Watching Her

Chapter 13

Just half an hour later, Lucy sighed after climbing the stairs as she sat back down on the stool, she just had to look at the mirror again on the off chance the Reflection was back, there was literally nothing on television. She had already seen her mum and she was bored of Facebook stalking her customers.

With a hint of nerves, Lucy bit her bottom lip, as she looked at the open pack, took a deep breath and then herself pulled out a cigarette and placed the filter between her lips and stared at her mirror image. She was scared that she had just done that all by herself- put a cigarette between her lips, without any cohesion. She felt as if she needed, almost right to have a cigarette just there. As she stared as her neatly plucked eyebrows raised twice. They smiled at each other as they calmly brought the lighter to the tip, her Reflection smiled back and fluttered her eyelids as the Reflected ashtray in the mirror was now filled with butts.

Their rosy, red cheeks collapsed in unison as the smoke was pulled into the lungs.

Lucy exhaled a cone and found herself saying "Thank you" to her Reflection as the smoke continued to drift out of her mouth.

Her Reflection shrugged its shoulder just as Lucy would do as they manicured the initial ash, before in unison taking another drag on the cigarette.

Lucy exhaled as she had done dozens of times before, but her Reflection started to let a little smoke out of her mouth and then inhale it back up her nose. The smoke was like a grey twisting curtain funnelling up her cute philtrum as the smoke slowly escaped the mouth and disappeared up the nose. Her Reflection then exhaled the cone from her lungs. Lucy sat there in front of the mirror, in open mouth shock as she watched the trick.

Her Reflection nodded as if it were to be repeated, they took a gentle drag as if not to inhale properly and then together they let the smoke drift out their mouths and hoovered it up their noses. Finished off with the final exhale. Lucy was bouncing on her seat in happiness with the accomplishment. She couldn't wait to go again, she led this time and her Reflection followed as they repeated the exercise, over and over again. She was mesmerised playing with the smoke drifting from her mouth, and then smelling the pungent smoke as she drew it in, with bam, the pleasure as the smoke eventually hit her lungs.

With that cigarette nearly complete, the Reflection and Lucy together took a short final drag and exhaled towards the mirror, the two clouds collided at the mirror glass, before the Reflection smiled and again looked towards the pack, they beamed at each other full well knowing what was going to happen next. Within seconds the fresh filters were placed between the lips and the double pump inhale conducted to light the fresh cigarette, with the ceremonial stubbing out of the just completed butt in the ashtray. As it fizzed as the smoke of the fresh exhale clouded the space between them.

The Reflection then conducted a quick double eyebrow raise and a smile, Lucy knew that her Reflection was going to lead again. She sat and watched, the cigarette burning brightly next to her face. Yes, she could be getting on with doing her washing, so she had clean clothes for work, or cooking her tea, but no she sat as she watched her Reflection take the cigarette between her lips, briefly draw on the cigarette, and almost hamstered the smoke in her cheeks. She opened her mouth with an obvious O and with the creamy smoke being briefly held in the dark void between her pink lips and white teeth as slowly clicked her jaw, the smoke left the mouth in perfect rings and drifted across the mirror. Before her reflection pulled the rest of the smoke in her mouth down into her lungs and then exhaled her small cone.

It took Lucy a couple of goes to get it right, the first attempt she inhaled the smoke properly, forgetting to hold it in her mouth, and the second attempt the smoke escaped before she could make the O's.

However, on the third drag, Lucy and her Reflection were mirror images of each other as the fourth, fifth and subsequent drags produced a medley of cloudy rings of smoke that combined as they crashed into the mirror in some Olympic ring dance before dispersing across the glass.

The taste of the smoke within her mouth was lingering and Lucy and her Reflection ran their tongues across their lips and teeth as an attempt to clean them before taking a long deep final drag on the cigarette before stubbing it out.

Lucy's shoulders dropped as she bit her bottom lip as the tails of smoke continued to seep off the two stubbed butts in the ashtray as she looked up at her smiling Reflection.

Her Reflection looked again down at the pack; Lucy winced as she turned the pack to see how many were in there, six, and then she turned it to the mirror so the Reflection could see, as if to highlight her problem. Lucy's eyes widened when the mirror image of her pack clearly showed a full twenty cigarettes. Lucy smiled, there was no requirement for the Reflection to get more cigarettes. She couldn't leave, she could just sit there permanently taking cigarette after cigarette and enjoy each and every single one of them.

Lucy paused her train of thought at the word enjoyment. Then shook her head again as her Reflection tilted her head and raised one of her shoulders and almost did puppy eyes as if to say go on, just one more.

***

A little while later Lucy slowly walked down the stairs to her kitchen and boiled the kettle, whilst waiting for the kettle to boil she poured herself a glass of orange squash. Then quickly guzzled it down. Her mouth felt disgusting, the rings, holding the smoke in her cheeks, whilst it looked amazing, it did give her a ugh feeling as her tongue felt like leather. The squash did little to wash the taste away as she shovelled three teaspoons of instant coffee into her mug and poured the boiling water in.

The buzz from the nicotine meant that she was feeling amazing, almost giddy three cigarettes in quick succession were making her almost want to bounce. She would have done so, if she didn't feel as if it would make her sick or cough, her lungs seriously felt as if they had smoked the three cigarettes she had just done.

She looked at the black coffee, hoping without milk that the strong taste of coffee would counter the strong bitter residue of smoke in her mouth. She picked up her mobile phone and mug and headed to the living room to try and calmly enjoy her smoking induced buzz.