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Julie scoffs. “Are you kidding me?” Her hands rest on her hips, staring at Alex, Luke, and Reggie.
The boys stared at her from the couch, unmoving, like kicked puppies. They didn’t know what they had done wrong, so they were taking what Julie said as it came. Video controllers rest on the coffee table, the loading screen letting out faint cheery music in the background. “I needed you, I watched—” She lets out a half sob. “My mom just died,” She whispers. “And you’re here playing video games???” She yanks the T.V. chord from the wall, ending the game. The boys all groan, mentally. All that progress– gone.
Julie stares at them for a moment, just processing everything. Then, in a blind rage, she pulls Luke’s acoustic from its hanging mount on the wall and swings it over her head like a baseball bat, preparing to swing it against the ground.
“Huh? Does this get your attention?”
Luke stands up, panicking, mumbling, trying to get her to stop. Alex and Reggie are in shock on the couch. Luke knows she's angry, knows she needs help but doesn’t know how to stop her. Doesn’t know how to save his guitar. And he hates himself for the way that he’s thinking.
“I texted and I called—”
Luke sticks his hands out, interrupting her, pulling the breaks. “I’m sorry! Okay, you’re not the center of the universe!” His guitar is still in the balance, and he regrets his words as the guitar moves forward, towards the ground, a little bit, and her hands shake with rage.
“How would you feel if your mom died?” Julie bites. “Oh wait— you don’t give a shit about her,” Luke pinches himself, trying to keep a retort inside. It hurts, but that doesn’t mean he needs to hurt her back while she’s hurting. “You give more of a shit about your guitar, so if I smash it, maybe you’ll actually give a shit about me!” She screams, breathing heavily, tears pouring down her face.
“Julie…” Alex pleads, and it's like a switch flips inside her. She looks at him holding eye contact, and he watches her walls break down, sees the scared girl that’s just in pain, and letting it out however she can.
She sniffs and puts the guitar back. “Fuck you.” The boys are shocked, Julie doesn’t curse, ever, let alone three times within minutes of each other. “You’re just a disappointment to me.” Consciously, she doesn’t think about it when she looks at Reggie as she speaks, but it hits hard on the boy. He crawls inside himself and puts the walls that took so long to come down back up.
Julie brushes past Luke, hitting his shoulder. She feels his eyes– their eyes staring into her, but she doesn’t turn around as she says “Don’t do anything different. Leave me alone, you were doing fine at that before,” And the garage door slams behind her, echoing in the silent room. And she realizes that letting it all out— all the pain, rage, suffering —has never felt worse.