Lucy was my friend in school. Lucy's mom was fat.
I know that's not a very nice thing to say, and I'm not being mean but that's what she was. And she was depressed. And angry.
Not all the time, sometimes she was in a really good mood, and then she was really fun to hang out with and she would cook for Lucy and me and she would sing while she did and she was a great cook and not a bad singer. And then we would eat and laugh and we'd have ice cream in front of the TV and then she would send us up to Lucy's room to do our homework and we'd hear her sing downstairs as she did the dishes.
But sometimes she was depressed and angry. Sometimes I would go home to Lucy's place after school and her mom wouldn't be around, and Lucy would give me that look and I'd know she was hiding in her room again for who knew how many days this time. And Lucy and I would have to cook for ourselves and we were both terrible cooks, and we didn't sing because Lucy's mom wanted it quiet then, and we did our homework without having had any ice cream and we listened to music with our earbuds on.
Then one day Lucy's mom learned my secret.
Well, one of them anyway.
We had eaten our ice cream and we were in Lucy's room doing homework and I couldn't find my phone. So I went back downstairs and I found it on the dinner table, and I have always thought that passwords and screen locks and such are just a pain because they're just in the way and who steals phones anymore anyway? Everyone has them.
I grabbed the phone, said thanks again for dinner to Lucy's mom and then went back upstairs, and only later that night when I was back home did I discover that my phone insisted I had sent a message I was sure I hadn't sent, and it was to Lucy's mom's phone number.
And it was a picture.
One of the pictures that my cousin Caitlin had taken at the gym, of me and… well, I'm sure you can guess.
My face got really hot all over and my ears were burning and I thought 'I'm never going back to Lucy's place ever again', but of course I did after a while anyway and nothing happened.
Lucy's mom didn't say anything and I figured she had just really enjoyed the picture and wanted it for… you know, for herself, and who could blame her really.
And then I forgot about it.
And then one day when Lucy's mom wasn't there to cook and we had a social sciences test coming up and I had to go pee and the door to her room was slightly open, I heard sobbing coming from her room when I passed it.
But that wasn't unusual.
But when I passed it on my way back, she called my name, and she mispronounced it of course, like she had always done and like most people do and I've always thought it sounded like a word in Parseltongue when they did, and she sounded angry.
So I stepped into her room and that was very unusual. I had never been in her room before and she was in bed propped up on half a dozen pillows and she was eating a Snickers bar and there were lots of other chocolate bars and cookies on the sheets beside her, and the TV was on and she even had a small refrigerator in her room.
When I walked in she threw her phone to me and it landed on the bed by her feet, and I saw and remembered my picture and my ears were burning again.
“So, real quick,” she said and she didn't sound angry anymore, she sounded nice but she wasn't.
“I don't know who that guy is but I think I have a pretty good idea and I think your mom would have a very pretty good idea if I sent it to her, don't you?” and I didn't even know that she knew my mom, and I definitely didn't know that she knew about him, if she did, and it sounded like she did but I didn't understand why she thought mom would recognize him from that picture.
“But of course, I won't do that. If you do something for me. So tomorrow I think you should skip school and come over here when Lucy is at school and just help me out with something, okay?”
I nodded, and then she smiled and nodded and waved me away and then she took another bite of her Snickers bar and I went back to study with Lucy who was listening to her music and didn't even look up when I walked in.