[Verit]

“Too much?” Holtzmann asks, flattening her tone, but she grins lopsidedly, as if she isn’t too concerned about the answer. She settles in for it like someone who’s used to being ‘too much’ for people, standing loose and casual to soften the impact of a rejection and more easily segue into the next even stranger thing, all jazz hands and waggling eyebrows and good I’m glad you’re scared of weird, queer little me, that’s obviously what I wanted all along.

+

In a way, Patty can relate. She’s been treated like she’s too much her whole life; too friendly, too loud, too big, too black, too flashy-

Too much for some people, but she’s never really minded that. She doesn’t shrug off a lack of acceptance but shoulders it, smiles that much brighter, laughs that much louder. She puts electric colors in her hair and wears earrings that jingle when she moves and keeps her name on a chain around her neck so everybody knows who she is, remembers who they’re dealing with.

x