Never Too Late

Lucy's Point of View

Lacey came home from Nick’s house the following day after school and then proceeded to give me the silent treatment for about a week. At first, I tried to talk to her about the whole college thing and get her to understand where I was coming from, but after the third time she slammed her bedroom door in my face, I gave up. If she wasn’t ready to talk and was going to just keep ignoring me, I wasn’t about to waste my breath.

Meanwhile, I was avoiding someone else too: Iris. I wasn’t necessarily actively avoiding her, since it wasn’t like we were working the same shifts that week, but when I did see her in passing, something just felt off. Even though I’d been hoping she hadn’t, she’d probably seen that totally innocent hug between me and Nathan in the Applebee’s parking lot and it was making things awkward anytime I crossed paths with her, even for the briefest of seconds. On the other hand, in his usual fashion, Nathan was pretending nothing had happened. And in reality, nothing really did.

Still, I could only avoid Iris for so long. The night before my birthday, I ended up working a closing shift with her and Zoey, the newly appointed assistant manager. Being the only three girls at the store, it was rare that we all got put on a shift together, so instead of focusing on the awkwardness of my interactions with Iris, it was easy to put all of that aside for a while and have some fun. We were pretty slow, so we were able to goof around a lot and talk shit about some of our rude regulars. Come closing time, the store had been dead for at least twenty minutes so we were able to get a little bit of a jump on our post-closing duties.

While Zoey counted the registers down, Iris and I started taking boxes of Playstation 4s and Xbox Ones to the back room.

“Do you have any plans for your birthday tomorrow?” she asked as we walked to the back.

“Um, not really,” I responded. Between Gerard and Mikey asking me that for the past week, I was truthfully sick of the question. I set the boxes I’d been carrying down, Iris doing the same. “I’m probably just gonna have dinner with my family or something.”

“Really? That’s all?” Iris pressed, seeming surprised. We began walking towards the front again. “It’s your eighteenth birthday! That’s a big deal!”

“Not really, it’s just another day to me,” I answered. At one point, I’d been excited about turning eighteen. I couldn’t wait to be an adult with freedom, but the closer I got to actually turning eighteen, the more I dreaded it. I didn’t want the responsibility that came with being an adult.

“Well, that sucks,” Iris said once we reached the front. She turned her attention to Zoey. “Did you hear that? Lucy isn’t doing anything fun for her birthday.”

“What?” Zoey questioned, making a semi-disgusted face. “No party? Nothing?”

“Nope,” I informed her, walking behind the counter to grab the ladder. I walked it over to our stereo so I could take out tonight’s mix of music, all throw-back pop music despite the three rock, two other genre CD requirement we had.

“That’s an outrage,” Zoey said, still counting the money. “Well, we’re going to have a party for you anyway.”

“I really don’t want one,” I answered. I really didn’t want to bother making a big deal about a birthday I didn’t even really want to have.

“Too bad!” Iris said.

“Yeah, too bad,” Zoey said. “We’ll have it Saturday, at my house. It can start around nine? Since that’s when the store closes. Then everyone can come when they’re done closing up. Come on, it’ll be fun. My parties are always awesome.”

“It’s true,” Iris confirmed. “I don’t remember a lot of them, but I know I had a great time.”

I laughed. Though Zoey presented herself as quiet and sarcastic at work, I knew from her stories that outside of work, she liked to bar-hop and drink. I’d seen her come in on a few Saturday mornings still in her bar clothes from the night before. Though she enjoyed herself, that wasn’t really my idea of a good time.

“Please, Lucy, it’ll be so much fun,” Iris went on. “I’m off on Saturday night, you could come over to my house before the party and I could do your hair and makeup. You can even raid my closet if you want.”

I didn’t really want to spend that much alone time with Iris, or really any at all. She had to have some kind of ulterior motive or something. I hesitated, which prompted Iris and Zoey to insist on having the party again and promising me that I’d have a great time. It became clear that my only option was to submit and just go to the stupid birthday party. By the time we clocked out and started to head home, Iris and I had made plans for me to come over to her house around eight on Saturday night to get ready together. Zoey offered to buy me any alcohol I wanted for the party, but since I didn’t drink often, I just told her to buy me something she thought I would like.

When I arrived home, I spotted Frank’s car in the driveway. Frank kind of floated in and out of our lives and home, but it seemed like he was starting to come visit more often lately. I parked in my usual spot and then headed inside and into the kitchen, eager to finally eat something. Gerard, Mikey, and Frank were all sitting around the table laughing hysterically about something, probably some old touring story or whatever.

“Hey Lucy,” Gerard greeted after a few moments, the laughter finally dying down. “How was work?”

“It was fun, for once,” I answered as I rifled through the cabinets for some bread, peanut butter, and grape jam. “It was all the girls and it was slow, so we just kind of goofed around.”

“That’s cool,” Gerard said. “You got any homework?”

“Not really.” His tone kind of made it sound like he was rushing me out. “I’ll be out of here in a minute though, I’m just gonna make a sandwich and take it upstairs to eat.”

“You’re fine,” Gerard said, though all the guys continued to stay quiet.

“Is it still cool if I stay home from school tomorrow?” I asked, desperate for some kind of conversation. The silence between the three of them felt almost eerie, like I’d walked in on the middle of a conversation I wasn’t supposed to know anything about.

“Yeah, that’s fine with me,” Gerard answered. “It’s your birthday, you should enjoy it instead of spending it at school. As long as you do all of your make-up work, we’re good.”

“Sweet,” I said, slapping some peanut butter onto one of the bread slices. “Oh, my work friends want to have a birthday party for me on Saturday, is that okay if I go?”

“No,” Mikey said sarcastically. I could practically hear him rolling his eyes at me. “You absolutely, positively, cannot go to your own party, thrown in honor of your eighteenth birthday. No way, you have to stay home and knit with us old men.”

“Old men?” Frank repeated and then scoffed. “Speak for yourself.”

“That’s fine,” Gerard answered. “Of course, go have some fun. Oh, by the way, your dad called earlier and said that if you want to stop by his house sometime tomorrow, that’s fine.”

“Ew,” I answered, scraping some jam out of the jar onto the opposite piece of bread. “Why would I want to go over there and spend any time with that idiot?”

“I’m just telling you what he said,” Gerard responded, throwing his hands up in defense. “I figured you wouldn’t be interested, but I told him I’d pass that along to you.”

“I couldn’t possibly be less interested,” I said and then finished up making my sandwich. I put my materials away and then carried my plate upstairs and ate my sandwich in front of my computer while I got caught up on Matthew Santoro top-ten videos. When I was on my third top-ten scariest Creepypasta video and thoroughly spooked, there was a knock on my door.

“Come in,” I called, and then turned in my chair to Lacey enter through the doorway and cross the threshold. She took a seat on my bed, close up to where my pillows were. She was holding something, but I couldn’t quite tell what it was.

“Hey,” Lacey said quietly. “I know it’s not quite your birthday yet, but I wanted to give this to you.” It was weird to see Lacey sitting in my room after the extensive time she’d spent ignoring me. I had to admit though, it was kind of nice.

I accepted the small box she passed me and the card she’d drawn along with it. The card featured a decent sketch of a birthday cake with the number 18 in the middle of it. Inside, she wished me a happy birthday and a great rest of the year before signing her name. At the bottom, she’d added some post-script.

P.S. I really hope RISD works out for you. You deserve it.

I smiled as I read that. Apparently she’d come to terms with the whole college thing on her own, or was at least trying to. “Thanks, Lace. That means a lot coming from you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, and left it at that, not saying anything else about college. She gestured towards the box. “Come on, open that.”

I did as she asked, removing the thin layer of wrapping paper and lifting the top of what appeared to be a jewelry gift box. Inside was a silver heart-shaped locket, one I hadn’t seen in years, not since Mom had died since it had belonged to her. Inside the locket, there was a picture of Lacey on one side and one of me on the other. They were both dorky school pictures of us, the most recent before Mom passed away.

“Where the hell did you find this?” I asked, my mouth practically falling open when I realized what it was.

“I didn’t,” she explained. “I’ve had it since she died. I just…wanted something of hers to hang onto. But I wanted you to have it now, since you’ll be going off to college and all.”

“That’s really nice, Lacey,” I told her and then moved to hug her. “Thank you.” It meant a lot and I appreciated it, but she seemed a little sad to be giving it away. I understood; it was one of the only pieces of Mom we had left. “You know, maybe we could share it. Like when I’m having a hard time, I can keep it and when you’re having a hard time, you can. I think Mom would’ve liked that.”

She smiled, and there was definitely some relief there. “Yeah, I think she would. But I’ve had it for a while, so it’s your turn with it.”

I thanked Lacey again and with the air cleared between us, it was nice to be able to just sit and bullshit with my sister again for a little while. Even though it had only been about a week of radio silence, it seemed like there was a lot to catch up on. Lacey headed to bed around eleven but I stayed up a while longer, opting to paint for a little while. Inspired by listening to those stupid scary stories, I painted my canvas so dark that you could just barely see the inklings of some monsters coming through. It was uncomfortable to look at, which was what I’d been going for. For the time being, I left it in my closet; I didn’t feel the need to hang that one up.

That night, I had a dream about Mom. The whole dream, it seemed like she was trying to tell me something, but I either couldn’t understand or hear her, her voice drowned out by infinite amounts of white noise. I had to admit that when I woke up, I felt a little shaken up.

After I showered and got dressed, I put on Mom’s locket and then headed down for breakfast. Gerard was sitting in the kitchen sketching and drinking coffee.

“Happy birthday!” he exclaimed when I walked in, standing up to hug me. He took note of Mom’s locket. “Wow, I haven’t seen that in a long time.”

“Yeah, Lacey had it but she gave it to me for my birthday,” I told him.

“Yeah?” Gerard said. “I’m sure there’s more stuff like that at your dad’s place.” He shook his head. “It never seemed right to me that he got to keep your mother’s stuff. I always thought that you girls should have had the chance to go through it and take what you wanted. It’s what she would have wanted.”

“You know, you’re totally right,” I told him. Dad had never really offered us the chance to go through Mom’s things. He just threw all of it into boxes as soon as he could and shoved it into some nasty corner of the attic. “Maybe that’s what I’ll do today. I mean, Asshole said I could go over there, right?”

“Yep, he did,” he nodded. “Anyway, do you want some breakfast? I could whip up some pancakes, or we could go out if you want.”

“Uh, can I take a raincheck?” I asked. Now that I had the idea in my mind, I couldn’t shake it. I needed to go over to the old house and see what I could salvage of Mom’s. Maybe that was what she’d been trying to tell me in my dream. “I think I might just take my dad up on his offer to go over there.”

“Okay,” Gerard said easily. “Good luck, text me if you need anything.”

I went back to my room and grabbed my bag, tossing my phone in and grabbing my car keys. I stuck the keys in the ignition and drove the route over to my dad’s, though it didn’t feel familiar. Maybe it was because I had never driven over from Gerard and Mikey’s or because I no longer felt welcome in the entire neighborhood, but it was a little unsettling.

When I got there, Dad’s car was absent from the driveway, and it appeared that Haley’s car was gone too. I parked and then stepped up to the front door and tried my old house key. Of course they got the locks changed once we’d moved out. How was I supposed to get in now? I looked around outside for a moment to try to find a hidden key somewhere, and couldn’t find one. Finally, I looked under the mat, not expecting to find a key, but lo and behold, there one was. What an idiot.

I let myself in and called out, “Hello?” just to make sure no one was home. I got no response, so I took the opportunity to snoop around a little bit. The first thing I did was peek in on my old room. It had been totally redone and turned into a gym, complete with a treadmill, weights, and yoga mats. I rolled my eyes. Why would I have expected anything different?

I looked in on Lacey’s old room next, which was now a nursery for the evil spawn. I debated telling her when she came home from school, but decided against it unless she specifically asked.

I headed up the stairs to the attic next and immediately walked into some cobwebs, which pissed me off right away. I swatted them away and kept walking up the creaky steps and started to feel like I was in one of those stupid scary stories I’d listened to the night before. Ugh, why did I do that to myself?

Feeling a little uneasy, I pulled out my phone and started up a radio app for some background noise. The silence was eerie. After searching for a few minutes, I managed to find a few boxes of mom’s things, way back in the corner of the attic where the roof sometimes leaked. After a quick inspection, it seemed that the boxes were still intact, no mold that I could see.

I sifted through boxes for a while, taking my time and thinking back on all the memories associated with what I was finding. Some were happy and some were quite sad, so I spent the majority of that time fighting back tears. Still, I was determined to find some things for me and Lacey. I reached a box with a bunch of papers inside. I went through them and found mostly old art projects of ours. Mom was the type to hold onto everything like that. She even had papers from school left, like the handwriting stencils that kindergarteners do and old tests we’d gotten good grades on.

Towards the bottom of the pile, I found a paper I had never seen before. Upon closer inspection, it was Lacey’s birth certificate. Why didn’t we have that back at Gerard and Mikey’s? Surely they would need it at some point. I’d definitely need to take that with me. I started to put it in the pile of stuff I was taking home when something caught my eye – the line indicating paternity. The name on that line didn’t match the one on my birth certificate, that was for sure. In fact, it was a familiar name, one I’d heard so many times in my life.

Frank Iero.