The End of the World As We Know It

It wasn't the end of the world as we knew it and everything wasn't fine.

Lucy rolled her eyes as the R.E.M. lyrics pumped out of her car radio with an almost apocalyptically assaulting beat until the band got to the peppy chorus line letting listeners know the world's over and we're all okay.

Everything's okay, right?

Shit, I guess you can be the judge of that.

***

Lucy gripped the bumpy grey steering wheel and groaned. Her back felt like it was being consumed by slow and malicious tendrils of fire. She never got completely used to the chronic pain that started to consume her when she was only seven.

Tears gathered in the corners of her green eyes and she tried to hold them in so she could see through the rain-streaked windshield. On the passenger seat, her cell phone began to ring.

Instinctively, she reached for it, then moved her hand back to the steering wheel without touching her phone. Not after the wreck. No way. No distractions. She pulled over to the side of a neighborhood road and looked at the glowing phone screen.

Missed Caller--SPAM.

She should've known. Spam and macaroni, ham and spam, peanut butter, tuna, and spam. Spam callers. Spam dammit.

Was she going crazy?

Lucy looked at the pores on her arms and the fine light brown hairs springing out of them. She recalled classmates teasing her for her hairy arms and legs in sixth grade when most other girls had started shaving. Of the hairy ones, hers wasn't even the darkest hair. Harumph.

Why'd Lucy's mom leave her old R.E.M. CD in her hand-me-down car anyway? And, why'd Lucy choose to play a CD instead of listening to her own music on Bluetooth?

In Math class, Shawn had called her Rudolph. Lucy'd already been self-conscious about the bright jingle-bell colored zit at the end of her nose. She remembered when she was twelve and thirteen and her legs and arms grew at an unpredictable pace and she clonked around hallways and tables, banging into them, knicking and bruising her legs and arms. Clumsy, clutzy. Very self-conscious.

Lucy'd mostly gotten over it, but she was human after all. And, when your crush points out the gross zit on the end of your nose, how does that make you feel?

***

The driveway was a slickened brown color from the rain and green grass popped through any crack available. There were many cracks. She pulled in the old Kia Spectra and set the emergency brake. Their house was on a steep hill. Trudging up the steps, she saw Daisy the Street Cat had knocked out mom's spring pansies again. Mom'd be pissed.

But, like the zit on the end of her nose, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

***

"Honey. Lucy, sit down."

Lucy's mom pulled out a kitchen chair and pointed to a warm pan of chocolate sheet cake.

Shit, shit, shit, Lucy thought to herself. Mom never cooks anything. Something must be really, really wrong.

"Hon, I know you're going through a lot--just turning 16 and all. I know we've both been going through a lot since your dad's car wreck. The doctors don't know if he'll ever fully recover and..." her voice trailed off.

"Yeah. What's up, mom?"

"Well, I met a guy. And, I really like him."

"What?! What about dad, mom? It's only been a few months. Surely, he'll come around soon."

"We don't know that, Lucy." Her mom shrugged and informed her she'd be starting to date a guy named Chad who she'd met at the bowling alley.

"You're still married, mom!" Silently she remembered it wasn't the end of the world as they knew it, and they'd be fine. They'd have to be. "Chad's half your age. Hell, I should be the one looking at him."

Tears glistened in Lucy's mom's eyes. "I know this is hard. I love you and dad. But, I need some physical interaction and..."

"Ugh, mom!!!"

It wasn't the end of the world but everything felt shook and smashed. And, Lucy didn't like it.