I'm not even sure why I consider Luna my friend. Objectively speaking, we aren't very close. We haven't known each other for a long time. We're often kind of awkward around each other. But it's a feeling, you know what I mean? Like, on some level we connect. We're both lonely kids who don't fit in. When I'm around her, I feel like I can be me.
Around my parents I am always pretending. When I talk to my mother I pretend everything's fine and normal between us, I pretend not to mind when she calls me Jackie, and I pretend not to mind when she says that no matter what I'll always be her little girl. I pretend not to mind any of that but really I mind it all a lot. My dad is easier to be around but I think he's pretending too, pretending like everything went back to normal between me and my mom after the fight and that it's all going to be okay, and I think he just doesn't want to see who I am now.
Around Luna I don't have to pretend. She calls me Jack. Erin and my dad are the only other people in the world who always remember to call me Jack instead of Jackie. I know that doesn't seem like much but names are really important to how you see yourself.
Luna and I aren't best friends yet or anything but we might be.
And we are real friends.
Whether our parents made us be friends or not.
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