Page 41 of Scaredy Cat
Madison flashes me a grin. “I was sort of hoping you’d let me pick,” she admits. “But just because I like to think I know you well enough to know what you like to eat.”
“I’m not that hard to please.” My voice comes out with a low snicker, but I follow her to one end of the food court where she gets in line for a place that offers a fusion of Chinese and American food. From what I can see, most people are walking away with bao buns—fluffy dough wrapped around fillings like fried chicken or pulled pork.
Madison is right. She does know what I like to eat, sometimes better than I do. My stomach growls, reminding me I haven’t eaten any food since yesterday, and suddenly I’mstarving. My mouth waters for the amazing-smelling food that keeps drifting by on paper plates as people get their orders.
“Trust me to order for you?” Madison turns to cock her head, surveying my face. “You look like you should go sit down.”
“That’s a really nice way of saying I have all the charm of a soon-to-be corpse.” But I nod my head, one hand coming up to press against my face. “I’ll see you over there?” Dropping my hand, I point to a cluster of empty tables near-ish us.
“Give me a few minutes, and yeah.”
I make my way over to the tables, grateful to find a few empty ones that are a little distance away from the crowds. With my headache, I’m not at all interested in constantly bumping intoother people today, when all I want to do is collapse on my arms and play dead until food shows up.
Stupidly, my foot catches on the chair leg and I nearly face-plant the table, though I manage to save myself and my dignity by sitting down like a semi-normal person, my ass thumping into the plastic seat.
It’s nice here,I think to myself, people watching with the thrum of the crowd’s voices in my ears like white noise. I could never shop here. This is way above my tax bracket. But it’s nice to sit here with the sun sinking into the black material of myTexas Chainsaw Massacrehoodie, with my ankles crossed under the table, and just exist. Even with a building migraine, I can appreciate Madison dragging me out of the house so I’m not just moping and making it worse by curling up in unrealistic positions that only serve to tie my spine into knots.
“Excuse me.” The voice drags me out of my reverie, and I look up, afraid I’ve taken someone’s reserved table. An apology bubbles up my throat, just in case, but I pause when I see two girls, maybe a couple years younger than me, standing by my table. One has her phone out, and she glances from me to it, biting her lip like she’s hiding a smile.
“Am I at your table?” I ask, bemused. “I can move?—”
“You’reScaredy Cat,right?” the blonde asks, cutting me off.
“Uh, yeah.” Getting recognized in public has only happened to me a few times before, and I’m definitely not expecting it now. Especially while I feel like death. “Do you guys follow me?”
“No,” the black-haired girl assures me, her deep-set eyes looking over me almost disdainfully. “We only know about you from theSquad Ghoulslivestream.”
Oh.
“Okay.” I don’t know what else to say, so I leave it at that as I sit back in my chair. I try not to look like I’m suffering, and drop my arms to a more casual, relaxed position across my lap.
“You saw what the manor posted about you, right?” the other girl asks almost excitedly. Her smile turns unfriendly, and she sets her phone down on the table, where I can see the post of my face with the whiskers and ears drawn on it in marker. God, this really is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
I don’t know what to say, but I definitely don’t want these two to sense weakness. Defensiveness makes me shift uneasily, though I force myself not to change position or let my expression change to anything uncomfortable.
Maybe if I just look bored, they’ll go away.
“Yeah. Nice of them to give me the extra attention for people who might not know about me,” I compliment. “I’ll have to give them a shout-out on my next post.”
The two girls look at each other, obviously not expecting such a polite, blasé answer. “They weren’t complimenting you,” the dark-haired girl states coldly. “Have you read the comments?”
“I don’t really have that kind of free time. I’m thrilled that you both do, though.” It’s a subtle dig, but not really enough to make either of them do anything other than frown. My knuckles tap against my thigh, and I look toward the restaurant where Madison is currently paying for our food. ThankGod,I think to myself. She shouldn’t be much longer.
“Don’t you think it’s hypocritical?” The question draws my gaze back to the girls, and I look at them with raised brows, trying to exude an aura of boredom instead of discomfort.
“What’s hypocritical?” I sigh when the silence stretches between us.
“That you only go to haunts you know can’t scare you, instead of going toactuallyscary ones like the manor. You know, there’s a rumor going around that you only go to places that pay you for a good review.That’spretty hypocritical.”
“Pretty shitty, too,” her friend adds. “Makes it seem like all your content is fake.”
“Do you pay one of those social media companies for engagement?” Now that they’ve gotten going, they seem to build off each other, and I glance at Madison again, wishing she’d hurry up. I don’t know what to say when it comes to defending my brand, especially in person. This hasneverhappened to me before.
“Sooo you won’t answer us? Is it because you need to have a prepared answer, and you can’t just come up with something on the spot? That’s what it seemed like on theSquad Ghoulslivestream, and—” Suddenly the girl breaks off, and she falls forward to catch herself on the table hard. The girl beside her whirls around to face the guy who knocked into them, but he’s already turned away.
“Excuse you!” she snaps, her attention now on him. “Can’t you even apologize to her?”
He doesn’t even turn. But it’s enough of a distraction, and Madison appears a second later, setting down our food and drinks between us with confusion on her face. “Uh, hi?” she greets, looking at the two of them. “Do we know you?”
