Alysia

My best friend in grade school’s name was Alysia. We met on the asphalt. No one would play with us so we decided to play with each other. On the metal dragon. It was fun to have a friend. Alysia had a mom and a dad. Her mom didn’t work which meant she made dinners for her family every night. Her mom was really fat and her dad was really skinny. I used to wonder what they looked like having sex. Alysia’s mom liked to eat baked potatoes with non-fat cheese, which I had never had before but I thought it was really cool. Alysia’s dad drove a truck so he was gone a lot. I thought truck drivers were poor but Alysia’s family owned a big house so I figured they weren’t. Sometimes when kids were mean to me at school I would go to Alysia’s house and sit with her mom. I would be all casual like “I was just in the neighborhood” but of course it was during the school day so I figure her mom must have known something was wrong. I had so many absences I almost didn’t graduate. But I’m pretty sure no one wants to hold back a kid in middle school, so I did. Once Alysia was leaving the house and her mom made her fix her socks. They weren’t rolled up neatly. Alysia always looked neat. Her hair was long and she wasn’t allowed to cut it. I think she developed an eating disorder later. In high school her mom called me a bad influence as she laughed over her dinner. It made me feel bad. Alysia and I drifted apart but I still see her on Facebook. She married well and smiles big. Her bones are still too big for her body and she still looks like she doesn’t eat. But she looks perfect and happy and I wonder if she is. And if she wanted to, if she would be allowed to cut her hair.