Purity

Fluttering Eyelashes

She stood beside the kitchen slab, laying one arm flat on the surface to bolster up the rest of her frail body. Her face was turned towards the open window. A cool, gentle breeze blew outside which she periodically felt brushing up against her soft, white skin. She stood still, no sign of movement in any part of her body, as if a lifeless mannequin. Her eyes were fastened in the direction of the bushes in the front lawn. Contrary to their appearance during the day, the bushes had acquired an odd, dull green color in the hours of the night. Almost as if the uncanniness of the night had sucked away their otherwise lush, bright green color.

There was something in the essence of the darkness that made her momentarily uncomfortable. For some reason, it didn't feel like any other night full of fatigue after an exhausting day at the university. She felt as if these chilly gusts of air were carrying something sinister, and more alarmingly, something unprecedented.

"Purity," Lee called out. "The tea's getting cold."

Awaken from her oblivion; Purity sharply shook her head to shrug off her feelings. "Just a second," she exclaimed in a louder voice than usual. She briskly reached for the window and shut it down. She cursed herself for frittering away her time which she could have utilized to finish her assignment. Grabbing her inhaler, she headed out towards the living room, where Lee was waiting for her.

"I'm sorry," she said, pulling out the chair adjacent to where Lee was sitting. "Mom called after a week. She sure had accumulated too many stories for a week's time." Lee chuckled softly, before slurping a sip of her tea. Lee was the perfect roommate Purity could have. Lee had this peculiar habit of minding her own business. She never questioned any of the lies Purity had told her to get herself out of these trivial situations, nor did act skeptically. She seldom spoke, which is exactly what Purity had wished for her roommate to be like. Yet sometimes, it scared her. Maybe because she had no idea of Lee's past, where she came from, or the secrets she skins within herself. Even so, Purity never bothered to ask.

After finishing tea, Lee immediately stood up and made her way to her bedroom, leaving behind another cup to a massive pile of dishes waiting to be washed and gently placed into the cabinets by Purity's soft hands. "I can't keep my eyes open anymore," Lee said in an intensely drowsy voice, as if she had spent the evening at the Vanilla Unicorn, gulping continuous shots of Jack Daniel's. "Goodnight."

As Lee shut the door behind her, Purity whispered, "Goodnight, Lee," in a voice barely audible to her own self.

She quickly got up and started collecting the unwashed dishes in a large basket, lying at the dining table since the afternoon. Walking into the kitchen, she carefully placed the basket next to the kitchen sink. She rolled her sleeves up, and instead of grabbing the quarter-sized plate Lee used in the evening to eat her cheese cake, Purity went for the telephone on the wall.