That Little Box That Beats In Your Chest

Lacey woke up the next morning with a groan. She had fallen asleep on her hip, and it had bled through her shorts. Sighing, she went to the bathroom to clean up the cuts, and wash her shorts. When she was done, she showered, the water stinging the slices in her skin.

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She stepped out of the shower, and decided she would weigh herself. Finding the scale in the back of a cupboard, she set it down on the ground, trying to make as little noise as possible. If her parent found out Lacey was weighing herself, they would automatically assume she was anorexic or bulimic, which was obviously not the case. ‘140 pounds’, she noted. She looked down at her thighs, her stomach, and decided she would try to get to 135 to get rid of that extra fat. Lacey did not realize her weight was already on the low end of healthy according to body mass index calculators, and that at 135, she would be underweight. Yet nobody would be able to tell her this, because she kept everything to herself, refusing to let anyone in. Lacey changed, got dressed, put on her makeup and went downstairs. Her mother was in the kitchen cooking some eggs.

“Would you like some eggs?” Lacey remained silent.

“Could you please answer my question?” Again, Lacey stayed mute, knowing if she would talk, and refuse the eggs, her mother would get just as mad as she was about to get.

“Lacey, answer my goddamn question or I’ll get your father in here. Talk to me!” She didn’t speak, so her mother started yelling up the stairs for her father to come down.

“John, get down here, your daughter is being a brat!!”

“Coming right down!”, he replied. Her mother turned to Lacey.

“Now try being a mime.”, she said with a hint of a smirk on her face.

Her father walked down the stairs slowly, dragging out the suspense. He walked up to Lacey slowly, and calmly said:

“Answer your mother’s question.”

“No”, Lacey retorted, “she’s only going to get upset, because the answer I would give her wouldn’t be the answer she would want, she would force the eggs on me, she would get angry and go all bipolar, and she would yell at me. Either way, I’m getting yelled at.” She stood up, brushed past her dad, grabbed a banana, and walked back upstairs. Her dad yelled at her from the bottom of the stairs.

“I’ve had enough of your attitude! There’s gonna be some changes around here!” Lacey snorted. What could they do? Ground her? It’s not like she had any friends or went out anytime. Take away her laptop? She would just cut more because she wouldn’t have a distraction. They couldn’t force her to change, and do a complete 180 and become the perfect, talkative daughter.

With that thought, Lacey ate the banana, while looking up how many calories she should be eating every day if she wanted to lose 5 pounds in 2 weeks. It said 1250 calories per day. The banana must be about 150 calories, so she had about 1100 left. She applied some lipstick, darkened her makeup, and grabbed her school stuff. For the second day in a row, she said nothing as she left the house. Maybe her parents won’t be as moody tonight.

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Lacey got on the bus, and sat with Rian again. He greeted her with a smile, which she did not return. Her parents had wrecked her mood today.

“Are you ok?”, Rian asked, “I haven’t known you for too long, but you don’t look very happy. What happened?” Not wanting to be completely rude, and knowing Rian wasn’t who she was mad at, she simply replied:

“Parents.”

“Oh, I know what you mean. My parents can be pretty bad.”

“You haven’t met mine.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No thanks.” Lacey hoped she would be in a better mood later on today. She knew she was being short with Rian, but her mood wasn’t going to allow her to be all rainbows and butterflies. The rest of the bus ride was quiet, mostly because Lacey had pulled out her iPod.

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By the time lunch rolled around, Lacey was getting pretty hungry. Her mood had improved a little, mostly because her classes were a distraction, and got her mind off her parents. She walked into the cafeteria a little late, and lined up to buy lunch. Choosing a salad, she noticed, was harder than it seemed. She checked the calories in each of them, and picked the one with the least, which was also the most boring one. As she made her way through the line-up, she paid and made her way to the table where the four boys were sitting.

“Hey Lacey!!”, Jack yelled. He was waving her over. Lacey laughed to herself, thinking how adorable he was, waving her over like she had forgotten where they were sitting. She sat down where she had sat down the day before, next to Rian. He greeted her with a bright smile.

“You feeling better?”, he asked.

“Why, what happened?”, Jack asked.

“I’m better, my classes were distracting me. My parents put me in a bad mood this morning.”, Lacey explained.

“Aww, poor Lacey.” Jack said with a frown. He leaned over the table and hugged her. She noticed he smelled clean, like soap, and some lemon-y aftershave. She liked it. ‘Do I like Jack?’, she asked herself. ‘Nah.’ She shook it off, thinking it was just her mood making her feel this way. She sat back down, and started eating. Alex spoke up at this point, addressing the three other boys.

“So practice today? At Rian’s?”

“Practice? For what?”, Lacey questioned. Rian turned to her.

“We are actually in a band. We’re called All Time Low. Alex is the singer, Jack is the guitarist, Zack is the bassist, and I’m the drummer.”

“Oh my god, that’s so cool!”

“I know, right?”, he replied.

“Hey! I’ve got an idea. Lacey, come watch us practice! You can tell us how much we suck!”, Jack joked.

“That’s a great idea, Jack”, Rian said. Lacey smiled, and assured them she would see about going to Rian’s house. She had a feeling her parents wouldn’t let her go, but at this point, she was still angry at them, and made up her mind to go to Rian’s house. After all, she was going to be 18 in a couple of months.

“Sure, I’d love to see you guys perform. That is, if you want a spectator.” Rian assured her that they would all love to play for her, and the three other boys nodded. That sealed the deal…