(Old Version) Tuca and Bertie: Saga of a Songthrush

Road Trip: Part 1

Characters: Bertie Songthrush, Tuca Toucan, Muriel Nocturna, Terry Toucan (mentioned) Tulip (mentioned) Speckle (mentioned)

Warnings: Same as previous chapters

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Bertie woke up and the first thing she saw was the flickering of passing headlights on the tan fabric above her. She hated waking up and not remembering where she was.
She reached up to feel the fabric, then she remembered. She's in her car, in the passenger seat and the seat is reclined.
Which meant Tuca was driving. She adjusted the seat so she was sitting up again. "Hey Tuca, where are we?" She looked at the clock. "Oh shit I was out of it, it's five in the morning. I feel rested though." She stretched and yawned.

"I think we're in Connecticut? I kinda made a wrong turn and I'm just rolling with it." She laughed nervously.

"Sooooo we're lost." Bertie groaned.

"Not lost, just taking the road less traveled! Look on the bright side, if I hadn't made a wrong turn, then I wouldn't have found the best food ever! Funnel cake cinnamon rolls!!!" She reached into the back and pulled the styrofoam container from the back seat and handed it to her, followed by a fork.

"Thanks." She took the container and pooped it open. The scent of cinnamon filled the air and she sighed in delight and took the first bite.
She started thinking about a lot of things and began to squeeze part of the container. The squeaking was comforting and she closed her eyes while she ate and continued squeaking the container.

"Bertie? You can talk to me. I mean if you want to, like just vent out your emotions and let that stuff flow from your soul like water. I heard that in one of those self help books, or something similar anyway, I might be mixing some phrases, I was listening to two on audio and reading the third."

She stopped squeaking the container. "Why did I follow that lifeguard? I felt that something was wrong and I followed him anyway. How could I have been so stupid? Is that why my parents didn't want to take me to a professional? Because they thought I was stupid and got what I deserved? Why didn't they warn me that adults can do bad things? And my friends... They were either jealous or thought I was weird for sharing what happened. The three I thought were my best friends... One told me off that I messed up the plans we made to do that all on a schedule and she was just so mad at me for 'hooking up and ruining the plan'. My second best friend thought I was weird and gross for 'doing it with a man' and then my third friend was jealous! She was actually jealous of me and said that she wished she was the one to go to that camp because then she could have what I had! I told them how horrible it was, how scared I was and they just attacked me... that's how I ended up crying in the bathroom... then I met... my fourth best friend who turned into a bitch. Muriel Nocturna."

"The horror movie director?"

"Yeah... She'd heard me crying and came to talk to me. She said she'd listen to me and I told her what happened and she... actually understood me because she had that happen to her. Her parent's gardener assaulted her in the shed when she was eleven and her parents didn't believe her at all and just branded her as a 'sex obsessed creep'. She's the one who got me to leave the bathroom and go for lunch. We ditched school and went to the mall and hung out at the food court, and had fun talking about music and stuff. Then we went to Cool Subject and uh, well she did have me steal a choker necklace. She said shoplifting was her coping mechanism. But then I felt guilty and went back and paid for it, and she said she was proud of me, that it was really a test for what kind of person I was.
My parents, especially my mother, just hated the way I dressed, and all I got was judgment in the form of these aggravating chipper statements like 'I saw this documentary about whatever, about satanists and wondered, is my daughter a satanist?' or 'You used to look so pretty and girly'! That just made me so mad and hurt and I kept telling them that I wasn't a satanist and that I just liked dressing that way because I felt strong and in control and like no one could hurt me anymore. I even brought Muriel over to meet them and they acted so rude to her.
We would just hang out, gossip about all the popular girls and say how lame they were, smoke weed and have fun. I hadn't had fun in so long and I was happy, but my mom, who knew Muriel was a vegetarian and seemed to have something against me being happy, brought us meatball pasta for a snack and then embarrassed me by blabbing that I had a burger the previous night! Just ugh! They never listened to me, I'd said I wanted to try being vegetarian because my best friend was and I didn't want to offend her by eating meat.
After that I'd go to Muriel's to hang out because her parents were always away on business trips and it was just the maid around, but she'd take off when she didn't need to be there. Me and Muriel had so much freedom and I loved it. She got me my first dildo and we would..." She sighed. "She was my first and only girlfriend. I was finally able to put what happened behind me. We had a fun relationship and I thought we'd be together forever... We kissed and more, and then after about a year into it, she just started pushing me away and didn't tell me why... then she told me that we weren't ever really girlfriends or even friends and I just... broke. I gave up being confident, I got rid of everything that reminded me of Muriel and my camp badges and everything from before the breakup. All I could think of was that... Everything was my fault. The breakup, what happened to me..."