Chapter Text
The events that are about to unfold take place on approximately November 24, 1994.
“Do you really have to go home?” Kate chewed on the cap of her pen. She had been trying to come up with a way to get Mallory to stay for dinner for the last twenty minutes, but in the end she decided to just beg.
“I told Janice I would bring her dinner,” Mallory mumbled as she sat up. “As much as I would love to be here for your mothers extravagant Thanksgiving feast,” she sighed, “I have to go home.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “But not for another hour, right?” Mallory’s ever-present sarcastic tone had become comforting to her.
Mallory smiled. “Right.” She closed the notebook she had been writing her essay in and shoved it into her backpack. “I’m over this. Wanna get some snacks?”
Kate threw her pen down onto her bedspread as a response. “I hate algebra.” She got up and followed Mallory down into the kitchen.
“Mallory,” Joy commented once the blonde walked into the kitchen. “You’re still here.”
“Nice to see you, too, Mrs. Wallis,” Mallory squinted her eyes into the most ingenuine smile she could and walked past the older woman.
Mallory had spent almost every afternoon at Kate’s house since her seventeenth birthday, and she was pretty sure Joy hated her more and more with each time they interacted. She was very fond of Kate and valued their friendship, so she couldn’t care less if Joy liked having her around or not. She knew Kate liked spending time with her, and that was more important than anything else.
“We’re out of Dunkaroos,” Kate called from the staircase.
“Katie, you do not need a snack right now. You’ll spoil your dinner.” Joy stood facing Kate with her arms crossed. Her daughter rolled her eyes as a response and Mallory found that funny, so she surrendered to the dining room to finish setting the table. She knew it would be a lost cause with the two of them together.
“Can we make some popcorn?” Kate asked as she rummaged through the snack cupboard. It was the first time she had actually craved popcorn in over a year.
Mallory was just glad that Kate wanted to eat something. She was usually the one who brought snacks to Kate in hopes of getting her to eat something, but Kate actually wanted the popcorn this time, so she was definitely happy to oblige.
“One bag of popcorn for my favorite person coming right up,” Mallory said with a bit of a sarcastic tone in her voice. She was definitely not being sarcastic, but she wanted to keep things light. Today was a hard day for Kate, so she would do absolute anything to make the girl smile.
“My favorite girl and my favorite snack.” Kate mimicked Mallory’s tone as she sat down on the barstool at the counter. She might’ve sounded sarcastic, but she was definitely telling the truth. Mallory was the only person in the world who actually seemed to care about her after coming home, and she loved popcorn. So, she wasn’t lying.
They didn’t have time to watch a movie, so Kate and Mallory settled on the couch to watch Joy frantically place their finest China set on the table. They thought that was better than any comedy movie they could find at the video rental store.
Every year Joy has a few neighbors over for Thanksgiving dinner, and every year everything has to be perfect. The turkey, the decorations, the table setting. Everything. Normally Kate helps with preparation, but she didn’t even want to think about the holiday or eating that much food. Joy tried to argue with her, but Rod cut her off. He had suggested that Kate should have Mallory over to take her mind off of the holiday, but only if she agreed to eat dinner with them later that night. Kate agreed, and Joy seemed to ease up on her a little bit.
Joy had spent the last hour pulling the dishware out of storage and washing it, so now it was finally time for her to get everything on the table.
Each place setting had way too many plates, Kate thought, but Joy always said there had to be a plate for every course, including dessert. There were wine glasses and water glasses, a salad fork and a dinner fork, two kinds of knives, and a napkin that was rolled perfectly for every single spot at the table.
“Does she do this every year?” Mallory asked as she chewed on a piece of popcorn.
“Unfortunately,” Kate answered. She always secretly hated how perfect everything had to be. She was usually in charge of setting the table, which she didn’t mind doing, but if even one small thing with slightly off then her mom took all of her stress out on her. Kate was very grateful that she didn’t have to help set the table this year for that very reason.
“Wanna go back upstairs? This is depressing.”
“Yeah.” Kate sighed. It’s like Mallory could read her mind.
Once they were back upstairs, Mallory picked a cassette tape for them to listen to on Kate’s Walkman. The two of them sat on the window seat in Kate’s bedroom eating their popcorn and listening to The Cranberries.
Kate had only ever listened to what Martin played for her, and before that, whatever Jamie listened to, so when her and Mallory first became friends, Mallory decided to introduce Kate to all of her favorite artists. The Cranberries have been all that Kate has listened to since Mallory first played their music for her back in August.
They both sat facing the window so they could look at the Christmas lights that lit up the neighborhood. Every once in a while Kate would catch Mallory looking at her out of the corner of her eye. Kate would smile softly to herself every time, and Mallory did the same.
They stayed like that for about twenty minutes before Joy barged through Kate’s bedroom door.
“The Stevenson’s are going to be early. I’m sorry, honey, but Mallory has to go,” Joy basically yelled from the doorframe.
“You’re sorry?” Kate was confused why her mother had apologized when she clearly didn’t care that Mallory had to leave. She furrowed her eyebrows and glared at the woman.
“Do we have to do this now?” Joy’s accent was always thick whenever she was annoyed with Kate.
“Fine.” Kate got up and walked over to her closet.
Her and Mallory had gone shopping a few weeks back to get a dress for tonight’s dinner. All of her clothes were pink and purple, and Kate didn’t want to wear bright colors anymore. She loved how neutral all of Mallory’s clothes were, so Mallory took her shopping to pick out some essentials that weren’t so perfect and girly.
“Not that one,” Joy called. The navy blue floor-length slip dress was not what she had imagined her perfect daughter wearing to her first Thanksgiving dinner home.
“I think it’s nice,” Mallory chimed in. She turned to Kate. “That dress looked amazing on you when you tried it on. You have to wear it.”
Kate turned to face her mother who was standing in the doorframe with her arms crossed. “I’m wearing it,” she said in an exaggerated southern accent. She knew that was piss off her mom, and, frankly, she was okay with that.
Joy rolled her eyes and turned to leave.
Once Kate had the dress on, she was pretty sure Mallory couldn’t keep her eyes off of her, but she didn’t want to assume anything.
“Do you like it?”
“I didn’t think I could love it more than the first time you put it on,” Mallory answered, “but I do.” She drew her gaze from the floor up to Kate’s eyes, taking in every inch of her body in the dress. “You look beautiful.”
Kate smiled in response. She hadn’t been told she looked beautiful in a long time.
“You think so?” She wanted to hear Mallory say it again.
“Now I wish I could go to your mom’s stupid dinner tonight.”
For once, there wasn’t a hint of sarcasm in her voice.