“Mom why are guys such babies about things?” Frankie is sitting on the small stool in our smaller bathroom. Lyllian is hurriedly brushing her teeth while changing the toilet paper roll and wiping up drips of water around the sink.

“I can’t answer that.” Lyllian mumbles around her toothbrush. She glances at Frankie in the mirror. She has just recently broken up with Archie, her boyfriend of 4 months. She had attempted, like we all have, to still be friends. However she has found, like we all have, that men and women cannot be friends. Just as Harry said. And he was right.

“I wish it could be like it was before. When we hung out and talked about Star Wars and music. Before he decided to notice my boobs.” Frankie grimaces and whips her long caramel hair into a ponytail looking every inch the beautiful young girl she is.

Lyllian eyes her in the mirror with a fond smirk. Her Marvel tee shirt does little to hide her shapeliness and the little cut off jean shorts simply add to her probable appeal to the teenage boys she goes to school with. She shakes her head in amusement. “Honey, you are a beautiful girl. You cannot get away from it. Boys are always going to be angling for more. How can they not? You need to be kind. It gets better and easier.”

Frankie sighs heavily and squints are her reflection. “My hair sucks.” And then she’s off back into her room, the music starting up. A dim hum of Alice In Chains.

Lyllian smiles to herself and glares back into the mirror. Her own dull green eyes are tired and her skin blotchy. Her long dark curls fall into her face and she pushes them back impatiently. There was a time when she turned heads. It was not so long ago and it was not so terrible was it?

Next Chapter: Joe, Battery Park New York, Spring 1940