chapter five - through glass

mara.
chapter five - through glass
pt. 1
5/30/15
somewhere, california

"Have you ever seen The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?" she asked the stranger. Unlike previous nights where she had been surrounded by the young ladies affected by her lanterns, she wasn't mara tonight.

She was Mara Collins.

"Yeah, actually! Great show," the young man said as he adjusted his glasses. He seemed just as awkward with this conversation and this meeting as she was. There was something about the freedom of just tapping randomly on the smart phone that made their conversations easy at first. They had built a conversation on their mutual fascination of Japanese horror films and the electronic band Boards of Canada. He just happened to be equally awkward. Tonight, he wasn't a few pixels on The Allmother's iPhone.

He was Harrison McTaggart.

"So, uh...why do you ask?" he said as he looked down at his coffee briefly. She had convinced him to take her to TGI Friday's, one of her favorite casual dining places, and she adjusted herself as the words seemed to almost vomit out of her mouth.

"I'm a socially maladjusted young woman that basically spent the past nine or so years involved with a cult and I've managed to somehow successfully become a cult leader of my own. I relate to Kimmy on a spiritual level, outside the fact that I have a thirst for blood," seemed to be what mara wanted to say.

"Oh, uh...good show. Makes me laugh," she said with a shy smile. "Really crazy concept, girl stuck in a cult adjusting to life afterward," she said nervously.

"So basically what you're telling me is that you probably are a borderline personality and that choosing to swipe right was the worst decision of my life," was what she expected to hear from Harrison.

"Yeah, it's pretty fun. It reminds me a lot of 30 Rock," he said back as he laughed, looking at her with a small smile. "So what do you do for a living? I'm, y'know, just starting to get out of the meaningless jobs. I'm actually a district manager in training for GameStop," Harrison told her.

"Oh hey, that's great. I'm a violent potential killer," was what she expected to say.

"I work on the campus of the University of California San Diego," she actually said. "It's sports related. Pretty fun shit," she shrugged.

"Is it like the stuff with campus sports?" he asked.

"Yeah, something like that," she replied as she looked down at her plate full of chicken tenders. Mara had never been one for social interaction, even before the world had dictated she was to be taken away and raised in a completely ass backward way by Hal Snyder and his sister, but here she was, trying to find a way to reintegrate back into society in a manner that seemed the most logical.

But hey, logic was never something for this world.

"So what made you decide to ask me out?" she asked him, glancing back at him.

"Y'know, the obvious mutual interests...plus, I don't know, you seem a little lonely," he confessed.

"Well it's nice to know I'm a pity date. Are you normally this tactful with your dates, or am I just that special?" she asked dismissively with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't mean it like that, it's just...well, I get it. Like, I know how it feels to just sort of feel like you're floating out there. Like you're posting something to try to meet someone and it's just people staring at it. That you're doing everything right to make it worth replying to, but nobody's saying anything. You and I have stuff in common, so we started talking, and you seem pretty nice, so here I am," he told her.

"Nice save, Harrison," she said as she gave him a small smile. "Maybe I won't eviscerate you," she chuckled.

"But..." he started and then he looked like he clammed up.

"But what?" she asked.

"You look like the psychotic cult leader I saw flipping through channels," was what he thought would make great conversation.

"You look like someone on TV," he actually said.

"Well this is certainly a conversation worth having," she laughed. "Alright, you got me. I've done television. What are you hoping to do?" she asked. "I'm not really that famous, nor do I care to be," she asked.

"It's just...well, I mean, is it real?" he asked.

"Is what real?" she replied.

"The lanterns. The girls. Are you really like The Allmother? They say a lot of it is personality ramped up," he asked her. "But you really don't seem like you're exactly out of your mind," he added, hoping that it had at least allowed for better conversation.

"That's the magic of television," she said, reaching over and tapping him on the nose. "I can be anyone I want to be, and you can believe I'm anyone or anything. I can be a psycho killer, I can be the girl in the garden. A vixen in a red dress or a wallflower with no perks. I can be ice with no melting point, the coldest fire you've ever felt. I can be whatever I want to be and whoever you think I am," she said with a small smile as the waiter came to drop off their check.

"But who are you?" he asked her curiously.

"Darling...I'm just the boogeywoman. And I'm also the girl you get a second date with," she said back with a small grin on her face.