Sunshine and Chipmunks

Adrian leaned towards Cass, sighing dismissivley "Doubt she'd mean it. I mean she's gone on and on about trying to be a better person, but if she actually meant it she could start by not being a jerk to everyone, even when they're fine with leaving her alone." she said, still sulking. "But... I feel bad for doing the things, but not because I did them to Taylor. I feel bad for going crazy because I don't want my friends to think about me like I'm some crazy person." The cosplayer explained.

"I'd just settle for never seeing her or her stupid face ever again. So where are the crash mats? You find them?"

"Nope." Cassie said plainly. She wasn't really concerned about the mats. "You feel bad because you did something wrong, and you're going to keep feeling bad until you apologize and she accepts it. Even if she never ever apologizes for anything. That's just the way things work."

She sat up and tucked her short, reddish-orange hair back behind her ears. "If you want me to help you, I will. I can be your moral support!"

"Hmmm..." Adrian hummed, lost in deep thought. Was all of this because she did something bad? She'd done bad things before but didn't really feel bad about them because they deserved it, and Taylor did... okay maybe not at the time just for what happened in the gym but after the match, last minute reprisal or no she had still beaten and choked her to the point where her mind and body were broken wrecks, and she was the one who had to apologize. "...Its not because I did something wrong, I feel bad because I can't stop going crazy and don't want people to think of me as crazy." She said, trying to convince herself.

"I'll just settle for never seeing her, thanks for the offer though but I swear, if I see her one of us is gonna explode in the other's face and then there's gonna be trouble..." She grumbled, not liking having to blow Cassie off like that. "Can we not talk about it anymore, please? Just thinking about her makes my stomach turn."

"Well, sometimes you have to do unpleasant things to make things better." Cassie lectured, but gently. "If you don't want your stomach to hurt, then you have to fix it. Avoiding her isn't going to make the whole thing go away."

Cassie wrinkled her brow at Adrian. She wished that she wouldn't be difficult, but she knew that she was just scared. She had to go easy on her, which normally was easy, but she got frustrated when people resisted doing what they knew perfectly well was the right thing.

"I don't know..." She didn't want to stop talking about it until it was resolved. It was hard for her to let things like that go. She watched Adrian, concerned.

Adrian groaned, she didn't come all the way to the gym to get lectured, and she definitely didn't want to even see Taylor again, but there was a part of her that felt she was letting down Cassie by not doing it. She just sighed and remained sitting on the mat. "No..." she said eventually.

"No I'm not gonna apologize to her. Every time we meet whatever reason it is, just ends up making things worse for me. Even if did mean it when I apologize she's gonna say something, I'm gonna get in her face, she'll try to choke me and I go crazy and we're back where we started. Nope. Not gonna happen." She said angrilly. "She's just gonna twist whatever I say to make me out to be the worst person in the universe just so she can say to herself that everyone's out to get her and she's not a bully for doing what she does. Well she is, and I'm not gonna apologize to a bully!"

"Hm. I guess you don't know her very well." Cassie said, a little disappointed. "But I guess I don't know you very well either."

Cassie was frustrated, and a little upset. She tried to hide it, but she was never able to hide anything from anyone. She tried putting on a smile, but couldn't quite manage to. She frowned. "So... do you still want to train? I don't know where to find those things."

Now they were both frowning, sitting down. The talk hadn't solved anything at all, and now Cassie was probably annoyed with Adrian "How do you know so much about what she's like anyway?" She asked. "I mean is it just general 'everyone's really a nice person' feeling or is it something more?"

"Oh, uh..." Well, there was no point in hiding it anymore. It wasn't at all that she was ashamed to know Taylor, she just didn't want to upset Adrian. "Both." She smiled weakly. "But just because I think someone's nice doesn't mean they aren't. You might not think so, but maybe you're just looking for all the bad parts, and I know how to look for the good parts. If you only look for the bad in people then you'll never get along with anyone."

"Oh." She said sadly, kind of realising what she'd been doing. She'd just be calling Taylor a horrible person straight to one of her few friends... "Wow, I am a jerkface aren't I?" She said sadly. "Maybe... if she'd stop looking at all the bad parts about me, I'd stop looking at the bad things about me so... actually! Idea! Since your her friend, maybe you could get her to say a few nice things about me. Not to my face or anything but in private," the cosplayer suggested "then I could probably say a few things about her that are not mean... and then we work from there!"

"Oh, um, I don't know. I haven't actually seen her in like a year. We were friends back in the United States. We sort of came here separately. But, um... I could talk to her, but really she won't listen to anything I tell her about you. I know that much. You'll have to talk to her yourself. You don't need to be afraid."

Cassie thought about Taylor, and how they hadn't seen each other in so long despite having lived and worked in the same place for almost a year. She missed her. She should find a way to contact her, she kept meaning to, but she didn't want to intrude on Taylor's new life. She had a lot of stuff to work through when she came to Japan, and Cassie didn't want to mess anything up. But then, maybe she was just afraid of what Taylor would say when they met again.