Glasses Phillips 40

Glasses Phillips 40 was a freak. We all knew it and I think she did too. Nobody knew where that name came from, but everybody called her like that. It seamed that she did not mind. She lived with her parents in a stinky apartment near the park. She was not very intelligent, and she wore shabby, dirty clothes –usually big, old, pink sweaters– and she used to hang out with her oily hair, her big glasses and her big teeth.

On the other hand, Susana and I were pretty, she was thirteen years old and I was seven. We both had freckles and said dirty words; we were cool. Every Saturday I used to go and visit her at her place. She lived in a huge apartment on the third floor of a really old building made out of wood. It was so old you could peek into others’ apartments through the cracks of the floor. Her apartment used to stink too, but she didn’t mind beating up the guys around the neighborhood and that was cool.

After hanging out at her place we used to go around the city, buying candies, playing soccer and telling each other stories that were not true. It wasn’t until we got bored that we would then look for Glasses Phillips 40. We rang her bell and she would come down smiling, always grateful that we remembered to hang out with her.

But we just wanted to make fun of her in ways that she didn’t notice or at least we thought she didn’t. We made fun of her stinky house and her appearance in front of her. We told her that some pretty guy she was in love with loved her too and we convinced her to tell him that she loved him. She did, and we laughed. We made her play soccer without her glasses to see her fall. She paid for all the candies because it was an honor to be one of our friends. One day – I don’t remember what we had done – she cried and screamed, and said something about how cruel we were. We made fun of that too, of course.

Few years later I moved to another city and I became a nerd myself. I didn’t know how to dress up or how to comb my hair like everybody else. My parents were not as cool as other parents and my place was never good enough. Anyways, one day I was invited to a pool party, I was excited. I went with my mom to buy a swimming suit for the occasion and I was eager for the day to arrive. I was stood up by my friends. I cried. I thought that everybody was making fun of me. I felt like Glasses Phillips 40 myself.