The day was as beautiful as the dolls shuffling inside the small coffee shop. The scent of various drinks involving espresso, freshly baked pastries, and various perfumes filled the small enclosure like a welcoming dollhouse.

It both suffocated and comforted Pandora.

Not Harper Guo right now... Harper would be staring at the mirror, counting imperfections in her body. Harper would've preferred to rot in her bed and avoid all of the constant stimulations of the outside, even if it meant ignoring yet another worried text from her rapidly shrinking group of friends.

Harper was a girl who no longer played with dolls, afraid to even look outside for fear of encountering danger.

But Pandora... Pandora was not a broken girl.

Pandora was a perfect doll, dressed up in nice shoes and puffy dresses, face painted with delicate hands that never shook. Pandora got her hair done in cute styles and played house with other dolls. Pandora never shook, never stuttered, never flinched when someone got too close. Just a doll, doll... dolls playing with each other at house or drinking tea, dolls pretty to place in your hands and admire, but damn you if you harm them... why would one hurt such pretty things? Perhaps something ugly beneath the flesh of the hands that want to hold those dolls and play with them like rags?

But these dolls had no master, no hands to hold them and force them to play. These dolls moved on their own, laughed on their own, and played on their own.

Dolls that belonged to no one.

...

But Pandora did want to be owned.

The sound of people chatting and porcelain dishes and metal utensils clinking with each other was slowly making Pandora grow more agitated, losing her patience. The nerves overcame her in every direction, sounds in her ears, eyes looking at way too many colors with desserts at the table, the chair was uncomfortably hard. All of the pretty sensations were becoming too much to bear... too much... too bright... too loud.

Wrong, wrong... everything was so wrong!

The only salve to Pandora's psyche was missing, the only thing keeping her from ripping apart and breaking down like the human she truly was.

Where were you? Her beloved? You should've been here minutes ago! She counted every second, made note of the traffic, she made sure of it!

Did you finally realize how worthless she was? Saw her not as a pretty thing but a broken woman? How awkward and socially inept she really was behind that cute outfit holding her together? How her cute, puffy blue dress hid behind a body that shook when someone raised their voice or moved too fast? Her hands clenched at her dress, ruining the fabric a little on her lap, her cream leather shoes rocked back and forth on her heels where she sat, the ribbon in her neck... the ribbon felt itchier than usual today.

No. It wasn't the ribbon.

It was that disgusting, ugly scar that traced a jagged line across her neck, the only mistake in her doll appearance that she had tried to cover in so many ways—ribbons, collars, bows, but each time... it would always itch, a reminder.

She wanted to curl up on the chair and disappear, to cry or to scream, to—

Ding.

A small sound in the café that sounded like salvation, Pandora snapped her head to it, maybe a little too fast.

There you were, her beloved, her fellow doll, the most perfect doll she had laid eyes upon. She wanted to hug you, hold your cheeks, and kiss you... but she simply settled by raising her hand and waving at you so you would come to the table.

Suddenly, everything was beautiful once more. The chatter turned into blissful conversations between friends. How nice! The clinking of utensils sounded clean, and the porcelain looked so shiny. How pretty!

The feeling of dread creeping up her throat had been washed down as soon as she laid eyes on you.

"I ordered a lot," Pandora spoke as soon as you approached. "I couldn't decide."

The table was full of pastries, some were chocolate, Pandora's favorite.

Now it was all perfect, two dolls playing with each other without a master, no hands holding the pretty things and manipulating them. No. Just them, no one else existed right now.

Just them.