Victoria typed in the number for her aunt, and paused with her thumb over the call button. She took a couple breaths, getting the story she would tell straight and making sure she would sound as normal as possible. The last thing she wanted to do was arouse any kind of suspicion.
	As confident as she could be about the matter, she put the call through and brought the phone to her ear.
	It rang a few times, and for a moment she thought, to her relief, it would go to voicemail.
	“Hello?” her aunt’s light, airy voice came through the speaker, making Victoria’s shoulders slump.
	“Hey, Aunt Cass. It’s me.” She gave a small smile, hoping the action would echo in her voice.
	“Vic!” Aunt Cass’ exclaimed in her overly cheerful way. “It’s good to hear from you. I tried to call earlier to see how classes went, but I only got your voicemail.”
	“Yeah, I sort of lost my phone.” [i]And my wallet. And my purse,[/i] she added silently with a scowl. If she lived through the next couple days, rebuilding the collection of various cards in her wallet was going to be a pain.
	There was a short pause, and Victoria imagined her aunt raising her well-groomed eyebrows.
	“I don’t think you’ve ever lost a phone in your life!”
	“I figured Uncle Frank had that covered for all of us.” A genuine small smile pulled at the corner of her lips.
	Aunt Cass laughed. “How in the world did you manage to lose it?”
	Victoria took a deep breath. “I ended up going out with a couple [i]people[/i] I met, and accidentally left it somewhere,” she said carefully, hoping her aunt would not notice the slight raise in pitch in her voice, or the hint of fear and venom she could not repress when she said ‘people.’ “No one turned it into lost-and-found.”
	“You’re making friends?” Victoria frowned irritably at the shock and excitement in Aunt Cass’ voice. If she only knew who she had called ‘friends.’  “And on your first day! That’s great, honey! I’ll call Verizon and get things sorted out. Can I call this number back when I have that settled?”
	“I’ll have to check with Alex.”
	“Just text me if there’s a problem, then.”
	“Okay. Thanks.”
	“No problem. I’ll talk to you later, hon! Love you! Oh, and tell Alex hello for me.”
	“You too. Will do. Bye.” With a relieved sigh, Victoria ended the call. She placed the phone on the carpet beside her and bent over, placing her head in her hands. 
	She was accustomed to telling half-truths and withholding certain bits of information from them, but she always tried to do so as little as possible. And she had the feeling that this would be the first in a long chain of lies she would be telling them, even if the story of her phone was still a redacted truth.
	After a moment, she straightened, picked up the phone, and went to the kitchen, where the pleasant herbal scent of tea lingered in the air. Not wanting to interrupt any conversation, she paused in the doorway.