"Nice to see you," Momo said, placing her purse down onto the table.
"Nice to see you too!" Uraraka said, perky as could be. "Hope you don't mind that i invited someone else. I forgot when I made plans with you that I said I'd be hanging out with Liam tonight, but he didn't mind coming along for girls' night."
Momo wasn't sure what to make of it, but she took her seat and shrugged it off. "That's fine. I just didn't even know you two were friends."
"It's been very recent. We teamed up a few months ago, caught up, and we've been spending a ton of time together ever since. Deku is always so busy being the number one ranked hero, so it's been nice to have some company."
It was simple and easy to brush this all off, to act like everything was normal, and she kept a straight face doing it, which kept Momo feeling like it was all fine.
Everything would be okay, and if Uraraka could stomach being around Liam he must have been a different guy than he was in school, which had her open to the idea of spending the night hanging around with him, since he didn't immediately just go staring into her chest at the first sign of her.
And at first, everything seemed okay. Momo didn't feel uncomfortable, didn't get groped or have comments made about her legs. Toward her, Liam was a consummate gentleman.
But only to Momo. She noticed first the way she laughed so hard at everything he said, even when it wasn't funny; it had all the hall marks of a doe-eyed affection that didn't seem right at all, given that she was still dating Deku.
With a drink or two in them, Uraraka was even getting snugly with Liam, leaning against him and savouring his presence a little too much; it was borderline inappropriate.
A third drink, and Liam was even getting handsy with Uraraka, who giggled and squirmed against his touch in ways no girl with a boyfriend should have been.
But at the same time, Uraraka didn't have anything bad to say about Deku.
Speaking of Shoto, Momo relented, "He's... Distant. I'm really trying to get him to warm up again, it feels like he's not the man he used to be. I still care about him and..." She sighed, looking down at her drink.
"No I think maybe, it... I still want to care about him. You know? It's just hard to feel like there's a reason. I want to make it work, because he's still great and I don't love any other man like I love Shoto, but he's making it really hard to love him. I don't know if he's pulling away afraid he'd hurt me or if he just doesn't want to..." She sighed, throwing back the rest of her drink.
"I shouldn't go there. How is Deku?"
"He's doing really well. It's hard being the girlfriend for the number one hero, because he is out there doing everything he can to help people. It's constant, but he has his quirk under control and he's not pushing it so hard it strains his body constantly. I'm proud of him, he just could be around more often." Uraraka's complaints felt tame by comparison.
She did seem a bit lonely in the process, sure, but she had far better justification for it, and she didn't seem at all bitter about what she was doing.
Frank, sure, but she had a friend in Liam and there was something nice about seeing that, something that clearly helped her keep her wits about her and not get too
Momo was about to say something about how nice it was she was at least doing things with friends and how maybe Momo should get out more and try to let things heal on their own time, when Liam hopped up from his chair.
"Gonna go piss. Don't forget about me." He grabbed Uraraka's tit and gave the most blatant squeeze before heading off, and Momo was left stunned again, losing her words.
She saw everything from a different angle now, and that scared Momo.
Uraraka was taking her loneliness well because she was fucking Liam on the side.
She was mortified by the idea, but she did her best to keep her quiet to herself as she sat there.
Momo was a smart girl, and that smartness cost her peace now as she fidgeted in wild discomfort, having no idea how to follow this up and writhing under the uncertain worry and pressure of knowing not how to talk about fucking any of this.
But there Uraraka, sipping at her drink a moment longer before very abruptly saying, "I'll be back," as she rose up, gesturing to the bathroom with an embarrassed blush.
Being left alone to stew with her thoughts was not something that Momo needed right now. She was completely unprepared for the silence that ensued and the still worry of being left to just wait.
Wait for them to come back, wait for some indication she was ready for this. It didn't feel very good at all, and Uraraka was acting weird.
They both were, and Momo was left feeling like a third wheel spinning in place nervously while the scandalous weirdness of this treatment wore her down.
She didn't know what to make of it all, and as she sat there waiting for someone to come back, she didn't feel certain of what she'd say when they returned, how to continue the conversation in light of everything going on here, which left her confused and dizzy, struggling for some grounding that she just wasn't getting.