Robert knew Lacy was lying when she said she was fine. He knew it was a lie. She wouldn’t have red puffy eyes if she was fine. He knew she had been crying. “Lacy, can you come over for a bit? I promise I won’t do anything. I want to talk to you.” Lacy’s brother came back into the living room.
“Go ahead and go with him. I can finish tidying up the living room. The rest of the house looks alright.” The boy said. Lacy and Robert leave. He takes her next door with him to his house.
“Your house looks better than ours.” Lacy said looking around.
“It’s not so special. We just moved here not too long ago too.” Robert tells her and sat down on the sofa. Lacy sits down on the chair.
“Why are you so curious about me? Why do you want to know so much?” Lacy asked.
“I really am not sure. What’s your age?” Robert asked her. “I can tell you look around my age or my brother’s.”
“I’m fourteen.” She replied.
“I just turned fifthteen not too long ago.”
“Oh. When did you have a birthday?” Lacy felt calm talking to Robert.
“At the end of July.” He answers. “It’s funny because my brother Ronnie’s birthday is at the end of April. We’ll be the same age for three months.” Robert laughed a little.
“That’s strange. I really hate these clothes I’m wearing.” Lacy looked down. She had on a white shirt. It had lace on it with a yellow ribbon. Her skirt was pink with yellow flowers on it.
“It doesn’t really suit you.” Robert said to her. Lacy knew it didn’t.
“I hate it. My mother won’t let me get my own clothes.” Lacy says feeling mad. “She wants to wear this when I hate light colors.”
“You don’t like light colors? I don’t either.” Robert had something in common with her. Lacy took a look at Robert. He had on a grey long sleeve shirt with a necklace. His pants were purple. All the colors he was wearing were dark. Lacy blushes a little as she stared.
“I don’t get no allowance money. My mom is trying to get a job since she lost her old one. I hate her new boyfriend she is dating.”
“Why do you hate him? Is he mean?” Robert asked. “My mom is a real bitch.”
“My mom’s boyfriend is rude. He gets mad at me for everything I do. If I don’t do something correctly or right he…” Lacy looks the other way.
“He what?” Robert asked. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know, but seeing Lacy getting sad all the time. He wanted to. Something about the girl he already felt like he cared for her.
“But love don’t exist.” Robert reminds himself in his head.
“Well… sometimes he hits me. My bruises are healing from the last time he hit me.” Lacy manages to say. She seemed as if she was going to cry as she said it. “But… Don’t tell anyone.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to tell someone?” Robert asked. Lacy nods slowly.
“I don’t want to cause more drama than there already is in my home.” Lacy didn’t tell Robert everything that goes on. She wasn’t sure whether she should tell him or not. Ronnie and Bryan come into the house.
“Hey. Whose she?” Bryan asked staring at Lacy confused.
“She’s a new neighbor that moved in next door.” Robert explains to Bryan.
“Oh. Hi.” Bryan smiles at her. Lacy didn’t say anything. Bryan went to his bedroom to take his backpack off. Ronnie was staring at Lacy.
“You decided to come over?” He asked her. She nods. “Awesome. Thirsty?”
“I…I really should head back.” Lacy was about to get up from the chair.
“Hey I just got here, I didn’t get to see you really. Stay.” Ronnie wanted Lacy to stay. “I’ll get you a soda.” Ronnie went into the kitchen and was getting a soda for Lacy.
“Are you okay?” Robert asked Lacy.
“Stop asking me questions. It’s none of your business.” Lacy glared at him.
“You don’t have to get bitchy with me.” Robert glared back.
“Shut up.” Lacy stood up and left the house. Ronnie came out with a drink.
“Where’s Lacy?” He asked Robert noticing that she was gone.
“She went home.” Robert replied. Ronnie was disappointed and really wanted her to stay. He didn’t say a word about it to Robert though.
It was the middle of the night. It was raining hard and thunder was heard. Robert couldn’t sleep. All what he had on his mind was the Lacy girl that appeared suddenly. “Why am I thinking of her?” Robert wondered as he gazed outside the window near his bed. Ronnie sat up and stared at Robert.
“Can’t sleep?” He asked his brother. Robert didn’t answer. “I can’t either.” Ronnie decided to look out the window with Robert. “Thinking of Lacy?”
“What’s it to you?” Robert asked.
“Nothing. Lacy is mysterious. I want to know more about her. Know her age?” Ronnie asked.
“She’s your age.” Robert answers. Ronnie was surprised about that.
“Cool.” Ronnie smiles a bit. Lacy was outside of the house. Rain was pouring all over her. She was crying.
“I can’t take living here anymore!” Lacy cried. “I can’t talk to my mom about my problems!” Lacy wasn’t sure what to do or where to go. She looked at the house next door. “Maybe…” She went to the door. Knocking on it. She was hoping that Robert or Ronnie would answer the door. Ronnie could hear the banging upstairs.
“Someone is at the door.”
“This late?” Robert asks. Ronnie and Robert both get up to answer the door. Brice was too much in a deep sleep. Bryan was too. Robert and Ronnie went to the door and opened it. They saw Lacy. She had tears in her eyes. She had no one else to run to. She ran over to them both. Crying.
“Lacy? Are you okay?” Robert asked. Lacy just kept crying. Robert closed the door and went with her to sit down on the sofa.
“Tell us what happened.” Ronnie was curious. It was 12 AM. There must be a reason for her to be coming over this late.
“I HATE MY MOM’S BOYFRIEND! I HATE HIM!” Lacy admits. “I CAN’T TAKE HIM!”
“What did he do?” Robert asked. Robert and Ronnie looked at Lacy. Her face was red. As if she had been slapped.
“Did he hurt you?” Ronnie asked her.
“He…He…” Lacy wasn’t sure if she could tell them, but they were the only ones that were talking to her. That seem to care for her when they barely knew her. In the old town that Lacy used to live at didn’t care for her.
“You can tell us.” Robert reassures Lacy. “It’s okay.”
“Promise not to… to tell anyone.”
“We won’t.” Robert and Ronnie both said. Lacy looked at them both and then looked down.
“My mom’s boyfriend…he… he isn’t a good man. At first I thought he was okay when he began dating my mom a year back. But after three months of dating, things just wasn’t right. He was always mad and angry. When he does, he hits me or my mom. Sometimes my brother too. And my mom feels like she has no choice. My dad walked out on my mother years ago. And she isn’t really capable of supporting herself, my brother, and me. And then she lost her job, she then moved into a house with her boyfriend. A house that he was buying.”
“He shouldn’t hit you no matter if he’s angry.” Robert said to Lacy.
“I agree. He’s a jackass.” Ronnie felt already angry with Lacy’s mother’s boyfriend.
“Hitting me is not all he does.”
“it isn’t?” Robert asks. Lacy wasn’t sure how to tell them anymore. She felt nervous.
“I need to tell somebody.” Lacy tells herself. She takes a deep breath and swallows hard.
“When…When my mother isn’t around sometimes he… he… touches me.”
“What do you mean touches you?” Robert asked. Ronnie already was feeling disgusted and wanted to hit the man.
“He tells me I look older than my age. Forces me to go into my bedroom. When my mom, brother, and I lived in an apartment in another town, he used to come over and spend the night sometimes. When he did, my mom and brother will be asleep. He would come to my bedroom or force me to go in there. And when he does, he touches me. And I don’t like it.” Lacy admits to it. She felt scared doing it. Tears ran down her face.
“He…he what? Touches you?” Robert asks her. She nods.
“He does! He touches me in inappropriate places! And I can’t take it!”
“Did he rape you?” Ronnie flat out and asked her.
“No. He didn’t. He just touches me. My …breast. He touches them and grabs them and it makes me uncomfortable. And…”
“And what?” Robert asked. She looked at them both and wasn’t sure if she could speak more, but she did.
“He touches me… down there too…”
“He molests you and your mother lets him do that? That sick bastard.” Robert was angry now. Ronnie was as well.
“No! My mother doesn’t know! I never had a heart to tell her! But please don’t tell. Not until my mom gets job and is stable of caring for my brother and me. Because I don’t want to be homeless. My mom won’t have a place to go and neither will my brother. I wouldn’t either! That house is the only home we got! I won’t let him rape me! And if he actually tries I promise I will tell but not now!” Lacy says scared.
“I don’t like the idea.” Robert tells her.
“I feel like killing the guy.” Ronnie mumbles.
“Just don’t say anything. Not yet. I don’t like it, but I am trying to tough it out until my mom has a stable job.” Lacy says looking down. “I ran off because he said hurtful things to me. Called me names and slapped me.”
“Is he looking for you?” Robert asked.
“I don’t know. I just needed a break from him. One day I will tell my mom. I’ll tell her when she has a job and has money, because right now there’s nothing that can be done.”
“That isn’t true. Maybe if I tell our dad we can make a way for you and your family to stay here and get that jackass in trouble.” Ronnie suggested.
“I don’t think that will be possible. Steven… he’s… he’s a good actor. He can play it off really good and pretend he done nothing to me. That’s why I say just to leave it alone until my mom has a job and some money.” Lacy tells Robert and Ronnie. Both boys felt powerless at a bad situation as this.