Spinning Yarns

Saumaya Gupta posted under Flash Fiction QuinTale-61 on 2024-03-11



Everything about her was a lie. Her past, present and seemingly her future all seemed to be built on the bones of hollow words. Everyone associated Sophie as a synonym to lying because that’s all she ever did. She lied from dusk till dawn, from villages to cities and from others to even her own self. There’s a thin line between reality and fiction and Sophie’s world hung somewhere in the middle, swinging to and fro, barely making it through one oscillation. *** “What’s wrong Soph?” questioned Erick, kneeling in front of her, concern shining brightly in his eyes and agony burning deep in his voice. “I am fine. Trust me, it’s all good.” chirped Sophie, her teeth aligned perfectly in a beautiful smile. At this point, lying came naturally to her. Some would even go as far as calling it an instinct or reflex. “Can we please not do this today? I know you’re not telling the truth, just tell me what’s going on in that overworking brain of yours. We both know I can help you out.”  “I swear it’s nothing. Now go, you’re late for class” she said while pulling him up and bidding him goodbye. Erick hesitantly made his way through the crowded corridors of the school hallway. Sophie watched him walk away and into the arms of his girlfriend, Anna. With her dusky skin, big almond eyes, splendid grades and sunshine personality, she was the personification of the word perfect. It was impossible to hate her and that’s why Sophie disliked her even more. It killed her, watching Erick with another girl, but she couldn’t say or do anything about it, so she did what she did always- lied about her feeling and hid them away. *** Erick loved Anna, he really did, but every time he went close to her, his soul craved for something else. Anna made him happy yet something didn’t feel quite right. It felt like they both were a jigsaw puzzle with a missing piece.  In the back of his mind Erick knew exactly what the problem was; his heart lied with someone else. All he wanted was for Sophie to say that she felt it too. But, she was so damn good at hiding it all and lying through her teeth. He couldn’t risk what he had, for something he wished he did. ‘I don’t know what she really wants! Today, in the morning as well, I really hoped that she would say what I wanted to hear but she was so convincing with her freaking act. Maybe Sophie doesn’t care after all and for the first time in her life she isn’t lying about how she’s feeling’ thoughts ran in Erick’s head, not sure whether Sophie was really okay with it or was she lying and pretending like she always did. What he didn’t realize was, a tiger never changes its stripes, no matter how much it wants to.