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Flash fiction is an umbrella term used to describe any fictional work of extreme brevity, including the Six-Word Story, 140-character stories, also known as twitterature, the dribble (50 words), the drabble (100 words), and sudden fiction (750 words)

“The color of your dress!  Looks like vomit.”

His tone as he said it, was harsh, and peevish. Whenever things didn’t go his way, whether it be at work or otherwise, he was bound to take it out on me. How typical, I thought to myself. He had chosen the dress himself last week. The color does wonders to your complexion, he had declared when I walked out of the trial room. And now this.

I let his comment slide rather than jog his memory.  Not when it was almost time to leave. Ignoring was best way to deal with things at times. I gave myself a last once over in the mirror in the hallway and stepped out, eager to be on our way.  An evening of fun with friends and family awaited us. 

“What’s this? What have you done to your hair?”

There we go. Apparently we weren’t done with the fault finding. The mockery in his eyes and derision in his voice was hard to miss. What had happened? Which of his consignments hadn’t reached their destinations? As if it was somehow my fault! I gritted my teeth and walked to the waiting cab. In the mood he was in he would be critical of me even if I had just won the Miss Universe crown. There was no point wasting words.

As soon as we reached the venue and were stepping out of the cab, I heard a delighted scream. It was one of my friends alerting the rest to my arrival. Soon I was surrounded. You look gorgeous, said someone. Oh wow, look at your hair! Awesome style! exclaimed someone else. You gotta tell us where you got it styled! said a third voice. I glanced surreptitiously at him. His face was impassive.

Come on, let’s go get our drinks and kick up some fun, said my friends pulling my hand. Girlfriends! Trust them to rally around when you needed them the most. The tension was slowly draining out of me. I smiled, feeling as light as a feather as I let myself be dragged along. 

© Shail Mohan 2019