II - Lucy the Goth Girl

I looked out the window. I had expected Gerard to run to me in the airport and confess his love for me again. Nothing like that ever happened in reality. I had already cried enough tears yesterday after Gerard left.

The numbness began ever since I woke up this morning. I wanted to run to Gerard’s house and say that it’s all a misunderstanding, and take him back.

Gerard was my best friend. He was there to lend a shoulder to cry on, when my mother had died when we were both fourteen. He was the only one who had comforted me when our schoolmates teased me about being a freak who is obsessed over a Scottish myth. He was the only person who could truly cheer me up.

He was the one who dare lie, just to make me stay back with him.

No! I’m not going to let Gerard stop me from searching!

If Gerard loved me, he would have accompanied me on this flight. He would have helped me search for the Loch Ness Monster. Or he would have broken up with Ellen. The least he could do was support me and my decision.

The fact that I’m never going to see Gerard Ross again, hits me.

As soon as I had, had my breakfast, I took a cab to the airport. Now here I am, sitting next to the window of an airplane on my way to Scotland. My neighbor happens to be a gothic teenager. I cringe slightly every time she looks at me. She has a piercing on her nose and another on her tongue. Which I see whenever she opens her mouth. Her straight black hair is like curtains, covering half of her face. I can see a small tattoo of a dragon on her wrist. Her attire is all black in color. She has the eyes the shape of black holes that could suck my soul out of my body. Maybe I’m being too dramatic.

“Do you want some?” the gothic girl asks, showing me a packet of chewing gum. I realize that she has been chewing the same gum since the plane took off.

I grimace inwardly at how loudly she chews. I notice a few senior citizens in hearing range, glaring at her for disturbing their nap.

“No, thank you,” I decline politely.

She raises an eyebrow and pops a new gum into her mouth. “Whatever. It’s your loss anyway.”

I turn back to see the dark sky out my window. I want to sleep so badly, to escape reality for just awhile. No matter how much I try going back to sleep, my body refuses to shut down.

“So… what is your name?” Goth girl asks. I am shocked when her question is directed at me. It is as if she wants to make a decent conversation with me.

“Kaya. What about you?” I ask.

“The name’s Lucy.”

You don’t look like a Lucy at all, my mind comments. “Nice to meet you, Lucy.”

“Where are you from?” Goth Girl – Lucy – asks. I resist the urge to sigh out loud in annoyance. I prefered to quietly wallow in my misery until the plane lands, than to speak to someone who looks like the Italian mafias are after her.

“I’m from London, UK. What about you?”

She grins at me. Somehow, whenever she grins, she looks slightly younger and yet scarier. To my relief, her teeth conceal her pierced tongue whenever she grins. When she eats, however…

“Chicago, US. My mom has this crazy idea of sending me to my distant Scottish uncle and cousins, thinking that I can adapt to the surrounding or whatever that means. Just because I’m a goth doesn’t mean I’m different from others right?” Lucy rants, rolling her eyes.

“Err –” I have no idea what to say right now.

“One thing led to another. She told me how teenagers are ‘curious’ about sex and stuff like that. As if she thinks that I’m a whore. Can you believe that? My own mother!”

“She’s… wrong?” I comment, almost questioningly.

“Exactly! I’m just different. I mean, everyone is different in many ways, right? They’re just meant to be! If she can’t stand me, she should just send me away to boarding school or something. But no! My uncle managed to make up her mind about sending me to Scotland instead. I swear I’m going to throttle him once I see him.”

Lucy is right. Not about the boarding school part and the rest. She’s right about being comfortable with whoever you want to be. Gerard has no right to tell me who I’m supposed to be. No one is supposed to tell me who I should be. Only I alone can do so.

Who knew a goth can give such an inspirational speech?

“Anyway, what are you going to do in Scotland?” she asks, remembering that I’m listening.

I lean back as I answer softly, “I’m going to search for the Loch Ness Monster.”

Lucy looks at me strangely. I look out of the window, knowing that she’s going to judge me and not going to talk to me for the rest of the trip. After all, she’s sitting next to a lunatic. 

I take out my phone and start to play with Flappy Bird, just to avoid Lucy’s gaze.

“May I join you?” she asks, startling me.

I snap my head at her and look at her as if she grew another four heads. “Join me?”

My distraction causes me to lose the first game. I didn’t even earn one point!

She shrugs. “Why not? At least I have something else to do other than staying with my distant Scottish family who does not seem to have a liking for me. Might as well do something crazy to kill time.”

I feel offended by her words. She wants to join me just to kill time. It would be nice to have a company though. “Sure, I guess…”

Lucy grins at me. “Great, now let me call my mom and piss her off. This will surely be a kick in the ass for her.”

Heavens, what have I just gotten myself into?