Ghost of a Smile

A Song For Lucy

Luna groaned for the third time and ripped another sheet of paper out of her journal. She crumpled it up in her hands and chucked it across the room before slamming her head down on the desk.

"Woah Lunes, you could poke an eye out doing that." Her girlfriend, Sam, chuckled as she picked up the paper ball that bounced off her chest and landed on the floor.

Luna lifted her head. "Oh sorry Sam, I'm just a little stressed."

Sam gave her a soft smile and pulled out the chair beside her to sit down. "Is this about your little sister?" She asked in concern.

"Yeah." Luna groaned. "I'm trying to write a song for her to maybe make her feel better, but it's like everything I come up with is bogus." She took her pen and scribbled across the fresh sheet of yellow paper in her song writing notebook. "I'm bombing big time."

Sam smoothed out the torn out page she was holding. "Relax Lunes, I'm sure it's not that bad." She scanned the paper with her eyes. "Yo sis.. I love you sis.. You know I love you, right?.. Uhh."

"Don't hold back I already know its rubbish." Luna groaned again.

Sam shrugged. "I wouldn't say rubbish, but it's like your not even trying. You could write a better song in your sleep, and you have."

"I just don't know how to get the words out. Usually when I can't think of what to say I come up with a song to say it for me, but I've never been in a situation like this before. How do you tell someone to stop being so distant and far away when they're in the same house as you? It's like I'm watching my little sis fade away and I can't do anything about it. I just want her to come back home."

Sam smiled and tore the sheet Luna scribbled on out of the notebook. "Then write that."

Luna perked up a bit. "You're a genius, Love!" Luna kissed Sam on the cheek quickly then she started writing lyrics to her new song. As she wrote down what she wanted to say to Lucy her feelings begun to flow out of her and onto the page expressing how she felt with every verse. Then she wrote how she felt when they opened the door and she saw her little sister laying in the middle of her room.

Sam wiped away a tear falling down Luna's cheek. "I'm sorry your family is going through this."

Luna sniffed. She finished writing and looked over at her girlfriend. "Lucy has always been the quiet one, the different one, but even then we always loved her and cared about her." Luna frowned. "I don't get why she thinks we don't. She has to know that we would be a mess without her."

Sam sighed. "I'm sure she knows her family loves her, but maybe that's not enough." She gently took Luna's hand. "Does she love herself? Or even like herself?"

"I always thought she did. She likes what she likes and we get that. We tried to change her once before, for this boy she liked, but then she wasn't happy anymore and it turned out the little dude liked her the way she was." Luna sighed. "I thought she liked herself the way she was. She's always been into morbid and spooky stuff, even death, but I never thought she actually wanted to die. I just thought she was kinda creepy."

Sam sighed. "Come on Lunes, you know how hard it is to love yourself when other people put you down. Maybe someone is bullying her? I mean she's like what.. twelve years old?"

"Thirteen."

"And middle school is totally harsh. Maybe some jerk kid is just putting her down and she needs a little more love and attention from her family to make her feel good again." Sam shrugged.

"Well love is all you need." Luna frowned. "She does have this new boyfriend that is way harsh."

Sam frowned in concern. "Like he's abusive?" She asked gently.

"Nah." Luna shook her head then she frowned. "At least I hope not. Right now he is just strange. He actually wants her to die so he'll lose his mind like some old poem."

Sam's eyes widened in alarm. "That is totally a form of abuse! It's mental abuse! He's messing with her mind trying to convince her to kill herself?!"

"I don't know if I'd go that far, but he did say he was waiting for her to die so he could go mad and that it was only a matter of time."

"Yeah, definitely sounds like he is manipulating her to take her own life. You should keep her away from him. I wouldn't usually tell you to meddle, but in this case as her siblings you should step in."

"Well we already meddled a little." Luna held up two fingers pinching them together to leave a small gap in between. "But only because the boy Lucy used to like is back from boarding school and he's a way better match for our spooky sis."

Sam nodded. "Makes sense. You should really talk to her about this guy who wants her to die though."

Luna scratched the back of her neck. "Yeah we know, but we just don't want her to hate us."

"Better she hates you than takes her life because you did nothing."

Luna sighed. "You're right." She stood up. "I gotta go talk to Luce! Later, Love!" She yelled as she ran towards the door of their studio.

"Don't worry! I'll clean up!" Sam yelled back sarcastically shaking her head as she stood to grab the broom and dustpan in the corner of their studio by the amps and guitars. She swept the crumbled balls of paper into a pile by the trash can to throw them all away.