See Me

I wrote this piece of flash fiction (titled "See Me") a few months ago and decided that my Patreon was a great place to share it. Hope you enjoy, and thank you for your constant support in all my creative endeavors :)

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Jean looked up at her face in the mirror and sighed. The bags under her eyes and the few strands of gray in her hair reminded her of everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours. Over the last five years, really. Yesterday’s mascara still clung to her lashes and she reached for a washcloth as she turned the handle on the sink. She let the water run hot, so hot it hurt her hands as she let the towel soak. The pain was a welcome distraction from her thoughts. She brought the wet cloth up to her face and pressed it against her eyes, rubbing at the makeup and trying to wash all her thoughts away with it. Tears mixed with the hot water. She kept her face covered as she cried, comforted by the warmth. Finally, she looked back up at her reflection in the mirror. Now her eyes were red from crying and rimmed with black smudges. The tears came again, blurring the image she saw looking back at her.

Hank didn’t recognize his wife anymore. He sat on the couch, stewing on what had happened and trying to figure out where they had gone wrong. The woman he had married five years ago had been sweet and agreeable, the most easy-going woman he had ever met. That was why he had been drawn to her. She was a woman with no drama, no petty arguments or frivolous ideas. Hadn’t he always said he had wanted a woman who was down to earth and low maintenance? Hadn’t she assured him that’s exactly what she was? Now suddenly she was leaving, and he didn’t understand why. It was like a few months ago someone had flipped a switch and turned his pleasant, good-natured wife into someone else. Someone with wants and needs she had never expressed before. She’d said she felt as if he didn’t see her, and had never really seen her at all. That didn’t make any sense to Hank; he saw her every day. He knew her better than anyone. He knew her favorite foods, what types of movies she liked to watch, what she liked in the bedroom. The more he thought about it, the more confused he became.

Marissa sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for a phone call. She bounced her leg nervously, as she was prone to do in times of stress. Jean always teased her for it, saying she could make the entire room shake if she was nervous enough. Jean. The only person she ever wanted to talk to and the one person she was most terrified to hear from. She was supposed to tell him last night. Marissa had expected to hear from her by this morning at the latest, and still her phone sat silent. She had debated all day about calling her and making sure she was okay, but she didn’t want to push. She knew this was hard for Jean, harder than anything she’d ever done. Marissa understood. Her leg bounced faster and she watched the water in the glass on the table beside her ripple and shake. Part of her wasn’t sure that Jean would be able to go through with it. That was what scared her the most.

Jean placed her suitcase in the back of her car and turned back to see Hank standing in the doorway of their house. Their home. He looked like a puppy that had been left at the pound, confused and scared and wondering where his family was going. The thought tightened in her throat and she had to look away from him. She knew it wasn’t his fault, not really. It was about her. He would never understand that because he never really knew her. All he knew was the woman she had tried so hard to be, the one she thought would make everyone happy and lead her to the life she was supposed to want. Husband, house in the suburbs, 2.5 kids. Marissa had guided her out of that expectation. Not intentionally, there was no way either of them could have predicted that this was how things would turn out. Hank wouldn’t believe that either, which was why Jean had decided not to tell him about her. As she pulled out of the driveway, she took her phone out of her purse and dialed the number she now knew by heart.

Marissa answered on the first ring.