Page 49 of The Curve
“Tell me. I’m here for you.”
She sits in the chair facing the window and starts removing her shoes. The sobbing has slowed, but tears still run down her face.
“He had his friend take a picture of us with our heads tilted together. He took a few to get the best angle he said.” She shakes her head with the memory.
“What happened to upset you?”
She crosses to her bed and picks up the iPad she’d left there. It takes only seconds for her to bring up what she’s looking for. She hands it to me. Tears immediately come to my eyes. There for all her friends and his to see is a smiling Jeffrey leaning into a photoshopped Mallory. Freddy Krueger’s scarred face is on her body, and underneath is the text,Welcome West High’s newest student, Mallory Bay!
I swear my heart just broke into a thousand pieces.
“Oh, Mallory. It’s okay, honey, it’s going to be okay…”
She holds up a hand and interrupts my attempt to make her feel better.
“The party wasn’t even for me. It was for his girlfriend. What a stupid fool I am. Don’t ask me to go to that school or go to any more parties or socialize. It’s not gonna happen. I want to get out of Memphis, Mom.” The tears come faster now. “It hurts so much. I don’t think I can take it anymore.”
That last thought rips my heart out. I try to take her in my arms, but she’s stiff. No arms around me, no head on my shoulder. I still hold on.
“Let’s just get in my bed and we’ll talk it out.”
The look on her face scares me. There’s a blankness to it that I’ve never seen before.
“No. I don’t want to do that. I’m just gonna go to bed. My bed. I don’t want to talk about this anymore at all. I mean it, Mom. Goodnight.”
Turning her back to me, she starts removing her dress. I just stand here stunned, not knowing what to do. She looks over her shoulder and pauses.
“Okay, I’m leaving. But if you get lonely or sad, come to my room. We both need a little love tonight.”
There’s no agreement or argument. There’s only a blank stare telling me we’re in a darker state than we’ve ever been in before. Now I’m frightened.
When I walk out I leave the door open. But by the time I get to my door, hers closes. In my hand is the iPad.
I’m quietly crying because being afraid for Mallory is worse than any other emotion I’ve ever felt. I’ve always been confident when it came to being her protector. I could find the right words and eventually bring her back from whatever sadness she was feeling. But this, this looks different. A kind of a wall came up between us tonight. Really it felt like it was between her and the world.
Let me look at this piece of shit and see what was said. I tap on the screen and bring up the picture. How remarkably cruel. Forty-three comments, fifty likes, twenty laughing icons and only one crying face. I tap to see what these young people said, what Mallory read.
Bro! Your homecoming date?
What were you thinking? Charity begins at home?
She’s hideous!
Fat and ugly…yikes!
Is Bay your bae?
I can never unsee this, Jeff!
I stop reading. It’s too painful. But I start digging into this kid’s Facebook page. I look through his pictures which show a narcissist in the making. He shows no respect for the girls he’s with. His favorite move is to put a hand over their boob when the picture’s taken.
What’s this? Pictures of Atticus. Jeffrey must have grabbed them like Mallory did his. They’re recent because his arm’s in a sling in most.
Then I see it. Like a grown-up version of Jeffrey’s pics, there’s Atticus with his hands over Tanya’s bare breasts, which she’s flashing. They’re laughing by a pool. And in the background is the Atlanta Sheraton Hotel.
The world starts spinning faster for a moment, out of control. The pit of my stomach is doing flips. Am I seeing this? Tears are streaming down my face. How did our world change from the hopeful one we knew this afternoon to this?
Atticus is either the most skillful liar I’ve ever known, or I’m misinterpreting what I’m seeing. Inside my own head I sound like those women who make excuses for their men no matter the transgression. That’s not me.
