You know what? You do want to push it. This is really important to you. 

“Kelly?” you ask, and she looks down at you with a smile, and you steel yourself for what’s probably going to be a tough conversation. 

“Have you ever thought about eating meat? I mean, really thought about it?”

Her brow furrows. “Uh…”

“The goat you were eating was alive. It had thoughts, and feelings, and it wanted to live a good life. And it didn’t get that chance, because it was raised for meat. And now it’s dead.”

Kelly is frowning now. It’s a little jarring, seeing such a soft-looking girl angry. “Do you think I don’t know what meat is?”

You push on. “People cooked it, and then you ate its muscles.”

Kelly sighs and tilts her head back. She isn’t speaking directly to you, but she’s loud enough that you can hear her just fine. 

“Are we seriously doing this right now?”

“Yeah! Yeah, we are, because animals are suffering, and-”

Kelly cuts you off. “You know something? You didn’t ask me about myself once today. We talked about clothes, and food, and you. You, you, you. Are we or are we not on a date right now?” She sounds a little choked up, but mostly just angry. 

“Yeah, we’re on a date, and we are talking about the literal most important thing to me!” you snap. 

“Do you know anything about what’s important to me?” Kelly yells. A few passerby are cutting the two of you a wide berth; it doesn’t help that she looks like she’s yelling at herself. “Do you know anything about me at all, besides that my name is Kelly and I paid for your fucking food?”

“Oh, good, use it as an excuse! I paid, so I’m a good person, hooray, is that right?”

“I think it’s proof that I can be a considerate person, and I can think about whether someone on a date with me is having a nice time, and clearly you can’t!” 

You lost control a while ago, not that you noticed. “You paid, so you get to eat whatever living, happy animals you want! Add them to the fucking animal graveyard of your thighs! If there’s any space left! Don’t you think they’re full enough?”

You feel Kelly tense up at this, then let out a long, shuddering breath that vibrates you back and forth. Shit, you’re still in her pocket. How do you get out of here? 

“Yeah, you know what, Hailey? You’re absolutely right.”

Did you…actually have a breakthrough with her? 

“I paid. So I get to eat whatever animal I want.” She pulls her leftover stew container out of her purse. What is she talking about? 

“And some of those animals have thoughts and feelings,” she continues quietly, unsnapping the lid. “Like me. And I wonder if any of those animals ever thought something like ‘This is one of the worst dates of my life’ or ‘This other animal is so mean it’s almost impressive’.”

She doesn’t look bubbly anymore. She just looks cold. Her blue eyes lock onto yours, and without thinking, you shiver.

“And I bet some of those animals were total bitches, and when those animals were killed, all the rest of the animals were like, ‘Phew.’”

And she lifts you between two fingers - you cling to her shirt, but she overpowers you, of course, and she places you on top of a goat cube in the box. You sink a bit into the glazed slab of muscle. Ew.

“Maybe this one was a bitch. What do you think, Hailey?”

She picks up the cube with you on it, and brings it to her face. “You think this one was missed by its other little goat friends?”

You scream. “Kelly, wait!” 

 “Well,” she says flatly, “say hi to the animal graveyard for me.”

She flings you and the cube into her mouth.

You scream again. It’s hopeless, you know, but you have to try. 

Immediately, you wish you hadn’t. There’s no more air in here - it’s hot, stifling, and you’re trapped in the enamel prison walls of Kelly’s teeth. Her tongue pulses, and bounces your body against the huge chunk of once-living goat flesh trapped in here with you. You whimper as your head smacks into her teeth, then her tongue, then the goat again. You struggle toward her lips - to try and claw out, to take another breath, anything - but it’s hopeless. You can’t get traction. You’re completely at her mercy. Is she having fun playing with you like this? Of course she is. This is how people like her fucking are. 

Kelly bites down - on the goat, not you. Not yet. A wave of meat juice fills her mouth and mixes with her saliva, and it hits you in the face, splashing up your nose. You start to choke. Her wet tongue smashes you and the dead goat into the wall of her closed teeth, back and forth. There’s less and less air in her mouth, and you feel your consciousness start to waver as she separates her teeth and her tongue rolls you onto her molars. You stare up at the teeth above you.