“No, it isn’t.”
Emma sat quietly.
Then she said, “I want to ask him.”
That weekend, Tyler called and asked if he could come over.
Emma agreed, but only after checking that Daniel and I would be home.
Tyler arrived looking nervous.
We sat in the living room. Daniel and I took the couch while Emma and Tyler sat opposite us.
Emma had asked us to stay, but she wanted to speak first.
“Tyler, I need to know something.”
He nodded.
“Did you really think my arms were ugly?”
He looked at the floor.
“No.”
“Then why did you say they looked like a man’s?”
He swallowed.
“Because the guys kept talking about them.”
“You already told me that.”
“I know.”
Emma waited.
Tyler rubbed his palms against his jeans.
“They’ve been messing with me about my skin for a long time. Every time I think they’ve forgotten, somebody starts again.”
He pulled up one sleeve slightly, revealing irritated patches along his forearm.
“I hate when people look at it.”
Emma glanced at his arm.
“So you thought they’d stop teasing you if I shaved mine?”
Tyler nodded.
“I figured if there wasn’t anything else for them to talk about, they’d leave us alone.”
“But they were making fun of you before we even started dating.”
He didn’t answer.
Daniel leaned forward.
“Tyler, can I ask you something?”
“Yes, sir.”
“If Emma told you she was embarrassed to hold your hand because of your skin, how would you feel?”
Tyler’s face reddened.
“Pretty bad.”
“What would you want her to do if her friends made jokes about your arms?”
“Tell them to stop.”
Daniel nodded.
“That’s what I’d want too.”
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Tyler looked at Emma.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She didn’t respond immediately.
“I really am. I didn’t think about how it would make you feel.”
Emma’s voice was quiet.
“You said it was embarrassing to hold my hand.”
“I know.”
“I went home and got my mom’s razor.”
Tyler looked up sharply.
“What?”
“I was going to shave my arms because I thought you wouldn’t like me anymore if I didn’t.”
His eyes filled.
“Emma, I didn’t know.”
“That’s because you didn’t ask what I wanted.”
He wiped his face with his sleeve.
“You’re right.”
Emma glanced at Daniel, then back at Tyler.
“I feel bad about what those boys have been saying to you. Nobody should make you feel gross because of your skin.”
Tyler nodded.
“But you made me feel exactly the same way.”
“I know.”
“And I don’t want to be with somebody who’s embarrassed by me.”
Tyler went still.
“Are you breaking up with me?”
Emma’s eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t look away.
“Yes.”
He lowered his head.
For a moment, I thought he’d argue.
Instead, he said, “Okay.”
He apologized again before leaving.
Emma watched through the window as he walked down the driveway.
Then she turned around and cried.
Daniel opened his arms, and she went straight to him.
“I still like him,” she whispered.
“I know, honey.”
“Then why does breaking up feel so awful?”
“Because making the right decision doesn’t always make it easy.”
I sat beside them.
Emma wiped her cheeks.
“Do you think I was mean?”
“No,” I said. “You were honest about what you need.”
For the next two weeks, Emma was quieter than usual.
She missed Tyler.
Sometimes she wondered whether she’d been too hard on him.
Daniel never told her she was wrong to miss him.
He reminded her that caring about someone didn’t require staying in a relationship that made her feel small.
Then something happened at school.
Emma came home one afternoon and found me folding laundry.
“Mom, Tyler stood up for me today.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“One of the boys from his team made another joke about my arms.”
“What did Tyler do?”
“He told him to knock it off.”
Emma sat on the bed.
“The boy laughed and said Tyler was being sensitive. Tyler told him he’d been a jerk about it too, and he wasn’t doing that anymore.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“Good.”
She thought for a moment.
“And kind of sad.”
“Why?”
“Because I wish he’d said it before I cried in the bathroom.”
I sat beside her.
“That makes sense.”
“I told him thank you.”
“That was kind of you.”
“He asked if we could start over.”
I waited.
“What did you say?”
“I told him I’m glad he stood up for me, but I don’t want to date again.”
“How did he take it?”
“He said he understood.”
She looked down at her bare arms.
“I think he really is trying to be better.”
“He might be.”
“But I don’t have to be his girlfriend to be happy about that.”
“No, sweetheart. You don’t.”
That evening, Daniel found Emma at the kitchen table, working on her art assignment.
She’d decided to draw my portrait after all.
In the picture, I was laughing with my mouth wide open.
Daniel studied it.
“You got your mom’s smile exactly right.”
Emma grinned.
“She used to hide it, you know.”
“I remember.”
She set down her pencil.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you know Tyler was going to tell us about his arms when you invited him to dinner?”
“No. I didn’t know anything about that.”
“Then why were you so calm?”
“Because I knew you were watching how we handled it. I didn’t want you to think loving somebody meant shouting at them until they agreed with you.”
Emma considered that.
“Did you want me to break up with him?”
“I wanted you to know you had a choice.”
“Even if I still liked him?”
“Especially then.”
A few days later, Emma came downstairs wearing a short-sleeved shirt.
She’d worn it before, of course.
But this time, she wasn’t tugging at the sleeves or studying her arms.
She grabbed an apple and headed for the door.
“Love you, Mom.”
“Love you too.”
I watched her leave.
Then I looked at the portrait she’d finished and placed on the refrigerator.
In it, I was laughing without covering my mouth.
And for the first time in weeks, my daughter had walked out of the house without trying to hide any part of herself.
