Chapter Text
Lidia wakes to a ringing phone. She figures it must be Mateo, calling her from outside her apartment, asking to be let in. She’s filled with relief, as the last few days have been agonizing having to take care of Penny alone. But then the cruel hand of reality slaps her. Mateo has been dead for 3 weeks. She hasn’t even had time to grieve, as the life of a mother never ceases. The Plutos have absorbed her into their solar system of trust, helping with Penny when they can, but she knows they silently resent Mateo, and thus her, because it was Mateo’s voice that Rufus was listening to as he was run over. The irony was not lost on the public that it was Last Friend’s creator that ended the life of a Decker who used her app. She rubs her hand against her face and looks over to her phone on the nightstand. The Caller ID reads death cast. Lidia’s body goes rigid with fear, but because her life is over before it got to begin. What will happen to Penny, motherless and abandoned. She deserves so much better than the pathetic teen mom who died in some terrible accident. With trembling hands Lidia answers the phone. “As is death cast protocol, the death of any minor should be reported to the legal guardian, rather than the child themselves. I, Julia, am calling on behalf of your daughter Penny. We are so sorry to lose her. Firstly, I’d like to discuss funeral arrangements-“ before the woman can finish, Lidia hangs up. She lays back down, covers her face with her blanket, and starts to cry. She wants more than anything to go back to sleep, and wake up from this nightmare. None of this can possibly be real after all. No, when this terrible dream ends, she’ll be awoken by Christian presenting breakfast in bed, Mateo in the living room distracting Penny. She would do anything to make this fantasy a reality, but she knows it’s impossible. Before her mind can even begin trying to deny what she’s just heard, Penny begins to cry. Lidia rips her blanket off of her, and dashes across the hallway. She slides in the socks she hasn’t changed for at least a week towards the living room, where she finds Penny reaching through the bars of her prison crib towards the elephant she’s obviously tossed out herself. Lidia lets out a long exhale, not realizing she had been holding her breath. She figures she’ll be holding her breath this entire day.