A House On a Cul de Sac
By: Elizabeth Brittain
On a cul de sac in a suburb sat a decently sized single level house with a calm gray door. Inside sat a scratchy gray couch on which sat three irritated young girls. The living room was well-lit and tidy, underscored by chirping crickets and the loud young women. One girl clenched her cellphone tight in her hand while the other two were perched on their knees, their eyes glued to their friend as she furiously messaged a plague of a boy.
"Your logic makes no sense. You make no sense," Erica typed. Her brow furrowed and her eyes squinted as her grip on her phone grew even tighter.
"It makes sense to me and that's all that matters," the boy replied.
"That is so dumb. You're going to lose good people." It felt like a fire was burning in her throat as she screeched what she wrote.
"No,"
"Yes," she thought.
"I'm going to weed out the bad people." Erica tossed her arms into the air and threw herself backwards into the couch.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this young man has scored zero points for self awareness!"
"Send it," one of the other girls said. Erica tapped on the keys and set her phone down. There was a short pause and then a ding.
"That's pretty funny," the boy replied. From what she could tell, he responded in all genuinity. Her brow furrowed even more and her chin dropped a little, separating the thin line her lips had pressed into and her grip relaxed ever so slightly. She looked up to see the two other girls with furrowed brows and squinted eyes. She turned her attention back to the glowing blue screen.
"So...are we on good terms now?" she asked.
"Yeah." Her face and hand relaxed.
"We're still friends?"
"Yeah. Of course." Erica relaxed a bit more.
"So...we can keep hanging out?"
"I don't know...just give me some time to work on my issues." Erica's eyes darted about the room as her head spun.
"What the hell is going on?" she thought.
"You'd better not still tolerate him after all of this, E," one of the girls said. Erica's eyes widened and she dropped her gaze away from her friends. "This is ridiculous...I just...I don't know, E." Erica set her phone down beside her and looked back up at her friends. A ding sounded and Erica scrambled to pick up her phone. Her friend shook her head as Erica's eyes darted across the screen. Erica's head drooped and her shoulders sank as she put her phone back in her pocket.
"It's getting pretty late," she said, "I think I'd better get home." Erica picked up her bundle of keys and made her way to the door, followed by her friends. The gray door shut behind them and she trudged through the thick air, across the dewy lawn lit by the moon and the porch lantern to her car. Her friends stood on the steps to the house and watched as the driver's seat door opened and slammed shut. The engine revved and Erica drove to the end of the cul de sac, looped around, and left.
Word Count: 2,823
