The three friends were sitting by the lake, after school, which was a stone’s throw away from Sonia’s bungalow.
“Boys are jerks!” Tara exclaimed, as she tossed a stone into the water, making a plink sound.
“He was just a waste of time,” Cheryl agreed, pulling out a wad of green grass fiercely, looking into the distance.
“I don’t even know what to say. My life sucks!” Tara threw another stone, this time almost hitting a frog, which croaked back angrily.
“Join the club,” Cheryl sighed.
“And that Gupta has threatened to call our parents. I mean, it’s Christmas! Isn’t there like some holiday discount for punishments or something?” Tara said, shifting her gaze to Cheryl.
“I swear. My aunt’s going to be so mad, she already warned me about misbehavior when I got that D on the physics test. No holiday can be worse than this.”
Sonia raised her eye brow, “Come on guys, it isn’t that bad. The world could end!”
Tara flashed a look of irritation. “If the world does end, it would be a million times better than this!” she shot back, playing with a stick fallen on the ground.
“Tara’s right! We can’t end the world…but we can end our lives,” Cheryl said casually, unknown to what her harmless comment was about to lead to.
Tara remarked on that, “You know what; I think I am going to do just that…”
“Enough already with your immature discussions,” Sonia exclaimed, standing up in frustration. “I don’t want to listen to your duet about your sad lives anymore.”
“If you don’t want to, why don’t you just disappear from here?” Tara got up, too. “You call us immature? You’re the one who wanted to make ketchup look like blood.” She said, folding her hands.
“That isn’t exactly true…” Sonia defended.
“I’ll tell you what’s not true. YOU’RE not a true friend because if you can’t sit there and make us fell comforted about just one lousy day we’re having, then you’re just another Leandra!” Tara yelled, drawing up her hands into fists.
“Okay, that’s not what I meant. I got mad at what you said the thing about ending your life,” Sonia explained. Holding Tara by her shoulders, she said, “That’s not right.”
“Maybe it isn’t.” Tara replied in a calmer tone, taking Sonia’s hands off her arms. “But it’s the only way out.”
“You know, you guys are just focusing on the dark side of your life. Look on the bright side. Cheryl, you may not have your family with you but you still have an aunt who takes care of you. She may be harsh but she would have abandoned you if she wanted. Did she do that?”
Cheryl sighed, “But she never understands me!”
Sonia turned to Tara, “Tara, you’re the most popular girl in school. What could beat that?”
“Uhh…the fact that Jason’s going to go around and tell everyone I am a slut and that I just used him,” Tara shot back, folding her arms across her chest.
Cheryl got up, too. “I know you care about us, Sonia. But please don’t make it look like our lives are great just because you have the perfect one.”
At that, Tara and Cheryl walked away, making their way home. Sonia was left there, agitated at their stupidity. “I don’t have the perfect life,” she yelled behind them, but they didn’t respond. “Stupid girls,” Sonia muttered under her breath, walking towards her bungalow.
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Sonia sat in her room, trying to dig her head deep into her soft toys. But it didn’t work, she could still hear it. She could still hear the clatter of utensils against their kitchen floor, the abuses her parents shot at each other, her dad screaming in a drunken voice, her mom’s shrill scream, the cries of her little brother.
She dug even deeper into her toys but the fur of her teddy bear wasn’t thick enough for the noise not to reach her ear. Sonia was pretty sure that if she doesn’t die because of the noise pollution, it would be because of heart attack. Because more than the fights affected her ear, they made a larger impact on her heart. The wild screams and cries pushed to background all of Sonia’s wise words. Well, they were her parents and she had inherited it from either one of them. So in a way, it made sense that they had the power to take away her talent of imparting valuable knowledge to the world temporarily.
When Sonia couldn’t dig any deeper, she threw away her favorite pink teddy bear, squirming restlessly. She got up and sat on the bed, listening to what they were saying for one whole minute. Same discussion everyday, She told herself. Sometimes, Sonia thought she was adopted because obviously none of her parents had the clarity of thought that Sonia was blessed with.
Her brother’s cry hit her ears, and it hit her in a soft spot in her heart. What were they doing? The poor guy was just in the third grade. Wasn’t it going to affect his studies? Jut because Sonia was able to keep herself together, doesn’t mean Gus could. For a second, Sonia thought about getting Gus into the safe zone, her room. Maybe give him some of her hot chocolate, offer comforting words. But then she thought that if her friends didn’t take her advice seriously, why would her brother do that? Besides, she wanted to avoid the disastrous scene outside anyway. She had seen enough of it before Gus was born and she was quite certain that her mom still used her manicured nails as defense.
She fell on her bed, tired of listening to the arguments and muttered to her own self, “And they say I have the perfect life!”
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