Staring into the slightly broken mirror, Isobel was met with her usual reflection. Although today it felt different, it felt strangely dissimilar to what she looked like yesterday, or even this morning. And instead of the usual indifference she treated her reflection with, she felt a crawling deep sense of unease looking at herself. The type of unease one might feel when coming across an 'uncanny valley' type of video, the type that makes your hair stand on its ends.
"What the hell?"
"How did my mirror just randomly break? And I'm certain I heard the sound of a broken glass faintly somewhere, and it didn't sound like it was my mirror"
For better or worse, Isobel's mind quickly shifted towards something else, something to take her mind off of her mirror and all her heavy thoughts as of late.
'I guess I could get something to eat.'
'But I actually need to do my work. I can't be a failure, unlike some people.' She snickered to herself.
She then began to open up her laptop again, quickly closing the tab on the bread and circuses article, and go over the long lecture she had earlier this morning.
She let out a long sigh and began to study.
~~~
A few hours later Isobel was internally glad she had covered all the necessary content she needed to cover, although her face betrayed this sense of relief. She looked rather drained and tired of laptop screens entirely, and she was almost in a hunchback position from staring so intently at her laptop for a prolonged period of time.
"Finally I have some free time, Im going to get something quick to eat before I dawdle even more."
She made her way out the door, and spilled clumsily onto the plain coloured hallway, which was adorned by a remarkably plain grey carpet that felt as hard as walking on concrete. The walls themselves seemed bored, bored of watching everyone walk by idly without a care in the world of what happened around them.
Isobel opened the door to find the lights on and a similarly boring kitchen, with shades of grey and beige scattered across kitchen appliances but there was a core difference. There was a man.
He sat down with an excessively lax demeanour, mansplaining across the leather sofa with his face looking elsewhere away from the door, as if he didn't hear it open. Despite feeling a little off, Isobel tentatively made the cordial gesture of greeting him.
"H-hello, I'm Isobel"
He shifted slightly to turn around and let out a long sigh and gave her a nod before he spoke in a harsh tone, yet at a softly spoken volume.
"Hey, im John"
Isobel was slightly taken aback at the lazy answer she received, even though she didn't ask for much in the first place. Nevertheless, she let her surprise show and John quickly noticed and studied her face for a moment and turned back and plugged in a set of wireless earphones.
'What the heck?' Whilst she was still by the door, Isobel's mind began to whir silently trying to process what had just happened, but she was still hung over his visage. He had a dark face, with minimal face hair, just a small tuft on his chin. His jaw was rather slender and widened at his cheeks which were rather chiselled and slim, he had a rich dark brown eye colour that were slightly obscured by his hair which draped by his sides like thick ropes and had a noticeable amount of frizz to them.
She decided to just grab any snack she could find from her cupboard to avoid interacting with the strange man called John anymore, and to her relief she found a sickly-sweet premium rectangular marshmallow-cereal hybrid that mother must've given her before she left, which was rather uncharacteristic of her.
A sudden pang of anxiety tore through her being as she thought of her mother since she hadn't called her yet today. She fiddled with the sugary snack, closed the cupboard door and was a step away from opening the door before an eruption of laughter echoed across the room, coming from John who didn't seem to have a sense of spatial awareness in Isobel's mind. She rolled her eyes to look at him to be even further taken aback by the fact that he wasn't already apologising for the sudden outburst, but also because he didn't even turn to face her! She felt insulted and it was because of mother's constant etiquette lectures that she routinely exhaled and removed herself from the situation.
She slowly strutted down the hallway again, blood rushing to her head and the wave of anxiety flushing down her chest. The walls seemed mocking, as if overjoyed to see someone so flustered and taut. The floor seemed slippery all of a sudden and she regained her sense of balance only after briefly pausing to exhale again.
"Come on Isobel." She muttered under her breath.
She made her way down to her door at last which felt twice as long as going to the kitchen, and she went straight from opening the door to her bed, kicking off her slippers and feeling the cool, thick, bedsheet on her feet sent a wave of stillness through her body. Once that wave reached her head she shivered and seemed to forget all about whatever she was thinking about.
'I just wasted her time going to the kitchen, what the hell was that all about? What is that guys deal too, like he didn't even want to speak to me? Who even does that, It feels as though decent people aren't as common in university as I thought.'
'Right.'
'"I need to call Mother soon, but I really don't feel like it I wish I could just not talk to her for one day, one day would give me some peace of mind I bet!"
"What am I doing? This isn't like me at all, blabbering my thoughts out loud. Isn't that what crazy people do?"
She paled slightly.
"I know I'm not crazy! Yikes. I'm not going to even entertain that thought"
The walls seemed to judge her silently, as if disagreeing.
She rolled her eyes and thought about turning around and digging her face into her pillow and screaming quietly, but quickly dismissed that thought.
"I'm not crazy I said.'
She inhaled slowly and exhaled even slower, in effort to regulate her breathing, just like she always used to do when stressed. However she only was halfway through her second exhale before her phone rung.
"Oh."
She quickly fixed her hair and sat up straight, which she immediately questioned why she did that if her mother wasn't even present this time.
"Good Afternoon mother."
"Isobel what have I told you about our daily calls? Don't let this happen again."
"I understand mother." Isobel robotically answered
"I will be reducing your allowance for the foreseeable future because there is a new business operation I have invested in and I don't want to be spread too thin. Am I understood?"
Isobel began to swell with indignant rage, but did not show it.
"Yes mother, but why does my allowance have to be compensated, why can't you find a more reasonable offer instead?"
"Quiet child! Such insolence... You do not retort to me with such questions, am I understood?"
The cool breeze blew through the open window, soothing her face, perhaps comforting her.
"Yes mother." Isobel replied with a deadpan expression and tone.
The call briefly cut soon after and Isobel was left staring at the sickly-sweet treat, that was meant to be a delight but only brought her disgust looking at it. The sole reason of this of course was not because of the packaging but because it came from her mother.
Isobel put her phone down and tossed the sweet treat at her desk and slumped down in her bed and begun to whimper and cry silently in her pillow.
However, her tears obscured her ears as she did not notice her mirror being struck by the marshmallow-cereal bar, which exaggerated the already forming crack in her mirror once more.
The walls continued to listen.