Chapter Text
“Is it back yet?” Carmilla, an impatient and broody young woman with piercing features, bursts through the doors of Take Out Movies.
“Nope.” Will responds turning the page of a magazine he has been reading for the past 2 hours. He gets bored easily. “I’m gonna lose it. I’m actually going to lose my fucking mind if I don’t get this movie.” She says as she drops her head onto the counter. A loud, dramatic sigh fills the store and Will rolls his eyes at his older sister. Oh yea, forgot to mention they’re related.
“You know what would solve your problems?”
“Xanax?”
“Nooo,” He responds, drawing out the word, “Netflix. And with how much you spend here as it is, you probably would save a lot of money.” Carmilla bangs her head against the counter and continues to sigh, “Um can you not? It was just an idea. Netflix has a shit ton of movies. Then you wouldn’t have to come in and threaten me to find the movies you want to get over that sadistic bitch of a girlfriend you wasted 3 years on.”
“Will?” Carmilla looks up into her brother’s eyes and smiles softly before saying, “If you ever point of how tragic and stupid my life is again I’ll kick you in the throat.” He nods, “Noted.”
Carmilla is not only his sister but his best customer. She comes in every other night to load up on movies and snacks before she goes home to mope. She broke up with her girlfriend as aforementioned and hasn’t been doing so well since. Sometimes the person that does the dumping is the one who hurts the most. Elle didn’t even seem to care. Then again she did have her head between some girl’s thighs. Literally. She was in the middle of going down on a girl when Carmilla left her. She was never a faithful one.
“Who needs to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind every day for 3 weeks? It’s ridiculous.” She says angrily. “Uh Kitty, before this kid got it you had it for a month.” She gives him a death glare before heading over to the back of the store. Take Out Movies had this beautiful section of movies entitled “Existential break up films.” She’s pretty sure the owner put it in specifically for her. I mean, he was basically her dad at this point.
When her mom had left when she was in high school, Mr. Fendmen practically adopted them. Carmilla had insisted on paying him for the food he’d bring over or all the movies he’d lend them before they came out in the store. Her mom may have been a cold hearted druggy bitch but she was flushed and made sure Carmilla and Will had plenty in their savings. He always said no but Carmilla would hide twenty dollar bills inside movie cases. He never said anything which made her happy.
So now she spends her free time raiding the section erected in her honor hoping to smother her sadness with cheap indie films and junk food.
“How often does this bastard renew the movie?” She asks scanning for new releases. Will laughs and shakes his head as he continues to read his magazine. Carmilla sighs again before picking up 500 Days of Summer (for the thousandth time) and heading to the counter. She tossed some skittles up as well and pulled out her membership card. Will doesn’t lift his eyes from the page as he scans her items and charges her card.
“See ya tomorrow.” He shouts as she trudges out into the cold with a scowl on her face.
As expected, Carmilla barges into the store the very next day with a murderous rage. She grabs a ton of candy from the shelves and throws them onto the counter, “Load me up.” She says spinning around so Will can fill her back pack.
He charges her and puts her snacks in her bag. She spins around and looks into his eyes as she leans forward, “Where is that movie William?” she half whispers, half spits out. Will’s eyes widen.
“Renewed. Again.” He responds going back to the same old magazine.
Carmilla lunges forward and grabs her younger brother by the shirt collar. Will is unfazed as she yells out commands, “Where. Is. That. Movie?” His face scrunches up in confusion, “I already told you she renew-“
“WHERE IS THE GODDAMN MOVIE WILL!?”
Will pushes her off of him and began typing into the computer. Since they were a local shop they made sure to have the addresses of every person that rented from them. That way if films magically disappeared they could always get them back. He sighs as he pulls up the girls contact info.
“305 Douglas Street. Apartment 2b.” He says before going back to his reading. Carmilla simply nods as she exits the shop and gets on her bike. She types the address into her phone quickly and heads off. This isn’t the first time she’d done this but she loved it more and more each time. She needed that movie. She needed to get over Elle. So she’d do what she had to do.
This chick lived in a pretty bad neighborhood. Carmilla knows this because her mom used to have her and Willy boy sell down here. People thought it was funny to buy drugs from kids. One time over by the gas station that she can just now make out over the hill, she got thrown through a window for not giving this guy “the right shit.” Her mom had laughed as she picked pieces of glass from her hair and bandaged her up saying, “These druggies may be useless members of society but they know their heroin.”
Carmilla laughs to herself. Then she laughs again because that’s a fucked up memory to laugh to. But gutter punk kids like her were used to it.
She rounds the corner onto to Douglas and keeps pedaling up the small hill. The apartment complex comes into view. It’s one she knows. One she knows very well actually.
As she slows to stop, she hops off of her bike and begins to lock it up before remembering where she is. Instead she slings it over her shoulder and trudges up the stairs. 2b. That’s not too bad, she thinks deciding to leave her bike locked to the broken radiator in the front entrance. Just for good measure she pulls out a chain and locks the wheels together. This bike cost her $300 bucks that she didn’t have (that’s the other thing about druggy parents. They might load up your savings but they can drain it too) She’ll be damned if she loses it.
“2b. 2b. Twwwwoooooooo… B.” She says to herself as she climbs up the stairs towards her target. She finds the room and takes a deep breath. Slowly she lifts her hand to the door and pounds on it. To be honest she isn’t sure what she is expecting. Carmilla always brings a switchblade with her just in case but she’s only had to use it once or twice. But as the doors opens she knows for a fact she is not expecting a 5’2”, blonde haired, animal sweater wearing girl who was for lack of a better word…cute.
“Uh...” Carmilla clears her throat and reminds herself of her mission, “You have my movie.” The girl looks at her with a confused face and as she studies her, Carmilla can tell she’s been crying.
“Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. You’ve been renting it for the past 3 weeks and I need it.” The shorty just shakes her head and runs a hand through her hair, “Uh. I’m sorry. I, uh, I’ve been dealing with...” her eyes begin to water and Carmilla doesn’t know what to do. This is not how she imagined this going.
As tears spill over the girls eyes, Carmilla reaches over and pats the smaller girls head softly, “There, there…you.” She says, “No need for waterworks, cupcake.”
“Cupcake? Danny and I used to make cupcakes.” The girl responds before she begins to sob uncontrollably. Carmilla’s eyes get wide. Damn, this chick’s probably getting over some guy and was trying to cry it out through the damn movie. Now I feel like a dick. She’s almost as pathetic as I am. Camilla thinks to herself. The girl wipes her eyes and sighs before continuing the sad sack display.
Without really thinking Carmilla grabs a hold of her slowly and awkwardly before she brings her in for a hug. “You’re…fine. Uh, you can keep the movie. Okay?” She says as she pets the blonde girl’s hair. She smells nice, which is probably a weird thought.
The girl pushes her off gently and wipes her eyes, “No it’s okay. I, uh, I can return it. I just, uh, I just wish I could erase Danny too ya know?” She says with a sad laugh. Carmilla nods, “Dude I feel you, I’m trying to forget someone as well. And the movie was filmed so beautifully it’s insane.”
“Exactly! Like it perfectly encompasses everything I feel right now.”
“I totally, 100% feel you. That’s why I’ve been trying to get my hands on it. I feel like if I watch it enough maybe I can forget everything I’ve been holding onto.” The girl nods and smiles. She sticks her hand out and waits for Carmilla to shake it, “I’m Laura.”
“Carmilla.” She responds letting go of her tiny hand. “I’m sorry for coming here and being crazy. I don’t always think things through. Go ahead and hold onto the movie, cutie. I’ll just head out.”
“No! It’s fine. I’ve probably watched it a million times. Maybe I should let it go. Let Danny go.” Laura sighs, “She was kind of a bitch anyways.” Carmilla quirks up an eyebrow, “She?”
Laura blushes and buries her face in her hands, “Oh yeah. Super gay tiny homo right here.” She says gesturing to herself. Carmilla smirks, “Yeah well, ditto.” Laura laughs which eases whatever awkward tension had built up.
“Ya know, we could always watch it together?” Carmilla smirks at the blonde’s offer. She probably shouldn’t but at this point who cares. Why should she further deny herself the pleasure of finally being able to watch this movie she’d come here to steal.
“Yea, alright.” She smiles and Laura squeals excitedly before doing her best to maintain her composure. She moves to the side and motions for her new friend to come in.
Laura’s apartment is surprisingly nice for being on south side. She has Ikea furniture and what looks like paintings that were created by her art major best friend that she puts up to make them happy. The whole place smells like chocolate and candles. It’s comfy and clean. Until you get to the living room.
The couch is surrounded by used Kleenex and empty boxes of snowballs. Laura blushes as Carmilla quirks her eyebrow up at her. The tiny blonde grabs a broom from the kitchen and tries to sweep up as much as possible before sitting down and collecting various remotes.
“Okay not this one, uh, this one is for the Roku, this is…the fire TV. Is it this one?” She aims it at the TV and it does nothing, “No? What the hell is this for?” Carmilla chuckles to herself while Laura continues to shuffle through more remotes until she finds the right one.
She turns on the DVD player and skips to the main screen. Laura looks over to the raven haired stranger, “Are you just gonna stand there?” Carmilla rolls her eyes with a smirk before she takes a seat on the couch next to the bubbly little blonde.
Immediately, the girls are lost in the film. Eyes glazed over with understanding and interest even though they’d both seen it more than a hundred times.
“Random thoughts for Valentine's Day, 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.” Laura smiles to herself as she hears Carmilla whisper the opening lines under her breath.
Laura responded with the next few lines a little louder, “I ditched work today. Took a train home to Montauk. I don't know why. I'm not an impulsive person. I guess I just woke up in a funk this morning. I gotta get my car fixed." Carmilla smiled and shook her head. They both thought to themselves,
Maybe now I’ll finally forget.
*1 hour and 30 minutes later*
If you were to enter Laura Hollis’s apartment and walk into her living room you’d find two girls sobbing wildly in each other’s arms, surrounded by a mountain of used tissues and uneaten pizza that was ordered twenty minutes in and forgotten shortly after. If you look a little closer you will find an empty bottle of Peppermint Schnapps tucked into the couch cushions.
“It’s not even fair that she can even be there and just do that and he can’t even feel anything because he loves her and she doesn’t even know and it’s so sad.” Laura would cry.
“And why does he even know that she feels like that when he doesn’t even know and she can’t even cheat on him because she loves him right? But what if she doesn’t!?” Carmilla would cry back.
“I know she’s good at basketball and loves social justice and is probably the same height as her but just because I’m stubby *hic* and clumsy *hic* and can’t always rage against the man doesn’t mean I’m *hic* not *hic* worth it.”
“Just because I said I didn’t want her to bite my clit that one time she thinks she can just go bite someone else’s like I’m not the one who paid her rent and talked about our future together and she can just go and do that with everyone and not even feel bad like a slutty slut type slut.”
At this point neither of the sloppy, sappy girls are talking about the movie. Instead they are clinging to each other like 2 puzzles pieces that stapled themselves together in order to feel like they had a place.
“Am I ugly? Am I just too ugly for her!?” Laura looks to Carmilla who cradles her face, “No you are so beautiful, and you’re gorgeous.”
“I’m not even. I’m like drizzle and she’s the tsunami.”
“No, it’s hurricane but no you’re so pretty like I would marry you right now.”
“Ohymgod why can’t I just marry you?” Laura whines. Carmilla wipes her eyes and kisses her nose. They both giggle and then begin to cry again.
Sometime between the sobs and compliments they both fell asleep on Laura’s couch and woke up with crippling headaches. Carmilla sits up on her side of the couch opposite of Laura and practically hisses.
“Really? It was fucking Schnapps for christ’s sake, how am I feeling so shitty?” Carmilla moans as she shields her eyes from the sunlight peeking through the curtains.
“Last week I poured in some left over vodka because I wanted to use the bottle as a vase.”
Both girls groan loudly. “Ya know what?” Laura says, “Silver lining; we met.” Carmilla smiles but it hurts her face too much so she lets out another groan, “That was for the headache not for you. I’m glad we met. Really glad actually.”
“Are you hungry Carm?”
“Ew don’t even mention food or I’ll puke.”
Laura pauses then mischievously responds, “Buttered lobster bites and pancake batter. Creamy milk and moist chocolate cake.”
“Ahhhhhh stooooop.” Carmilla jokingly kicks Laura’s head with her foot and the girls laugh and then flinch, “Jesus Christ, ya got any advil?” Laura laughs before pulling herself up and heading to the medicine cabinet. These 2 strangers (now friends?) think to themselves,
Thank god for the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.