"So, are you and Rachel buddies now, or what?"
She shrugs. "You could say that. I guess."
"You guess?" Sam says, and presses the start button on the controller so he can gape at Lucy properly."You gave her a high-five. And you like, hate physical connection or whatever."
Lucy ignores the part of her that feels a need to be offended because...well. It is true. "It was a high-five, Sam. Calm down."
Sam says, "I am calm. I'm perfectly calm. I'm just – making an observation."
Lucy puffs out an, "O...kay?" and then pulls the right trigger when Sam un-pauses, putting a bullet into a zombie's head, flinging animated gore everywhere.
"Actually," the pause screen comes up again, "I'm not calm. Or – I mean, I am, but – " He rubs a hand over his face and Lucy sits patiently, pulling at the hem of her shirt. "You know, it took me like, six months to even get a fu – a freaking fist bump from you. And then Rachel just like, what, gets a high-five – full palm-on-palm contact, mind you – "
"I know what a high-five is, Sam. Thanks."
" – and I mean, is she more...worthy or something?"
And then Lucy gets it, and she knows that she should say, "Sam, no, you're the best friend anyone could ask for, really and blah blah blah" but she can't. Because Rachel is the first new thing – new good thing, anyway – that has happened to Lucy in a long time, and as much as she wants Sam to understand that she's happy he's there and puts up with all of her, she wants him to be happy for her just that little bit more.
"It was a high-five, not a marriage proposal, firstly, and no she's not 'more worthy', whatever the hell that is supposed to mean."
Sam shrugs, "Maybe I'm jealous or something, I don't know." He fiddles with the joystick on his controller. "But we're like, Mario and Luigi – " Lucy scoffs and laughs " – there's no room for a Yoshi or a Toad or a Princess Peach.
"Dynamic Duo just has a really nice ring to it."
She sighs. "I know."
…
The fifth step creaks when she pads downstairs. Her mom's at the counter, packing lunches for all of them. Her dad is at the table, reading the newspaper with a glass of orange juice (and vodka) beside him.
"Good morning."
"Morning." Judy replies, and looks up, smiling for a second before resuming her sandwich making. "Sleep well."
"Yeah." Lucy says.
"Yes ma'am." Russell corrects, flipping the page and giving Lucy a quick glance. "Respect, young lady."
"Right."
"You should have something for breakfast. There's apples on the counter."
"Braces, mom." A car horn sounds outside. "And Sam's here anyway."
"Right, right. Here." The paper bag is pushed across the counter. "Don't forget that."
She shoves it into her backpack. "Yeah. Thanks."
"Bye, dear."
"Bye, mom." She watches her dad flip to the finance page.
…
"Bad morning?" Sam wonders, when she gets into the truck and slams the door.
"You could say that." She responds, and pushes the heel of her palm into her eyes until she sees stars. She feels the truck rumble beneath her, and she feels the slight thump it makes every time it runs over something like a rock or hits a bump on the road.
It's becoming more frequent, she notices. Her dad not looking at her. He started in middle school, but it wasn't enough that she noticed, back then.
But now she does and – he won't even look at her, why won't he look at her –
"God, he won't even look at me." She doesn't even realize she's said it out loud until she feels the vibrations fading in her chest. Sam looks over at her.
She watches the blur of the houses pass by.
…
"Good morning, Lucy."
She shuts her locker, the metallic clang grinding on her nerves. "Morning."
She can feel something radiating off Sam. It's not distaste, but it's not anything joyous or happy either it's just sort of –
"Good morning, Sam."
"Rachel." He nods at her with a smile that sort of reaches his eyes. "What's up?"
"Nothing at all." She responds. "And, er, what's up with you?"
He just shakes his head, and when Lucy brings her book up to her chest, Rachel turns to her and says, "How was your evening?"
"I killed zombies for about two hours – and beat my high score – before I went home and stayed in my room, pretending that I don't exist" would probably sound way more pathetic than it does in her head, so she settles with a, "Nothing much," before adding a "You?"
"My evening was quite uneventful as well."
She feels arms wrap around her shoulders and she tenses until she smells Sam's cologne. "We should get to class. There's like, two minutes left."
Right then and there, Lucy is tempted to call Rachel Mother Teresa, because if she notices Sam's semi-obvious (distaste? Dislike? Annoyance?) of her, she doesn't say a word or bat an eye. Just utters an, "Oh, of course. Sorry for keeping you. I'll see you later." and waltzes off.
Lucy watches her go before Sam nudges her forward.
…
She's slushie-free for another day, which marks a new record for 'days that she hasn't had to change her clothes once in her whole high school career', and she feels wonderful. Not only because she's not feeling the stickiness around her whole body like she usually does at this time, but because not being taunted or made fun of is a kind of...liberating feeling.
Rachel's at her locker when she approaches, hair tucked back in a headband and backpack slung over her shoulders. She returns the smile that Rachel shoots her.
"Hi." Lucy says.
"Hi. How was your day?"
She pulls open her locker. "It was – good actually."
"That's good to hear."
"It's – " she pauses, her Trig book in hand. "Yeah. It is."
Rachel nods, and then Lucy kind of thinks for a second that she's some kind of Rachel-guru because she can tell that there's something that the girl needs to say or do otherwise she'll combust, or something. Implode.
"What's up?" She asks, closes her locker.
Rachel looks down and swallows. Pushes a stand of hair behind her ear. "What's your number?"
As unexpected as that was, really, her only reaction is to raise her eyebrow and wonder, "I – why?"
"I was thinking we could...text each other or – or something.
Lucy doesn't really text, besides Sam when he needs help with his homework or wants her to come over for lunch or dinner or just to hang out, and even then it's a 'yeah' here and a 'sorry, i've gotta study for this test' here.
She wonders if Rachel texts the way that she talks, and if Rachel texts like she talks sometimes, Lucy considers not giving it to her (not giving it to her politely of course) because she's not sure if her phone has the kind of storage needed for paragraphs and paragraphs of text.
She pulls out her phone and hands it over. "Yeah, sure."
…
Hello.
Is this Lucy?
She laughs, and looks at the name flashing across the screen. Rachel* :-).
Rachel with a smiley face. And an astric. A gold-star, she's said, when she had handed Lucy's phone back and her eyebrow raised in question.
"It's kind of my thing."
well yeah. who'd you think it was? She sends back, and she jerks back when she recieves a reply instantly.
One can never be too careful. You could have given me someone else's number if you so desired and I would have been none the wiser.
She frowns, wondering if she really seems like the type to do that, and then remembers that just because Rachel doesn't have any friends right now, doesn't mean that it's from lack of trying. Receiving the wrong number could be as routine as brushing her teeth, by now.
And that makes Lucy really sad for a reason she can't really...place.
i wouldn't do that to you. She sends, because she wouldn't. that's...well. mean.
I'm sure that you of all people know that just because something is mean, doesn't guarantee that people won't do it.
She nods to herself, because she does know that, and it kind of hurts how much she wishes she didn't.
i know.
i'm sorry. even though that probably doesn't even mean anything because...yeah. but i'm sorry.
She is. She's sorry, and then she's mad and wants to find the people Rachel is talking about and – and –
Well. Do something to them. She's not a violent person, really, so maybe she'd...give them a dirty look. Or whatever.
Still.
Don't be.
Are you doing homework?
Lucy twirls her pencil around her fingers and taps the eraser on the cover of her book. yeah. physics.
Oh. Sounds like fun.
Lucy smiles. i hope you're being sarcastic.
Haha. Yes.
good. because if you were a physics lover, i don't think we could be friends.
Oh?
Because I'm not really a "physics lover", per say, but I happen to enjoy it occasionally and I
Well I hope that's not a problem?
It's funny and sad and endearing how serious Rachel seems to take things, and how she honestly thinks that Lucy is serious.
She's not picky with friends; she'd never deny someone friendship, even if they did love the Theory of Relativity, or whatever, a little too much.
it was a joke, haha.
Well. I feel stupid.
She laughs, even though it's not funny.
you shouldn't. you're not.
…
A/N: I apologize for confusion with the text messages and such. There are only so many ways to format.