Maggie only called Darla to have her inform the parents that Maggie will be dropping by, but not to alert Taylor of the sudden visit. While Maggie loves Taylor a lot, if the other girl knew she would be coming, she would try to once again hide whatever it is she’s keeping a secret.
With quiet greetings to June, Maggie silently crept up into Taylor’s room, where she found the girl muttering and writing something on some piece of paper, only to scrunch it up and throw it on the ground, before reaching for a new page. Only for her hand to find the notebook empty.
“Of fucking course.” Taylor muttered then something under her breath that Maggie could not hear.
Then all of the papers disappeared and reappeared on the notepad, looking brand new. Taylor hummed, “Maybe start with the littering problem then?”
“What the fuck?!”
Taylor whipped around so fast, her neck creaked, to see a shell-shocked Maggie standing in the door. The ‘fuck’ was going through Taylor’s mind as Pacman goes through a maze, her subconscious desperately trying to figure out where she messed up this royally.
“It’s not what it looks like?” Taylor weakly tries, some part still believing Maggie is freaking out over something else.
“Oh?! What does paper vanishing and reappearing into the notepad clean and pristine supposed to look like?!”
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck… “Hallucination?” That sounded absolutely pathetic to Taylor’s ears.
“Taylor Michelle Foster, what the fuck kind of answer is that?!” And it indeed was as pathetic to Maggie’s.
“Fine, fine, fine! I’ll tell! Just…stop freaking out! And close the door, fully!” Maggie took in a deep breath and did as asked, locking the door for a good measure to – some part of her wonders if that is such a good idea, but she dismisses that thought as soon as it enters and stares at Taylor, who looks like she’d rather be doing a million other – and probably painful – things then have this talk.
“So, talk. What the hell did you just do?”
Taylor took a deep breath, “I was being ecologically conscious and restored the notepad to its original form to continue working on fulfilling a goddess’s mission of rebalancing the world ever since she gave me reality altering powers for my 15th birthday.”
Maggie blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. By the seventh time, something finally clicked in her brain, “I’m sorry, what?”
“Like…look….I wish me and Maggie were at the Roundabout bus station and nobody would think it’s odd we are there.” Taylor quietly uttered.
“Wha-” Maggie felt like getting pulled off the stage by an invisible shepherds crook, until she found herself on said bus stop with Taylor already sitting down on the (usually very dirty, but now rather clean) bench, “-at?”
“This is a long tale – in a way.”
Maggie heeded the tone and sat next to Taylor, watching and waiting.
“I wasn’t Taylor originally, I was a Tyler, everyone calling my Ty, a guy. And I was an orphan in foster care, ending up with Mark and June with their son Dustin who had been older than me, But they treated me badly, really badly. Make nasty remarks about my lack of physique, my grades, bully me, everything in the books. And then on my 15th birthday, I got angry enough at Dustin that I ended up somehow turning him into a 13 year old scrawny kid. Realizing what I had, I…changed myself into the biological daughter of Mark and June and changed Dustin into Darla…and a few other things over the weeks, but-”
“Wait…my parents…it was you?!”
“I just wanted them to stop controlling you so much. I had no idea what exactly they were doing.” Taylor explains, ‘Not a lie, I didn’t know what they were doing before decing to work on them.’
Maggie tried to think, to whatever time that could be explained as odd, “Gabriel?”
“I looked at where he was and planted the thought for him to call you. I just made you calmer, so you wouldn’t worry so much about him.”
“The pregnancies?”
“That was unplanned, it was why I made your dad into a female cate, so you wouldn’t have to worry about kittens, but…that backfired…”
“I…I am so confused…”
“Maybe a demonstration then?” Taylor pointed towards a drunkard across the street, muttering something quick under her breath, before speaking normally again, “A lonely man with nothing to live for, the job fired him because the deemed him easily replaceable, rent is overdue and he will soon be evicted if nothing gets done. He is at the end of his rope and might not make it to the end of the month. What would make his life better?”
Maggie sat with a dry mouth – in a way she can see the train wreck this man’s life has become because of some bad decision made decades ago that screwed over a friend – realizing what Taylor is asking of her: ‘how do you want me to change him?’ Maggie wanted to deny this opportunity, but, despite her parent’s misuse and abuse with the religion, Maggie did strongly believe in helping others when possible. So, she thought it over…
“An animal would be a good motivation, but hardly a financial good one, so maybe if he had a true friend that stuck through it all and to whom he was loyal too, it could be worth a shot.”
Taylor muttered under her breath, now something longer and more detailed – rewriting reality – and Maggie saw the changes happening before her eyes. The slightly overweight man now looked less messy drunk, but more blissfully happy drunk, walking with a slight wobble and slightly slurring instead of stumbling and incoherently mumbling. His clothes looked cleaner and his brown hair looked neater. Soon, somebody – a gorgeous butch woman by the looks of it – arrived in a pickup truck, with a large dog in the back, asking her friend and neighbor if he wants a ride. The two chat amicably as he tries to figure out how the door works before getting in with his now laughing friend, the pickup driving off into the distance.
Maggie didn’t even voice her question as Taylor started to speak, “When things went to shit, he had nobody before, which lead to a downward spiral of despair. Now he had one friend that stayed by his side and helped him be better in life. They are in no relationship, but they are good friends a ‘ride till we die’ type relationship, allowing him to not sink to the depths. His life is fine and not in ruin.” Taylor turned to look at Maggie, “So, I showed you what I can do. Thoughts?”
“What the fuck?” Maggie muttered again, now seeing the altered life of the man flash before her eyes – a definitive improvement to the one before, but still… “I…you…did you ever change me?”
Taylor had guessed that was the root of the problem, “Like the assurance with Gabriel’s safety, less worry about him…and that we are dating…”
“So…is this all a lie?”
“No.” Taylor was firm at that, “I liked you, a while before I even got my powers. But I didn’t dare try then because I was scared of what could happen and…I was scared of being rejected. But all I did was change that we are dating. Nothing of you was changed to something you were not.”
Maggie looked at Taylor, recalling the memories of how they started dating, how it had felt like from some cheesy if romantic story that would hit all the marks…but they weren’t anything bad – hand holding, kisses, presents, cuddles…Taylor altered reality for them to be in a relationship and it was fake since before her birthday, but real since after? This was so confusing.
The two were staring at each other in silence – now they were at an impasse, where things can change drastically or, with a few words, can be undone entirely.
“How about…I show you exactly how much I care about you and that I don’t want to change you at all?” Taylor pleaded, holding Maggie’s hands desperately.
Suspicious, but also curious (like a cat, hah), Maggie gives Taylor an unconvinced look, “And exactly how do you plan to do that?”
“Well…”