flipflop_diva

For this to make any sense, you can find the whole saga in earlier installments.
The prologue.
Chapter 1: Audrey.
Chapter 2: Kelley.
Chapter 3: Jenna.

Lizzie

Her sigh of relief turns in to a scowling huff before it is even partway out of her mouth. She’s been waiting patiently — too patiently, she thinks — since they all arrived yesterday afternoon, and she knows Audrey has seen her signals and her looks.

She gets Audrey’s reluctance. She thinks it’s misguided and foolish, but she gets it, but the least she could do is have a conversation with her when they are alone.

She started to get hopeful twenty minutes ago when Jenna stood up and mumbled something she didn’t hear and then disappeared inside. Lizzie hoped maybe she went to lie down. That girl cannot hold her liquor. Never could, but at least when they were younger, she had an excuse. But to be almost thirty and still stumbling all over herself after just a few glasses? Lizzie had to refrain from rolling her eyes and making a sarcastic comment when she saw it.

But at least it had gotten Jenna to leave for the time being. And then Kelley had followed maybe ten minutes later. Something about needing to get out of the sun. Which made sense, considering the girl is always paler than a ghost and burns easier than paper.

But with Kelley’s timely departure, that had finally — finally! — left Lizzie alone with Audrey, something she had been hoping to accomplish since they had arrived at this forsaken house, but every time she had tried to approach Audrey to even whisper about maybe taking a walk or checking out the moon or whatever kind of excuse there could be, Audrey had turned around and walked the other way or suddenly felt the desire to strike up a conversation with Kelley or Jenna.

But this time, no one else was around, and it was perfect. Lizzie had even waited until Kelley was all the way inside before sitting up and putting her magazine down, but the second she had opened her mouth, Audrey had popped up from her lounge chair and disappeared into the house without a trace.

Lizzie is past the point of annoyance now and is well on her way to completely pissed off. She contemplates for just a second walking inside that house and screaming out that she and Audrey are together now and have been for a while and Jenna and Kelley can just deal if they don’t like it.

But she doesn’t because she’s not an idiot, and she knows doing something like this will only push Audrey away from her and not toward her. She also knows Audrey loves her and wants to be with her. She can tell from the way she looks and acts when they are together. But it’s complicated with their friends.

The four of them have been best friends since they were nine years old. They’ve survived shitty parents and horrible heartbreaks, school bullies and deaths of loved ones together, and they are still standing.

They even survived graduating from high school and heading off into the world on their own — even though that didn’t last long, seeing as they are still back here again — but they tried and they had each other when it failed.

So yeah, Lizzie sees Audrey’s point. If Kelley and Jenna know the truth about Audrey and her, they might feel left out. They might feel like the group dynamics are changing (Lizzie hopes the damn group dynamics will change), and they might resent the two of them. And Audrey is freaked the hell out about losing their little group.

Lizzie gets that. She gets all that. But she is also insanely annoyed because Audrey needs to open her damn eyes.

Jenna and Kelley are already pulling away, and it’s not through any fault of hers and Audrey’s. The last time Lizzie even saw Jenna was this stupid vacation a year ago. And she’s seen Kelley, what, maybe once or twice since then? They definitely aren’t having girls’ nights and bonding sessions anymore these days. So Lizzie doubts her and Audrey’s news could really change the balance all that much.

But Audrey is stubborn and always very, very sure. Sure she’s right and sure her way is the best way. And it’s like pulling teeth to get her to admit when she’s wrong about something.

But Lizzie is reaching the end of her patience, and she’s tired of being disrespected by the woman who is supposed to care about her the most. She could at the very least engage in conversation with her too.

She gets up off her lounge chair and throws her hat and sunglasses down on her towel with as much force as she can, just to make herself feel better. They bounce off the chair and land on the ground, and she feels an urge to stomp on them, but she doesn’t want to have to deal with buying new sunglasses so she picks them up, throws them angrily back on to the towel again and this time feels a sense of satisfaction when they stay put.

Then she heads inside.

She expects to find Audrey in the kitchen, making margaritas or pouring wine, but she is nowhere to be seen. She heads into the rest of the first floor, checking the dining room, the study and the living room and even opening the door to the basement and calling down.

Nothing.

She wonders if Audrey went to lie down, too, or maybe went to try and talk to Kelley or Jenna?

“Ugh.” Lizzie grumbles at the thought. That would be something she would do.

She heads up the stairs to the second floor and then rounds the corner to climb the stairs to the third, but stops short.

Audrey is sitting halfway up the stairs between the second and third floors, and her face is completely drained of color, like she’s seen a ghost or gotten some awful news. Lizzie can see tears pooling in her eyes, about ready to spill over.

“Audrey!” she says in concern. “Oh my god, what happened?”

She bends down to be at Audrey’s eye level and waits until the green eyes flick up to hers. Apart from the tears, they look almost eerily empty.

“What happened?” Lizzie says again.

This time Audrey seems to register that she’s standing there, but she wipes a hand over her eyes and looks away.

“Nothing,” she says. Her voice is bitter, hard, cold even.

Lizzie frowns. “You’re seriously not going to tell me what happened when I can see on your face that something did happen”

“It’s none of your business, Lizzie.”

“None of my business?” Lizzie stares at her in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Audrey says, and her voice seems to grow even colder. She stands up and pushes past Lizzie, almost knocking her down the stairs. “I said it’s none of your god damned business.”

She turns a corner and disappears. Lizzie fumes.

What the hell is happening here?

Fiction.

Thank you for reading! This was written for

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