What I Love About You | boyxboy

Chapter 12

In middle school I was attending an academy with a focus in their music program. It was the first school my mother was desperately pulling in enough money to cover tuition for. We'd lost our house that summer. The one she and Ford had rebuilt from the ground up, just so she could cover basic living expenses. It was the first time I'd ever seen her so tired, always coming home with dark rings under her eyes and barely having time for us.

Despite this, my mother never complained. She never cursed my sister and I, or blamed Ford for his death, or had any sort of outburst - at least in front of us. Even as a kid I knew she was having it rough. That only became more apparent when we moved into what most of my classmates referred to as 'the ghetto'. It was a cheap alternative to the previous neighborhood. We could actually afford much better than our two bedroom apartment, maybe even the same house we lived in with Ford, but most of our money went to the tuition of these private academy's.

"Just don't forget me when you're rich." My mother would joke as she sipped her hot coffee while staring out the window.

4 years ago - Middle school, grade 8

There have been only two times I've allowed my walls to fall. Once with Ford, and the other with Lucy. After Ford passed, it seemed my walls had only gotten stronger. I hated the world for what it did, having taken the man who loved us with all his heart.

"Hey, Sen." She smiled. Lucy was an interesting girl. Her uniform was always a bit worn, her hair a bit messy, and her eyes always red as if she'd been crying. The most noticeable thing about her, was the gap in her teeth.

Apart from the gap she was a beautiful girl. She was kind and smart, but never kept it a secret that her parents weren't anything special. Her mother was a nurse at the local hospital and her father worked at a diner in the next town over. Like me, she'd gotten into the school on a partial scholarship for music.

I turned away from her. I wasn't about to get involved with someone else. Not this time.

"D-do you play anything?" She tried again. I continued to ignore her, wishing her away. "I play violin."

Making a face, I turned back to her. She was smiling at me, proudly displaying that tooth gap. Before I could even utter a word, the voices of judgemental girls fluttered over.

"Oh my God, did you see that?"

"I know right, how hard is it to go to the dentist once in a while."

"That's so gross. Her teeth are all crooked and weird!"

I turned to glare at them, not that it did not of anything. When I set my eyes back on Lucy, I noticed she'd closed her mouth, smiling without revealing the gap.

Things about her appearance continued like this for a few months. It seemed like no one had anything better to do than screw around with her for petty reasons. One mocked her for her hair, the other for her dirty clothes, and again about the crooked teeth. I'd even heard them call her a 'dyke' because she wore no makeup.

As the days went on she smiled less and less. Everyday she would say hi to me, I would ignore her, until eventually that stopped as well.

Until one day, after school before music lessons, I caught her in the stairwell sitting on the second to last step, crying her eyes out. Her locker had been violated by black sharpie, the word FAG written loud and harsh against the red surface. My heart sunk.

"Lucy..." I stood above her, just staring for a few minutes, until she noticed me and quickly rubbed her eyes free from tears. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine!"