Who'd Have Thunk

[Arabella Porter]

            Chrysanthemum and Ara glared face to face, a drop of sweat, making its way slowly down the sky pirate's forehead. Chrys wanted a ticket but Ara stood in the way between her and the ticket booth, sitting on the counter with a gun cocked back at the shivering woman behind it. It had been difficult, finding out which platform Chrys was on and Arabella was certainly out of breath. 

             "Out of the way, I must find Thomas!" Chrys snapped, frustrated. 

             
             "Make me." Ara said, glaring with a fed up stare that was as flexible as that of a statue. 

             "I hit you before and I won't hesitate again." she threatened. 

             "Do it then, hit me." only Ara's mouth moved when she said this. 

             "I will." 

             "Then why isn't my face against the goddamn glass yet?" Chrys looked around anxiously at the bustling mash of people in their rush to depart or step foot in New Orleans. Ara's eyes finally squinted with wonder and a sort of curious gawk as though there was some sort of beautiful light that shined out of the lady's head. "you won't hit me." a light smile perked the corners of her open mouth. "You'd attack me in an alley way but not in the middle of a train station." The smile widened. 

             "And what makes you so sure of yourself that you would say that?" Chrys raised her voice defensively. She straightened her messy dress out and cleared her throat with a questioning humming sound.

             "People." Ara replied lightly with a sort of bouncing motion in her brow. "Reputation if you want to get down in the dirt with it." She added quickly.  Chrys' mouth opened wide with insulted eyes. 

             "You don't know me!" She squeaked and Ara sat back with a smug half smile that you'd only see on the faces of triumphant bullies. 

             "I know you've been raised in posh society and have been bred to care about what others think of you." the pirate argued. 

             "Yes, I'm sure that's what you poor little girls would love to believe!" 

             "Cut the classism, you little high born robot." 

             "How dare you refer to me as one of those half people! I am NOT an automaton!" Ara responded with a back hand hit which snapped Chrys' face to the side. The girl turned her head back with an intense inhale.It was as if she was trying to suck in every loud exhale that Ara made. The sky pirate holstered her revolver and grabbed Chrys' hand, pulling her toward the platform exit. They let themselves be swiftly pushed through the crowd of women, men, variations thereof, and children and when they returned back into the sunny street Ara pulled Chrys and pushed her to sitting on a wooden bench. "I'm not going to listen to any of your silly little talks and lectures about how my "breeding" makes me care about what others think of me! I really don't care!" She whined with a sort of fatigue that caused her shoulders to slump only causing the other woman to suppress a laugh when the lady darted her head around with embarrassment as she adjusted her posture. she then huffed and looked back to her hunter, who had her arms crossed. She opened her mouth to speak but Ara was faster this time. 

          "Listen," Ara began, "I'm not here because I care, alright? I was hired to find you and bring you home. I understand that you're in love with Thomas…well I don't understand it but I sympathize with you. But-" There was a sort of push from the back of her mind that seemed to have a domino effect on her entire system, causing her to pause as she came to a realization. "Don't you see how pathetic you look?" She blurted out. Chrysanthemum gawked at her in amazement. 

        "I beg your pardon?" 

        "He's obviously not into you! and instead of being strong and acting like he was no big deal, you sod after him like he's the last man on earth! He wants to be an aroma therapist for hell's sake! But you don't have the self confidence to know that there are a million other posh, high born, spoiled gentleman that would love to take you as their wife and carry you around like a trophy to fancy balls and boring dinner parties! Have you no self respect? You look stupid running after a man who's obviously running away from you!  You're such a lady! Thomas isn't going to be the one who will throw you against a wall and treat you like a dirty girl while your parents are downstairs talking to the guests about what a gentleman he is!" 

       "You're disgusting! Why would he throw me into a-"

       "Do you really think he wants someone who will follow him to the states uninvited? Do you really want someone who ran away to god knows where, became a pirate, and then burned his flat down, ending him in jail and then running off to the states, ALL right after he proposed to you? What do they even teach you in those private schools??" It felt like there wasn't anyone else in the entire world but the scared aristocrat in front of her as Ara lost her temper and began yelling. "How does someone so dull get a dowry like yours?" she kicked over a potted fern, causing many people to jump as it crashed into pieces. Chrys jolted a little and then looked down with a defeated look in her eyes and a frown plastered to her face. "Oh don't cry!" Ara snapped further, "Be a real woman and brush him off your shoulders! Find a man who will make you happy and prove to Thomas Dunning that he lost a great woman!"   

       Then it came, like some higher power had turned the world like a ball on their finger so that days too two minutes and nights took three. A year had gone by in this one outburst of panic from a crying Chrysanthemum.

       "I'M A LESBIAN!"