Written for:
The Globetrotter Drabble Competition - Canberra, Australia
The Hugs and Happiness Challenge - Lexen. Happy Birthday, I hope you have a good one!
Lucy dear, what are you doing?
You watch the blood run down your arms as though it might reveal some kind of truth, as though it holds the key to something more than the lonely existence you're stuck with now.
It doesn't, of course. The blood is just blood. The pain is just pain, and your life is just the same as it's always been. Fred's still dead, splattered like a bug on the ground below the Astronomy Tower, Lily's run off to London to find her feet, Grandma Molly is beside herself with worry, and you? Well, you take each day as it comes. You have to, because you feel like you're always only a minute away from falling apart and joining Fred, wherever he is.
You meet Molly at The Leaky Cauldron at twelve precisely, just like she'd said. She's sitting at a table near the back, so you weave your way through the crowd until you reach her and carefully sit down.
She looks at you and tries to smile, but it ends up looking painfully forced. "Hey Luce. I ordered you a hot chocolate."
"I don't drink hot chocolate," you tell her, unsurprised she doesn't remember. Who cares enough to remember details about you?
She frowns. "You did when we were kids."
"I'm not a kid any more. What do you want, Molly?"
She folds her hands in front of her and takes a deep breath. "The family's falling apart. Fred's – Fred's gone, Lily's run off, you're avoiding us all like we've got the plague and dad's blaming himself. Grandma Molly wants to get us all together for dinner, do something to help, and I – we – want you to come."
"And you couldn't have just sent an owl?"
"Do you ever respond to owls?"
"Given that you never seemed to want anything to do with me, I saw no point attending family functions, or responding."
"Oh, grow up, Lucy!" Grow up, Lucy, she tells you, critical, impatient and exasperated, just like she's always been. You're never good enough.
Lucy dear, this meeting was a bad idea; didn't you know that from the start? So you get up, throw some money on the table and walk away, and you don't look back.
The wounds on your arms sting, and your confusion about Molly fades away, along with everything else – the pain is all you'll ever need.