Juliet Summers

Lena's Troubles

The next few days were all the same. I would go to school, come home, Lena would help me with my homework. We would go get ice cream a few days a week. Those days turned into weeks, months, and soon years. As soon as Lena turned sixteen, she got a tattoo. I thought it was beautiful. Three little birds on her wrist, they were in a line to seem like they were flying. My uncle didn't think so. She was getting beaten up real bad, usually when there were screams, Lena would sing to me. This time, she was the one screaming. All I could do was sit in the corner, grabbed my legs and put my forehead on my knees as I rocked back and forth. When she came into the room, she was all beat up. She came running to me when she saw me in the floor crying. "Julie it's OK. Don't cry." I looked at her face. Her eye was purple and closed shut, she couldn't open it. Her lip was bleeding, and I could tell it hurt her as she spoke. "No, Julie it's just a few hits. It will heal in no time. It will be like nothing ever happened." She was right a few weeks later it was looking better. A  month later she came home late. My aunt says she was drunk and high. Whatever that means. She got in a lot of arguments with my aunt and a lot of fights with my uncle.

At 19 she was constantly at the club. I sometimes asked her to go to the club with her. She wouldn't let me. "Clubbing is not as great as you think it is. You should never do it."

"But, Lena," I whined, "you do it. Why wouldn't I do it?"

"Because, it's not good for you."

"Bu-"

"NO! YOURE NOT GOING, AND THAT'S FINAL!"

"OK." I never got to go. I was always happy when I got to go to school. I would go right to Lili. She always made me smile when I wasn't with Lena. "It's OK Julie. We'll grow up soon and be able to go clubbing. Then we'll meet some boys and then..." she got closer to me before speaking, " We can have our first kiss." She whispered to me. "You little naughty girl!"

"Am I wrong? No."

"I guess, but I want to do it with Lena." I said as I grabbed a tray, for lunch time had just started.

"Oh Julie, Julie, Julie."

"Whoa! No reason to three Julie me girl!"

"What are you going to do when Lena is not with you anymore?"

"What do you mean? She will always be with me. She promised, remember?"

"Julie we were in preschool, this is first grade now, you have to understand. Someday she will move out of the house, have her own children and leave you. Then what would you do?"

"Don't be silly. I'm sure she wouldn't just leave me and go. I mean she might take me with her, or just never move out at all. Are you going to eat that meatloaf?"

"Oh, seriously? You know it's not meatloaf. I wouldn't be surprised if it was alive." She said as she cautiously poked it with her fork and then pushed it aside.

"Well yeah, but we still have two hours until we go home. We don't get pizza until tomorrow, and I'm starving." I told her. She laughed and handed me her meatloaf and cookie.

"Thank you. You are the best!" I told her. She just smiled and replied. "Yeah, well I'm not that hungry anyway." She looked at me with some pitiful eyes as I shoved my mouth with meatloaf. "Your aunt doesn't cook much, does she?"

"Well no, usually she passes out on the couch by noon. My uncle goes and finds what Lena calls his slut. I don't know what that means, but I imagine it's not good. It doesn't matter anyways, Lena and I go out to Joe's ice cream parlor and we also go to aunt Karla's house. She cooks a lot, but doesn't allow Lena's parents in her house."

"Oh." She said looking down at her vegetables and poking them with her fork. "Do you think maybe, you want to go to my house for dinner tonight? My mom is cooking roasted chicken."

"Yeah that would be nice. I'll ask Lena after school." I had never tried roasted chicken before, this was exiting. Lena let me go and I showed up at her house at about five. After dinner all we did was play hide and seek, tag, twister. It was great. When Lena came to pick me up, I thanked them and couldn't stop talking to Lena about it. "It's nice that you have such a great friend."

"Yeah! We're going to be best friends forever." I said smiling.