***1st Place Winner in Teen Fiction for the Undiscovered Writer Awards***
***One of the EarnestyWriterAwards favorite female leads***
Lulu's mom is sick and Lulu desperately wants to be free of all her troubles so she convinces herself that she no l...
"So there's a party tonight at Liam's house," said Matty, not looking at her while he drove them home.
"Oh," was all Lulu could say. They had planned on going to the movies together that night and she was ready to forget this whole week, even if it was just for two hours.
"Yeah, it's sort of like a back to school thing; it's supposed to be pretty wild" he continued, unaware of her disappointment. "I know we had plans tonight, but do you think we can just go Sunday?"
"That's fine," she lied, fiddling with the radio knob but not really paying attention to what was playing. "I'm busy Sunday, but it's ok, we don't have to hang out this weekend," she gave him her best impression of a smile. They arrived at her house and she gathered her things to go quickly before her face betrayed her.
"Don't you wanna go to the party?" he asked frowning. Relief quickly washed over her as she realized that he wanted her to come with him.
"Of course," she said a little too loudly, gesturing with her hands as if it were obvious. "I meant to say, we don't have to go to the movies this weekend," she said uncomfortably. She was being impossibly awkward with him and was afraid he would notice. If he did, he didn't mention it and only looked at her with a funny face.
"Okay, I'll pick you up at 8, yeah?"
She just nodded, biting the inside of her cheek as he continued to look at her comically. He mimicked her nod and she just stared before noticing he had already parked the car. Jumping at the realization, she scrambled out of the door and slammed it too hard. Cringing, she yelled, "Sorry!" and he took off leaving her to dwell on her awkwardness for the next four hours.
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She was ready surprisingly early and shot Matty a text telling him to just text her when he got to her house. Her father was in a foul mood and she thought it best to stay out of his way tonight, and that meant making as little noise as possible.
He had come up while she was fixing her makeup, yelling about how there was never any food in the house, which was a blatant lie. She always made dinner but never cooked on Friday's and he knew well that Friday's were leftover days. His room was downstairs, so it had shocked her to hear his heavy footfalls climbing the stairs and stopping just outside her bedroom door. He never came upstairs, much less to her room.
"Luciana!" he had yelled. "Why don't you do something for once and cook me some dinner!"
Lulu had just sat at her vanity, staring at her stoic reflection while he yelled obscenities at her from the other side of the door. He never knocked, never tried the knob. He simply yelled as she waited for him to tire. Through the crack at the bottom of the door, she had seen him still standing outside though his voice had gone quiet.
Her father wasn't a violent man. The way he had taken so much care of her mother in the years she was ill proved that. The truth was, he was a broken man. A man in grief, trying desperately to cope with the loss of the only person he loved, and the only way his weak heart could survive was by being angry. Anger gave him strength and his screams were the song of a dead man trying to cling to a life he no longer had.
