Danny has autism, and Lacey's still in love with him.
"Hey Jo."
"Hey Lacey. What's up?"
"Can I come sleep over at your house? My mom is crying again."
There was a brief pause from the other side, and Lacey sighed quietly. Her mom had been crying all day. It was May 17, otherwise known as Anniversary. She could sort of remember not being allowed to stay in the house because it was 'grown up time.' The day after Anniversary, Lacey would always come home from Jo's and her mom and dad would be acting happier than normal. But her dad had left almost six years ago. Her mom didn't cry as much as she did the couple days (read: weeks) after he was gone, but Anniversary always made her break down.
"Lacey?" Jo said as she came back onto the line. "My mom says it's okay!"
Lacey smiled as Jo began to talk about all of the things they were going to do.
"We can play Scene It, because I just got it yesterday at the store. And Mom says we can pick a couple movies on demand. We can make popcorn and Dad can probably make us a bonfire in the backyard to make s'mores. Maybe we can invite Danny over too?"
Lacey shook her head, then realized Jo couldn't see her. "No, your parents wouldn't let him. He's a guy."
"So? That doesn't matter," complained Jo.
"Maybe he can come over just for s'mores or something. My mom wouldn't let me come if he spent the night because she says that's inappropriate," Lacey said.
Lacey heard Jo sigh. "Okay. What time are you coming over?"
"Is 6 okay?" asked Lacey.
"Yeah, you can come over for dinner. Mom's making lasagna."
"It's only noon now. Why don't we go hang out at Danny's now? His aunt is there, right?" Lacey vaguely remembered Danny saying how much he didn't like his Aunt Tara, but couldn't avoid her the entire week she would be in town.
"Yeah, Aunt Tara. She's probably nicer than Danny said. I'll meet you at his house in fifteen," said Jo.
"See you then."
Lacey hung up the phone but started thinking about Danny. It wasn't like Danny would come over later that night anyways because he always seemed to have a schedule. She wanted him to come because he knew how to play Monopoly much better than Jo, even though he was awful at Pictionary. It was surprising, since Danny could draw everything and anything from memory in perfect detail. It was probably because he could never seem to understand that there was a time limit, but Jo always gave him extra time anyways since she had a huge crush on him.
Danny was quiet and soft-spoken, but you could see it in his eyes that he was always analyzing everything for the drawings he would create later. Lacey had several of herself from different angles, but Danny had said himself that he could never get the color of her eyes right. He always said they were a mix of different browns, that they reminded him of almonds (his favorite snack to eat, of course) but all Lacey could see in a mirror were plain brown eyes.
Spending time at his house was much better than him spending the night because he at least had a swingset in his backyard, and their little clubhouse was a quick walk through the woods behind his house. Lacey went down the stairs and found her mom sniffing on the couch.
"Mom? I'm going over to Danny's with Jo, and then spending the night at Jo's," Lacey said cautiously.
She saw her mother nod her head once and Lacey flew out the door. She didn't want to be stuck alone with her mother when her sister already left for sleepaway camp earlier that week.
She ran down the street to Danny's and knocked on the front door. Mrs. Desai answered it, greeting Lacey with a big smile.
"Hi, Lacey. You must be here to hang out with Danny and Jo. They're in the backyard already."
"Thanks, Mrs. Desai." Lacey started walking through the gorgeous house, but only made it to the dark sunroom. She opened the door that led to the backyard, but the door was slammed shut by someone behind her.
"Who the fuck are you, girl?"
Lacey turned around slowly, meeting the eyes of a snarling young woman with short red hair.
"L-" Lacey stopped and stood up straight, "Lacey Porter. I live down the street."
The woman laughed in her face and Lacey caught a whiff of the alcohol on her breath. Lacey's mom had a few drinks sometimes, but she never acted like this. Lacey's heart began pounding from her chest, so hard that she wondered if this woman could hear it.
"You friends with that little retard? Surprised he could get anyone to talk to him without wanting to punch him in the face." Her words weren't as slurred as Lacey would've expected, but she could easily hear one of the most awful words in the English language.
"Danny has a mild form of autism and he doesn't even act like it. He's not a retard, so don't call him that." Lacey yanked open the door and ran out to the swings where Jo and Danny were talking.
Danny stood up and stared at Lacey, not moving to touch her or comfort her but saw the pain in her face. His eyes demanded answers from her and Lacey spat out, "I think I just met your aunt."
Danny's face grew hard and he glanced at the door she came from.
"What happened?" demanded Jo.
"I walked through the sunroom and she said a bunch of bad things about Danny. Is she drunk?"
"Probably. Did she hurt you?"
Lacey shook her head as Karen came out of the back door towards them. The trio looked at her, expecting to hear something about Tara leaving.
"I need to go down to the store and grab some stuff for dinner. If you guys need anything, just ask Aunt Tara. She's in the sunroom watching some TV, okay?" Karen Desai looked at all of the children, blatantly ignoring the worried looks they were sending toward the room Tara was in. She smiled at them all and brushed Danny's bangs away from his forehead. Danny quickly moved away and a frown crossed over her face, but the smile came right back.
"I'll be back in about a half hour." Karen walked through the grass to the side fence and disappeared back to the front of the house.
Danny looked at his two friends and grimaced. "I'm sorry about my aunt."
The two girls shrugged. All of a sudden, there was a loud crash from inside the house as Tara came barreling outside toward Danny, arms full of papers.
"Keep these fucking scribbles out of my sight. Understand, or do I need to say it a little slower?" Tara threw the papers at Danny, who stood there with his eyes wide as she stomped back inside. Flying around the backyard were hundreds of Danny's drawings, of Lacey, of Jo, of his dad, of his mom, of everything. Lacey and Jo scrambled to collect them up, but Danny remained in one place, staring after Tara. Lacey and Jo got a lot of his drawings together, chasing after some that flew into the woods, but when they came back, Danny was still standing in the same place. Lacey could see his hand twitching and she went up behind him.
"Danny?" she whispered. She didn't want to touch him because she knew how much it would freak him out, but he wasn't doing anything. She poked his shoulder quickly, which made him whip his head around to her.
"I'll be right back," he declared to the girls. He grabbed a pile of his drawings and ran inside, picking up something from the grass on the way.
Ten minutes later, Jo and Lacey were getting worried. Danny still hadn't come out and they were just sitting on the swings.
"Maybe we should go inside and check on him," suggested Jo.
Lacey sighed. "I don't think so. He looked-"
At that second, the back door cracked open and Danny walked back outside with a red jump rope. The girls jumped off the swings and met him halfway. Danny refused to look at either of them in the eye, training his eyes on the ground. He took a deep breath and smiled, finally looking up at them. "I did it."
Jo and Lacey looked at each other for a second, exchanging glances. Danny continued to smile at them, repeating, "I did it. I did it."
Something told Lacey to go inside. "Jo, stay here. I-I'll be right back." Jo nodded at the young girl as she carefully walked inside. The door was still cracked open and Lacey could practically taste the smell of alcohol. She picked up the empty bottle of tequila lying on the ground, then wandered through the kitchen door.
Suddenly, she drew back, gasping, as she saw Tara's body lying on the ground, eyes bulging, tongue hanging out, deep red marks around her deathly pale skin.