Watching Her

Chapter 12

Lucy groaned as she rolled out of bed and stumbled back towards the bathroom, she turned on the taps and guzzled as much water as she could, her mouth felt truly awful. Then sat back down on the toilet and moaned. Again, with her hands supporting her head she looked up towards her bedroom, and as she did, her angle light came on all by itself. Her shoulders dropped, and she shook her head and sighed loudly and stood up and lent on the flush and then crept back into the bedroom.

She put her arms on her naked hips and looked down at the desk. There were now nine butts in the ashtray. No wonder her mouth felt awful. How many cigarettes did the evil mirror force her to enjoy last night?

As such Lucy sat down and leaned on the dressing table and looked at her Reflection, bed head and tired looking face was reflected, but where she thought she was frowning in her sorrows, her Reflection was smiling brightly back.

Lucy then forced a smile back her spare hand instinctively creeped along the desk and pulled the cigarette out of the pack it dawned on her that there now only eleven left. "Mirror, you are making me smoke too much!"

Her Reflection shrugged her shoulders and they both reached for the lighter.

Within a few minutes of repetitive and large clouds of intense, but delightful smoke filling her lungs, the cigarette was nearly finished. Lucy had inhaled deeply and removed the cigarette from her lips and had exhaled a cone to the ceiling, she leant forward as if to stub it out and her Reflection glared at her and again glanced down at the pack.

"What, hang on, are we having a second one already?" Lucy asked her Reflection who smiled and nodded enthusiastically, as they placed the butt between their left-hand fingers, and with their right pulled out another cigarette from the pack, smiled at each other and placed the filter between their lips and her reflection reshowed her how to chain light a cigarette, with another powerful double pump inhale. It was reshowing, seeing as they had sat there just like this and smoked three others like that the night before.

***

Lucy sat on her sofa trying to look natural holding a mug of coffee and watching the rolling news on the television. Once dressed she had spent the last half an hour running around the house with air freshener spray, like the air stewardess does with the bug spray in the cabin when leaving a tropical country. She was desperately trying to remove any hint of cigarette smoke. Her dad had texted to say that they were coming over again. The ashtray and the pack of cigarettes were hidden in the back of the bottom drawer, she didn't dare throw the contents in the kitchen bin, she was sure her mum would check.

She looked up as her dad unlocked the front door with their spare key, and they made their way in. Lucy frowned and chewed on the inside of her cheek, and bit her bottom lip, she could well have been naked or something.

"Morning Luce, how are you doing this glorious morning, we have even been shopping for you, didn't want you to starve!" Graham almost boomed as he walked uninvited into the house carrying four Waitrose bags for life. "Come on Wend!" he stated as he turned it looked back into the little porch as she hurriedly followed on carrying a bucket full of cleaning sprays and polish.

"Morning Dad, Mum, thanks for the food..." Lucy smiled as she untucked her legs from under her and stood up holding her mug firmly in both hands and looked quizzically at the cleaning items and intrigued by what food they had brought.

Wendy looked at Graham sternly before turning to Lucy "Well seeing as your stuff reeked of Granny Gilmartin's cigarettes, we thought, well I thought we should at least scrub it clean for you!"

Lucy chuckled "Mum, it's fine, I have had the windows open all evening seeing as it has been warm, and I really haven't noticed it."

"Luce, she has spoken of nothing else since last weekend, please just let her clean something, she has been suggesting that granny has been stinking your house out from the grave. I was then thinking I could take you all out to the Fox and Hounds for lunch. How does that sound?"

Lucy smiled and nodded "That sounds ideal, shall I boil the kettle, I really could do with another coffee?"

Graham glanced as Wendy made a beeline to the Welsh dresser with her bucket of polish and cloths. "Yes, I think you'd better."

***

Lucy flaked out on the sofa; she was knackered. She had managed to keep her parents out of the bedroom, but they had gone around every item of furniture and given it a good polish and even vacuumed the carpets again.

She had suggested that the dressing table was fine as she had covered it in her own perfume enough times by now, and that she hadn't tidied up there since she was rather hungover and really didn't want them both nosing around.

Her purple dads face suggested he thought there was a vibrator left out or something, which made her grin.

After they dropped her home on the way back from lunch, she eventually collapsed on the sofa. She was full, but the chips and burger certainly helped with the hangover, as well as a pint of lemonade and lime. She had been seriously tempted by a pint of shandy, but had thought against it. As she lay crashed out on the sofa, she stared out the front window and caught the reflection of herself as she ran her tongue across her lips. A thought sprung. She shuffled up off the sofa and headed back up the stairs.

She pushed open her door and looked at the dressing table in the dull afternoon light. She sat down and with some gentle internal persuasion opened the drawers and put the ashtray with the extinguished butts in and the pack back in their spots on the table and looked at her Reflection.

Lucy gulped as she flipped open the pack on her own accord and winced as she counted the nine cigarettes remaining in the pack. She instantly shook her head as admonished herself after determining just how many cigarettes she had. She confirmed to herself as long as the Reflection turned up, a couple more for today, and then some for tomorrow, and scared herself at the thought, if she was lucky, maybe one more before work on Monday.

Lucy again looked at the mirror, she poked her tongue out, it was just her, the Reflection wasn't playing games. She looked pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her blue jeans, it was three-thirty, maybe it was too early. Her other hand tapped the cigarette pack impatiently waiting for something to happen as she looked around the room.

She tapped the pack once more and looked intently at her mirror image, shrugged her shoulders, picked up her phone, got up and headed towards the stairs as her Reflection sat, still in the mirror and frowned in disappointment as Lucy disappeared through the door.