Chop, Chop
by Hillary Lyon
“Get a move on! We're gonna be late,”
Brandon chided, “again.”
Tina leaned in close to the bathroom
mirror to carefully draw a black slash across her upper eyelid with her
eyeliner brush. She ignored him.
“Why can’t you get anywhere on time?” He
stood in the bathroom doorway with arms crossed.
Maybe it’s because I don’t want to go
anywhere with you, anymore,
Tina admitted to herself, but wouldn’t say out loud. She pawed through the
small basket next to her sink looking for just the right lip gloss.
“Don’t you want me to look nice?” she
asked. “You used to say I was the prettiest girl you’d ever seen.” Tina swept a
cherry red daub across her lips. “Said I was a luxury, like steak.”
He walked away without comment.
Satisfied with her appearance, she
joined Brandon in the kitchen. Tina opened the fridge, got the grocery store
veggie tray out. It was her contribution to his friend Tony’s Halloween party.
She knew Tony would serve junk food snacks; he always did.
Brandon grabbed the bottle of gin he’d
bought for this party. Tina knew he’d drink most of it himself. “Steak,
yeah,” he muttered. She noticed, not
for the first time, he’d acquired a muffin top and moobs.
“A guy can only eat so much steak,” he
sneered. “Then he gets sick of it. Sometimes he just wants a hamburger.”
Great, Tina realized,
Rosie’s going to be there tonight.
She’d recently overheard him bragging to Tony that being with Rosie was like
eating a greasy, sloppy cheeseburger. They’d clinked beer bottles over that.
She pulled a carving knife from the
wooden block by the stove. It was time to cut the fat out of her life.
Hillary
Lyon founded and for 20 years acted as senior
editor for the independent poetry publisher, Subsynchronous Press. Her stories
have appeared lately in 365tomorrows, Black Petals, Sirens
Call, Night to Dawn, 50 Word Stories, Legends of
Night drabble series anthology, and Revelations drabble series
anthology. She’s the Art Director for Black Petals and is also an
illustrator for horror & pulp fiction magazines.
https://hillarylyon.wordpress.com/
