Earth to Lisa!

“Earth to Lisa!” Isobel called out, snapping her long, slender fingers in front of Lisa’s face for the fourth time during the short conversation. Her thick eyebrows furrowed together, nearly kissing, while her lips stretched in a grimace.

“LISA!” she screeched. The ear-piercing scream mimicked a pack of hyenas.

“And there goes my hearing,” Lisa muttered, flinching. She scrambled to cover both ears from the squeals of her older sister.

Lisa rolled her eyes as she stared at her sister. ‘Of course,’ she thought. ‘The family’s golden girl needs her favorite pack mule. Always the star.’

“I wouldn’t have to scream if you’d stop zoning out and pay attention. Do it again and I’m punching you.” Isobel stated, her voice rippling with exhaustion.

Lisa’s hands fell from her ears, jerking her neck back slightly. Her lips parted, showing the small gap between her two front teeth. She squinted in search of her sister’s audacity, like a meddling detective in search of her glasses.

Concern and confusion filled her as she spoke.

“You do realize we’re not children anymore? I’ll hit you back… I might lose, but I’ll—I’ll hit you back.”

“I’ve repeated myself countless times. Each time, you’re off in space, Neil Armstrong.” Isobel chided before popping an orange slice into her mouth.

“Now focus,” she demanded. “You’re supposed to be helping me pick an outfit for my performance.”

“Calm down, Rihanna. It’s a family reunion, not the Met Gala,” Lisa snorted at her own joke. Looking at the screen in disgust, she slapped her sister’s hand away, scrolling away from the terrible purple sparkly shorts she was eyeing.

Isobel glared, “Shut up. That’s a lot of stand-up coming from someone who can’t even speak in public without sounding like Porky the Pig. Th-th-th-That’s all folks!”

Isobel cackled as Lisa forced a laugh, not wanting to show how that joke made her feel. Always in the shadow of her sister. No fault of Isobel since she preferred it. It was easier that way.

Isobel was made for attention, and she wasn’t. That’s life.

Noticing her sister’s change of mood, Isobel softens, “I was only joking, but seriously, Lis. Aren’t you tired of always being in everyone’s shadows?”

Lisa shook her head fervently and kept the fake smile, “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. I get it. It doesn’t bother me, really. In fact, I actually love going unnoticed. I get better gossip that way.”

“Do you ever get tired of being sarcastic?” Isobel stood up, snatching away the laptop from Lisa and tossing it onto the couch. “I’m being serious, Lis. The jokes aren’t funny after a while-”

“That’s comedy.” Lisa interrupted.

“Okay, then what about when you stand in line and don’t say anything when people cut you?”

“I’m non-confrontational and that’s a good thing in this day and age. There are a lot of crazy people in today’s world. If anything, it’s a safety measure.”

“And what about when you apologize to people who bump into you? They could be robbing you or planting a tracking device.”

“I’m polite. And no one is going around planting tracking devices on people like me. Don’t be ridiculous. I once had an old lady tell me that my manners are unrivaled.”

Flinging her hands up in frustration, “You have an answer to everything, don’t you?”

Lisa goes to respond, but she’s silenced by Isobel’s hand.

“You’re twenty-six and you’ve placed yourself in a box. You think being the early 2000s edgy bitchy loner is a personality trait, but it’s stagnant in this time period. You have what, one maybe two friends?”

“I have friends!” Lisa defended herself. She clasped her hands together to stop the twitching caused by her sister’s constant prodding.

‘I’m okay with being alone,’ Lisa’s inner voice yelled. ‘I’m not the attention seeker.’

“Online strangers don’t count! I have to drag you out of the house to try things, and when we are out, all you do is complain. Life is just passing you by. You think being the butt of your own jokes makes you funny, but you’re still the ass everyone sees.”

Lisa dropped her fake smile in exchange for a stone face as her sister tore away her safeguard, “Geez, you’re not holding back… and I never asked for your pity. I never asked you to force me to do anything.”

Her jaw ticked as her three a.m. thoughts were screamed in her face. Squeezing her fist tighter with every stone, Isobel threw that came crashing through the glass box she lived in.

Her heart began to flutter from the harsh truths. Her neck stiffened while breathing began to feel like a chore.

“I never said you did! You’re wasting your best years, Lisa. Why can’t you see that? This might be a dumb performance for a tacky reunion, but I’ll be able to look back on it and laugh at the memories I made. I’ll be able to think back on my life and know that I didn’t let it pass me by. That I wasn’t in the shadows.” Isobel attested.

The final blow.

Lisa didn’t utter a sound as she walked into the kitchen, grabbing her purse and phone.

“Where are you going?”

Silence hung in the air as Lisa rushed out of her sister’s apartment.

“Lisa, wait, come back. I didn’t mean-”

The front door slammed shut, shaking a few of the picture frames that hung on the wall nearby.

Lisa ran to her car as fast as she could to avoid the embarrassment of crying in front of her. Once inside the safety of the vehicle, she sped away as panic set in her chest before pulling over into the first parking lot she spotted.

Pounding against her steering wheel as the buried screams ripped out her chest. Each skipped beat earned a piercing gasp. Followed by the stinging of shallow air, she swallowed desperately for relief.

As she calmed herself, she lay silently against the steering wheel before sitting up and wiping her face. For once, she didn’t crack a joke. She allowed herself to feel everything in that moment. She needed to feel everything.

“It’s true… It’s all true…” she said aloud to herself.

She dragged her hands down her face before starting her engine. She drove to the nearest grocery store. After finding her fix of pity ice cream, brownie batter cookie dough, she made her way over to the line.

She waited anxiously as an elderly man searched through a thick leather wallet stuffed with what looked to be a mixture of credit, debit, and loyalty cards.

Smiling tightly as she tapped her foot impatiently. A failed attempt at helping him search through his wallet telepathically.

When he finally found it, she cheered silently, and a small smile encompassed her lips.

‘Yes! Get your crap and go.’ Nodding at him as he offered a smile before leaving the line.

It was her turn, but just as she was about to set her stuff on the conveyor belt, a woman stepped in front of her, setting her things down.

“You don’t mind, right? I’m in a hurry. Thanks, you’re great.”

Lisa blinked rapidly as her sister’s words began to fill her head once more, “Thanks?”

‘Porky the Pig’

‘Stagnant’

‘Glass box.’

‘Life’s passing you by.’

“Thanks?” Lisa repeated.

“You must be out of your got damned mind….if you think I’m letting you cut me in line after I just waited for that old bastard to find his fucking card for 10 minutes! I don’t care if you’re holding the secrets to immortality and the pursuit of happiness in that cheap tote. Get your shit off that conveyor belt and get in the back of the line!” She roared before knocking the woman’s deli meat, lettuce, onion, and tomatoes onto the floor and slamming her ice cream down.

“I’M READY!” Lisa screamed, holding up her debit card whilst looking at the teenage cashier.