Rat Race

“So you see… You’re a really nice guy, but I just don’t think that it will work out.” Rosalynn Sinclair finished, running her tongue over her teeth to make sure there was no lipstick stains.

It was Sunday morning, and Rosalynn had stood outside rubbing her gloved hands together for about 5 minutes, thinking of what to say and then decided to throw caution to the wind. She’d put some lip stick on her chapped lips, pulled her curly chestnut colored hair into a ponytail and then knocked on the door.

“You’re breaking up with me.” Lucas Jimenez said, deadpanned.

Rosalynn didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. She was done, he was boring, and she was bored. End of story.

“You can’t break up with me,” Lucas said. “Look at us, we’re perfect together. And you’re so beautiful.” He reached out to touch her smooth dark skin.

Rosalynn smiled slightly and gently pushed his hand away. She knew she was pretty and she used that to her advantage. She was by no means a tramp. A quick smile and compliment was all that was needed to get what she wanted.

She sighed heavily. “Hun…” Here came the killer. Rosalynn tried to soften what she was about to say with a pearly white smile and an innocent widening of her light brown eyes. Those babies were what truly drew the guys’ in. “I—”

The shrill ringing of her cell phone ruined what would have been the perfect ending to a breakup.

She yanked her cell phone out of her gray Fendi frame bag and looked down at it. When she saw the name flashing on the screen, her seemingly faultless smile became strained.

“I have to take this.” She stepped out into the hallway. She slid open her phone and put it to her ear.

“What?” Rosalynn snapped. “Do you know what I’m in the middle of, Rebecka?” She nearly spat out her name.

“Do not use that disrespectful tone with me! I want you home. Now.” And with that, the line went dead.

Rosalynn let out a little scream of frustration and stomped her foot— things she’d only seen in movies— and then she made her face as expressionless as possible. She’d perfected it for the most trying times.

She counted to ten in her head and walked back into Lucas’s room.

“Sorry,” She put her smile back on. “This meeting is going to have to be quick because I have to be somewhere.”

“This meeting? You think of our breakup as just a meaningless meeting? What the hell is wrong with you?” Lucas raged.

“I—”

“Do you know what this means?” Lucas went on. He rose from his spot on the bed and stepped towards Rosalynn. “What are people gonna think?” He started pacing. “You can’t just breakup with me!”

“Don’t you raise your voice at me!” Now Rosalynn was getting pissed. She pointed at him. “You better be glad I didn’t breakup with you over text message with a guy already wrapped around me!”

“Me?” Lucas said, incredulous. “I better be glad? Do you know who I am? I can have any girl in the freaking school and more!” His lithe form stopped in front of her. “You better be glad that I chose your sorry a—”

“Ah ah ah,” Rosalynn put her French tipped finger on his full lips. She’ll miss those. “You shouldn’t use such dirty language.” She smirked. “People might start to think that you’re not a gentleman. Girls, to be more specific.” She then nudged the gaping boy to the side and calmly walked out the room without another word.

After a quick stop at Purple Grass, a frozen yogurt shop, Rosalynn arrived home.

“You’re late,” a voice said as Rosalynn walked through the door.

“Yeah, okay,” she said as she dropped her keys on caramel colored end table next to the door. “You never really specified a time that I had to be here.” She shrugged out of her ash gray coat and raised her eyes to meet the angry ones of her step-mother.

Rebecka was plastic from her calves to her cheekbones, courtesy of Mr. Sinclair’s money. There was always an expression on her face that was neither smile nor frown, and Rosalynn had stopped trying to figure it out a while ago. The dark skin on Rebecka’s arms was starting to look a bit loose, though.

Looks like a trip to the surgeon is coming up, Rosalynn thought wryly.

“I don’t know where you got your bad attitude from,” Rebecka’s cold eyes got even icier, if possible. “It’s certainly not from your father.” She grinned, or at least tried to grin, making herself look uglier and more awkward than she usually did.

Rosalynn smiled brightly, hiding the pain that was gripping her stomach and heart from inside. She walked right up to Rebecka, about an inch from her shiny face and said, “You should really smile more! It does wonders for your looks.” She patted Rebecka’s cheek and flounced off before her step-mother could say anything.