I am the Skeleton in the Closet

Attention

Erica and I had a mutual friend named Sarah. Erica had introduced us towards the end of my sophomore year in high school. Sarah had the body that all teenage boys wanted in their lives. She would frequently wear a plaid button up shirt that was tight enough on her for the third button from the top to burst frequently, yet she refused to get a bigger shirt size. She would apply twenty layers of makeup as soon as she got to school so half the time if you were looking for her she would be in the bathroom applying more. She wore wire framed glasses but unlike most people it actually suited her. Her hair was about my hairs color of blonde and it was almost always either tucked back in a ponytail or down and crimped. She had a flamboyant personality that was often off the wall with spunk. We had the kind of relationship that gal pals have where we could have definitely been mistaken for lesbians on numerous occasions. Sarah always liked making people green with envy, including Eric. Every so often we would send him a picture of us that made us seem a little too close. I hung out with her more than Erica did by far and I did my best to spend time and, more importantly, my money on her so she'd have every reason to stay.

"What are you doing tonight?" She'd ask me at school after grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the group.

"I don't know why?"

"Wanna have a sleepover or something?"

"Sure, we should invite Erica." I offered.

"I already asked her, she said she was busy." She quickly answered. "We can figure out the details later. I gotta go to the bathroom." She made a heart towards me and blew a kiss then skipped off to the bathroom.

When we'd have sleepovers we'd go to the nearest grocery store for some snacks, then head to my house where she would tell me about her life. She had just moved to the area, used to live in Florida. Big change from there to Michigan. She had never seen snow before so when it started falling we went out and got her some snow pants so we could make snowmen and have snowball fights. She was living with her uncle currently as he was the only family member of hers in Michigan.

"My mom is just not someone I can live with." She told me. "She used to beat me with a spoon and tell me about how ugly and fat I was. Or am." She'd always tack on at the end.

To which I would always reply. "What? You're not fat though, you're literally skinnier than me." Then she would just change the subject with a smile.

"I just really had to get out of there. Lots of bad stuff." She'd trail off.

"Like what?" I'd fall for it.

"My ex boyfriend. He would rape me a lot. Morning, afternoon, and night. All day everyday. He used to come up to me during lunch at school and make me give it to him behind the bleachers." She continued.

"What the fuck man? What an ass wipe."

"He got me pregnant once. I had to abort it. Just didn't want to bring that into the world. He beat me too for a while. I got super depressed, the scars I have all over my thighs."

Seems a little too eager to tell me things. I'm not sure how well I believe her. "Damn..." I'd play along. She seems like a really good friend and she definitely likes me, but some things are not right about this.

The next day I texted Erica. Hey I know you've been busy with theater but we should hang out again soon. It's been so long.

I've been free you just haven't been asking. She retorted with malice in her tone.

Wait.. What?

I've been free. You've just been busy hanging out with Sarah.

She's been telling me you were busy. Wait how long have you been free from theater?