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CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE superfreak. season seven, episode three.
IT WAS COMMON KNOWLEDGE THAT CASSANDRA HARPER WAS A PEOPLE PLEASER.
The first time she met someone, she was always polite. If a stranger needed a dollar, she'd give them five. When someone was upset with her, she'd apologize until she grew blue in the face.
At the end of the day, despite her constant insistence that she didn't care what people thought of her, Cassie just wanted to be liked.
Aside from Izzie Stevens—and Gary Clark, if he still counted—she couldn't name anyone who didn't like her, or at least anyone who didn't tolerate her presence. Honestly, it was her proudest achievement.
Until she remembered Amelia Shepherd.
Cassie couldn't recall a time that they'd ever gotten along, nor a time that Amelia didn't hate everything about Cassie's existence. If Cassie had hated her back, then it wouldn't be a big deal, but she actually rather liked the youngest Shepherd sister.
The fact that the feeling wasn't mutual kept her up at night, on occasion. Because the thing was, Amelia never told her why.
But Cassie never stopped being nice, never stopped trying to win her approval, even when it became obvious that her efforts were futile. Cassie was a people pleaser, after all.
(And maybe, justmaybe, Cassie had a little crush on Amelia when she was younger, and perhaps she was Cassie's bisexual awakening. Maybe.)
But at the same time, Cassie was also prone to jealousy—solely when it came to Mark—and the two traits were rather mutually exclusive. So when Cassie rounded the corner into the main lobby, still wearing her street clothes with a cappuccino for Mark in her hand, she paused.
Amelia was there, in the hospital, standing right at the front desk as if she owned it. Her hand ghosted the shoulder of the man standing beside her, and Cassie tensed.
Mark. She was touching Mark.
(For the first time in her life, Cassie hated Amelia back.)
Of course, she knew that Mark's side of the interaction was entirely innocent, based on the way his eyes visibly brightened when he saw Cassie from across the lobby, not hesitating to beckon her over.
But when she started walking, Amelia visibly deflated, and Cassie plastered a grin on her face to cover up the way her jaw clenched.
