Makeup

Amanda Barrish

They were halfway through their coffees when it finally got brought up.

The conversation had been hanging over their heads since sitting down—dangling, waiting to be grabbed and laid out on the small round table of the cafe.

“How are you and Max?” Jordan gingerly set down her mug.

“We're doing great right now, actually!” Riley smiled, her fingers twisting slightly around her own mug, tightening their grip. “He came over to my house with flowers this Tuesday. I almost didn't let him in but, you know, he genuinely apologized. He was crying and everything too, then of course I started crying… it was a whole thing.”  

Jordan’s lips pursed. “So you guys talked?”

“Yup! We hashed it all out. Decided on a clean slate. He said he knew he hadn’t been treating me the best recently, but he’s been going through a lot in the past couple months. With his parents getting divorced and the new job— it makes sense. It’s not like I couldn't have handled things better, too.” She let go of the cup with one hand and waved it in dismissal. “That's what relationships are about. Communication and growing together.” She smiled. “We had a pretty good time after our talk too. Who knew apologies and tears could be such a turn on?”

Jordan chewed the inside of her lip.

Her eyes were on the half drunk coffee in front of her, probably going cold.

“So… he’s staying at your house again?”

“Yup!”

“...When we talked last week, you told me it was over. You promised me you were done with him for good this time.”

“You worry too much.” Riley took a sip and shrugged a little. She still had that damn smile on. It looked a little empty. A little plastic. “You know you're my best friend and I tell you everything. But you don't know him like I do! It's just the way he was raised, y’know? He's really gonna work on it now. He promised.”

“Isn’t that what he said last time he—”

“Jordan, I’m not gonna apologize for choosing to live my life the way I want to.”

Her voice had a razor sharp edge to it.

“Hey— Don’t do that, okay? I’m just trying to look out for you.”

“When did I ever ask you to?”

The silence was thick.

Riley shifted uncomfortably, eyes locked on the empty mug resting in her lap.  

Jordan’s lips were still pursed. “Your concealer smudged.”

My name is Amanda and I am a second year Creative Writing major.

 My flash fiction Makeup is about friendship. It's about the ways friendship can pull and tug at loose strings, or just as easily leave them alone. It's about how an earth shattering moment can be so easy to hide and reduce, but so hard to successfully fully conceal. It's about how collisions leave traces and residue, evidence there was some kind of transformative event, even if it's covered up, even if it's not stated directly.