Page 39 of Electricity

“Except for when you saved me from that dog—and defibbed Lacey’s mom,” Darius spoke up, standing up for me at exactly the wrong time.

Lacey’s face crumpled, and I fell to my knees on the floor and crawled over to her quickly, hugging up as she bent down. I could almost see the question mark hanging over Darius’s head, but ignored him.

“Why?” she asked, into my hair.

I thought I knew what she was asking. Why me, why her, why all of this. “I don’t know, baby,” I said, holding her to me. “I just don’t know.”

“It’s not fair. I mean—I wouldn’t wish what happened—but?—”

“I know. I so completely know.” Sympathetic tears sprang to my eyes, and I rocked her. “It’s not fair. Not fair at all.”

I pushed up to sit in her chair beside her, her still wrapped in my arms, and saw Darius giving us both a worried look. “So—is your mom okay?”

Lacey nodded into my shoulder. “Yeah. Thanks to you.”

She cried a little more, safe with me, and then pulled back. The room we were in was stocked with Kleenex boxes and little water bottles, and she helped herself to one of each. And then she dimmed again, going back into her protective apathetic shell, jerking her chin at Darius. “Is he safe?”

He sat a little straighter as I vouched: “He’s kept my secret.”

“I can’t explain what happened if he doesn’t know. And if I tell him, and he says the wrong thing, I’m going to murder him,” she informed us both flatly.

“If you tell him, and he says the wrong thing, I’ll murder him for you.”

“You’d do that? For me?” she asked. Her voice was 99% sarcasm and 1% sincerity. I concentrated on that 1% and took her hands.

“Always.”

“Okay.” She nodded and turned to face him. “You know how everyone thinks I slept with Danny at Liam’s last weekend? After I cut work?”

He nodded slowly.

“Well I didn’t. He raped me.”

I could hear her teeth clench in her mouth after she’d said the words, and she was staring so intently at Darius that I thought he might burst into flames.

For his part, his brow furrowed and he looked at the ground. “Oh.”

“Oh?” she asked, challengingly.

“Yeah. Honestly, I was hoping you’d gotten a superpower too.”

I put my hand over my face, but Lacey—I watched her eyebrows crawl high up her forehead and made a laugh that turned into a bray. “I fucking wish,” she said.

That bridge crossed, I relaxed, ever so slightly. “So what happened with your mom yesterday?”

“You know my mom. Ever since,” and she waved her hands around in the air to indicate the incident , “she’s been moping around the house.

Talking about how she made some mistake parenting me.

Apparently I’m not actually a child, but I’m some sort of glass-creature she blew out of her vagina that she intended to give to my future husband, mint in box. ”

I gave Darius a quick look and saw him biting his lips.

“It makes sense if you’ve ever met her,” I said, for his sake, then Lacey went on.

“Like, me going to that party without telling her was one thing, and getting raped was another—but when I told the cops I didn’t want them to press charges—and then that night you came over and we forgot to put the screen back in?

I told her it was you, but she just assumed I had some boy over because of course I would, you know, just to show him the stitches, and suddenly she didn’t know ‘what to believe’.

” Lacey wound up into a fair imitation of her mom.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No. Like, why would she even say that to me?”

“I don’t know. But it’s fucked up.”

“Maybe—” Darius began slowly. “Because it was easier than admitting she made a mistake?”

“How so?” I said, my voice urging caution.

“Maybe your mom thought she was making a perfect run. Like in a game, when you’re doing everything right, the first time through, like those people who can play the first forty-levels of Alien Atrocity blindfolded.

Your mom was playing the game, doing what she thought was right, and then the right things didn’t happen and it can’t be her fault so it has to be yours. ”

Lacey nodded. “That makes sense. Twisted, shitty, sense.” Then she turned to me. “I’m supposed to be the kid though, Jessie.”

“I know.” I brushed her bangs back off of her face. Shit like this was why we parented ourselves. “So what happened?”

“She took too many of her sleeping pills. I mean…I just think she took a pill and it didn’t work.

So she took another, and then that one didn’t work, and then maybe she took a third and then a fourth, just in case.

” Lacey shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t think she wanted to die?

I think it was just the easiest way for her to make it all about her again. ”

My mother was bad but Lacey’s mom had taken it to a whole new level. “This must be exhausting.”

“It has been. It is.” She sighed and rubbed a hand across her face. “And then there’s this.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, holding it out to me.

“I’m gonna see everything once I touch it. Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” she said and nodded, and so I took it from her hands.

Everything new on Lacey’s phone raced through up to me—all the images from her ZB that I hadn’t seen on mine earlier today flew into my mind like bats, it was hard not to swipe them away.

But it wasn’t the pictures that were the problem—it was the words.

Things focused in my mind and then --

Do you have a prom date?

MysteriousAzzhole’s icon sat by the words. Lacey was smart enough not to respond.

Because you’d better get one.

You’re going to want to watch the slideshow.

“Oh, no,” I said aloud.

“What?” Darius asked.

“It’s someone threatening to show pictures of me at prom,” Lacey said.

“What…kind of pictures?” Darius asked with hesitation.

“Those kind,” I confirmed, and his expression went dark.

“What do I do, Jessie?” Lacey just looked at me. “I mean, what the fuck can I do?”

I pushed back into the couch. “I’m not sure that you can do anything. But—I can—I just have to touch his phone.”

“Who’s phone?”

“Mason Green.”

She blinked. “Why does he have pictures of me? I thought it was Danny.”

“I’m pretty sure it was Danny. I just also think Mason was there.” I winced for her sake. “I think Mason only does what he’s told.”

“Oh, God,” Lacey said. She bowed over and put her head in her hands. “Ohhhhhh, God.”

I hovered my hands over her back, lowering them slowly to pet her like a feral cat.

“If it’s him, I can totally get rid of them for you,” I said. “Breaking things is the one thing I’m good at so far. But after I did that—they’d be gone. You wouldn’t be able to change your mind again, you know? Or you could, but there wouldn’t be any proof left. Are you sure you want that?”

She turned to look up at me, her eyes dark. “I want all of him broken. But I’ll take making the pictures disappear.”

“Okay then. I can do that.”

“How?”

“I just have to get near his phone is all.” I said it like it’d be easy. Even though I had no idea how I’d manage it, I didn’t want to make anything worse for her right now. “I’ll figure out a way.”

“Okay. God. I can’t believe everything that’s happened.”

“Me either,” I agreed. “But—I’ll fix it. Promise. You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah. My Aunt’s coming down.”

“Betsy? The cool one?”

“Yeah,” she said, then rose up. “Don’t tell anyone about my mom, okay?”

Even as shitty a mom as Ms. Harper was, she was the only mom Lacey had. She didn’t want her to go anywhere. “My lips are sealed.”

Lacey looked over at Darius. “Mine too,” he agreed.

“Okay.” She rocked to standing, and her face went flat as she put her armor back on. “Let me know when it’s done—and hurry?”

“Will do.” I stood up and gave her a hug, while Darius lurked awkwardly behind us, then we threaded through the door and walked out.