My Friends

It’s a couple days before Easter, and Louisa, a teenager, is at a fancy art auction where she feels out of place. Louisa thinks that rich people are hypocrites—they like buying old art dedicated to God but don’t seem to have much interest in God beyond that, even though it’s so close to Easter. In fact, Louisa has snuck into the auction through a window to sabotage it, bringing with her a backpack full of cans of spray paint. She is a graffiti artist. Louisa wishes she could be shorter and skinnier so that she’d be less noticeable and also braver so that she wouldn’t be nervous all the time. But despite her nerves, none of the adults at the auction seem to even notice her.

A woman comes out of the bathroom and says it has been vandalized with graffiti. The other people at the auction begin to argue whether it’s actually vandalism or part of the exhibition. Louisa listens and is angry at how they think of everything in terms of money.

The auction continues, moving on to a painting called The One of the Sea by an artist named C. Jat, supposedly his first paining from when he was a 14-year-old prodigy. Louisa once again listens angrily as everyone talks about how much the painting is worth. In addition to the spray cans in her backpack, Louisa also has an old postcard signed “See you soon. —Mom.”

Louisa thinks of Fish, her friend from the group foster home who was good at breaking into places but bad at getting out. Fish and Louisa gave each other tattoos, and Fish always used to make her laugh. Louisa is still 17, but when Fish turned 18, she had to move out of the home. Fish got into drugs, which Louisa tried but was not as addicted to. Three weeks ago, Fish died, supposedly by suicide, although Louisa doesn’t believe the adults who told her that. Louisa is still young and feels alone in the world, which is why paintings feel so meaningful to her as an escape.