Lucy
Lucy (Opening to this story appeared as a writing inspiration on Blue Monster)
Lucy put down the phone and looked at her reflection, she sighed, as always she had a smattering of red sore looking spots, oh well. Justin had still asked her out and would be picking her up about seven. It was now five and she hadn’t even showered. She hurriedly rushed off to the bathroom to become presentable. Her stomach gave a flip as she thought about it. A first date! Was it even a date?
What actually counted as a date? Never mind, she thought, it’s still something. Should she wear lipstick? Should she wear a dress or jeans? So many things to think about. She had never considered that meeting up with someone she saw every day at school could be so hard.
She sighed and opened her wardrobe door. How could it be so full and yet she have nothing she could ware, frowning she selected pale blue jeans fitted at the top and flaring into a slight boot cut at the bottom. A white fitted top with a sparkling star pattern and the blue stone necklace her mother had bought her for her sixteenth. She knew it wasn’t a precious stone but the way the clear turquoise and milky blue blended together seemed so lovely.
She got dressed and applied some make up squinting critically at the mirror and sighed – it always made her face look so… well heavy and on top of that it looked like her hair was going to dry frizzy. She did the best she could and then sat and stared at the clock, time seemed to be going extra slow just to wind her up.
Eventually it was time. She stood at the front door trying not to be nervous, her hands were slick with sweat. But the bell didn’t ring, and now he was late, ten minutes, fifteen, should she phone his house?
Half past and she picked the phone up but a wave of doubt hit her, what if he had just been joking? Winding her up? If she phoned then she would be a laughing stock the next day at school but what if she’d been supposed to go round there and he thought she was standing him up?
She decided she would just pretend she was phoning about homework or something. ‘Hello?’ came a cool female voice.
‘Erm is Justin there?’ she asked trying not to sound too eager.
‘No he’s gone to his friends house.’
‘Oh which one?’ Lucy asked sadly.
‘Lucy Edwards I think.’
Lucy panicked, ‘but he’s not here!’ she wailed.
‘Are you Lucy?’ asked the woman who was probably Justin’s mother.
‘Yes’
‘He said he was meeting you at 7 at you’re house?’ there was an edge to the woman’s words.
‘That’s what I thought but it’s nearly 8 now!’ she paused, ‘I’ll get my dad to take me out and check the lanes!’
‘Ok let me know when you’ve found him please? I let him with my mobile I don’t understand why he hasn’t called.’
She promised she would and then she assembled the search party, brother and Dad and her, mum was maning the fort incase Justin found his way there whilst they were out. It was raining and the driveway was a mud slick, they headed out in the old truck, Lucy wondered briefly if he was using her as a cover story to go and see some banned friends or something but then it would have been stupid of him not to tell her.
And then they saw him, soaked to the bone and wandering down their lane. Lucy hoped out and jogged to him, mascara running she embraced him in relief. ‘Thank God we were so worried!’
‘My car broke down,’ he said his teeth clinking together with cold. Her Dad wrapped him in a blanket and made her bother ride in the back.
‘Shame you didn’t have one of those new fangled mobile phones on you,’ her Dad said much to her embarrassment.
‘I did but there’s no reception here.’ Her Dad made a hurmph noise but said no more.
Shyly Lucy bought him a cup of tea, he was in a set of her brothers spare clothing, ‘are you ok?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, my Mum is going to kill me though!’
‘Erm… she’s coming to get you in half an hour,’ Lucy confessed.
‘What?!’
‘Well I phoned your house, you were an hour late and she made me promise to phone when we found you.’
He seemed to slump, ‘some date this turned out to be sorry Lucy.’
A warm feeling spread out within her and she smiled, ‘what about tomorrow straight after school?’
He grinned back and nodded, ‘less chance for stuff going wrong I suppose!’ She sat next to him feeling the warmth of him returning. What would she tell the girls at school tomorrow?
Posted: Thursday, August 16th, 2012 @ 11:33 am
Categories: Flash Fiction.
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