Shattered Glass

"So, so what, I'm still a rock star
I got my rock moves and I don't need you
And guess what, I'm havin' more fun
And now that we're done I'm gonna show you tonight"

I LOVE that song! Dancing around in my PJs, eating marshmallows, and watching Lacey sulk on the couch: a perfect evening. Well, minus the sulking part. "Lacey, I thought you liked this song. Why aren't you dancing?" She just sat there, only moving enough to adjust her stare from a look of hatred at the boom box, to a glare at me.

"Ya, well I used to like that song, but now its just competition." I should probably mention that Lacey has an amazing voice, and recently signed a contract.

"Well, are you gonna be doing the same type of music as Pink?"

"What's the point, she does everything?"

"Well, then isn't everyone her competition, and don't they do just fine? Besides, she has a specific type of voice. Sure she can do, 'EVERYTHING,' but she always sounds the same. Not everyone wants the ragged voice. Just cause she can doesn't mean she does."

Lacey didn't really say anything after that; she just stared at the boom box for the next few songs. I got tired of trying to make her cheer up and went to get some snacks. I hadn't really expected what happened when I got back.

She had thrown the boom box onto the couch and was jumping on it, barefoot. "LACEY STOP IT! What do you think you're doing?! You'll break it, and hurt your feet! What. The. Crap!" I dropped the snacks and grabbed her shoulders and shook. I wish that'd been enough to get my message through. "What's wrong with you? You haven't been the same since you signed that contract."

"Well Bri, I'm famous now. I can't just sit here and listen to music with you!"

"Jesus Christ! Lace, you've only sold what, 100 copies... LOCALLY! The choir club mostly sums that up. They'd do anything for a fellow member making it big. Add a few family members and your up to 50. So really, you've only got 50 people who actually like you."

"WELL I CAN TELL YOU'RE NOT ONE OF THEM!" To this day I still don't know; if I hadn't tripped over the snacks, could I have caught her? Could our lives be different? I wish I knew. I wish it didn't eat me every time I think of what happened next. I wish I could go back...

I got off the floor and ran out the door she'd slammed to see a limo stopping, the brakes screamed as it almost skidded. "LACEY!" I yelled. She didn't turn, but rather got in. The limo took off and it wasn't till later that I found out the person to pick her up was none other than Pink herself. The Crap?

*

I didn't hear from Lacey for the next week. Mom thought I was depressed. I don't blame her. I barley ate or talked. I tried calling her every day, and I bombarded her with e-mails but I got nothing back.

A week after the incident, I was halfway though calling Lacey when an e-mail popped onto the screen.

Dear bubabri@me.com,
Your reception of this message means that this user has blocked your e-mail. Please do not attempt to make further connections for your messages will not be received. If you feel you have received this e-mail by mistake, please contact a representative to act as a median and discuss the situation. We will take your communication for two weeks. If you do not attempt contact by then, you will be permanently deleted from this person's contacts.

~Me representatives~
5/29/09
From: pinkmyidol@me.com

The phone slipped out of my hand. She blocked my e-mails! How, why, wha? I stared at e-mail, tears threatening to spill. I don't know how long I looked but it must not have been to long because from the floor, I hear a hello.

I dived for the phone, falling of my chair in the process. "Lacey!?"

"Hey Bri. Look I wanted to say I'm really sorry and I'm gonna send you a link to an article. It will explain. I can't say it right."

"Ok gimme a sec to check my MSN." A window from Lacey popped up; the link was from a gossip website. Lacey stayed quiet while I read.

Lacey and Pink: Like Yin and Yang
No one can deny that Pink and the quickly rising star Lacey are complete opposites. But when young Lacey called Pink last Friday night, and asked if they could meet, Pink was ecstatic. "I'd heard about her music and later noticed that she said I was one of her inspirations and I got to thinking; how cool would it have been if I met my hero when I was first starting. So when she called me, I couldn't say no."

Lacey had a different recollection of the events: "I had called Pink earlier that day to see if she would meet me, but I guess she didn't become ecstatic until later because she first said she was busy. I had gone to my friend's house to hang out but when Pink's song started playing on the radio, I guess I kinda lost it. Good thing she picked me up then or I would have destroyed my friends boom box."

The article went on to talk about how the two of them are like Yin and Yang; total opposites but they can't see to stay away from each other, they have a piece of each other in them. It made me sick. Not her attention, but that fact that I wasn't worth enough to be more than "the friend."

"Bri? Did you read it?"

"Oh ya. Look I understand-"

"Oh good! I knew you would. I'm glad I sent you that. I would have messed it up. So are we on the same page now?"

"Umm, I guess?"

"Great well glad your ok with me not seeing you. I have to go. Tootles!"

"Wait what!" I shouted, but she had already hung up. "Lacey!" I yelled into the dial tone. I was gonna say I understood why she left that night. I guess she's leaving for good.

*

The next week was much like the last, except this time, there was no hope. I knew Lacey was gone and I couldn't get her back. I think mom was scared I was gonna try and hurt myself, because she took everything sharp from my room. Well I guess I can't blame her, when you’re a zombie people worry. I just laid in my bed, listening to the radio. I never turned it off anymore.

I was thinking about what Lacey was doing, and how she could just dump me like that. We'd been best friends since kindergarten. That's ten years of friendship ruined by fifteen minutes of fame.

The next thing I knew I had my nail file in my hands and was hacking at her face. All over my wall: pictures of her, on the bed: a magazine. Nothing was safe. I was tearing anything and everything of her I could find.

Finally all that was left was one picture. I was just about to rip it when I actually looked. Lacey and I had our faces smooshed together with plastered monkey grins on our faces, and were giving each other bunny ears. The nail file dropped, and I sat on the bed, eyes glued to the picture in my hands, big, shallow breaths shaking my body. The roaring in my ears didn't sound right, until I realized those breaths were sobs ripping through my vocal cords.

I threw the picture against the wall, glass shattering, flying. I threw up my hands to protect my face, so they got slashed instead. Reaching for a tissue, I saw the boom box and turned it up so I could hear it over my sobs. I grabbed my knees with my forearms and tried to stay in as small a ball as possible while cleaning my hands.

My mom came into my room a bit later. She took one look at the glass on the floor and my bleeding, curled up figure before she ran back downstairs. I didn't really care; I was too numb to care. I didn't even feel my hands anymore, the radio sounding like static to my ears.

My dad came up the stairs a few minutes later wearing his thick shoes, walked into the room over the glass, and picked me up. I didn't noticed until I was moving down the stairs, and I just started crying harder. Dad never picked me up. I felt like I was his little girl again and he was my daddy making it all better.

He set me down on the couch next to mom and I didn't bother to keep myself up. I let myself fall onto her side, and she let me cry on her arm. She tried to cheer me up the way she used to: the music channel on full blast and dad getting sugar.

MTV was the choice for this particular cheering up section. Too bad it was exactly the wrong choice. Lacey popped up onto the screen: a behind the scenes extra. Seeing her face refreshed my dieing sobs. However, seeing as couldn't feel my body, I didn't move. She was with Pink, oh big surprise, and they were on the set of her So What music video. They were going back and forth with different moves and when Pink tried to help, Lacey got all snobbish and said, "I've got my rock moves. I don't need you."

I didn't stick to see if she was faking a snob, or she's really become one. In my mind she was now officially gone. Those two sentences sent an electric jolt though my system and I ran back upstairs into my room. I slammed the door and threw myself onto bed.

I felt something sting my feet and pulled out of my daze long enough to look at them. The shattered glass had coated my feet, blood slowly covering them. I ignored my feet and traced the glass to the source, remembering the picture. I slowly stood and picked up the frame, looking at the date carved at the bottom: 4/1/09. April Fools Day. We'd bought that frame just for that picture, the same day too.

I sank to my knees in the middle of the glass, water and blood mixing around me, staring at the picture. 2 months. That's it. Two months and my world has fallen apart. "Guess what Lacey?" I whispered to the framed her. "You're having more fun."