enough to pay her cell phone bill (thanks, MOM, for trying to make her RESPONSIBLE or something) but with the change she had left over, she’d been squirreling it away for another clearance binge shopping spree… but now, now she was going to take it and going to buy Marnie the best birthday present she could manage to find.
Only… she didn’t even know where to start looking for it.
So, like any other girl her age or slightly younger, the first place she went to was the mall.
There were shops galore but not every one of them “screamed” Marnie. In fact, most didn’t. There was one of those earthy stores that had incense and all sorts of crystals and stuff but Bea wasn’t sure what crystals Marnie would actually need, much less use in her spells and what if the incense was the wrong smell or it made MarMar or Rasputin sick or…
Okay, so maybe not the hippie store.
Hot Topic was another crowd pleasure, Bea finding herself going in and browsing on a whim. There were all sorts of horrific delights among the aisles and goth looking attire that might make Marnie pleased? …. Maybe?
She managed to find a few cute little pieces of jewelry near the clearance section (but not quite in it to justify trying to prove they’d been misplaced and that the store should still honor the clearance pricing). There were some cute crystal Best Friend Forever necklaces but Bea wasn’t sure if BFF was still applicable or if she had to find something that now said GIRL FRIENDS… though that would be weird, honestly, if one girl had a necklace that said GIRL while the other had a necklace that said FRIENDS on it. Was there one for Significant Others? Or would that be weird looking too?
She settled for a couple of Beetlejuice looking pieces; some earring sets with studs and then a bracelet that looked like a sandworm had crawled up her arm. It was pretty badass and Bea honestly kind of wanted to keep it for herself but that just meant it was a really good present, right? So REALLY good presents deserved to go to girlfriends, so into the basket it went for Marzipan. There were also some really cool rings that made it look like you had claws instead of fingers and Bea might have put a few on both hands to see if they worked as claws but the employee who spotted her scraping at the mirror didn’t seem nearly as impressed as Bea felt, so she decided against getting the badass ring set and dropped some kind of cheap, gothic looking Disney scarf watch in there instead.
Also managing to find some pretty cute hair accessories in the clearance section (not that she really knew how to utilize anything more than a scrunchy - it didn’t really make sense to the young woman how one would put chopsticks in hair), Bea shelled out her few, precious dollars to purchase those, plus a little cauldron looking purse that had a slight tear near the zipper (which was probably why it was on clearance to begin with). The purse was still more expensive than she’d care to pay for it but she was eighty-seven percent certain Mar would appreciate it, so she added it along with her small purchases with the intent of trying to stick it up (or adding a patch of her own) over the tear when she got home.
Maybe she’d put the accessories and bracelets in the purse? Would that be cute? Or would she not know to open the purse after opening the present the purse came in?
How were people supposed to do this sort of thing?!?!
Finding wrapping paper and a bag to go with it was another feat of strength that Bea wasn’t prepared for. No longer could she just shove it haphazardly into any ‘ol gift bag her mom still had in the closet along with the other wrapping supplies…. No. This had to be special. It had to be special because it was for a SO, not just a BFF.
Gah!!!
She settled on a black bag, using a white paint pen to draw a tombstone with a happy little RIP and Marnie’s date of birth on it. Bea thought it was funny at least, so maybe Marnie would to. Hopefully. Maybe.
Pastel colored tissue paper set her back a few more dollars as she purchased it, adding it in with the purse and accessories and making a nice, nestled home for the present within the depths of the crinkly light purple and teal colors that sprouted out of the bag like awkward, thick easter grass.
She added two tickets to Happy Death Day 2 U in at the last minute because it also seemed like a funny present to give someone on their birthday (but also because she got them at a discount, working at the movie theater) (but also also because it was a horror flick) and hopefully Marnie would enjoy the warped humor that she normally seemed to.
Well.
Only time would tell if she actually liked the present or not… else Bea was really screwing up this whole girlfriend girlfriend… thing. Relationship. SO. Whatever it was that they had between them now.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped up to the front door of Marnie’s apartment, bag in hand. Hands, really, as both of them had a death grip on the black bag as if she was scared a ghost would swoop in and carry it off without an warning. It took another moment before she allowed herself to release one hand from the bag, bringing it up to form a fist and knock on the door once, then twice.
And it was about that time that she realized she’d completely forgotten to get a card to go along with the entire thing, making Beatrice Kellye race down the hall at a sprinter’s pace, pale as a sheet, blasting her way through the stairwell doors and down the stairs as if she were being chased by an axe murderer.
GOD, she was going to get this dating thing right if it absolutely KILLED her!!!!!!
(WC: 1575)
Nuxaz
hahaha she's such a dweeb, I'm sorry
