Love, Lacey

Ray and Lacey sat mutely, sipping their coffee like a pair of strangers. Lacey tapped her fingers on the table between them as a distraction to fill the silence. Ray sighed and looked over at the empty coffee shop. One of the many expensive coffee machines whirred in the background, its metal blades grinding up more coffee in preparation for the late-night rush.

“So,” Ray said, looking up at Lacey, “we got a new volunteer at the shelter.”

“Really?” Lacey replied, her voice was brimming with happiness, “Who is it?”

Ray took a slow sip of his coffee. “Um, it’s actually Amy,” he said, “and she’s not really a volunteer, per se, but her father’s making her work there as some sort of a punishment. She really awful.”

Lacey laughed, picturing preppy, perfect Amy in her expensive couture cashmere clothes and her high heels scooping up dog shit. “I can imagine. Has anybody taken a snap at her, yet?”

Ray chuckled, too, but shook his head. “Tre decided to make her leg his girlfriend, and I seriously thought for a second that Adie was going to take a bite out of her, but thank goodness she didn’t.”

“Adie…” Lacey sighed, her face immediately falling. She hadn’t been to see her beloved friend in weeks, and it almost pained her to hear stories about her, no matter how funny they were.

“Hey, it’s ok,” Ray said, patting Lacey’s shoulder comfortingly.

They sat awkwardly in silence again for a few minutes, drinking their cold coffee and not looking at each other. Lacey started tapping the table again. Ray glanced around nervously.

Out of the blue, Lacey spoke. “Are you ready to get going?”

Ray nodded, and they lazily moved from the warm safety of the coffee shop to the unpleasant, brisk chill of the outdoors.

“So, how bad is it going to be for you?” Ray asked, starting the engine of his beat-up old car.

Lacey sighed. “Well, they’ll probably think of some lame way of teasing me again. The whole school’s on their side, even the teachers, so I don’t think it’ll be awful hard for them to spread some mean and vicious stuff around.”

Ray’s grip on the steering wheel tightened minutely. “What kinds of things have they been saying in the past? What can you expect?”

Lacey’s sigh was louder this time. While she was perfectly comfortable with telling her friend about her life, it was kind of annoying to have to think about the consequences of her actions when she was just beginning to experience the joy of having done them. “Last time I did something like this, and it wasn’t as bad as this one was, they started telling the whole school that I’m a lesbian.” She didn’t even bother to tell him that the rumor wasn’t exactly false.

Ray took a deep breath, restraining his anger. “That’s… not a very nice thing to say to someone,” he said lamely.

“Yeah,” Lacey replied, just as lamely. The car silenced awkwardly, the only sounds were those of the motor revving and the air whistling past.

They drove together in silence for a while. “Why do you let them do that sort of stuff?” he asked, his voice strained. He was trying not to show how upset his friend’s discontent made him, and failing epically.

“I don’t really… see what I can do to stop them, you know? They rule the school. Nobody would believe me, even if I told them how horrible they’ve been.”

"Have you tried ignoring them?" asked Ray, thinking back to what his middle school counselor would have said.

"HA!" scoffed the girl. "All I do is ignore them. They never let up. They don't need attention. They just need a life to ruin," she added, fiddling with her seatbelt. Ray looked to his friend with sadness and good-natured pity in his eyes. Lacey was such a sweet girl, and, while he knew she'd hate to admit it, fragile. Not weak, though. She was far from weak. You didn't go through what Lacey went through and come out weak. But you did come out vulnerable. Frankly, Ray wanted to protect her from anything that would hurt her, anything that would shatter her, and he knew those girls were the very thing that could do so.

Finally, the pair arrived at the Mosley’s house. Lacey slid out the passenger side of the door and waved goodbye to Ray as he sped off down the driveway. Diana Mosley watched as her daughter walked through the front door.

"You two have fun?" she asked, patting a seat for her daughter next to her on the couch.

"Yeah, up to a point," Lacey answered. Diana raised her eyebrows. Lacey sighed and proceeded to explain the whole episode at the coffee shop. After hearing Lacey's story, Diana gave a large exhale and shook her head.

"God, why can't those girls leave you alone? Honestly?" Lacey shrugged. "I'm calling the school. The principal needs to know they're harassing you."

"It wasn't on school grounds. They can't do anything," the girl told her mother.

"Well, I'll talk to their parents about it,"

"So they can just lie more? 'Sides, they wouldn't exactly take people like us seriously."

"What do you mean, 'people like us'?" Diana questioned.

"I mean, lower middle-class people. We don't have money, we don't have influence. We're nothing in their eyes," Lacey explained, a hint of bitterness creeping into her otherwise stoic expression.

"You know what? We might not have money or influence or any of that other shit you seem to value, but you know what we do have? Pride. And pride's telling me that I need to protect my daughter from vicious little girls like that. I don't care if they laugh in my goddamn face and have their fucking butler throw me out of their goddamn million-dollar estates, I'm gonna try. I'm not letting this get out of hand again, Lacey. Goddamn it, the last time I did, it almost killed you!" Diana drew in a sharp breath and tried to calm herself before saying, "Now I know what you're gonna say. 'It's senior year. I'll never see them again after this.' But I'm not gonna let anything like this ruin what's left of high school for you. Especially since you got so much stuff you wanna do with your life. Trust me, one fuck up now, and everything you've worked for might just go down the shitter."

"Mom, it's fine. Really. I'll just ignore them like I always do." Inside, Lacey was quivering with fear. The last thing she needed was another confrontation with Amy. Mix in her mother's volatile manner when agitated, it was a recipe for disaster.

"Obviously, ignorin’ ‘em ain’t workin‘, Lacey! You’ve been fuckin’ ignorin’ ‘em for the past, what, 5, 6 years? The only thing that's gonna work is talkin’ to those no-good, dirty, spoiled bitches and takin’ ‘em down a peg!" Diana yelled. Her regional Texan accent had taken over, which meant that she was pissed, and when Diana was pissed, there was no reasoning with her. Lacey had but one choice.

"Fine. You wanna talk to the Lees? Talk to the Lees. But don't start crying when nothing fucking changes," Lacey bitterly conceded, running to her room and slamming the door. Diana huffed and slammed herself onto the couch. She knew what she was doing was right, and once Lacey saw the changes, she'd be thanking her.

She hoped.