Fiction Friday - Deception

Vendella placed her bag gently on the table by the door. She didn't want to disturb Alicia. More like, she didn't want to answer Alicia's questions. Turning back to the door, she pushed it closed, turning the handle to avoid the click as the latch caught.

A big exhale and she moved to cross the short entry in the dark. As she moved, her hip touched the chain strap of her bag where it was resting over the edge of the hall table and the chain started trailing down to the floor, finally pulling the small gold pocketbook down on top of the piled up chain in a rattling, jingly noise followed by a thump. 

"Is that you, V?" Alicia's voice called from the kitchen.

Vendella sighed. Caught to be questioned. She moved to the kitchen doorway and leaned in the arch. "Yep. Back. I tried not to disturb you, but - you're still up?" Avoid questions by becoming the questioner. 

"Yeah, prepping for tomorrow. You remember I'm having Carey and Micah over for dinner?" Carey was the boyfriend, Micah his young son. It was all Alicia had talked about for a week.

"Of course. I thought you'd be getting beauty rest or something." Vendella grinned at her roommate. Alicia was beautiful and knew it. The joke fell flat. Alicia glared and attended to the pyrex bowl on the counter.

"Twenty-four hour marinade. I should've set it up hours ago. So annoying." Alicia was not only beautiful but a perfectionist. Vendella decided to take advantage of her current kitchen obsession and head toward bed.

"Ah. I'll leave you to it. Good night."

She was at the bathroom door when Alicia emerged from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. "You didn't go by his house again, did you?" The dratted question. V closed her eyes, her hand on the bathroom doorknob. Not tonight.

Angling her face back toward Alicia she said, "What if I did?"

"He's married! You have to get over him." It was the same old argument. As soon as V had learned of her recent boyfriend's wife and family, she had broken up with him. That didn't mean she was over him. "Did he let you in? Did you talk to him?"

Always with the interrogation! "Alicia! I dumped him! That was weeks ago, and you know it. If I want to see how he's doing, what is it to you?"

"But -"

Vendella opened the bathroom door and closed it on the rest of Alicia's "but". She had no right to talk. She had the perfect relationship. The least she could have done is acknowledge that by going out on dates with available men, V was trying. If the guy was a dud and she wanted to go remember what she'd lost, it was her own business, wasn't it?

She hadn't even gotten her eye makeup off before the soft tap on the door came. "V? I just worry about this obsession." There was nothing to say to that. "It's not healthy." Of course not. V knew that, but what could she do? "I hope your date tonight was at least okay." A minute later, the sound of Alicia's bedroom door closing came through to the bathroom. 

Vendella sat on the closed lid of the toilet and felt miserable for herself. It wasn't the first time, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. Alicia could never find out that some of the random dates she'd been on lately were still with Mr. Married.

It's FICTION "FRIDAY"!

Every Friday - or a day or 2 later, as you see - I write a new flash fiction piece. If you have a writing prompt you'd like to see turned into a story, just leave it in a comment.