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Evie stared, wide-eyed, with her eyes fixed on the knife in Sylvia’s hands. She hoped that her own shaking hands weren’t too obvious to her friend. She’d been downright gleeful to have been invited to stay the night and when Sylvia had brought out her mother sewing kit, a lemon, a kitchen knife, and a devious smile, she’d known things were about to get weird.
“This is a bad idea,” Evie said, wringing her hands, as she stared at her friend, Sylvia, standing above her.
“Oh, quit your whining, it’ll be great,” Sylvia murmured as she blew a pink bubble from her gum, though Evie knew she wasn’t really paying attention to her concerns.
She watched the tendons in her wrist bulge slightly as Sylvia pressed the silver edge of the knife into the lemon. She shook slightly as the tiniest bit of juice squirted upwards as the metal burst the acidic bubbles embedded in the skin.
“What’s the lemon for again?” She asked as she desperately tried to quell her quivering voice.
“God, I’ve already explained this to you twice,” Sylvia said, rolling her eyes and popping her gum as she paused her cutting.
“Sorry, I just forgot-” She tried to apologize.
“Look, this is the last time I’m telling ya. We take these lemon slices.” She held one of her newly cut slices up. “We hold these behind your ear so it’ll catch the needle when we put it through. Then we actually push the needle through and then we can put in the earrings we got for this.”
She hadn’t been sure about this when she’d asked her mother about getting her ears pierced she’d been given a hard no. She never thought about disobeying her mother she didn’t listen to most things Father Raymond said but she never questioned when he told them to obey their parents. “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” Colossians 3:20. She liked to please, whether it be God, her mother, or Syliva, she needed to please. Yet, she hummed her approval as she let her eyes wander around the room.
She tried not to focus on the guilt bubbling in her stomach. Fixing her eyes on the sheer curtains and the way which they billowed slightly as they filled with the breeze which blew through the half-opened windows above Sylvia’s bed. She’d tried to focus on the pulled threads of the quilt laid out on the floor and not to the words her mind kept repeating. “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John 1:9.
There’s nothing to confess , she reminded herself, picking at the skin around her nail as she watched Sylvia pick up the final things she’d need to pierce her ears, you’re the only girl in the grade without their ears pierced. If anything, mom should be the one apologizing to me for not letting me get them done sooner.
“Ready?” Sylvia asked, bending down in front of her.
“Yeah.” She watched the way the orange glow of the lamp glinted across the jewels hanging from Sylvia’s ears.
“It shouldn’t hurt for long, just a pinch then some aching for a few days.” She shivered slightly as Sylvia pressed the lemon wedge behind her ear.
Her eyes were fixed on the glinting needle as it came closer and closer to her ear.
“Deep breath in, and out,” Sylvia said as she lined up the needle, “and in, and out.”
Fuck, Evie thought as she felt the pinch in her right ear, These better look amazing .
The cool metal stung slightly against the new opening of her ear. It was a simple jewel, cubic zirconium, but it would look like diamond to the untrained eye of the 6th-grade girls’ locker room. They were better than she could have ever imagined. She loved the way they caught the light and the simple sophisticated air they gave her.
Still, she couldn’t seem to shake the feeling settling in the back of her throat. She heard what her mind was telling her. “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” Ephesians 5:6. So, as she stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, she smiled, uncertain but loving her jewels.