Berdly slowly turned around, too embarrassed to look her in the eyes. He still couldn't outgrow the puritanism instilled in him in his childhood. Before Susie could say anything, or even step closer, Noelle walked past her and tended to the stove. "I think it's done now, don't you..? Let me help." She needed to feel useful. To do something to help, even if it was the smallest thing. She slid on two oversized mittens from the counter and grabbed the pot, tilting the lid inside slightly and bringing it to the sink. In her haste to pour the water off, she tilted the pot too much, and boiling water began to stain the fabric, seeping down to her fingers. Noelle silently winced, but continued to pour, until all the water was gone. "Th-There... Thank you for..."
She turned around, trying to walk to the table, but all she saw in that moment was Susie, towering over her, breathing heavily.
"I-I'm okay, don't worry, I swear it's— I'm fi-"
Susie's claws wrapped around Noelle's mittens. "Stop. Please stop." Susie tried to fight her tears back, but her voice betrayed her. She grabbed the pot from her hands and put it aside, barely feeling the metal on her skin anymore, and pulled the soaked mittens from her hands. The rush of cold air made her fingers twitch, waves of pain descending down her hands. "Don't say it, please. Stop pretending. Damn it... Stop acting like you're okay..."
This wasn't the first time Susie had seen Noelle act like that. This charade would end now, before it had a chance to grow into a self-sustaining cycle of delusion. She pulled the deer closer, placing her warmed up hands on her back, reaching in for a hug. "Stop lying. Please..." Noelle looked down at her hands. The clouds in her head began to part. She felt her fingers pulsing with agony. She had to face reality, again.
Kris broke into her home. Kris ran through December's room like a hurricane. Kris shattered everything her sister held dear. Kris ran away. Kris left her behind.
Noelle didn't make a sound. She felt tears running down her face as she fell into Susie's arms, holding onto her for dear life. She couldn't tell whose tears they were. The bluebird quietly stepped around the two, looking at Susie with compassion, but something clearly gnawed at him. She hung her head, simply letting the tears flow down to her chin and onto Susie's shirt.
Berdly slowly approached the table with a wooden board in one hand, and the pot of macaroni in the other. He pushed the cage to the far edge to the table, as gently as he could, before putting the pot down on the makeshift coaster. He then grabbed a stack of small plates and began to place them around the pot, stopping himself just before approaching the covered up birdcage. After a moment's pause, he put the fourth plate down in front of it. Both Noelle and Susie looked at him in confusion, with the latter breaking into a quiet snicker through her tears. "Pff... Dude— What the hell are you doing?" Noelle even brought a hand to her mouth to stop herself from smiling, wiping away the tears in the process.
But Berdly didn't find this funny. He gripped the remaining plates as hard as he could, ceramic discs grinding against each other as his feathered fingers strained against them. "Oh so- You think- This is humorous? This is funny to you?" In an attempt to stop himself from smashing the stack against the floor, he put them down on the table as gently as he could, though his strained breathing and the resulting loud clank clearly betrayed his anger. Noelle stepped back, holding her hands close to herself as Susie spoke. "Berdly it's just a joke, man. Calm—"
His rage had finally boiled over. "DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME TO CALM DOWN." Noelle shuddered as he raised his voice, putting her hands together like a child being yelled at. Berdly pointed Susie in in the face, hands trembling as despair began to overflow him, spilling through his angered eyes, struggling to speak. "What's wrong with you?! W-Why am I- Why aren't you freaking out about this- this THING? A-Am I going insane? Kris is gone and all we could find in their room is— But no, NO! Giving it a plate? Hilarious. Hysterical! You know what else amuses me?"
His hand went into his back pocket, finally producing a clear plastic bag with an old, worn down knife in it. He slammed it down onto the table next to the cage, as if to prove a point. Several large chips were missing near the curved edge, and the entire length of it was stained in dark, red patches, as if someone had left it to dry without cleaning. "I saw it outside their home yesterday, a-and went back to check after church. Clearly the police, in all their COMPETENCE had somehow missed CRUCIAL EVIDENCE. That is so funny, right?"
Noelle's expression went blank at the sight of that old knife, while Berdly went back to pacing around the room, his old anxious habits holding his anger back, if only a little. He lowered his tone, mocking the way Susie spoke: "Obviously it doesn't eat, Berdly. What are you, a buffoon? Y— You—"
He gasped for air, his vision going out of focus for a second as he fell onto a wall, somehow holding himself up by gripping onto it. Noelle quietly picked up the knife while Susie ran towards him, but he managed to regain his footing, hyperventilating now. He looked her in the eyes, trying not to faint as he screamed: "If this is SO FUNNY to you, do you mind letting ME in on the JOKE?!"
"Berdly, I—" She tried reaching for his shoulder, but he smacked her hand away, dashing towards the door while using the wall to maintain his balance.
He choked on his own shallow breaths as he screeched: "Un-Unhand me you— I... I need— I need to—" Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes gravitated towards the cage. Immediately then, he turned the doorknob and ran straight out, his clawsteps heard for just a second more as he ran outside. It was too late for Susie to reach out. Her open hand curled into a fist as she slammed the wall where he had stood.
"God— Shit, I—" She turned back to Noelle, who had been silently staring at the knife through the altercation, "I gotta go after him. We don't need Berdly running off as... Noelle?" She stepped towards Noelle, still frozen in place. Susie yanked the bag from her hands, which seemed to break her trance. "Elly, are you... gonna be okay?" She leaned down to meet her eye level, briefly glancing down at her scalded hand. She had to be in two places at once, taking care of both her friends, but the thought of leaving Noelle alone now broke her heart.
"I... I think I will be. Don't worry about me, I'll... I think I'll go back to bed..." She wrapped her hands around the purple monster once again, settling into the hug as she spoke. "Thanks for the breakfast, and... make sure he's okay, too."
"I will. I promise you." Susie rubbed her chin against Noelle's head before moving out of her embrace. She hurried to the door, leaving the deer alone in the room, the silence slowly building up in her ears until she couldn't hear anything else.
