maudemacdonagh:
Slip dress sliding off one shoulder and a bottle of rum in the crook of her elbow, Maude looked like a slashed Uber rating waiting to happen as she stumbled headily into the ladies, making a beeline for the end cubicle. The American’s aren’t fond of queuing, Kath had told her as she’d bustled jumpers into her suitcase eight years previous when she’d first set sail for the States. Don’t you go getting caught in that impatient but stoic queuing lark or you’ll be hanging around all day. So, manners be damned, she’d stormed into that cell like she owned it, although she wasn’t in the cubicle thirty seconds before she found herself joined, knickers round her ankles and a baggie in her hand. “Am I not after locking that thing?” Maude uttered mostly to herself while the other profusely apologised. “It’s fine. All girls together or whatever those lezza P.E. coaches used to say to stop you making a fuss about other girls peering at your snatch.” Lifting the key of powder to her nose, Maude took a hearty sniff while the sound of her wee trickled to a halt, knees pressed tight together. “I’m not a homophobe, by the way. I mean… As much as being raised Catholic allows you to not be so, for there’s always some level of internalised homophobia under the hegemonic values intrinsic to the education system…” Biting down on her lip, Maude pulled up her fishnets and flushed the toilet as she corrected her skirt. “But me ma’s a gay. I probably am too. Are you wanting a key?” Holding out the baggie, she found herself asking if this flyaway creature wrapped in silk was too demure for ketamine. “It’s not the hard stuff, don’t worry. It’ll just… mellow you out. Align your chakras and that.” Despite the queue, she roune herself wanting to stay in the cubicle, this perfect little cocoon where nothing could touch them. “Did you ever see that video about how when a guy’s creeping you have to ‘do the face’. With herself… Jenna Marbles, that’s it! Bit problematic now, I guess with the ableism and all that, but you could always do that. Or get off with me, make him think he’s barking up the wrong tree.” Her shoulders shrugged, one lock of peroxide hair twirled around her finger as she reapplied her ashy mauve lipstick in the mirror. “Honestly, I don’t mind. Mind you — some fellas propper dig that, don’t they? Could be a bad move.”
Winona busied herself, looking down at her black manicured fingernails, suddenly getting the urge to scratch at the man’s throat. Leave a venomous mark like Sigourney Weaver in Holes. She had watched that scene growing up, breathlessly enthusing to her friend seated next to her on the couch. That. I want to be like that. Vicious an untouchable. But instead she found herself crouching in a bar bathroom with a girl she could barely understand, the single drink she’d had already clouding her head. “Aren’t Catholics the ones with the guilt? I wouldn’t know. I think my family’s religion is Hollywood and cocaine. Saw my dad snort a line of my mom’s tits once. Exhilarating,” she explained in a monotone, with all the enthusiasm of a reluctant teenage bering forced out of bed. “Hmm?” She asked, turning her head around finally, unlatching the door, the baggie filling her with equal parts excitement and repulsion. You don’t do that anymore, she chided herself. She didn’t avoid drugs out of any sort of addiction or aversion to anything too reckless. Her abstention was more monk-like. Repentant for sins of the past. Maybe she did understand Catholicism after all. “Maybe just a little. A baby bump.” Something to relax her, she assured herself. After that asshole outside. “Don’t fake it on my account,” she replied primly, falling into the affected robotic tone she took on around strangers. “Normally, honestly, I’d just kick him straight in the crotch. But the bouncer here already hates me. Would loathe to get banned from the most popular bar on campus.” “Even if I think karaoke should be outlawed and punished criminally.” Her eyes flitted to the mirror, taking herself in luxuriously. Her ego was fed easily and often. “Alright fine, we can pretend to be... whatever. Look in each other’s eyes like we would never ever touch a penis. so romantic,” she offered, rolling her eyes.


















