Short Stories

Random Prompt 5

Prompt: write a story about a white lie that spirals out of control

"What do you mean we know we have to buy a snake?" I hear mom shout from the kitchen. Here we go again, I thought. My little sister was telling lies to her school friends again, but this time I knew the whole story.

Carson: Hey, did y'all hear what Val did?

Lydia: No, what happened?

Carson: I heard that she got a new pet snake!!!

Lydia: Really!!! That's so cool Val! How'd you get your mom to say yes?

Val: Oh it was nothing really, my older sister bought it for me. She said it was for a research project so mom let us keep it.

Now I know Mom would never believe something like that but I figured there wouldn't be any point in calling Val out on her friends so I just sat in the front driving them to the movie. Little did I know the trouble it would cause.

Four hours later I got a text from Lydia's brother, asking why my sister had told Lydia that she had a new pet snake (a venomous blue and black one at that) and that I was using it for a science project on animal cruelty. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about but that I definitely didn't have a snake. Meanwhile, Val was still blabbering about the animal to all of her playground friends.

This continued on until a young boy asked her to bring it in for show and tell next week. All the other kids got super excited to see the snake and Zoe, having dug herself a deep, DEEP, hole agreed.

Which brings us back to the present of Val crying, Mom reprimanding her, and me, sitting at my desk shaking my head, remembering something similar that happened to me.

~ Dove