𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐄| Rue Bennett

v. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧

"Jesus fucking christ." Rue gapped as Lydia opened the door, the large, ridiculously massive more so, house right outside of town taking her by surprise. Not that she thought Lydia was poor, but compared to the tiny apartments her and her mom lived in, this was extremely shocking.

"That's what I said." Lydia exhaled, dropping her bag onto the counter. "Are you hungry?"

"Ugh..." Rue pulled a pursed lipped face. "Yeah."

"Pizza rolls?" Lydia suggested her way.

"Okay." Rue hummed, feeling like she stuck out like a sore thumb in the bright lights, the shiny countertops, bar stools that were lined in gold. "Like, what does your dad do?"

"Oh, he doesn't make the money." Lydia laughed as she spread them onto a plate. "My step mom, Annette, she's a plastic surgeon."

"Oh, shit." Rue almost laughed. "Is she, like, good?"

Lydia pulled her hair back, removing the earrings from earlier. "Feel."

"What?" Rue gave an odd look.

"Feel my earlobe." Lydia encouraged her with a faint laugh.

Rue had to laugh in return. "Um, okay."

She delicately felt Lydias earlobe, confused as to what she was doing. "...nice."

"It's not real." Lydia pulled back, dropping her hair and taking out her other earring. "She did it for me."

"I didn't know plastic surgery for earlobe was a thing." Rue spoke, looking to the earnings that Lydia dropped onto the counter and turned to the microwave.

Don't do it, Rue.

"Well, I guess it's usually not. But, after the accident, I kinda..." Lydia trialed off, looking for the words. "I got into a bad habit of yanking on my earlobes."

Rue nodded as Lydia exhaled. "And, one night, I was just really having a hard time and I just...snipped it off."

"You cut off your earlobe?" Rue gapped, finding it unexpected and shocking.

"Bad headspace." Lydia nodded with a sad smile, the microwave spinning as background noise. "But, it was months ago. I moved past that part."

Rue hesitated. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Lydia said in return, turning to the microwave when it beeped. "Thanks, though."

"Yeah, of course." Rue gave her a minor, sad smile as Lydia pulled the hot plate out. "Can I ask you something about it?"

She wanted to say no. "Okay."

"Did anyone you know die?" Rue almost whispered, like it was a bad word that you needed to keep quiet to avoid your parents hearing.

"Yes." Lydia blinked as Rue stared into her eyes. "I knew them all, we just didn't talk, not really. But...I had this teacher."

She stopped to take a breath, her stomach was getting hot and her heart beat picked up. "I didn't really...have any friends, so i'd eat lunch with her in her classroom. She was killed."