Sighing, she nodded towards the door. “How about we hit Boots for a mini shopping spree and then have a hot chocolate before we go home?”
Interest lit Bella’s eyes even though she still looked wary. “A mini shopping spree?”
“I think you could use a new lipstick,” Lucy said easily. And preferably not one she suspected Bella had shoplifted. “Maybe in a slightly more subtle shade, something your father wouldn’t mind you wearing out of the house?”
“He hates everything I wear,” Bella answered with a shrug. “Everything I do.”
Lucy chose to let that one go and they headed back out to Lowther Street.
She bought Bella a lip gloss in a neutral shade and some purple eye shadow, and then they headed over to a café that promised bowl-sized cups of hot chocolate with lashings of whipped cream.
Seated across from Bella as she slurped a spoonful of whipped cream, Lucy wondered what on earth they would talk about now.
Bella surprised her by asking her suddenly, “Why were you bullied in school?”
Lucy licked her spoon clean before stirring her hot chocolate with it. “Well, surprisingly, it also had to do with boobs. Well, boob singular, actually.”
Bella let out a snort of incredulous laughter. “What do you mean?”
“My mother is an artist. Modern stuff, very cutting-edge, or so everyone says. She made a giant sculpture of a boob and it was displayed in a public park in Boston. It was a huge deal, in the newspapers, everything. And on the first day of seventh grade I was nicknamed Boob Girl.”
Bella didn’t laugh, much to Lucy’s surprise. She’d been speaking lightly, inviting her to share the joke, even though the memory still stung, perhaps because her motherstillhad the power to make her life miserable.
“That sucks,” Bella said after a moment. She slurped a spoonful of whipped cream from her hot chocolate. “Didn’t she know how it would affect you?”
“I don’t really think she thought about it.”
“Did you tell her?”
“I tried. I asked to change schools actually, because you know, the damage had already been done. Even if the sculpture had been removed, which it was eventually, I’d still be called Boob Girl.”
Bella nodded wisely. “Yeah, you would have been.”
“So I thought changing schools might help, although in retrospect I don’t think it would have. Kids would have still known about the sculpture.”
“So what happened?”
“Well, my mother refused to let me change schools, because she said I shouldn’t care what small-minded people thought.” Bella rolled her eyes, and Lucy smiled. “I pretty much had the same reaction. And it did go away eventually. The sculpture as well as the teasing.”
“You mean people stopped calling you that?”
“Yes, after a while.”
Bella slowly stirred her drink. “Do you think people will stop teasing me?” she asked in a low voice, her head lowered. Lucy had the sudden motherly urge to tuck her hair behind her ear. Thank goodness she resisted. She didn’t want to care about this girl, didn’t want to care about whether Bella cared about her, but already she felt her resolve to stay disinterested and uninvolved slipping.
“Yes, definitely,” she said, “although I can’t promise it will happen tomorrow, or even next week. But bullies get tired of making the same lame joke over and over, trust me. And sadly, they usually just move on to someone else.”
“As long as it’s not me.”
“Well, you could stand up to them,” Lucy suggested. “I know it’s not easy, but I realize now that bullies are actually secret cowards. They can dish it out, but they can’t take it. So if youact like you don’t care, like you think they’re the pathetic ones for making their lame jokes, you might be surprised at how they scurry back to their holes.” She’d tried to act as if she hadn’t cared, had kept smiling even when everything inside her had heaved with misery. And while they hadn’t preciselyscurried, the bullies had left her alone eventually.
Bella didn’t seem to agree. She shook her head, licking whipped cream off her spoon. “I don’t think they would.”
“You don’t know unless you try. And if you’re already being bullied, it’s not like you have a lot to lose.”
Bella stared down at her hot chocolate again. “I wish I hadn’t been bullied in the first place,” she said in a low voice. “I wish my stupid mum had bought me a stupid bra.”
Unthinkingly, wanting only to comfort Bella when she was so obviously hurting, Lucy reached over and covered the girl’s hand with her own. After barely a second, Bella yanked her hand away. “I’m sorry,” Lucy said quietly. “You must miss your mum a lot.”
