And Alienate People - Tumblr Posts
“He didn’t!” “He did!” “Well, what did you say?” “I didn’t!” “You didn’t?!” “What was I supposed to say!” you demand, partly exasperated and partly curious as to what the Grackle thinks you should have done. You ended up so weirded out by the conversation that you skipped going to ████████, and instead decided to get trashed back at home with the one friend who didn’t leave.
“I don’t know!” the Grackle responds, “you really should have said SOMETHING though, that’s your problem. You always run away instead of confronting shit. This is exactly like when you caught Jules in bed with Riley, you just got back in your car and left instead of saying a damn thing. When Max got handsy at work what did you do? Not file a harassment report with HR, you just left that job and never came back. I don’t know how you’re supposed to deal with the gas station dude, maybe you, maybe instead of running away like always you should have called him out on his creepy small-town racist schtick?”
You blink, uncertain yourself. Uncertain OF yourself. Do you really run away all the time? That’s not true, you’ve stuck through all sorts of things that made you uncomfortable. Like, that camp your guardian sent you to one summer was truly hellish but you stuck it out, right? Sure you spent most of it at the nurse’s cabin instead of with all the other kids but you had severe allergies and the poison ivy was really bad that year anyway and the ticks kept finding you and besides this is absolutely NOT how a friend would be treating you right now in your hour of need so clearly-
Schtick schtick schtick” the Grackle continues, at this point clearly inebriated, “That’s a word, right? Schtick? It doesn’t... I don’t feel like it means anything right now but it means something, right? I wouldn’t... I wouldn’t know a fake word I know all the words and schtick is a real fake word thats real and isn’t fake. Schtick.”
You leave.
“Did you see that thing I posted on Faceboook?” the Robin asks, while counting out the change from the transaction.
“I... what?” you respond, wholly unprepared for non-grocery related questions.
“The thing about the history of ████████! I think I tagged you in it. You went, right? I remember you talked about how important it was to you at the reunion a couple months back. How did it go?”
The additional context brings your mental lenses into clarity, and you can feel the heat creep into your cheeks from embarrassment. You were so spaced-out during the entire idle conversation that you completely missed the cashier is one of your second cousins. Thankfully he doesn’t seem to have noticed your lack of recognition but he looks at you expectantly, waiting for an answer.
“Ah, yeah, no, I- I didn’t make it out,” you fumble for an excuse that isn’t exactly a lie: “I had some car trouble.”
“Ah that’s a shame,” the Robin says, handing over your bags, “I hope you do get to go soon, it sounds like it’s right up your alley. Have a good one!” he finishes, not waiting for a response before turning away to greet the next customer. You stuff the change in your pocket and the receipt in a bag.
You leave.