Good morning everyone. Are you ready for the midweek prompt? Not quite sure I am as I could use at least a few more hours of sleep but I am sure I will feel more like writing once I start. So, timers ready and off we go.
You know, I really like this. And I think I might add a few more minutes on the timer just to see where it is going.
Wednesday, January 14th: She avoided making eye contact.
She avoided making eye contact. She knew it would be seen as a challenge to Andra’s leadership. She was the uncontested leader of their group. Not for the first time Lucy wondered why she was a part of the group.
‘Habit I suppose,’ she decided. She nodded slightly to let Ambra know she was listening. She had known every girl in this room since preschool. They all went to the same schools, were in the same clubs and had the same activities list. Their parents all ran in the same circle and had since they were children as well.
‘I suppose some habits are inherited,’ Lucy thought.
Ambra finished. “Well what do you think of my plan?” she asked.
Lucy nodded and smiled with the rest. She said the appropriate things and Ambra, as well as the others looked happy. All was well in their world. Lucy followed along. Now that the plan was set for the upcoming charity fundraiser, they started chatting about who was wearing what, making sure there were no overlaps or competitions in colors or designers.
Lucy played her part knowing that her dress was already hanging in her closet and fell within acceptable parameters. Her step-mother Lila went with her to pick it out a few days prior. While Lila was her step mother, Lucy’s own mother died shortly after she was born. She and Lila got along well and there was nothing wicked about her even if they didn’t always see eye to eye.
Lila grew up in the same crowd as her father and they thought in the same pattern a all the others. Even growing up in this group there were moments when Lucy felt out of step with the others. She learned to mask it but recently that slightly off note had been sounding more and more inside of her. It was why she asked Lila to go with her to help her pick out a dress.
Lila loved shopping and was delighted to be asked, mostly so she could report back to her friends that even though she was a step, they were close. It seemed to be something that needed to be repeated within their group. Since Lucy thought of her as the only mother she ever knew, she thought it was strange, but that was just one of her many off step moments.
She asked Lila to help with the dress because lately she seemed to be veering more and more off track. Things that she knew wouldn’t be right for her social circle kept appealing to her more and more. She even found herself eyeing a dress and wanting terribly to choose it when ever part of her knew it shouldn’t be worn at the event.
There were other impulses cropping up as well. She had always had them, but they were small one off sort of things that were easily left behind. Now, there were more and they seemed more demanding. Worse, something inside her made her feel that if she ignored them for too long, something bad would happen.
She didn’t know what and most of the time she was able to laugh off the feeling. Like the number of odd impulses the thought was harder to shake. She kept busy to keep the thought away. She focused on her studies, less for the sake of knowledge and more for the distraction. As a result her grades were far better than ever before. Needing the distraction she hadn’t slacked off on any of her social commitments either so no one noticed her improved grades and commented.
But something had to give. She felt as though she was constantly on edge, waiting for that other shoe to drop. That moment when the something bad her guts said was coming arrived. She could almost feel it drawing nearer.
Ten til Midnight 