[FLASH FICTION] Work Gossip

Prompt inspiration: Typing this while I'm at work and decided to create a scenario relating to work situations. One of my coworkers and I shared gossip by the metaphorical water-cooler and realized we shared similar stories about different dramas circulating around us. She and I decided to change the names and fabricate details so that it's not so close to the real life scenarios and people involved in it, as we mixed both our dramas together.

Enjoy reading!

ヾ(￣ー￣(≧ω≦*)ゝ

"Girl, you will not believe what happened last night!"

A brunette Asian woman heard the shrill whisper in front of her and stopped typing in her laptop, glancing over at her blonde Caucasian coworker in the classroom. "Aubrey, shouldn't you be teaching by now? We're with kids."

Aubrey scoffed as she rolled her eyes, gesturing her hand in a waving motion. "We're co-oping right now, bestie! Besides, they're doing math games on their laptops!"

"First off, you're student-teaching and I'm subbing for the main teacher. Second - " The other woman peered behind the student teacher. "There's about five hands raised for their English essays."

Aubrey turned around to find said sight in a classroom filled with second grade students.

"...damn. I hate it when you're right, Luna."

Luna hummed as she gestured for one of the students to come to her at the kidney-shaped table she was sitting by. "No worries, I'll help with English."

"Thanks, girl. I owe you one!"

The substitute teacher snorted as she helped with the student's work. "You owe me lunch next weekend, then. Korean BBQ, bitch."

"You got it!" Aubrey cheered as she helped another student with logging into his online program for educational math games. "...soooooo..."

Luna rolled her eyes as she finished helping one of the students. "Spit it out, Aubrey."

Said woman immediately sat across from her in eager anticipation. "Okay! So remember Harriet from that one elementary school?"

"You mean that one teacher who loves photography? She took pics for me and my boyfriend."

"Yes, same one! Apparently, Ariana, the principal's secretary, does not like her one bit."

Luna chortled while proofreading another student's paragraph on her English assignment. "No shit. Ariana is dating the school counselor, Roman. Ain't he also Harriet's best friend?"

"Yeah, but get this - Harriet has always said in lunch breaks during district meetings about this drama between this one girl and her because she and Roman used to almost be a thing, right?"

"That's all anyone has heard last year, yes."

"Well... it turns out, according to Ariana AND Roman, they never talked. They flirted, but never talked about relationships in a serious manner."

Luna's jaw dropped as she silently ushered the student she finished helping to sit back down. "You're kidding."

Aubrey shook her head as she gestured to another student to come to her without looking at him. She grabbed the laptop and started plugging the credentials in. "It paints Harriet in a different light, don't it? Her behavior seemed kind of childish now, come to think of it."

The brunette thought about it and nodded in agreement. "That's right - even if it were true that Harriet and Roman were almost a thing, it's weird that Harriet asks that if anyone were to date Roman, then they should come to her about it? I didn't think you'd do that for best friends who almost dated."

"Girl, you don't."

"Then... what did Ariana and Roman do about it?"

"They blocked her on social media and washed their hands off of anything to do with her."

Luna's jaw dropped again. "You're joking."

"Unfortunately - I think one of the last straws was one of Harriet's friends who she still vouched for - you know Violet?"

"The teacher intern from that one middle school for social studies?"

"Mhm. She drank one night with a coworker who filmed her talking - you know Uma?"

"The other teacher intern for science?"

"Yup. She caught her talking about how she deliberately finds married men and sleeps with them, then leaves them after taking their money."

"You... oh my God, you're not joking, are you?"

"I wish I was, girl. I wish I was. Violet also had evidence that she used to be with a seventeen year old boy from one of the high schools. Uma turned in the evidence to the district and they fired her ass."

Luna gasped. "Oh my God, that reminds me - I forgot to tell you what happened last week with Isabelle!"

"You mean the same woman who grew up with one of your cousins? Amelia, was it?"

"She's more like a family friend who we unofficially adopted with our other cousins, and so she became our cousin. Anyways, Amelia hated Isabelle because she was always compared to her growing up yet was always forced to hang out with her because Isabelle's family has money. Well, it turns out Amelia found fresh tea to share with my sister who shared it with me."

Aubrey grew excited. "What's the tea, sis?!"

"Isabelle dated and fucked a middle schooler when she was nineteen years old."

Aubrey's jaw dropped. "No!"

"I wish I was kidding, girl."

"Geez - what happened there next?"

"Not a clue. Isabelle's mother ended up being the supervisor at the hospital to watch my mother when she -" Luna cut herself off and continued to type in her own laptop, facial expression appearing closed off to the discussion.

Aubrey noticed and immediately felt bad. "I'm sorry, Luna. I almost forgot about your mother... how're you and your father taking it?"

Luna struggled to come up with the words to say before someone cleared his throat and interjected.

"Are we gossiping, ladies?"

Her face suddenly lit up as she shot up from her seat to hug her boyfriend. "Honey! What're you doing here?!"

The tall Spaniard man with long, curly brown hair chuckled as he hugged Luna back. "I was in the neighborhood when I realized you forgot to eat breakfast again this morning, so I made something for you for lunch. Granola bars are not gonna cut it, babe." He gave her a red-and-white striped lunch bag that smelled of savory goodness.

"Aww~ thank you, honey!"

Aubrey rolled her eyes playfully as the students in the class giggled at the corny sight of the couple. "Y'all are gross. Please refrain from showing acts of love to my students."

Luna gave the students a playful stern look. "20 minutes left of math games if you've finished writing!", she announced.

"Let's go!" One of the students whispered in excitement as he packed his finished English work.

The two women turned to the man, who grinned playfully. "Sooooo gossip time? I have time until I have to go on my afternoon shift."

Aubrey let out a sharp grin while leaning forward in her seat. "Whatcha got for me, Charlie?"

"Since I overheard a snippet of what was said, are we going to continue talking about Luna's choice in friends?"

Luna glared at them both. "We are NOT going there!"

"Babe, you have to admit that you're not the best when it comes to choosing friends."

"I've got you guys, right?!"

Aubrey sighed and placed a hand on hers. "Luna, sweetie, you have good luck every now and then, but there's a pattern of you making friends with people who frequently make fun of you, even when you don't like it, and you think that's okay."

"What - but I don't really mind -"

"You also tend to let others walk around you and tell you how to act or feel, and be a certain way that they expect."

Luna grew quiet and pensive as Aubrey started to chime in.

"Speaking of which, those friends who saw you and your dad recently -"

"Can we drop the subject, please? Talk about something else." Luna's voice cracked towards the end of her last sentence.

Both Aubrey and Charlie glanced at each other before nodding silently to her. Charlie decided to pull out a chair to sit down at the kidney bean-shaped table.

"Okay, sorry, babe - new gossip, then. Which do you want first: Patrick and Lauren's breakup or the fight between him and James over what happened with Thea?"

Aubrey and Luna gasped in unison. "Patrick and Lauren broke up again?!"

"She grew ballistic and left him - again."

"No way!"

"I wish I was making this up, ladies."