Teenage Dream
The doors slide open before her and she enters the fortress of solitude. She fumbles in her handbag, pausing at the entrance until her fingertips meet overpriced plastic, plucking from the depths a pair of bejewelled sunglasses; she places them delicately upon the tip of her slightly freckled nose. The colour's were too bright in here, offending her eyes with their brash cheerfulness.
She slipped out of her torturous footwear, carelessly leaving them laying on their sides, abandoned. Her feet padded softly on the carpet, toes sinking into the thick ply. Her foot met with the first stair before she was stopped with a startled exclamation.
"Darling, I didn't expect you back so soon…"
She raised her eyebrow wryly as she contemplated her mother through the brown tinged filter of her glasses. It was like a picture from a teenage spread, only with older occupants. Her mother sat upon the couch, lipstick slightly smudged and a few strands of hair gone astray. The man beside her self-consciously settled his tie, attempting to appear nonchalant.
"Clearly…"
Her mother has the sense to colour slightly at this, a slight pink tinge that spread on her cheeks like soft rouge.
"Did you have a nice time?" the man rescues her mother with a placating question, eyes piercing her to the spot, like a butterfly caught on a pin.
She actually considers the question, pausing as her mind flittered to a beach, a boy and a break. She contemplates seriously flipping hi the bird and seeing what he did with that particular morsel. Instead she allows her shoulders to rise and fall, a non-committal gestures.
"All right," mumbles with numb lips.
Surprisingly she finds herself fighting those same lips from trembling, desperately holding back stinging water threatening to spill from her shaded eyes.
There is an awkward pause, adults desperately searching for some other social nicety to throw into the air, for fear she would burst forth with something real. She doesn't wait, dismissing herself she turns and concentrates on climbing that steep staircase. She can almost feel the relief of her departure waft up from downstairs.