Face of a Lipstick Lesbian

The landline phone rings, at the same time every evening, like clockwork. Only, this time Lottie answers, her voice cold, her tone monotonous. She's laid a seemingly inconspicuous group of items across the dining room table: A lipstick tube, a cigarette, some tablets, her mobile phone and a mirror. She's got something planned, that much is obvious. But what? Lottie berates the caller, threatening her with claims of harassment. She demands the caller listen to her - it's the least Lottie is owed. But in order for her to talk, Lottie needs to look the part; not for the caller, but for herself. She's chosen a lipstick they both remember well, Lottie wore it the night they met. We're taken back to the night they met; the graffiti-laden toilets of a gay club. Lottie is stood applying the same lipstick in the mirror, and she is beautiful. A fact not lost on the only other occupant of the room, Kaya, a short, self-professed dyke who's aesthetic attraction pales in comparison. Kaya can't believe her eyes, a girl so beautiful in a gay club is too good to be true. But Lottie admits it is true, and they flirt, exchanging numbers. Present day Lottie regrets that fateful night. She laments ever wearing that lipstick, the one that drew Kaya to her. She confesses to falling in love with Kaya too quickly, too easily, it made her blind to the person Kaya ever was. But at the time Lottie wanted nothing more than to be around her; she changed as a person to be with her - she even took up smoking. She lights a cigarette, and mocks Kaya through the phone about her inability to have a fag. In a second flashback, we see Lottie and Kaya alone in the smoking area of a pub at night. As Kaya goes to find them a lighter, a drunk lad approaches Lottie, trying to convince her into giving him a cigarette, and her number. Kaya returns, and warns the boy away, confessing the two ladies are a couple. The drunken lad insists it's a shame Lottie isn't straight, all the while berating Kaya for her butch, stereotypical appearance. After Lottie convinces the guy to leave the couple be, Kaya criticises Lottie for her lack of support. Lottie questions why Kaya thinks it's alright for her to self-identify as a 'dyke' while being offended when other's do the same. Kaya reveals her insecurities which only causes Lottie to love her more. However after one last jibe Kaya lashes out at the drunk lad, with a punch so violent it knocks him to the floor, and leaves Lottie stunned. In the present day Lottie confesses she'd never made much of being gay herself, and seeing Kaya's rage made Lottie mistake her violence for passion. However as Lottie has to take the paracetamol tablet, she berates Kaya for turning her anger towards Lottie, to the extent where Lottie couldn't recognise her own reflection without seeing a bruise. Another flashback reveals Lottie, locked in her bathroom, sporting a scolding black eye. From outside Kaya screams and shouts, demanding Lottie let her in. Lottie simply slumps on the edge of the bath; it's a battle she's long since grown weary of fighting. Kaya eventually leaves her to calm down, but only after manipulating Lottie into saying she loves her. Back on the phone Lottie admits this is the moment she realised she needed to escape. Having become free, Lottie began to become herself again, she could finally recognise herself. She lifts the mirror, but before we can see her reflection -- We're brought back in time to Lottie, smiling and laughing with a friend. She's become more confident again, even acting as a model for her friend's photoshoot. However as Lottie walks home alone, she's confronted by Kaya. Kaya demands Lottie return to her, but Lottie now has courage, and shoots her down. Kaya gives her one last chance, but Lottie doesn't relent. Kaya throws her bottle of water over Lottie -- Only it wasn't water, it was acid. Lottie collapses to the floor a screaming, writhing mess. Present Day: In the reflection of the mirror, we finally see Lottie's face in the present -- scarred, disfigured by the acid attack. "I'll never see myself again. You made sure of that." She thought seeing Kaya behind bars would help her heal, she thought finally picking up the telephone would give her answers. They did not. Lottie confesses she has nothing left to cling to. She wishes she'd never walked home alone that day. She wishes she'd left Kaya earlier. She wishes she'd never worn that lipstick... ...But despite it all, she is still in love with that monster. And that makes her sick. She will never be free of the abuse -- Her own face is a constant reminder of that. "I can't live a life where the only person I've ever loved has done this to me..." "...So I won't." Lottie finally hangs up the phone. She turns back to the table where we see the previously unseen second half of the table. A mountain of opened paracetamol tablet containers. She's overdosed. In her final act, she throws the lipstick away.