Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter Nine

Waking up alone was one thing Carmen had always hated. She had avoided it in every way possible, from keeping Trent by her side, to lying to Sienna and telling her that her mother was going away for the weekend and could she stay with them, to sleeping on her siblings floors. Other children had parents to check on them in the night. Those children were never really alone. They were always on somebody’s conscience. But not Carmen. The maids retired at 8:00 most nights. Her mother would not waste her time. For Carmen it was out of sight, out of mind. And nobody likes to be forgotten.

Carmen pushed herself up and the blood quickly drained from her head leaving her with a stabbing headache. The bathroom floor had taken its toll on her muscles too. It took a few moments to register the exact context of the bathroom. It was the Essex’s bathroom. The third floor bathroom at their Manly house. What was she doing here? Groaning she brought herself to her feet.

Instinctively Carmen looked at her reflection in the mirror to see if she looked just as disgusting as she felt. But it wasn’t her gaunt white complexion or the big sullen bags under her eyes or the streaks of black running down her cheeks that caught her eyes. It was the word that was written across her forehead in capital letters in bold black marker pen.

“W-H-O-R-E.” Carmen sounded it out and traced every letter of it. Even though she knew the word. She knew she knew the word. There was something weird about it. Maybe the fact that it was written on her forehead. Maybe the fact that she didn’t remember it being written on her forehead.

Carmen saw her own puzzled expression in the mirror. She held her glance with her own hollow black eyes in the mirror. They knew everything. And just like that they handed her the memories of the night before.

Carmen turned her head away in revolt. It couldn’t be true. But her fingers were still circling the writing on her forehead.

On Monday morning Carmen checked her phone again. Trent hadn’t answered her message or her second. Trent usually responded to Carmen like he just spent his whole life on standby for her. Carmen pushed her phone along the breakfast bench suddenly frustrated with it and it slid right off the end. She was done with it anyway.

Carmen decided that she would just have to hunt Trent down in person if he wasn’t checking his phone.

Carmen let herself into his apartment. She raced up the stairs and made her way to Trent’s bedroom and then to the bathroom. He was brushing his teeth, a towel wrapped around his hips. When Trent saw her he raised his eyebrows alarmed.

“What are you doing here?” He spat into the sink and wiped his mouth with his wrist.

“Why didn’t you reply to my messages?” She kept a few steps away when she wanted to be straight with him because she’d learnt in math that the angle of elevation and depression between two heights can be lowered if the distance between them is extended.

“Why do you think?” He hit his own head. Did it not even occur to her that he’d be slightly upset with her?

“I don’t know… Because you’re stupid.” Carmen said it with such legitimacy that Trent found himself smirking. But he caught himself out and reminded himself that he was kind of pissed off at her.

“Because you’re a whore.” He pushed past her on his way to his bedroom to get changed. Carmen caught the edge of the towel between her fingers as she did and easily pulled it off his body. Trent was a few paces away before he realized.

“That’s not funny Carmen.” He tried to be stern but being naked didn’t really help. Carmen just laughed and dropped the towel over the banister.